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Sometimes you can't do everything.

Name:	Mark Frohnmayer
Date Posted:	Aug 22, 2006
Rating:	3.1 out of 5
Public:	YES
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Each year GarageGames hosts IndieGamesCon - a unique event where indie developers can network, share and reflect on our creations and envision a new world of game development - where a start-up team can take a prototype game and then see it on a next generation console the next year. However this incredibly fun gathering of independent developers comes with a price for GarageGames. Each year it takes us offline for a big chunk of time, and even though it takes a big chunk of time, each year we do it again - to build contacts and secure business relationships - but above all to engage face-to-face with the community that's helped build us from four dreamers into a thriving company. But recently, as IGC has approached it has become painfully ever more clear that we can't both deliver a quality event that we want this October and fulfill on the products that we have promised for this year: Torque Game Builder, Torque X, Torque Shader Engine on the near horizon, Constructor at Beta #9, and even an update to the Torque Game Engine about to go out the door.

Reading up on the GG blogs and forum posts might give you an idea of just how hard it has been for us to even consider pausing IGC. In my last blog I talked about our plan for IGC that was aimed to both make a for a more interesting event, as well as decrease the amount of time necessary to put it on. Even still as we looked at the large to-do list for IGC we realized we simply have too much on our plate to properly deliver on expectations for the event. Given our schedule we've made the agonizing decision to put IndieGamesCon on hold for this year. For the few who have already purchased IGC tickets, we will of course refund them. We will be sending individual emails to each of you.

Now is a time of amazing opportunity for independent developers - from the opening of next gen consoles to the explosive growth of the casual games market. There has never been a more opportune time to be an independent developer and in my opinion never a more exciting time to be in the business of making games. In the balance we had to choose between putting on an event that we dearly love and delivering on the tools that will enable our community to make real the dream of a true independent games movement.

We understand that many of you will be disappointed with this decision. Believe me when I say that this disappointment is echoed by everyone here on the GarageGames team - noone loves IGC more than we do. But when we had to weigh this disappointment against the benefit that the whole GG community will see from the work we are doing, it was a decision we had to make.

- Mark

Recent Blog Posts

List:	06/13/07 - An inconvenient game? 08/22/06 - Sometimes you can't do everything. 08/04/06 - State of the Garage 10/17/05 - Plan for Mark Frohnmayer 07/29/05 - Plan for Mark Frohnmayer 05/25/05 - Plan for Mark Frohnmayer 03/28/04 - Plan for Mark Frohnmayer 03/18/04 - Plan for Mark Frohnmayer

Submit your own resources!

Rob Sandbach (Aug 22, 2006 at 01:55 GMT)

Tough news to take, but I guess it's better to be honest about your capabilities then try and rush the event.

Look forward to the next IGC, whenever it is!

Affectworks (Aug 22, 2006 at 01:57 GMT)

Bob (Aug 22, 2006 at 01:57 GMT)

While this is really sad news, I totally understand.

Affectworks (Aug 22, 2006 at 01:58 GMT)

Man, that sucks. I was really, really looking forward to going this year.

Fredrik S
Affectworks

Tom Bentz (Aug 22, 2006 at 02:14 GMT)

Bummer... I really wanted to go

Joshua Dallman (Aug 22, 2006 at 02:17 GMT)

I feel like I just had the wind knocked out of me. speechless.

just like woodstock was the living embodiment of the hippie movement,
so too was IGC the living embodiment of the indie movement.
now all we have left are the dead bones of software tools to look forward to.

not judging the decision, just expressing how I feel.

Josh Moore (Aug 22, 2006 at 02:30 GMT)

On hold untill when?

Edit: Nevermind.
Edited on Aug 22, 2006 02:32 GMT

John Rockefeller (Aug 22, 2006 at 02:31 GMT)

It just means that next year everyone's stuff will be one year better :D

Ian Roach (Aug 22, 2006 at 03:00 GMT)

Damn this is incredibly sad news, hopefully we dont have to wait a full year before the next one :)

Paul Dana (Aug 22, 2006 at 03:00 GMT)

Anton Bursch (Aug 22, 2006 at 03:10 GMT)

That's seriously bummer news. I guess this means that we'll all have to settle for TSE and TorqueX instead of IGC... I'm feeling better already. :)

Though... it would have been weird to go to IGC this year and feel the fresh emptiness from not having Jay there.

Timothy Aste (Aug 22, 2006 at 03:18 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I just want to echo Mark's words. I know this is upsetting (no one is probably more upset than me, except possibly Matt Fairfax), however this was a LONG struggle to find a way, ANY way we could pull this off, and we just couldn't make it happen despite burning the candle at both ends, we only have so much candle. :(

Ben Ewing (Aug 22, 2006 at 03:28 GMT)

I understand :'(
Can the next one be durring the summer?

Tyler Frans (Aug 22, 2006 at 04:20 GMT)

Ouch. This year I was going to be able to finally make it again. Oh well. I wish you guys luck on your endeavors and will look forward to when the next opportunity arrives. mmmm ... beer. :)

Jay Barnson (Aug 22, 2006 at 05:40 GMT)

Yeah, we had tickets and everything. I was really gonna make it this time.

Well, maybe Casualty or something next year. There's getting to be a lot of indie / casual games conferences now.

Nick Zafiris (Aug 22, 2006 at 07:16 GMT)

I totally understand you. 2006 is a critical year for you working extremely hard on many new products for the community. No one should feel disappointed; it's for the best of the community. I know it's much harder for people that are planning on releasing their game in the near future like Joshua but we just have to accept it and find other ways to get exposure until next year's IGC...

Nick

Gareth Fouche (Aug 22, 2006 at 07:23 GMT)

While I understand the disappointment, I am REALLY itching to get my hands on Constructor and TSE, and TorqueX looks quite interesting.

Quite honestly, this kind of decision on your part shows the spirit of GG, that they are, first and foremost, about getting great tech into indie hands, not about "the show". Not to disparage the usefulness of the show ;)

Thanks for all your hard work guys.

James Laker (BurNinG) (Aug 22, 2006 at 07:30 GMT)

Noooooo.... This year was gonna be my first. I guess sometimes things just don't work out the way you hope.

Anton Bursch (Aug 22, 2006 at 08:44 GMT)

I went last year... and all I have to say about this... is you can't believe how it feels like just last week that i was at IGC... cause the time just flys by. It'll be next year before you know it.

Andy Hawkins (Aug 22, 2006 at 10:31 GMT)

As has been said, tough call - but well in. Good on you guys for focusing on your products. Bigger and better at IGC next year I'd say.

Ron Yacketta (Aug 22, 2006 at 13:26 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

seeing it from the 'glass is half full' view..

I get my wife and boss off my back and save ~1k!! w00t

-Ron

Jon Jorajuria (Aug 22, 2006 at 14:26 GMT)

I'm glad you would rather postpone the event and do it right, rather that force it and not meet GG or the community's expectation.

Jonathon Stevens (Aug 22, 2006 at 16:02 GMT)

This will sound harsh, but I'm curious why there was a breakdown in planning to begin with? I look at the opportunities with TXE and everything else that you guys are doing and I applaud the efforts put into it. I'm just wondering if each year would put GG in the same boat? If you think about it, you generally don't slow down in fields like this, but instead keep going forward full speed. I was planning on attending this year to help with networking. I hope that this doesn't become a trend where IGC ends up being put on the back burner because the tools get priority.

I want everyone to remember why we're here to begin with. We might have came for the inexpensive engine, but we stayed for the community and opportunity that GG provides. LONG LIVE IGC!

Ian \"Xest\" Winter (Aug 22, 2006 at 16:13 GMT)

I don't mean for this to come across as some kind of flame but I can't help but feel that this is fantastic news. Whilst I'm not saying GG has lots of problems, on the contrary I think they do a fantastic job I must say that one of my personal criticisms has always been that they take too long on some things and when GG often tell us that something wont be ready because of such and such an event it's somewhat frustrating. I was beginning to feel that this year it seemed to be getting worse than ever with GDC, E3, Gamesfest, that Chinese event and now IGC if it hadn't been cancelled etc. it gave me the impression that we were reaching a point that simply far too much of the GG staff's time was being spent on roadshows, roadshows which also for the most part seem to benefit only a fairly small geographical audience - most notably ignoring almost entirely the European audience which judging by the old "which dot are you map" was comparitive in size to the North American audience.

Again I don't want anyone to think I'm being nasty but thanks GG, this is fantastic news, I'm sure many more people will benefit from products that have been arguably long overdue than would benefit from being able to attend these conferences - I really do think you made the right choice here.

Maybe next year when you've got TSE/TGE1.5/Constructor/Torque X out to us we'll let you have a bit more fun *cracks whip* ;)

Greg Squire (Aug 22, 2006 at 16:23 GMT)

I am really disappointed to hear about this. I've enjoyed IGC the past two years and was really looking forward to going again. Hopefully next year.

Josh Williams (Aug 22, 2006 at 16:31 GMT)

Thanks for being so understanding everyone. This really was an agonizing decision.

Jon, we hear ya, and we had to ask ourselves the same question you are. So you know though, we fully intend to keep IGC alive. This year was kind of a perfect storm type scenario where we have almost all our current product dev cycles scheduled to wrap up at the same time (right on top of IGC), and where we'd let the plan for IGC creep beyond a scope we could feasibly pull off.

Happily though, part of the upside that came out of trying to salvage IGC until the very last minute here this year was that we sat down (a bunch of times) and took a hard look at what IGC really ought to be about. It's about community, and celebrating and helping independent game developers. As a big plus, I think we came up with a plan that'll make the show more fun and more useful for everyone, as well as being a lot easier for us to pull off in the future. When IGC comes back, we expect it to be the best one yet, without requiring us to take ourselves offline for several man-months. So, I'm excited about the prospects for future IGCs.

Alan McCosh (Aug 22, 2006 at 17:02 GMT)

I've got about 1200 dollars worth of non-refundable flights, hotel, and rental car. So guess what GG?? I'll be there anyways. I'm just going to camp out in front of your offices and drink my beer and play my games.

so, the question is..... who's coming with me???

Matt Fairfax (Aug 22, 2006 at 17:42 GMT)

Quote:

I'm just going to camp out in front of your offices and drink my beer and play my games.

While we do have a pretty nice loading doc/porch, I'm pretty sure we could let you inside to drink beer and play your games...as long as you bring some of the beer =)

Jonathon Stevens (Aug 22, 2006 at 19:08 GMT)

@Josh - It's not that I think the products or productivity is bad that you have now or on the horizon, it's just that I wanted to voice concern that the same scenario could play itself out over the next few years as new opportunities (TXE) become feasible. Once you wrap up production on these products, I'm sure you'll find that Sony and Nintendo will come out with similar products to Game Dev Studio/XNA.

I'm just glad to hear that IGC is NOT being put on the back burner for any other reason than "we had a 1 time lapse of time management."

Vashner (Aug 22, 2006 at 19:09 GMT)

Move it to Austin next year. (suggestion).

Louis Dargin (Aug 22, 2006 at 19:22 GMT)

I think that this is a great opportunity for indie game developers to organize meetups for their local areas.

Alan,
You might want to look into applying your non-refundable trip money towards a different trip.

Jonathon Stevens (Aug 22, 2006 at 20:16 GMT)

You can have IGC at my house this year. I'll even charge as little as $500 for entrance!

Jonathon Stevens (Aug 22, 2006 at 20:22 GMT)

Is it just me or does Mark look like he's plotting to take over the world? Reminds me of the look on "the brain's" face when pinky asked him what they were going to do that day.

Jesse (Midhir) Liles (Aug 22, 2006 at 21:12 GMT)

I don't actually make enough money to be able to get tickets to IGC. I'd still like to see all the pictures and write-ups typical of IGC's of the past. On the other hand I only live a few hundred miles from Eugene and I've always wanted to make a pilgrimage to the GG office, you need help drinking that beer, Alan?

Davey Jackson (Aug 23, 2006 at 00:31 GMT)

@ Jonathon-- That is his Stephen Colbert impression.

On IGC-- I'm bummed about dropping it too. Last year was my first and it rawked my world! However, when you look at the history of independent gaming, this is potentially the hugest moment for our section of the industry. The barrier to entry has just been shattered by Microsoft's Gamefest announcement. We want to be ready to empower the GG community to fully explore the potential of the XNA framework and distribution potential; as well as deliver some fantastic additions to our core technologies.

Anton Bursch (Aug 23, 2006 at 02:18 GMT)

What if... everyone showed up for IGC anyway, beer in tow, and just partied the whole weekend in various hotel rooms and GG offices and local strip clubs. Now that would make for some interesting IGC pictures the next week. :P

Jon Frisby (Aug 23, 2006 at 07:43 GMT)

I must say that while I'm disappointed by this news, I applaud your ability to focus!

-JF

Jeremy Alessi (Aug 23, 2006 at 23:06 GMT)

I'm disappointed but happy all at the same time. We're going to save money and better our projects. Bring on IGC 2007!

Keith Johnston (Aug 31, 2006 at 02:09 GMT)

I think this is actually a great sign that GG is focusing - they can't be everything to everyone all the time. I am really excited about TorqueX. Go GG!

Stephen Clark (Sep 07, 2006 at 02:33 GMT)

Awhhh, bummer! I missed last year due to work and was so looking forward to seeing all the staff show off all the cool new stuff. Not to mention drinking beer and playing indie games! Oh well, keep the good stuff flowing. So many great things have come out since I've been a member, keep it up!

Michael Wells (Sep 20, 2006 at 19:57 GMT)

Where do we go for the latest details on where/when/what for the currently rescoped con? I've been all over the site and can't find it.

Matt Vitelli (Sep 24, 2006 at 17:49 GMT)

Is there any more information on the weekend? I emailed for a RSVP but have recieved no response. What events will take place and where is everyone meeting?

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