Independent game publisher GarageGames Inc. on Tuesday announced that it has released its network gaming code as a standalone cross-platform library, dubbed Torque Network Library (TNL). Like GarageGames’ Torque Game Engine, TNL is covered under GarageGames’ “indie” license and a full commercial license. It’s also being distributed under a GPL Open Source license.
Available for Mac, Windows and Linux platforms, TNL provides features like Server Object replication, an event and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) framework, master server framework, documentation, tutorials, example code and full library source code. It also makes use of the libtomcrypt library for cryptographic operations, and GLUT for cross-platform OpenGL setup and rendering.
Example applications that come with TNL include Zap, a retro space shooter that shows off networked physics capabilities, a simple client/server application and a master server suitable for matchmaking and game tracking.
GarageGames publishes games from independent developers, most of which have been developed using the company’s Torque Game Engine. Torque is the same underpinning technology that powers Vivendi’s Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2 products, as well as ThinkTanks, Orbz, Marble Blast and Dark Horizons: Lore — independent games that have all seen Mac releases.
TNL’s “indie” license costs about US$300 per programmer and is aimed at independent development houses with limited annual incomes. The commercial license is also per-seat, and costs about $1,000. Details about the open source project are available online.