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Next Big Thing

Name:	Ben Garney
Date Posted:	May 30, 2008
Rating:	4.0 out of 5
Public:	YES
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Profile Page:	View profile page for Ben Garney

Blog post

My five years at GarageGames have been a blast. It's time to hit the big red button and reboot the ol' career.

Obligatory retrospective: I first came to GarageGames as a fresh-faced eighteen year old intern. I lived in a spare bedroom, and wrote docs and code. I came back to work full time six months later. (One of the scariest and most rewarding decisions I ever made was leaving college to work at GG.) I lived in Jeff's garage for a while before I got an apartment. There were about ten of us - it felt a lot like a family. We had a wild and crazy community full of talented people. In the subsequent five years that family grew to include a ton of new faces. We shipped engines, made games, dealt with good times and bad times, and changed the games industry, at least a little bit.

A guy couldn't ask for a better introduction to the games industry!

Now it's time to move on. GG is an awesome company, and it's going to keep going places. InstantAction has huge potential, and Torque is getting some needed engineering love.

But the things I want to do don't match up anymore. I'm ready for a change of pace. And the company has plenty of smart and talented people - I don't need to be there for GG to do well. That's a very liberating feeling.

There's some great potential in Flash and in the mobile space; things are finally getting good enough to make cool products. It would be fun to make some small-scale games on my own terms. I'm excited to immerse myself in some new environments and technologies.

I'll still be around. I'll be speaking at the Austin GDC on networking, and also on Flash technology. I'm starting work on a book; we'll see if it makes it or not. And when the Next Big Thing rolls around... you'll probably hear from me then, too. :)

If you see me around, say hi! You can also track my personal blog or my twitter feed. My e-mail is ben.garney AT gmail (you know the rest).

Thanks for everything, and I wish you the best. It's been a pleasure to be a part of this community and work with a unique group of people.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Pulpolux!!!

Recent Blog Posts

List:	05/30/08 - Next Big Thing 02/12/08 - Come See Me At GDC 2008! 10/27/07 - TGEForest Free Release 10/13/07 - Polysoup Free (And IGC) 01/26/07 - Speaking and Running Into Walls (Collision Fix) 12/25/06 - Merry Christmas, Community - Poly Soup 10/05/06 - Community Weekend (Not-IGC) 06/13/06 - Status Update on Atlas! (also, Ben On Vacation)

Submit your own resources!

Dave Young (May 30, 2008 at 23:59 GMT)

Wow! Quite a surprise I must say, but change is constant in this world (and probably many others). I will definitely follow your blog, and wish you the best of luck in the Next Big Thing :)

Rene Damm (May 31, 2008 at 00:04 GMT)

Hey Ben, thanks for the heads-up. Really looking forward to see what the future has in store for you. And thanks for all the great work you did at the Garage (with a big 'G'). Your legacy will live on (even though some of it may not be the easiest to live with... having a fight with Atlas on a daily basis... hehehe).

Bill Vee (May 31, 2008 at 00:24 GMT)

I wish you all the best Ben.
I have learned a lot from your .plans , posts and comments.
I thank you for all the sleepless nights I spent getting the Atlas system to bend to my will. ;)

Neill Silva (May 31, 2008 at 00:40 GMT)

Ben Garney + Jeff Tunnell / GG = Shenanigans ;)

Eric Forhan (May 31, 2008 at 00:42 GMT)

Best of luck to you, Ben!

Casey Weidner (May 31, 2008 at 00:48 GMT)

Wow Ben, good luck!

Now maybe you'll have time to revisit your tree pack ;-P

Syn (May 31, 2008 at 00:52 GMT)

Hrm.... I'm beginning to see a trend....

I'm not liking my gut feelings...

Chip Lambert (May 31, 2008 at 01:21 GMT)

Good luck Ben. We'll all miss you!

jydog (May 31, 2008 at 02:06 GMT)

> I lived in Jeff's garage for a while before I got an apartment. There were about ten of us - it felt a lot like a family.

Must have been crowded! : o

Just kidding. Good luck.

Mike Rowley (May 31, 2008 at 02:11 GMT)

I wish you the very best Ben. We hate to see you go, but look forward to what you are going to embark upon. Take care.

Tom Eastman (Eastbeast314) (May 31, 2008 at 02:19 GMT)

Good luck with whatever's next, Ben!

Morrock (May 31, 2008 at 02:43 GMT)

G'luck with your new plans, Ben! I'll be sure to check on what you're doing every once and a while.

Koushik (May 31, 2008 at 04:09 GMT)

Wow, thats a surprise indeed... anyway, great knowing you, mate... and good luck with whatever you do!

Jeramy79 (May 31, 2008 at 04:10 GMT)

Is it just me or is everyone leaving GG?

Vashner (May 31, 2008 at 04:17 GMT)

Best wishes on your future and thanks for everything you have done so far.

John Kanalakis (May 31, 2008 at 06:51 GMT)

Good Luck, Ben! Thank you for all your amazing contributions over the years - you'll be missed.

John K.

Martin Schultz (May 31, 2008 at 07:41 GMT)

Hey Ben, all the best for your new ventures. Too bad I didn't found time to drive up to Thomas house to meet you in person when you were there in CPH. Maybe next time... :-)

Nauris Krauze (May 31, 2008 at 08:50 GMT)

Keep on rolling, man :)

J.C. Smith (May 31, 2008 at 09:44 GMT)

Sad to see you go, but best of luck.

Stefan Lundmark (May 31, 2008 at 09:48 GMT)

Thanks for all the quality help and advice you've given out trough all these years. Good luck on your new adventures! :)

Jeff Leigh (Jeffer) (May 31, 2008 at 12:09 GMT)

Good luck Ben, although you won't need it with your skills. I know you'll succeed.

Thanks for all your help over the years.

Julian R (May 31, 2008 at 14:20 GMT)

Good luck Ben. Sometimes change is good, sometimes it's not, but know where you are coming from. I've been in the same boat. It takes a brave man to make a decission like this which will be a tough road, but with all of your experience and knowledge gained over the years - I can see a great big plan ahead with whoever you may end up working with again.

Andy Pfiffer (May 31, 2008 at 15:00 GMT)

Go get 'em, Ben! You've done some really great work for GG and it's customers over the years. I'd code with you any day. --Andy

Simon Love (May 31, 2008 at 17:27 GMT)

Glad to hear that you are pursuing new challenges!

I can't help but join the others who have 'bad feelings about this', though.

I know that GG has probably more talent-per-square-foot than most companies, but you and Jeff (among others) have been the 'face' of GG for so many years, it feels like the company is losing its pure, garage-like quality. You have lived in Jeff's garage yourself, I don't think a more potent example could be found for the garage games mentality. :)

Now that the indie games movement is alive and well, I guess GG's role has shifted a bit.
Instantaction is amazing, GGE is really sweet, and the TGE(A) is lightyears beyond what it was years ago, still.

On a good note, we still have Matt Fairfax, Pat Wilson, Matt Langley, and a gazillion of talented others, I sincerely hope they start being a bit more 'visible'.

It's just not going to be the same without you :)

Best of luck with your projects!

Ben Garney (May 31, 2008 at 19:10 GMT)

Thanks for the kind words. :)

One of the best parts of being at GG was the community - you guys kept us honest, and it was always a treat to see what you were working on. For me, personally, it was a privilege to be able to help so many people pursue their dreams.

As for where GG is going and what it'll be like in the future - who can say? The world of indie games has changed hugely since GG started. InstantAction has a lot of potential. And there's tons of talented people at GG. If GG doesn't keep growing and doing cool stuff, I'd be very surprised. Think of this as a changing of the guard. :)

Leroy Frederick (May 31, 2008 at 19:31 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Good wishes for the future Ben, I'm sure you'll do well in future your endeavors. I do have to agree with the concerns though because the same things crossed my mind prior to reading the others comments, it's just starting to feel a little like when the gamespot incident happened (but without the controversy) and all the key people / faces start leaving one after another, perhaps it's just sentimentalism maybe, anyhow best wishes man! :)

Todd Pickens (May 31, 2008 at 20:15 GMT)

Very Gald we had a chance to work together Ben.

You have a great future ahead of you.

Kenneth Holst (May 31, 2008 at 20:43 GMT)

I will look forward to whatever cool new things you come up with Ben, and would wish you luck if I felt like you needed any :D

See you around!

Novack (May 31, 2008 at 22:49 GMT)

Im realizing now, that after only two years of be around here, I am starting to feel like I know who is who here, and when guys like you go, it feels like leaves a hole. Well, at least we will have you present through your "-- BJG" comments :D

The best for you on your new endeavours Ben! You will be missed.

Nick Zafiris (Jun 01, 2008 at 10:31 GMT)

Thank you for all the help you've been in the past Ben. Good luck with your new career path!

Nick

Melv May (Jun 01, 2008 at 14:14 GMT)

All the best Ben and good luck with the future.

Melv.

Andrew Brady (Jun 01, 2008 at 16:57 GMT)

Good luck and God bless.

~LK~

Brian Wilson (Jun 01, 2008 at 19:13 GMT)

Thanks for everything Ben. Good luck with your future projects. I wish you were the last to leave, but it looks like the transition contracts are getting fullfilled. Hope IAC keeps the existing GG constomers in mind in contrast to the usual MBA-fueled madness that oozes from acquisitions.

Dekker Ying (Jun 02, 2008 at 15:25 GMT)

......
Hey Ben,
I know your feeling... :P
Edited on Jun 02, 2008 15:25 GMT

Ed Averill (Jun 02, 2008 at 16:12 GMT)

Well, dang! I can understand, though - the longest I've ever worked for one company was seven years, right about five years I started to feel stale.. so the timing is about right to "move on". Best of luck, and I'm sure we'll be hearing about you in the future! :-)

David Montgomery-Blake (Jun 02, 2008 at 19:34 GMT)

Inspired by your interest in AS3 and Tamarin at IGC, I've been playing with it as well lately. It'll be strange to see you go, but I'm betting that you've got some sweet schemes to work out! I can't wait to see 'em!

Adib Murad (Jun 19, 2008 at 17:03 GMT)

Besides the good luck wishes,

Quote:
Torque is getting some needed engineering love.

This is something I definately wanted to read. Looking forward...

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