IAC Acquires Majority Share of GarageGames, Announces InstantAction.com

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Joe Melton   (Sep 19, 2007 at 06:25 GMT)

God...never knew it would come to THIS.

AnarchyRising   (Sep 19, 2007 at 12:16 GMT)

Great. Hopefully the indies still have focus from the company with tge(a). I guess I won't worry unless the company name changes to "CorporateOfficeGames"

Moreh Smith   (Sep 19, 2007 at 13:51 GMT)

As long as InstantAction.com is aimed at empowering us, the developers, with a decent platform to publish then I am all for it.

Joe Melton   (Sep 19, 2007 at 22:24 GMT)

When you look at who just acquired majority ownership, and the other businesses they currently own, it's obvious that GarageGames is going to become just another "generic" company. Their original focus is going to be lost amidst the greed of their new owner.

I guess many indies work hard toward the goal of one day "selling out." It's good that the GarageGames guys probably got rich out of the deal; it's just bad for the rest of us.

Jeff Wilkinson   (Sep 20, 2007 at 11:01 GMT)

Very nice cant wait for the website to be up and running
Edited on Sep 20, 2007 11:13 GMT

Jermaine Morgan   (Sep 20, 2007 at 21:54 GMT)

Very nice.

Zachary Stauber   (Sep 21, 2007 at 14:28 GMT)

It disturbs me that they are now owned by the same people who own Ticketmaster.

Charlie Malbaurn   (Sep 22, 2007 at 15:47 GMT)

Tis a sad day

Jose Martins   (Sep 22, 2007 at 17:06 GMT)

I bought TGE a few days ago..Maybe I've done a bad move. Lets see what will hapen. I think it wont take long to discover.

AnarchyRising   (Sep 22, 2007 at 17:36 GMT)

You didn't make a bad move. TGE(A) are in excellent development and states right at the moment. It's the future thats still a bit foggy. But at this moment, great choice ;)

Xavier "eXoDuS" Amado   (Sep 23, 2007 at 01:39 GMT)

Uh oh, I'm not sure how to take this news. The involvement with the "indie" community at GG has been declining in the past months, either this is a final strike at that, or it's a comeback.

Joe Melton   (Sep 23, 2007 at 02:24 GMT)

Quote:

---

bought TGE a few days ago..Maybe I've done a bad move.

---

You didn't make a bad move. Just because GG sold their soul, doesn't mean TGE isn't usable. However, I am hoping that the great forums and community contributions don't disappear along with GG's dedication to indies.

Henry Todd   (Sep 23, 2007 at 08:04 GMT)

You know, I've really got to say, while I'm not exactly happy to hear the news, I also cannot agree with the people who complain about GG's supposed decline in indie support.

To be honest, in the years that TGE has been available, there's been very little motion by indie developers. I know, everyone's going to panic and scream over that kind of comment, but that doesn't change the reality of it. The number of actual games which have been developed with TGE/TGEA by indies has been underwhelming to say the least.

I've been reading the forums/blogs here long enough to know that the majority of TGE users generally have amazingly unrealistic expectations coupled with limited technical experience. Most of these users play with the engine for a month of two, find out that they can't actually create the next WoW in fifteen minutes with no programming experience and a budget of $20, and move on. The forums and plans are littered with posts about upcoming releases which never came, ambitious designs with no technical backing, and demands for features that require massive time investments with little potential payoff in actual gameplay. That said, the GG community is honestly one of the best online groups I've ever encountered, one of the few places I can expect to have an intelligent discussion with people who share or disagree with my ideas. For example, while I expect that many people will completely disagree with everything I've said today, I don't expect to be flamed or harassed because of it. Still, the GG community has yet to make a notable impression outside its own sandbox.

Even developers who are actually working within realistic limits are still generally so limited by resources and time that they never complete a project. In the end, time has shown that small-time indie development simply doesn't happen very often. Sure, lots of "indie" companies have dropped games using GG products, but a small startup company with a project budget in the tens of thousands is hardly the same as a group of 3 19-year-old kids with $100 each and a couple hours on the weekend to spare.

I suppose part of the problem is that TGE is actually far more advanced than what the average small-time indie needs. It's a huge array of code, and a new user's first project can quickly change from "that simple, cool idea I could finish in a month" to "that crazy, over-the-top idea that requires advanced physics, customized networking, database backend, unlimited environment sizes, high-def graphics, and supports 500 simultaneous players per server." I know my game design expanded rapidly (though a lot of that has been cut by now) when I first started using TGE. I recall a post by a GG employee some time ago, can't recall who (BG?), talking about the need for more easy ideas, like a zombie game. I wasn't thinking of it at the time, but I recently created a simple zombie mechanism for a particular environment I'm working on, and it was great fun to play around with. In fact, it was so much fun it could have been the entire game, given a simple set of quests (see: Dead Rising) or a simple multiplayer mode (Zombies vs. Humans, human death = become zombie). Of course, it never even occurred to me to simply merge this with my existing combat system, make a few zombie models, and release it. I'd developed what equates to an entire game for the purpose of one chapter of my project. Can you say bloat? I'm not afraid to admit that I haven't made the best design choices as an indie.

Personally, I've taken 2.5 (more?) years to get the point I'm at on my project (I consider it feature-complete), longer if you count work done with alternate engines which contributed to the design. I've made a point never to discuss the project in specifics, simply because I have no interest in making vaporware, so I won't go into any detail. My project goal is ambitious, and honestly not a good choice for a low budget dev, but still within the realistic limits of a 1-man team given several years to reach completion. This probably sounds like a lot of you, but the problem is that many of us will simply lose track of our projects when something else grabs our attention. Or worse, we'll spend 3-4 years only to find out that the completed game isn't viable for one of a thousand reasons.

The problem is that it's a hobby to most of us; we're often not actually banking on creating profit, are rarely regulated by appropriate management (there really is such a thing), and are generally more interested in making something work than making a product. Many of the people who will never drop a product using a GG engine are also the authors of resources and posts which are invaluable to the community. Unfortunately, a collection of great resources is not a game, and the only thing that gets GG the attention and money it needs to continue functioning is when one of us drops a working product.

This ended up being way too long for a blog comment, but I guess it's kind of a response to months and months of "why is GG abandoning us?" The simple answer is that to maintain their support past the 6 or so years we already got, we have to prove that such support isn't simply a waste of resources.

But I'm one to talk, right? I estimate another solid year to complete the assets and test functionality, a time frame which could easily be expanded depending on the results of testing. Mix in a few months for public betas, and a few more for actually trying to sell the product to a publisher.

AnarchyRising   (Sep 24, 2007 at 13:01 GMT)

@Henry

One thing I wanted to cover-- You said

"To be honest, in the years that TGE has been available, there's been very little motion by indie developers."

No need to be worried about repurcussions because I totally agree with you. I see countless people buy the engine as indie every month (judging by new forum introductions) and nothing really ever comes of them.

I don't think the problem lies in GG or with Torque (although personally I would like to see more training material on certain things, off topic). I think the problem relates to what you mentioned, someone seeing an engine for a cheap pricetag and think they can make WoW or Gears of War in a month without doing any research like those of us who KNOW game development makes Hollywood budget movie creation look like flicking stones across a lake. I'm sure some disagree with me, but movies are almost commonplace now. How many truly good games can people honestly say come out per year? Not games you necessarily like, but GOOD solid games that don't just reinvent the wheel. I see maybe two or three and these are from companies with HUGE bankrolls and seemingly unlimited resources.

And you're right. The problem is that it's a hobby. For me personally I'm disabled with a stomach disorder so I code and do 3D artwork pretty much all day every day. It's a hobby-job if you will; with a 700$ per month paycheck to pay bills with, I won't be getting CryEngine anytime soon.

I have a team, albeit most of them live in South Africa and I'm in Pennsylvania (USA) so that tends to be complicated. But I would turn down an invitation from say VU or EA to come work as an animator simply because I like doing work on my own schedule, by my own standards, for my own ideas. Let the corporations that buy up every asset and small business that they can burn themselves. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

Ted Southard   (Sep 26, 2007 at 15:29 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

Funny how in a community filled with people who want to form companies and make it big making games, people are complaining about people who have formed a company and are making it big making games.

David Janssens   (Oct 03, 2007 at 15:51 GMT)

I couldn't refrain from posting my thoughts to my blog at d-log.nebulagame.com. like I said : I'm a bit worried for the future, but not to the extent that I'm considering changing as of yet.

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