Contents:

• Overview
• Assignment
• Files to Submit

Topics: The Torque Game Engine (TGE), 3-D World Environments, Terrain Terraforming and Editing, Texture Painting, and Objects and Buildings
Related Reading: The Torque introductory tutorial

The goal of this assignment is to become familiar with the basic functions available in the Torque Game Engine. To accomplish this goal, your task is to create your own game world/mission environment.

1. (8 points)

   Complete a logic puzzle on the website: Logic Puzzles. Correctly solve a puzzle using no more than 4 hints.

   Please turn in two printouts of your solved puzzle:

   • one with the "Answers" tab selected
   • the second with the "?" (hint) tab selected

   Note: Many of the 4x4 puzzles are relatively easy.

2. (22 points)
   1. First, download and unzip the tge_csci130.zip file (or the tge_csci130_mac.zip file for Macs). This file contains all the resources needed to create your first game using the Torque Game Engine (TGE). When unzipped, this file creates a new folder called tge_csci130/ (or Torque Game Engine 1.5.2 Demo/ on Macs). To start developing your game/mission environment, open the folder and double-click on the executable (tge.exe in Windows or Torque Demo OSX on Macs). Then hit the <F11> function key to start a new mission.

   2. Next, go through the Torque introductory tutorial to get to know the Torque Game Engine (TGE). The tutorial outlines the basic operation of TGE's World Editor tools, and demonstrates how you can modify the terrain and add objects to your game world.

   3. After going through the tutorial and becoming comfortable with the World Editor, use the tools to create your own world environment. You can either continue editing the mission you started in the tutorial, or start anew with a new empty mission.

      Start off by creating the terrain, and then paint the terrain with the desired textures.

      After creating your terrain, add some interiors (buildings) and/or objects (e.g. trees, shrubs, rocks, flags, weapons & ammo, etc.) to liven up the environment.

      As with any development system, you need to be able to save and retrieve your work. Whenever you want to save your mission, select Save Mission As... under the File sub-menu (you can select Save Mission... for subsequent saves). When you save your mission, be sure to save it within the data/missions/ sub-folder within your game folder (i.e. under either the tge_csci130/starterGame/ in Windows, or Torque Demo/starterGame/ on the Mac).

      If you want to add some water to your environment, you will find the water object under the "Mission Objects" object sub-type in the World Editor Creator. Be sure to start by adjusting the scale of the water object (since the default water block is 1x1x1 units, which is extremely small; 100x100x10 or large is much more common). Also note that new missions automatically include a water block, which you can modify or use for reference (or delete altogether, if you prefer).

      Be creative!

Files to Submit

Mission Files

When you save your mission, it creates two files:

• the mission file    -- which has a .mis file extension
• the corresponding terrain file    -- which has a .ter file extension

Please email the instructor both the mission file and the affiliated terrain file.

For example, if you had saved your mission with the name myMission, then the two files would be myMission.mis and myMission.ter.

You should have saved your mission in the starterGame/data/missions/ folder, so you should find your two mission files there.