I love Nintendo, I love the Torque engine and I only use Macs, so when I saw that someone had hacked the Wii controller into the Mac version of the Torque game engine I was ecstatic. Well, maybe just interested. But awesome nonetheless. Recently the creator has invented a home brew IR sensor for the Wii and is also offering the binary for download. Games hackers of the world unite and buy the Torque engine!

Watch the presentation video after the jump.

Read more of “Wii remote reverse engineered and hacked into Mac Torque engine“

Lost in the press bucket thanks to all the hype from Microsoft’s simultaneous release of Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express, Garage Games announced the beta release of their complimenting TorqueX games engine for the Xbox 360. Though an early beta, TorqueX does not support source or 3D yet, but it’s one of the most powerful 2D games engines on the market and hey, you can create small games (or prototypes) for the Xbox 360 making use of sprites, scrolling backgrounds, 3D objects, lighting, physics, and collision detection. I must admit, this is a great move on the part of Microsoft (and great for Garage Games), which I rarely give props to.

Read more: TorqeX product page | TorqueX beta goes live

Garage Games recently announced the new 1.5 release of the Torque Game Engine, every indie game hacker’s dream engine come true. TGE 1.5′s major new features include the popular Torque Lighting Kit integrated into the package, oodles of updates and optimizations for the MAC OS X platform and the inclusion of the handy 3D visualization tool, ShowTool Pro. The lighting kit is an exciting addition, as it was previously a third-party add on, the lighting kit as been re-factored and updated to better integrate into TGE and gives users a quick and easy way to integrate more complex lighting into their projects. Dynamic lighting, dynamic light blending on terrains and major updates to the TGE waterblock system are a good good thing. The upgrade isn’t free unfortunately, but, hey, it’s the first time Garage Games has asked owners to pay for an upgrade in 6 years, so, cut ‘em some slack. They are offering current customers a good upgrade deal, so there’s no reason NOT to upgrade developers!

Read more: Torque Game Engine 1.5 available now

The indie gaming world was abuzz after Microsoft announced it’s independent and student game development tool, XNA Game Studio Express, allowing aspiring game creators the ability to begin developing their own games for Windows XP and Vista at no charge. The most exciting bit of news from that announcement was the ability for game creators to develop for the Xbox 360 console starting this holiday season 2006 as part of what MS are calling the XNA Creators Club. This will be a subscription-based service, requiring a yearly subscription of $99, a low fee for any student or bedroom coder who wants to see their creation running on an Xbox 360. To follow that up today, Microsoft has announced the beta release of XNA Game Studio Express for Windows XP and Vista, leading up to the final release at the end of this year with XNA Game Studio Professional launching Spring 2007. Coinciding with today’s beta release, GarageGames has announced the enrollment program for their Torque X beta program, which will include both the Torque Game Builder engine and the Torque Shader Engine, which were developed in conjunction with XNA Game Studio Express.

Read more: Microsoft releases Game Studio Express beta | Garage Games

Whew this flew under our radar. A few days ago, GarageGames bigwig Mark Frohnmayer announced that they would be canceling the Indie Games Convention which they host yearly as an alternative to more mainstream gaming conventions such as the GDC and E3 (R.I.P). The reasons stated for the cancelation are somewhat odd to be honest, basically the worry is that, with IGC approaching soon, GarageGames would be unable to deliver a quality event while still fulfilling the products which they’ve planned for the rest of this year, such as updates to the Torque Shader Engine, Torque X, Torque Game Builder, and Constructor. I’m sure they have their reasons, but it’s still a bit disappointing that they couldn’t find a way to throw more resources or bring in someone/some company to organize this for them, but indie business comes first I guess? We’ll wait and see if another entity can pick up the torch and run with it, or if another IGC appears when Garage has the time and manpower to pull it off.

Read more: Mark Frohnmayr announces cancellation of IGC 2006 | Indie Games Convention