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OS X Businesses Operating Systems Entertainment Games Apple

GarageGames Announces Torque 2D Support of Tiger 23

Posted by Zonk from the game-making-on-a-mac dept.
GarageGames writes "GarageGames, creators of the popular indie-focused Torque Game Engine, announced at MacWorld 2005 that their new Torque Game Engine will support Apple's OS X platform, Tiger. Torque 2D is all about rapid development for games. It takes care of the technology, and the developer can focus on gameplay and art. By extending the current Torque Game Engine platform, indie developers will have a powerful tool to compete in the exciting and growing arena of 2D gaming. In addition to Torque 2D's support of the upcoming Tiger OSX, other GarageGames products like the Torque Game Engine 1.4, Dark Horizons: Lore Gold, Torque ShowTool Pro, Zap! and many more will also be supporting Tiger."
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GarageGames Announces Torque 2D Support of Tiger More

GarageGames Announces Torque 2D Support of Tiger

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  • On A Completely Non-Mac Related Note... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DLWormwood ( 154934 ) <wormwood AT me DOT com> on Thursday January 13, 2005 @11:52AM (#11348548) Homepage
    The exciting and growing arena of 2D gaming.

    Have we come full circle now? 2-D was how gaming began, since vector/geometry based imaging wasn't really feasible in the 70's and 80's. While 2-D had a brief renaissance in the late 90's thanks to the fighting genre and games with photographic imaging, is there something in 3-D gaming that's "hit the wall" with regards to gaming evolution I don't know about?

    • Okay, yeah, but what they are saying is that Indy developers are going back to 2D, and not focusing on creating rudimentary 3D graphics.
    • What do you mean "vector based imaging wasn't really feasible in the 70's and 80's"? Vectors were used long before sprites came into use. Remember the vectrex? Why do you think it was called that?
      • Vectors were used long before sprites came into use.

        Oops, my bad. I didn't mean vectors as in "Asteroids" but more in terms of later games like "I, Robot." I should have said something like "polygon" or "face shading." The current mind set of most graphics programmers now-a-days is segregated into "3-D vectors vs. 2-D rasters" and completely overlooks the history of 2-D vector imaging.

        Though, at the time, 2-D vector images required their own separate display technology. Attempting vectors on a standard

    • Probably, we have hit a considerable wall in 3d game design. The amount of effort it takes to build characters, textures, and the like is incredible. Within 2d, game authors built up a substantial set of tools to automate and reduce the effort of building a game. As an example, Final Fantasy Legend 3 appears to use metatiles to store its towns and levels. This way, you can simply design one house, put a sign above the door that indiates "Items" or "Inn" and your work is mostly done. Certainly, its not perfe

    • Now with 33% Less D! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by The-Bus ( 138060 )
      The reason 2D games remain popular are easy of use, nostalgia, and quality.

      Ease of Use

      Well, for the most part, 2D is a lot easier to play. You have an entire dimension that you don't need to worry about.

      In 2D, you've got decisions that you make based on: X +/-. Y +/-. At any one point, you're adjusting in one of four different directions.*

      Once you enter "true" 3D into the equation, it just gets more complicated. Now you need to think about X, Y, and Z. Things are now automatically twice as hard.**

      Thi
    • since vector/geometry based imaging wasn't really feasible in the 70's and 80's.

      Uh... what? Red Baron, Battlezone, Tempest... Need I go on?
      • The connotative concept behind vector and raster images has changed much in 20 years. I think of something completely different when I see the word "vector" [slashdot.org] than I did when Asteroids was still in the arcades.
      • Uh... what? Red Baron, Battlezone, Tempest... Need I go on?

        I suspect that tempest was actually entirely 2D (angle and "depth"). I don't remember any object blocking (not seeing something "behind" an object). A matrix or 2 to derive the "height/width" and you're done. Certainly if I were coding something in that era, I would have tried to do it that way...
  • compete in the exciting and growing arena of 2D gaming

    Now, don't get me wrong, I like a good 2D game just as much as the next guy, but I'm not necessarily sure that it's a budding new market.

  • ouch (Score:3, Funny)

    by rokzy ( 687636 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @11:53AM (#11348565)
    even the trolls aren't touching this story.

    is 2D really that dead?

    or are all the Apple fans/haters already in the Mac mini story posting "omg this is a dupe!"?
    • Considering that the Mac mini only has a 32 MB graphics card, 2D games may be on the rise in popularity on Mac OS X. I know some of the only "new" games I can play on my old iMac are 2D remakes of classics like Apeiron and Solaris.

  • Interesting... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by outsidah ( 849092 )
    I love 2D gaming... but lately the only way to get has been throug the GBA or the spare title here and there that might end up on the XB/PS2... this should be interesting.

  • Why 2D matters (Score:3, Informative)

    by voice of unreason ( 231784 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @12:23PM (#11348959)
    In answer to the questions about why 2D matters, 2D is used a lot now for indie games, which is Garagegames's focus. 2D gaming is growing because indie gaming is growing. You may never see a game in your local CompUSA that uses 2D, but there are a lot of new 2D games being produced and sold over the Internet. Furthermore, by using 3D acceleration technology for 2D, you can make much better 2D games than used to be possible. Rotating sprites, per-pixel alpha blending, and additive blending are all now easy and fast. Search the indie gaming sites and you'll see that there's some great stuff out there.

    • Re:Why 2D matters (Score:3, Informative)

      by Mr.Wiggin ( 732549 )
      Here are some examples of hardware accelerated 2D games for you (just to prove this guy has a point).

      Starscape by moonpod [moonpod.com]
      Wik & the fable of souls by reflexive [reflexive.net]
      alien hominid by thebehemoth [alienhominid.com] All these games are good (IMO), 2D and hardware accelerated. The first 2 have free demoes available and you can just buy online but the last one shows the problems that go with success. Alien Hominid was lucky enough to get a publishing deal and is available on PS2 and GC, but as a result they haven't made a PC

  • 2D, 3D... It Makes No Difference (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FozzieCDN ( 798889 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @12:27PM (#11349003)
    I think a lot of the people who have posted here already forget the fact that irregardless if the game is 2D or 3D if its a good game its a good game.

    The option of having something like Torque 2D will definately allow us to see a revivement of many of lost genres such as adventure games as well as give indies an easier method of making puzzle games and more. So personally I think this option is great to have since it will allow me as a developer to do my work more productively.

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