Education update, Boot Camps and Games!

Hi everybody, good to be posting for you again. I've been off the map a little as Jay and I have been traveling a ton this fall and early winter. A recent forum post asked, "What is GG doing to get TGE more in the school system?" You can read the question and my full response here. I want to expand on some of the ideas mentioned here and bring the community up to date on what I've been doing with Torque in education.

First, I want to encourage everybody to visit the educational forums. We have said for a long time that our community is our strongest resource, and in order to give educators the support they need, we need community members participating in these forums. Our vision is to have a highly active forum with posts from teachers, students, game club members, research students and community members on a regular basis. This month I posted four new threads to encourage participation and resource sharing:

Is Torque Right for my school?
Best practices for teaching Torque
Student Challenges
Teachers seeking schools
Schools seeking Teachers

I read some place that having a post with too many links is bad so I'll stop there (still new to the whole blogosphere : p>) I'll and put a picture with this post if I can... Here is one from the Austin Games Confrence.


Last month I did a podcast for my blog entry but wasn't able to find a reliable audio hosting site (anyone know a good one?)

Ok, next - Conferences: IGC, FuturePlay, League for Innovation CIT, Austin Games Conference and IITSEC
At each of these I had the opportunity to meet educators and educational administrators. Some already had programs, some were looking to expand their programs, and some were just considering a game course. All of them were very excited to talk with us and hear about what the Torque development platform offered. One of the things I have found encouraging is the number of schools that have been working with a different platform for a couple years and are now running to Torque. I had a rather spirited conversation with Ken Finney (author of "3D Game Programming All in One") who said something to the effect of 'It is because of platforms like THAT (competing platform) that I wrote my book with Torque as the reference.' And this sentiment has been echoed by the sales of TGE to schools in their second and third years of game instruction.

One of the challenges we face in marketing Torque to schools is the gap in comprehension between educators and administrators. Especially if the admin has been pitched by a competitor first. Some of our competitors offer free versions of their software to schools; others focus on how their software is an "industry leader." Both of these are strong selling points to job placement specialists and accounting types. And both of these points are misleading in their own way: The free platforms are often severely limited in their capabilities, do not offer access to the source code, have not been proven with a commercial title release and/or do not let students take viable games to market. The "industry leaders" fail to account for the number engines that are custom built for a specific title release, only allow users to apply their skills for jobs at "X" company, or require an outrageous licensing fee if students or schools want to produce their games. Teachers who work with these platforms are quickly able to recognize their limitations once they start working with them. However, teachers often face a tough battle when trying to explain how investing a little money in Torque is a big investment in creative freedom, and core competency skills for their students. I think it is partially because administrators don't understand what full source code access means and why being able to work with the engine source code is so important. ( I welcome any thoughts or feedback you have on these points :)) However, one point that has been sticking with administrators is that students can afford the tools. Students can afford personal copies of Torque and can use them after they graduate to expand their portfolios, complete their demo reels, build new works and publish games.

The good news is that the word is out, and many schools have been calling us because they heard about us from a friend, met us at a conference or have been researching us on the web. Students too have been a strong source of leads for us. I've had a couple of really sharp students contact me about personal licenses and a few weeks later their teachers call about licensing the whole school. Here is a big THANK YOU to our student users!

Another thing I have been working on is Torque Boot Camps. Starting this past summer GG began offering 3-day intensive training seminars. The purpose of these was to kind of bring down the wall between our customers and our developers. Previously our approach was "Here's the software, there's the forums, good luck. BTW come to IGC and show us your games." As we've become involved with more commercial projects, the need for professional training on best practices using Torque has become a necessity. This past year we offered 4 Torque Boot Camp sessions: Two Commercial here in Eugene, one Indie at IGC, and one for Serious Games/Simulation at Kennedy Space Center, FL. The response from our participants was strong and looking into '06 we plan to expand our course offerings. We have already discussed and are planning Boot Camps for TGE, T2D, Torque for Artists and even TSE. (After TSE launch).

One of the great things about boot camps is that the courses are tailored to the participants' interests. We spend the first couple hours of the boot camp learning about your projects, experience and where you are encountering trouble. This allows us to tie our training directly to your specific needs, while at the same time honing key Torque skillz. Often key members of the GG team will step in and present on areas of Torque they built or refined.

Our next Boot Camp in Jan 23-25, for more information please contacts me directly.

Since I don't want this .plan to be too blah, blah, blah, I thought I'd tell you the games I've been playing ; ).
Pat and Justin cued me into Final Fantasy 1&2 on the GBA, so I barrowed Pat's GBA when I went to IITSEC. I had a lot of fun re-playing FF 1, though I have to say the encounter rate drove me crazy. (How many times do I need to fight black goblins?) Also, I found that the difficulty was way low, especially since you can save anywhere (A big improvement from the original). Many of the bosses I beat in only 3 rounds (*whimpy*). Also on the GBA, I played through Metroid 4, Fusion. This was a ton of fun. Super Metroid on the SNES is, I think, my favorite game ever, though Castlevanina Symphony of the Night on PS1 is a close runner-up . Last night I finally finished Knights of the Old Republic, an unbelievably good game. I went through "Light Side," and no, I didn't tell the girl I loved her. Snobby Jedi... not really my type.. more of an Aris kinda guy : ). Finally, Santa brought me a Nintendo DS for Christmas and I have been loving Mario Kart.

I've also been playing a bunch of Texas Hold'em. I'd never played before Thanksgiving, never gambled (except for playing Magic for ante) Now I'm completely hooked. My girl is too; we got a nice set of chips for Christmas. Doesn't mean we're any good. Mark F and Fritz, our new marketing guy, have been walking away with my dough. I had a Big Lowbowski party Christmas day and got wiped out in 3 rounds... maybe it was the White Russians betting for me. Losing early let me get in on a game of "Ticket to Ride," which was uber fun though. I think that about covers it for the games... except for MTG and Soul Calibur 3.

So with that said, I'm going to send off 2005 by saying this community rocks, the games look awesome, and working for GG has been a dream. This much fun should be illegal (and I've heard it is some 3rd world countries). And I also want to say everyone knows that Ben G. and Tim A. are hallucinating, because I am most definitely the most pumped GG '06 team member.

Happy New Year!