My one year anniversary out of the Garage

So I might be a bit overdue in mentioning this, but my last day as a GarageGames employee was October 31, 2007. True to my blogging form at GG I've slacked a bit on updating the community via this channel, but hey, better late than never, right? After working on GarageGames from its inception and leaving its top post in the eminently capable hands of Josh Williams, I took a step back to in order to refocus on the games side of the business and get the creative juices flowing again. By the end of the summer I was ready to get into some new projects, most of which were outside the scope of the GarageGames mission. Before starting GG I never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur, but as Jeff T describes, once you get the itch, you've got to scratch it :) I thought I might take the one year anniversary of my departure to recollect what has been an obscenely busy year.

Project 1: Bad Habit Software. At around this time last year I was casting about for cool game projects to work on for the upcoming launch of Instant Action. At the same time, some of the Tribes alums were looking to start something new. Josh and I decided that the way I could most effectively contribute to the Instant Action effort would be to spin up an indie game studio making games in close cooperation with GarageGames. Bad Habit Software was quickly incorporated - Greg Lancaster came on first followed shortly thereafter by John Folliard and John Alden - all three stellar engineers. Fellow Bad Habit original Nels Bruckner joined the team in the spring time and has been instrumental in rounding out our production and design efforts. He's also our online chronicler and wrote a more detailed version of our backstory.

After a couple months of false starts we got rolling on our first game which was an upgrade to the "Robotron meets Tribes" game Zap! I worked on while at GG. ZAP went live on Instant Action in March with retooled graphics, enhanced gameplay, vastly improved AI and a single player training campaign. If you haven't had a chance to play yet, head over to InstantAction.com, fire it up and let us know what you think. We just recently launched the mac version, and there's another bug-fixing point release about to go live.

Our current and recent work includes maintenance of Marble Blast Online, the finalization of the recently released update to MBU on XBLA, ongoing ZAP upgrades and a cool new social networking application called Bumperstickr (because everybody loves bumper stickers!). We're also doing pre-production work on a couple new game ideas that will rock on IA in '09.

Project 2: Arcimoto. I'd been carless for 3 years, but in the summer of '07 I figured I could really use a vehicle for the occasional trip to the home improvement store or to go visit my folks across town on bad weather days. Those of you that know me know I try to roll as eco-friendly as possible, so I was adamant that the vehicle I was seeking would not burn its fuel. I test drove the Zapcar (a bucket of bolts) and drooled a little on the inside over the Tesla (which, though it just didn't hit on my practicality scale is a truly amazing car to drive -- I had an opportunity to test drive a Tesla a couple weeks ago and it was freaking sweet, but that's another story).

In any case my quest for an appropriate vehicle in the summer of '07 came up a total bust... until the Eugene Celebration Parade. In the parade there were a couple of people driving some really cool looking one-seat vehicles. Have you ever been driving down the road to work, or school, or the gym, or wherever... on some solo short trip and wondered, "Why am I taking 3000 pounds of steel, passenger capacity for 5 and fuel to travel 300 miles with me when I use my car almost exclusively for short range, solo trips?" The BugE was created to answer that question. Designed by Mark Murphy of Blue Sky Design in our figurative back yard and sold as a kit, the BugE is a sweet looking minimalist approach to utilitarian sustainable transportation.

Which is why I got a couple of the kits and corralled some of my friends into putting one together. What started as an effort to put together one or more of the BugEs soon cascaded into a full-blown vehicle design and assembly effort - Arcimoto. Our blog at www.arcimoto.com charts the evolution of the beast, and right now the team is really cooking. We're getting close to the build of our "beta" prototype of our fully-enclosed one-passenger three-wheeled EV. It'll plug into a standard outlet, have a range of ~50 miles, top out around 50 MPH and cost pennies a mile to operate. We think it's going to be a fun to drive, practical, affordable and environmentally friendly way to get around. We should have our full web site up soon along with some pretty pictures of the new vehicle, so if you're into EVs, stay tuned!

Project 3: The Station. Since two startups leaves one with way too much free time, I thought it would be fun to help open a cafe/restaurant/performance venue/design gallery as well. Well... it wasn't so much a decision up front as an evolving idea for a really cool space.

In the spring of '07 my good friend and neighbor Eric acquired a couple of mostly uninhabited buildings just down the street from where we live. He thought it would be very cool to make a different kind of social gathering space, and about this time last year I came on as a partner in the effort. Through a bunch of hard work and sweat, Eric and crew opened the Whiteaker Station coffee shop in the spring, our mutual friend Dalton opened a plant store in the early summer and we're only a short time away from the opening of the Centre Camp (named so because it's the gathering space in the middle, and also because we have been influenced by Burning Man), which will serve as a combination restaurant, design gallery, community space and venue.

All told, the Station is about 10,000 square feet of entrepreneurial fun. Bad Habit Software is HQ'd upstairs, and Arcimoto inhabits the big warehouse in back. Once the center space is done we'll open the full restaurant with fresh local food, sustainable infotainment and organic design. If you ever find yourself in the area, be sure to drop by...

It's a strange time to be working on new things. We're on the cusp of a hugely important election, the global economy is in the crapper and the consequences of our culture's impact on the planet are impossible to ignore. It will be interesting to see what the next year brings. I'll continue to post here (intermittently, ahem!) any of the future game related stuff we're working on at BHS, and you can get my updates on all the rest on The Big Adventure.

Oh, and don't forget to vote!