TIG of Orlando Conference: The Day After

For those of you who didn't know, TIG (Torque Interest Group) of Orlando held our first conference yesterday 11/9/06. The grass roots launch went quite well. None of knew how many people were going to show up, considering we only had three or four pre-registers. However, one-by-one, Torque newcomers and current users started to arrive. Our turnout was small enough in scale to tailor the discussions to what people wanted to know, and also allowed more interactive presentations.

Scott and Eric took center stage for the presentations, while myself and Garrett ran the front desk and demo area. The presentations for simulation and serious games grabbed a lot more interest and attention than we expected, considering the bulk of our visitors were not in the industry. We had simulation demos (built using Torque) from Coalescent and C2C that looked quite impressive. My demo machine was used to display TGE 1.5 and Ars Moriendi. Other demos were shown as well, including a nifty racing title, but in my opinion, TGE 1.5 and Constructor grabbed the most attention.

Eric was granted demonstration rights for Constructor, and when he launched that application I jumped from the back row to the front just to see it in all its glory. Ladies and gentleman of the Garage Games community, I know it's hard to pump up the hype for Constructor beyond what it already is, but I have to say it's even more amazing to see in person. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to play with it, but Eric did a fine job of showing off the various tools and exporting capabilities. After seeing Constructor in action, I think I'm going to set up a separate savings account dedicated to Torque product funding =).

So, I want to thank everyone who came to the conference for their support and interest. Everyone who was present hopefully left with something new to think about. Thanks go out to Garage Games for all the demos they sent us. On a personal note, thanks to Eric for forming TIG of Orlando and making this happen. I look forward to the next conference. We'll see you there. . .

[Shameless Plug]
Ars Moriendi had a weak showing, but that was my fault. For all the Ars Moriendi fanboys/fangirls out there (haha, I know there are none), I will have a playable demo set up on two machines for some mutiplayer-survival-horror goodness!
[/Shameless Plug]