The 2D version of GarageGames’ Torque Engine is now out. It’s quite good from a non-programmer standpoint…

GarageGames, the leading technology provider for independent and professional game makers, is pleased to announce the release of Torque Game Builder and Torque Game Builder Pro for Windows and Apple OS-X platforms.

Built upon the definitive technology of the popular 3D Torque Game Engine, Torque Game Builder features animated sprites, flexible tiles, special effects system, state-of-the-art collision, real world physics, and hardware-accelerated 2D rendering. Combined with these powerful features, the easy-to-use editors for interface creation, effects, tiles, level building, and packaging make Torque Game Builder approachable by anybody with the desire and drive to make a game. Though Torque Game Builder is a 2D engine, incorporation of 3D objects and features such as parallax scrolling allow users to create pseudo-3D games and environments, emulating anything from Super Mario Brothers to Civilization.

"Torque Game Builder is the next step on our course to revolutionize the gaming industry," said GarageGames President Mark Frohnmayer. "We won’t stop until everyone with a passion to make games has the tools available to make that happen, using their own creativity and on their own terms. Much the same way that anyone can pick up an instrument and learn to play music, we want them to be able to pick up one of our engines and learn to make games. Torque Game Builder goes a long way towards making that a reality."

The Torque Game Builder pricing structure continues the long-standing GarageGames tradition of offering substantial discounts to Indie developers and hobbyists, making the C++ source code of the engine available, and charging no royalties, ever. Torque Game Builder is a complete product out of the box, but for those who would like to modify the core functionality of the engine, optimize the code for a particular game, or just peek under the hood to see how things work, GarageGames is providing the C++ and TorqueScript source code as part of Torque Game Builder Pro. This is the only difference between the two versions. Torque Game Builder is offered to Indies and hobbyists at $100 (retail: $495), and Torque Game Builder Pro is priced at $250 with the Indie discount (retail: $1250).

A 30-day trial version of Torque Game Builder will be available for download on the GarageGames website June 21, 2006. Torque Game Builder and Torque Game Builder Pro will be available for purchase June 21 as well.