New Torque Engine aims to boost Wii Ware
by JC Fletcher 
{ Feb 13th 2008 at 7:00PM }
GarageGames has announced a new version of the Torque development engine for Wii, with added 2D drag-and-drop game creation functionality. Torque 1.5 features elements of the Torque Game Builder, a tool designed for easy development of 2D games. In addition to the Game Builder functions, the new version of Torque for Wii features "extensible Wii Remote support, Wii optimized skinned mesh rendering, compressed texture, interior support, and hardware blending for terrain textures. Developers will also find a powerful WYSIWYG tool chain for designers, scripting language support, a comprehensive Lot Check compliance component, and Wii graphics and audio abstraction layers."
Torque's "zero-royalty, flat-fee structure" and reduced pricing for Wii Ware developers should be a boon to the download service, making a low-cost, easy-to-use design tool available to prospective developers.
[Via press release]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tom @ Feb 13th 2008 8:30PM
That's cool sounding. Didn't quite follow it, but if it makes Wii Ware games cheaper, it MUST be good!
Corey @ Feb 13th 2008 9:31PM
I thought about using Torque for a student project, but seeing as I'm not a programmer, I decided to make a mod for Oblivion instead. I've heard that Torque has a lot of tools to make it easy for non-programmers to use, but I didn't feel like paying for it (although I think a student license is around $100).
James @ Feb 14th 2008 8:43AM
It would be beyond awesome if they had a free version, and you only had to pay if you want to release anything. I'd like to try it, but I'm not sure I want to *pay* to try it.
ejamer @ Feb 14th 2008 9:27AM
@James
Check the website - there is a "Try it free for 30 days" option available.
Deozaan @ Feb 15th 2008 6:17PM
The $100 price is actually for Indie. You can release as many games as you want royalty free. It's really a good deal.
But that's not for Torque for Wii. It has a different pricing and licensing scheme.