GarageGames releases Torque 360 1.5
GarageGames, the leading technology provider for independent game developers, has released version 1.5 of their Torque engine for Xbox 360 development. The update includes performance advancements and additional functionality including support for GarageGames' Torque Game Builder drag and drop 2D engine and tools.
Torque 360 received numerous improvements in 2007 and now shares code entirely with Torque Game Engine Advanced for PC development. Developers can use Torque 360 to build their game on separate PCs with just one dev kit for testing. Torque 360 1.5 features an abstracted graphics layer, physics layer, and a brand new sound system. It also ships with a sample implementation for Xbox 360 specific functionality including leaderboards, sign-on / sign-off, multiplayer lobbies and voice chat. Additionally, Torque 360 handles automatic generation of vertex and pixel shaders consistent with the Torque texture pipeline.
"Our Torque 360 code base benefited from a number of significant improvements in the past year. We've made large stability and rendering optimizations and developers should see increased performance in almost every area," offered Pat Wilson, Engine Developer at GarageGames. "Games like Buccaneer, Marble Blast Ultra, and Screwjumper have begun to show what Torque 360 is capable of."
Hothead Games of Vancouver, BC chose Torque to develop Penny Arcade Adventures - a game that will appear on PC, Mac, and Xbox 360 - in part for it's cross-platform support. "Using Torque in development of Penny Arcade Adventures really helped us get up to speed quickly and has helped us bring the game to more gamers," said Vlad Ceraldi of Hothead Games. "Our first title, On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1, will be fully cross platform (Windows, Mac and Linux), and of course, we are also bringing the game to Xbox LIVE Arcade. Rather than building platform code from from the ground up, using Torque gave us far more time to hone the actual game."
According to GarageGames, Torque 360 is a very popular solution for developers targeting Xbox LIVE Arcade titles. With more than a dozen titles already published to Xbox LIVE Arcade to date and many more in development, GarageGames has claimed that Torque 360 is the most popular solution for LIVE Arcade games in the industry.
The company's website states that Torque 360 licensing for developers has no term limits on development and a zero-royalty, flat-fee structure. It also says that heavily discounted license pricing is available for games targeting the Xbox Live Arcade downloadable service versus those aiming for disc-based retail delivery.
More info from: Games Garage