Developers' Area
I'm assuming you've got to this page because you're interested in Game Dev in some form..
Since its conception A tractor / The Universal has always had the goal of allowing others to share some of the joy I get from making games, by providing a system that allows players to create their own worlds in the universe (And thereby also populating the universe with 'UGC' for others to explore). This youtube video gives an example of some of the game interfaces at work. (More tutorials and similar stuff are available for supporters on patreon).
It isn't necessarily a great system, not well designed, is largely incomplete, often doesn't work as intended (or at all) and many things you can't do without direct help from me. It's also really quite old and most of it was written late at night after a few whiskeys.
All disclaimers aside, if you're interested in joining the world of half-baked outdated game-dev, this is the place for you..
World Creation
Making a decent world in AT/TU involves most of the skills you'd expect from a professional technical game designer. World creation can involve:
Hardcore world developers will have The World Owners Manual bookmarked - This is the primary reference location for the game's UGC interface. The scripting reference in particular is a key resource for anyone who wants to build a proper, unique game inside the AT/TU Universe. (Although the custom scripting language is a bit daft in many ways, its also quite powerful, and its something I use regularly to make things in the game).
Over the years many folk have shared tips, knowledge and experience about world creation, modelling and etc. Ideally we'd have that knowledgebase properly curated but meantime you'll find links on this page to the various bits of information scattered around, including the old TU forum archive which is full of interesting ideas and discussion.
Art & Modelling
I'm just a programmer and (beyond the crappy programmer art i occasionally produce) AT / TU has only ever managed to progress art-wise by generous contributions of time and effort from folk like Fooli (particularly Fooli), hedgehog (whose Proper Art is still viewable in game in places like the spacestation and Pub), Tanguy (Cockpit), Daniel (the original Tractor model and buildings) and some contributions from others in game. Suffice to say, if you're an artist and are willing to give your time to help make stuff or improve the game art .. Hello! Come... let us buy you a drink.
More generally.. the worlds in the game support downloadable models and textures which you can generate with the game's Model Converter tool. This can import from 3ds, fbx and etc, so its possible to create models for the worlds without going through all the steps of learning 3d modelling.
I am sometimes working on other projects (mostly Unity based atm).. if you're interested in collaborating on any of those (or vice versa if you have projects I might be able to help with), let me know :).
Programming
If you're the type who wants to go deeper into game-dev & programming - well I'd probably advise
to start going through the Unity tutorials or whatever that latest Proper Thing is, but
if you're insistent on finding out more about what I've done here, well... ok..
For coding beginners, getting familiar with the AT / TU scripting language will at least teach you some of the basic structures of C-like code in an environment that lets you see results quickly. (Writing 'hello world' that prints it above a monkey's head is more fun than the usual coz of the monkey's head).
For the more advanced, theres a GitHub Project for some parts of the C/C++ game engine which you might find .. mm.. interesting?.
(Or Enlightening, Disturbing, Despairing, Ridiculous, etc. Pick your own adjective.)
Helping out more directly with the development of AT / TU isnt something that can be managed easily without having some form of direct connection with me (i.e. we meet in the pub :]) but there's always projects and large blocks of work that I don't have the skills or time for (e.g. improving the graphics engine, or developing and managing this page for instance). Seek me or fooli out in game or elsewhere and maybe we could make a plan..