Meta/Official Documentation Submission Guidelines
From TDN
Contents |
Overview
Greetings everyone! I'm Michael Perry, Documentation Engineer for GarageGames. This document provides a set of guidelines that GarageGames prefers community members adhere to when contributing to Torque documentation. There is no penalty for not following the rules, but some documents and tutorials may require additional editing if certain concepts are skipped or ignored.
Introduce and Identify
When you want to write a document or tutorial for Torque, start by sending me an e-mail ([email protected]). If you have not spoken to me previously, introduce yourself if you are from the community, a 3rd party developer, etc. After you have made first contact, identify the content you wish to write.
- What is your target engine?
- TGE
- TGEA
- TGB
- TX
- Artist
- ALL
- What’s the subject?
- Physics
- Rendering
- Scripting
- Networking
- Etc
- What specifically are you writing about?
- Rigid body physics
- Shaders
- FileIO
- TCPObject
- Etc
- What kind of document are you writing? (described below)
- Tutorial
- Overview Doc
- Reference Doc
- What do you think you’ll need from the GG Documentation Team?
- Approval
- Guidance
- Review
Initial Feedback
Whether you answer the above questions in your initial e-mail, or spread out over several, I’ll supply you with some initial feedback that will be critical in proceeding. For instance, let’s say you want to write a set of reference docs about rigid physics in TGB. If I know someone already working on this, I’ll let you know in case you want to pick another topic, collaborate with the other writer, or continue regardless. If you have any major questions that you need answered in the beginning, such as advice or knowledge on a specific topic, this will be the best time to ask.
Write
The actual documentation process is pretty lenient. The only major request I have is that you use a format that is similar to existing docs. If you could avoid submitting word documents and PDF files, that will make the process of inserting your work into existing documentation more convenient. If you use TDN to write your doc/tutorial, the formatting issue will be much simpler for us both. At GarageGames, we have a converter that will grab a TDN document and reformat it to what we use in our official docs. This will save you the time of worrying about styles, file hosting, delivery, etc.
The following links represent the format that is the most preferred:
- Standard Tutorial (Picture Heavy) – Rainy Day Tutorial
- Standard Tutorial (Code Heavy) – Alien Invasion Tutorial
- Overview Doc – File I/O Overview
- Reference Doc – GUI Overview
If you reach a major milestone, or finish your article completely, shoot me an e-mail so I can review what you have. If there are any glaring holes, I’ll be sure to point them out in an effort to polish the article. Once the final edits are made, I’ll bookmark the TDN article and begin the conversion. From there, I’ll make sure your work gets fully recognized by the community and that you get credit for your effort. When it comes time for the monthly updates to the online docs, I’ll try and find a place for your article on either the landing page or within the official docs.
Quick Guide
The full details are found above, but this is the quick description of the routine:
1. Write Michael Perry ([email protected]) an e-mail.
2. Tell him who you are and what you want to write
3. Tell him what you might need
4. Wait for his reply/guidance
5. Write your docs on TDN
6. Alert Michael of major milestones or completion
7. Make any final edits
8. Done. Docs will be marked for community exposure and official documentation reference.
This should be enough information to get you started. I look forward to working with you, and appreciate your initiative to help out.
