Live GDC Reporting from San Jose

#1 I got to meet Justin Mette of 21-6 and 4 of the 8 Garage Games guys at the "House of Siam" Thai restaraunt o­n Market street here in San Jose. Naturally everyone looks much different in person. Rick Overman looks much younger than what I expected. I recognized Jay Moore instantly, although he looked much different in person. No o­ne looks like their photos anyway. Lets take Jay for example. Most of the pictures of Jay o­n Garage Games show him looking fairly healthy and smiling. When I saw Jay tonight he had blood shot eyes with dark circles. He looked like he had been awake for at least 72 hours, maybe more. Everyone looked tired.

These guys are really cool and it was very evident that they were clever and good natured even when they are really tired. This is the kind of stuff you will never see o­n Garage Games because they are too professional to say this kind of stuff publicly. It was fun to meet them and get the kind of banter I expected went o­n amongst them. I'm going to share it with you guys at the risk of offending the GG guys because it really does shed some light as to what they are really all about and what makes them tick.

Its hard to believe that 8 guys (thats all there is at Garage Games) can take o­n some of the bigger companies and make some waves. They do a heck of alot. Sure, there are some other dev shops with a low number like 21 employees who do some amazing stuff, but GG is just 8 guys total and they don't sell their engine for a million bucks a pop.

The idea was suggested at the dinner table, however. "Hey why don't we sell the new Torque Game Engine and Shader technology for a million bucks?"

Jay Moore immediately sat up straight and he looked suddenly very alert. His face was much brighter and he leaned in closely with an eager look in his eye. "Where were you when we started this company?" He blurted out. "Man what a great idea! That would make funding Garage Games so much easier. Think what we could do if we o­nly sold a couple of licenses! Just o­ne license would be a million bucks and we could do very well for a year o­n that."

For a split second I was thinking "Heck yeah. Not a bad idea." Then we all broke into laughter. That is simply not what Garage Games is all about. They could do it but these nuts really beleive in empowering the indies. Before they shuffled off to the Travel Lodge we had a brief discussion about the pricing of the new Shader Engine technology. The irony of the fact that Epic was announcing their new Unreal shader technology at the same time at the same GDC was not lost o­n the group.

"Maybe we could distribute some flyers around at the Nvidia and Maya booths." Some o­ne suggested. "We could advertise our new sub $300 price."

I piped up "Oops looks like you droped a cool shader technogy on the floor here...."

The repsonse was quick. "Yeah looks like we droped a few zeros o­n the price too." Everyone laughed heartily.

#2 Interesting Britton. This is a cool post. It's cool to hear what it's like in the GG war room. Man I really want to go to IGC 04 and meet these guys. They really are an inspiration.

#3 Hey you can sell it for a million and 500 bucks a license and offer a million dollar mail in rebate...that way you just need one guy to forget to mail his rebate form :P

#4 I just went and took a look at TSE....oh my I wanted to start drooling but I could process the thoughts to open my mouth....it was that amazing I also met some of the GG peeps nice gus but I felt kinda itimidated cause I' such a noob.

#5 Awe dude the GG guys are cool. No reason to feel intimidated. I've learned a lot just listening to them chat.

#6 I DEFINATELY want to be at the IGC, really looking forward to it. =)

#7 Yeah me too. I think the IGC is better than the GDC from what I have heard. The game connection was much better than GDC for sure.

GG Crew Getting Ready

Jay Discusses stategy of the unveiling of the new TSE


Game Beaver's is hosting lots of photos taken by Rick Overman and myself of the GDC
You can see the Photos Here

#8 I met Jeff at the GDC, he is alive and well. His fingers are bandaged but he speaks coherently.

Jeff beams with pride over the TSE demo as he rests his broken fingers on the podium.


More Pictures Here

#9 Tomorrow is the last day of the GDC. I've learned alot and I'll be happy to share it with you soon! Maybe we can get a few more pictures of the event too.

#10 Orbz on the zodiac????????? That thing can run torque?

#11 Very cool Britton. The pics are great. I saw one pic that squeaked by with a sign on top of the monitor that said something interesting. I can't wait til the GG guys gets back.

#12 You mean this one? Britton you have a lot of cool and informative pictures up. :)

Matt

#13 Woah, Rick Overman is the spitting image of one of my cousins. Everything from his glasses to hair to smile to face... that's awfully odd. Anyway, some nifty little teasers you got there.. I want to see that Torque 2 for myself! Can't..wait..any..longer..

#14 Yeah could be the one Matt ;)

#15 Yeah I liked that shot too, Michael. ;)

Matt

#16 @Michael, if you are referring to the "Torque 2 engine" that is a mistake. It was supposed to be Torque Shader Engine. The conference people got confused.

#17 It's just a name anyways... call it Torque 2, TSE, Torque Pro, Torque NextGen, or whatever you like ;)

#18 Torque++ ? ;-)

#19 Yeah, When I get some time I'll be sure to report on what each picture is about. The biggest thing with the new TSE is confusion over the license agreement. Everyone has trouble grasping that its $495 for a commercial license... no royalties. Its like they have teflon no stick brains.

Part of it may be the confusion between the Torque Game Engine and the Publishing royalty arrangement on Garage Games part of it may be the old license back in 2002 when Vivendi was involved, but its really hard to drill that point home. I think part of it is its too good to be true and that makes them look for the catch.

#20 I thought it seemed a little too early to announce a Torque 2. Torque is just starting to bloom. Well anyway I still can't wait til they get back. I'm sure they will have lots to talk about. The shot of the potential Unreal buyers was cool while they were looking at Torque with Shaders.