WiiWare... Now with Torque! Company: Garage Games Product: Torque for Wii Ever wanted to create a game for the Wii? Well, that dream may have gotten just a bit more accessible. Garage Games has a version of Torque, their popular game development platform, for developing games for the Wii. Garage Games provides Torque for Wii licensing for developers with no term limits on development and a zero-royalty, flat-fee structure. If you're interested in creating games for the WiiWare downloadable service, it gets even sweeter; heavily discounted license pricing is available for games targeting the WiiWare downloadable service, versus those aiming for disc-based retail delivery. Torque for Wii has been selected by Sabarasa and Ubisoft for their exclusive WiiWare launch title, Protöthea, a 3D top-down vertical scrolling shooter game that puts players in complete control of a last-generation spaceship via the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The easy-to-play game offers a new take on a classic game style while mixing genres and utilizing the full capabilities of the Wii system, from graphics to controls. "With Torque for Wii we were able to transfer our experience with a solid and reliable engine we already worked with to a totally new platform with ease, " said Xavier Amado, Lead Programmer on Protöthea. "Torque's engine features and toolset really sped up our development and allowed us to focus on and tune Protöthea's gameplay." Protöthea is the first Torque for Wii game to go gold on WiiWare. First unveiled at the Nintendo Developer Conference in June 2007, Torque for Wii features extensible Wii Remote support, Wii optimized skinned mesh rendering, compressed texture, interior support, and hardware blending for terrain textures. Developers will also find a powerful WYSIWYG tool chain for designers, scripting language support, a comprehensive Lot Check compliance component, and Wii graphics and audio abstraction layers. "Working with Sabarasa from a very early stage to further optimize Torque for Wii has been a huge benefit for the engine technology," said Brett Seyler, VP Business Development at GarageGames. "Protöthea represents the kind of game we want to empower developers to make with Torque. Getting the game in that WiiWare launch window is a big achievement for Sabarasa and Ubisoft." According to Garage Games, there are more than a dozen titles currently in development for the Wii using Torque for Wii. -Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins