Plan for Ray Depew

Horsetooth Technologies is actively pursuing the serious games side of the gaming industry. As we learn more about the Torque Game Engine, we're also filling out the curriculum for our training courses. For the immediate future, though, the push is on to complete a ski resort demo.

We formed Horsetooth Technologies with the intention of being a face-to-face training solution for Torque users. We intended to pursue non-game applications on the side.

As we started to put the training materials together, we ran into the old proverb that says, "the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know." We decided to learn more about Torque before we started teaching others about it. And then a funny thing happened on our way to school.

The computer and video game industry is a US$20,000,000,000 industry. When we formed Horsetooth Technologies we acknowledged that we would never write a successful game, so we set out to pursue non-game applications for the game engine. People call this niche the serious games segment of the industry. If it's only 1% of the total games market, that's fine; but if it's 10%, that's even better. So in order to learn more about the game engine, we are pursuing opportunities in serious games.

Our first project is a ski resort demo. You can see some of our work in process in my profile page. Showing the unfinished demo around has gotten us other business opportunities as well. I'll try to cycle some pictures of other projects through my profile as they progress.

Six of us are doing the development work. We have two people doing terrain, items and general integration, three doing buildings, one doing character modeling, one doing AIs, three subject matter experts, six gameplay designers and testers, one project manager, one designated SOB (that's me!), and one business manager. That adds up to six, doesn't it?

And no, we haven't abandoned training. We're just a little busy right now. We'll get back to it.