Blog for Benjamin Bradley at GarageGames.com

A good day to be in the Garage

Benjamin Bradley — 2006-08-22T16:29:44+00:00

It's a good day to be in the garage...

Wow, as most of you guys (and gals) know, there has been tons of stuff happening in the garage. We're approaching TSE Milestone 4, which now has some of the amazing Atlas terrain and John Kabus' awesome lighting work integrated into the engine. We just released Torque Game Builder 1.1.1 with some sweet interface upgrades and an integrated tilemap editor in the level editor. Just two days ago we announced Torque X up at GameFest and how its going to allow developers access to use XNA to bring their games to Xbox 360. And all of this was just in the past week. The two weeks before that I was traveling through China and Singapore marveling at the opportunities Torque is bringing to the region.

During my time traveling through Shanghai and Singapore these past two weeks, I got the opportunity to meet some really cool developers. It was a good time in Shanghai meeting up with some old friends who I met the previous year at ChinaJoy, getting to sit down with a group from the Tsinghua University which will be teaching Torque to their game dev students, and watching a few presentations of games being developed on Torque Technology. Besides the weather being super hot and humid, it was a great time.

My time in Singapore turned busier than I ever thought it would. Meetings were going morning, noon and night. I got to hang out with some great guys in the Singapore IGDA chapter. Guys who had been part of the dev teams ranging from FarCry to Fallout, and now focusing on some fun casual games. There were quite a few dev teams and individual teams that were working with Torque and many of them were using Torque to do some really crazy and fun things. Gotta give some serious props to the guys from Playware Studios who have a really cool studio with a bunch of neat guys (and gals) working on a lots of Torque projects. I got a chance to hang out with eFlyte, a group that GarageGames works with and is bringing the first 3d games powered by Torque to the airlines. We had a great time hanging out, singing Karaoke, and doing multiplication tables (inside joke).

Amazing stuff happened during this trip and there's more stuff to come from this region. But while I was flying home from Singapore, I got to reflect back on my trip. I started thinking about how much some of these developers who were based in Asia valued their history. The roots where they came from. Each one of the studios I visited had a "trophy-case" of their past titles and they were proud to say they were part of a long line of game developers. The funny thing was, I was reading the latest Computer Gaming World magazine while I was thinking these things. Then I got to page 59. Computer Gaming World was doing an "Overrated/Underrated List". And there it was, right in the category of Most Influential Game of all time - The most underrated game was Tribes.

Quote:

Tribes
If you want to get technical, Tribes laid the groundwork for multiplayer objective-based outdoor battles, team dynamics, and strategy in a first-person shooter. Build emplacements, control vehicles - but the signature jetpacks inspire either love or loathing. Oh, and bonus: Tribes is now freely available online.

That's right... everyone who is working with Torque technology is part of the history that stems from the most influential games in history. Tribes changed the way multi-player gaming takes place, the strategy that is involved and so much more. And since that times there have been hundreds of games that have been released on just about every single platform out there all powered by Torque. From the top-selling games on Xbox 360 Live Arcade to the shelves of Wal-Mart. From a Torque game created in the humble back room in some guy's actual garage to Torque-powered simulations being run on super-computers at NASA. These are all places where Torque powered games and technologies are playing a big part.

But the coolest thing about all this history is that we here at GarageGames aren't stopping and resting on our laurels. As evidenced with the past week, we're constantly developing, constantly creating new technologies, constantly seeking new arenas for developers of all levels to be involved in this exciting gaming industry. And there are times that we couldn't have done this without such an awesome and huge community of developers like you guys.

This is an absolutely revolutionary time in indie game development.

1. The casual game industry is almost a $1 billion industry and its expected to double in the next two years.
2. We've seen indie developers get picked up by big publishers and make a nice living making games.
3. The opportunity that indies now have to access the console space is unprecedented right now. All the major console manufacturers have announced their downloadable games plans.
4. Even the boxed channel is opening up more and more for indies-- PocketWatch's Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa in store shelves at Best Buy, WalMart and the like.
5. We see indies release their games - Joshua Dallman finally releasing a game... whooohoo... time to break out the portable Heineken keg.
6. We see indies generate lots of buzz with their game - Josh Ritter and reaching the 15,000 registered users bar.
7. The announcements from Microsoft regarding their XNA initiatives are going to let indies easily vet their gameplay ideas on a console for the first time ever.
8. AND SO MUCH MORE...

I was talking to Jeff Tunnell and he says that he hasn't seen this much opportunity for small gamedev teams since he first started out way back when. We need to all team up and make this stuff happen! We're super busy here in the Garage and we know you all are busy working on your games.

It's a good day to be in the Garage.

China and Singapore are powered by Torque

Benjamin Bradley — 2006-08-02T02:29:42+00:00

Greetings everyone. It's a beautiful day here in downtown Singapore. (Ha... but then I guess all of Singapore is "downtown"). I just finished up an amazing few days in Shanghai, China. I was speaking with developers from all over at ChinaJoy (the E3 for China but with more people). We've got an amazing relationship with Tsinghua University (The #1 ranked university in China). More to come on this front later.... But people have asked about pictures, so here's some pictures from China Joy:

The entrance to China Joy

Every trade show needs girls drumming on the big screen. I have no idea what they were trying to promote.

This proves that the past 2 years that Zac and I have been competing in TopSpin and TopSpin 2 is not in vain. Zac and I will attempt to join the dancing tennis stars of Shanghai... but I'm not sure what that ninja is doing on the left hand side.

This boy's dream has come true... to get his picture taken with WoW characters.

Can you guess which game these characters come from?

An unexpected surprise... I didn't expect to see Pat at ChinaJoy!

Yin Jin, the woman on the right, leaving the stage, was my translator for several meetings. First time I've ever had a "warrior - princess" translate for me.

I think the musicians and the sailors were promoting a fighting game...

I enjoyed getting to peak behind the curtains. Oh... and look at the tall white guy on the right, thats right... its Simon from the IGF.

Just thought I would send out a few pictures from China Joy. Right now I'm in Singapore... and if anyone is out here in Singapore, I think tomorrow (Thursday evening at 9pm), a few of us are getting together at Brewkerz at Clarke Quay. So come out and join us.

China, Puzzle Poker, and Meth Addicts

Benjamin Bradley — 2006-07-06T21:51:02+00:00

So summer is here in Eugene. Or at least I can finally see summer after surviving another bought of serious allergies. These are not your ordinary allergies. They only exist here in Eugene. They say that people who never have allergies anywhere else in the world, will always get allergies here in Eugene. I've even heard stories that the Indians long ago used to call this area the "Valley of Death". And after July 1st, it now is officially the Valley of Death. That's right, it is now against the law to buy Claritin-D or other allergy medicine without a doctor's prescription. So for those of us who need our allergy medication, we are now on the Meth-addicts watch list. Since we've been stocking up on allergy medicine. Anyway, if you plan on visiting Eugene and saying hi to those of us in the garage this summer, make sure you have a doctor's prescription to buy allergy medicine... because otherwise, you're nothing but a lowlife meth addict. (Or that's what the pharmacist told me.)

So... Summer also brings lots of cool events, people going on vacation, other people releasing games, all the hippies in the world descend on a 280 acre farm just outside of Eugene for the annual "Country Fair", and the start of the fall trade show tour.

NEW VERSION OF PUZZLE POKER AVAILABLE

There are two things that I want to let everyone know about. First off, Puzzle Poker now has a mac build. If you haven't had a chance to play this addicting poker puzzle game, don't miss out. Both the new windows version and the mac version have full 60 minute demos so that you can completely try out the game, post your scores to the online high scores list, and join a gaming club, or even create your own gaming club. If you're looking for a fun little game to take with you on vacation, Puzzle Poker is a great game that will inspire heating family competition.

Secondly, I'm heading back to China. Last year, I went to China Joy and spoke at Brilliant Night in Shanghai. It was a great opportunity to bring Torque technology into China both in terms of gamedev studios and also universities. This year, I'm heading back to speak at China Joy, numerous other events, and to speak on the campus of three different universities. After my time in China, I will be making a stop in Singapore to meet with a number of dev studios already working with Torque and introducing a few more studios to the exciting world of GarageGames. It's really cool seeing how many universities and other groups are flocking to Torque technologies as the best way to teach game development.

If any GG people are going to be in Shanghai, China around July 24-August 1st and/or Singapore from August 1st to August 6th, let me know and we'll set up a meeting. I need to go take some more allergy pills now.

TGB ships and the crowd goes wild.

Benjamin Bradley — 2006-06-20T19:14:33+00:00

Wow!!! A big congrats needs to go out to the TGB dev team. They've been hammering away like maniacs. It's a great time to be part of the GG community. Tons of cool things are happening and we just shipped an amazing product in Torque Game Builder. Over the past few weeks, I've personally been working through most of the tutorials that ship with TGB (My last count was over 700 pages of docs, tutorials, references and more. - Thanks to Adam Larson for the correction.) I did a lot of tree killing with all my print outs as I worked through the tutorials.

One of the first things I realized is that there are going to be tons of questions about the tutorials as more and more people try the FREE 30 day trial version of TGB. (Yes, you heard that right, a FREE fully functional trial version that allows you to try out all the features of TGB so you can make sure that this is the right product for you.) Plug: Download the Windows and Mac trials now. So, in order to provide a place for people to ask tons of questions about TGB's trial and tutorials, I've opened up a new public forum specifically for these types of questions.

TGB Trial and Tutorials Question Forum

I can't wait to hear about what you guys think of the release.

If you want to learn more about TGB you should take a look at the new Torque Game Builder Page.

So what kind of tutorials did we include with the trial version:

Fish Demo Tutorials
- The Fish Demo Tutorials are great for those new to TGB and those new to scripting in general. Many of the TGB scripting basics are detailed in an easy to follow, step by step process that anyone new to TGB should be able to approach and learn from.

Fish Game Tutorials
- The Fish Game Tutorials are a great second step. In these tutorials you will now add a fish that you can control through your keys. Objectives, goals, and challenges are added in these tutorials as well to make a simple fish game.

Whack-A-Mole Tutorials
- The Whack-A-Mole Tutorial steps you through creating a fun and simple game based on "whacking" a mole with a hammer, reliving the days of being a kid and going to an arcade with good hammer stomping.

Shooter Tutorial
- The Shooter Tutorial instructs you in creating a bare bones shooter game in TGB (recreating some of the basics of the demo).

Checkers Tutorial
- The Checkers Tutorial covers TGB's networking system by creating a networked checkers game.

Each of these easy-to-follow tutorials .pdf documents can be found in the documentation/tutorials folder in the installation folder of the TGB trial. And if you run into questions, head over to the forums and ask away.

Marble Blast Ultra reaches new heights

Benjamin Bradley — 2006-02-13T18:40:41+00:00

Over the past two weeks, I've been following the craziness that is the Xbox360 Marble Blast Ultra forums. It's been really cool to see people posting hints, videos, walkthroughs, challenges and more. It's because of this active community that Marble Blast Ultra has risen to one of the top played games on the Xbox. (According to the logins to Xbox Live)

Over the weekend a really cool thing happened in the forums. J. Allard who plays as HiroProtagonist was posting about what his goals for the coming week. "...Finish UMB advanced levels..." How cool is that, that one of the top guys over at the Xbox/Xbox360 division of Microsoft has as one of his goals is to play Marble Blast Ultra. Plus if you look at his Gamercard, you'll see that Marble Blast Ultra is the latest game he's been playing.

For those of you who haven't checked out Marble Blast Ultra on the Xbox360, you should grab the demo and try it out. You won't be disappointed by getting this great game for only 800 credits.

Marble Blast Ultra Screenshots

TeamXbox Review - 8.9/10
Gameing Target - 8/10
UGO - B
TalkXbox - 8.9/10
XboxEvolved - 9/10
Next Level Gaming - 89/100
Bonus Stage - 8.7/10
Xbox Solution - 7.9/10
NEW
EuroGamer - 8/10

Podcasting from iTunes and More

Benjamin Bradley — 2006-01-20T15:31:45+00:00

Late last night I was up writing this .plan. 2006 is going to be an amazing year for GarageGames and the community. There is so much going on this year and I wanted to think of ways to make you all in the community really feel like your a huge part of GarageGames, which you are. If anyone read Stephen's .plan you would remember that we got a phone call from a development house who had done some serious research and come to the conclusion that the Torque Game Engine & GarageGames has one of the largest game development communities around. I know it definitely has the most active.

So, this week while I was writing the GargageGamer newsletter announcing the three latest games that were added to the garage (TubeTwist, Tribal Trouble and Camelot Galway: City of Tribes), I was thinking of ways of making the community feel more involved.

On Monday night, I was at home working on some stuff when my wife stumbled upon a bunch of knitting podcasts. That's right... knitting podcasts. There weren't just one or two there was a ton of them out there. So needless to say, I learned all about the purl stitch and what type of wool yarn I needed to make my next sweater from. Ok... that's beside the point. But what is the point is that I decided I could make a podcast about GarageGames.

So I started writing a little script, downloaded a free demo to a podcasting virtual production mixing board and strapped on my tiny little headset mic I use for my Skype conversations. The next morning I called Justin Mette, (21-6 Productions) and had an interview with him, recorded it, mixed it, and added to the podcast. Wrapped up a few loose ends and then decided, wouldn't it be cool if it was on iTunes.

BLAM!!!... Well now that was cool. You can now subscribe to the GarageGames Podcast straight through your iTunes program. (Hmmm... turns out this "subscription link" only works with Internet Explorer. If you want to subscribe just search for GarageGames in your iTunes search bar and then click the subscribe button)

So last night I went and made the "early announcement" about the podcast to IRC, (Hint: sometimes new cool news gets announced first in the IRC) and Danny said that I sounded like Howard Stern... only cleaner. So I guess that means we need to add midgets to the next episode. Each odd numbered podast will focus on games and each even numbered podcast will focus on the dev side of games. I hope you enjoy.

If you would like to get involved in the podcast, suggest an upcoming topic or game, please email me at news@garagegames.com with the word "PODCAST" in the subject line.

Hint if you really dislike iTunes here's some links for you:

Subscribe to GarageGamer Podcast - Feedburner

Podcast coming soon to:

Yahoo! Podcast
NEW UPDATE: Podcast Alley(we've already gotten tons of subscriptions on iTunes, that I've been asked to place on Podcast Alley)

Links to Remember:

-- GarageGames IRC (where you can go to get help on your project, talk to like-minded developers and learn about new things happening first)

-- Directly subscribe to the GarageGames Podcast through iTunes

-- Other ways to subscribe to the podcast

-- The GarageGames Newsletter - We just sent out a new Gamer newsletter and we've got a dev newsletter coming up. If you're not subscribed to either of the newsletters or you didn't receive the gamer newsletter, don't miss out. Subscribe now!

INELIGIBLE to judge for IGF

Benjamin Bradley — 2005-09-30T21:19:50+00:00

IndieGamesCon is coming on fast and my life is CRAZY. Though all you have to do is look in the office next door to me (Jay's) and see a REALLY CRAZY man. For anyone that ever thought "breaking-into-the-gaming-industry-as-a-non-programmer" would be an easier route... Hahaha... just look at Jay and watch him work as if he were six men, that alone will make you think twice.

Anyway...

A funny thing happened to me the other day. I went to go open my email box, (and this is something no mere mortal should attempt right before IGC... yes, I get A LOT OF EMAILS at this time of the year). So, there in my email box was an email from the IGF. Turns out that there are too many of you in this community who have submitted your games using the Torque Game Engine to the IGF competition that I'm no longer allowed to be a judge. That's right, because of all you community members, creating all sorts of games, with GarageGames products, then submitting them to the IGF, I have been ruled INELIGIBLE TO JUDGE THIS YEAR. I guess with all the submissions, Torque products account for close to 9%-10% of the submissions this year.

THIS ROCKS (as Josh would say)!!!!

Anyway...

I just wanted to post this challenge to the community as a whole. I'm asking you to help me loosen my work load and to make sure that I can never judge an IGF competition ever. I want to receive an email next year and every year after that from the IGF that says. "Dear Benjamin, I'm sorry to have to say that you have been ruled INELIGIBLE to judge for this year's IGF competition because there are too many Torque games entered."

And to each one of you who has participated in ruling me INELIGIBLE to judge, I will hoist a beer in your honor at IndieGamesCon.

ThinkTanks and MarbleBlast finally make it to the Official Xbox Magazine

Benjamin Bradley — 2005-09-30T21:01:53+00:00

Okay, after many months of being out on the Xbox Live Arcade, Marble Blast and ThinkTanks have finally shown up on the Official Xbox Magazine Covermount (CD). It's amazing to see that there are actually people out there playing MarbleBlast on Xbox that have higher scores than both Mark and Pat. How many people have found more than five easter eggs on different levels of MarbleBlast? Is anyone in this community ranked in the top 100 on either ThinkTanks or MarbleBlast?

If you haven't been able to play Marble Blast or ThinkTanks on Xbox, now is your time. You don't even need a net connection to play these games, since the demos are now ON the CD that comes with the magazine.

So head out to the local bookstore or gamestore and pick up the November 2005 (Issue 50) copy of Xbox Magazine and experience the fun gameplay of MarbleBlast and ThinkTanks on Xbox. Plus, if you do have a net connection, Orbz is also now out on Xbox Live Arcade. And 21-6 Productions has spent tons of time on this game, completely remaking the game and adding almost double the levels.

It would have been nice if the front cover was also about MarbleBlast or ThinkTanks... but oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

Using Technology for Public Relations

Benjamin Bradley — 2005-09-13T17:10:40+00:00

In most large corporations, one of the chief jobs of public relations directors is to put together a clip book. A clip book is the daily/weekly/monthly/yearly report on all the places and press stories the company has appeared in. For many of the larger corporations, the PR director sometimes has two or three full-time people working on the clip books. This sometimes meant that somewhere hidden deep in the company office was a room that was full of ripped up newspapers, cut apart magazines and destroyed books. But today, there are many "press clipping services" that take care of the dirty work.... and believe me its dirty work. Just try rubbing your hands on newspaper for an hour.

With technology today, many indies have resources at their finger tips that accomplish many of the same tasks. Both Google.com and Yahoo News provide excellent news clipping services. That way, whenever GarageGames or the Torque Game Engine appear on the internet in some sort of news item, I get emailed with the link. While Google and Yahoo can take care of most of the main stream media, Technorati can take care of a large portion of the huge blogosphere. Technorati is currently tracking over 17 million sites and about 1.5 billion links. Just by searching the word "garagegames" (http://www.technorati.com/search/garagegames), I can now take a look at what the average Joe is saying about the company. Plus Technorati now gives you the ability to "Add to Watchlist" which will keep a constant watch over the important news items.

Now I do have to warn you, that many times you can get some strange links through the Google and Yahoo News Alerts. For example, One of my Google Alerts looks for "Marble Blast Gold". One of the big things a PR Director fears is that one day he/she comes into work and finds a disaster waiting that they will have to kick into overdrive and start working to fix the situation. Almost a year ago, I had one of those moments. Coming into work that morning, I checked my email and there it was, a link that said Marble Blast Gold had killed a little boy. This could have been even bigger than the "Hot Coffee" scandal. I clicked on the link, fearing the worst, and read the news item. "...Deep in the heart of India, a bomb exploded on a train traveling to Mumbai. The bomb had been hidden beneath the Marble tiles with Gold trim. The Blast killed a small boy..." Ok... so Google news isn't perfect, but it does save me lots of research time every day.

But, back to the old clipbooks. I thought I would leave you all with a really cool clipping I took from CPU Magazine (September 2005) issue. This quote is from the middle of the clipping, "...If you know the Unreal, TORQUE, or Source game engines, then you might be qualified to design complex real-time military sims..."

So pull up your chair, get involved in the GarageGames community, cause over then next few weeks, we've got some really cool stuff to tell you all about. Torque 1.4 is rockin and now it's even easier for new people who have never done any game programming before to dive into TGE.

Links:
Technorati - http://www.technorati.com (To set up a watchlist: 1.Create an account on Technorati 2. Type the search word that you want to keep track of into the search bar. 3. Then once the results appear, click on "Add to Watchlist" in the upper right.)
Google News Alerts - http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en (If you need a Gmail account, let me know)
Yahoo News Alerts - http://alerts.yahoo.com/

GarageGames and China

Benjamin Bradley — 2005-07-27T18:54:23+00:00

So what happens when you cross a 30 hour plane flight with an accused CIA spy with hundreds of half-naked dancing girls and a series of "maotai GANBEI's"? You get Benjamin's trip to China. That's right, this past week I traveled to Shanghai, China to take part in "ChinaJoy" as a speaker about Casual Games and also spoke at an invitational evening dinner cruise on the "Bund" about game development.

The skyline of Pu Dong - a new industrial - high-tech part of Shanghai.

It's always a bit crazy getting on a plane on early Tuesday morning and getting off the plane late Wednesday evening. Gotta love that lose of a day, but don't worry I gained it right back on the flight back. (I left Shaghai at 10:30AM Monday and arrived back in Eugene at 1:30PM THE SAME DAY... even though 19 hours had passed).

Anyway, back during GDC, I had started to develop a relationship with Zhan Ye, a man who publishes the only Game Developer magazine in China. And things started looking good to talk with many different universities in China about using Torque to teach game development and programming. So I headed off to China to try and throw one rock at three different birds.

1. ChinaJoy - The biggest game conference in China. Think of it as a cross between E3 and CES and then open it up to the public and you're starting to get the picture. Now I knew that I would stand being a foreigner with blond hair, but I wasn't expecting to be personally greeted by the mayor/provincial leader of Shanghai while just standing up against the wall. During ChinaJoy, I was able to meet with many different companies that are wanting to develop their own games and own their own IP, something indies at GG know all about but in China owning your own IP is a fairly new idea. One of the companies was 'the9" that wants to expand into the casual gaming market, by the way, they are the ones who do World-of-Warcraft in China. While at ChinaJoy, I also spoke on the Casual Games market at how during the next few years the market worth of casual games is going to go through the roof so that by 2008 it will be worth several billion dollars.

At ChinaJoy, there were many stages instead of booths and they all had MMO play-acting taking place. Tons of people gathered round to see their favorite MMO or Anime acted out

Haven't you ever wanted to dress up as your favorite warrior and stand for 10 hours a day for three days?

LineageII is still super popular. They had a LineageII / Jeopardy competition going on during ChinaJoy

Everquest II showcased some upcoming secret info in their hidden theater... I signed some sort of NDA, but I have no idea what it said... It was in Chinese. I probably ended up becoming the first foreign human to contractually marry some exotic elf or something.

Bubbles and half-naked dancing girls... ahhhh now the gaming conference is complete.

I personally enjoyed the Chinese Boy Band that came up after this group and covered nSync and the BackStreetBoys. Now that was funny. Not sure what it had to do with games.

2. I was also in China to speak at Brilliant Night, an invitational dinner cruise with industry leaders. GarageGames made a lot of great contacts with different groups. There's a lot I can't talk about, but lets just say Torque and GarageGames are seeing great opportunites open up in China.

3. The third reason I was in China was to speak to universities about Torque and educational opportunities. Not only did I get some time to sit down with the man who created the first game development degree in China but I also got to teach Torque 2D on Sunday to a game development club at a division of Shanghai University.

This was a picture of the university building where I was teaching

Other things I learned about China:

1. Many of the Chinese gamers still love Tribes and several nights we were toasting Tribes late into the night. GANBEI Tribes (I don't know how many times I had to say ganbei and then drink this crazy 75% proof firewater called maotai or something like that.)

2. Be very careful when walking through seldom traveled areas and encountering drunk cops, because they like to start shouting "CIA - SPY" at you.

3. Chinese gamers like dancing girls. (plus Pat wanted me to bring him back a date)

There you go Pat, I hope you're happy.

Next up.... IndieGamesCon... stay tuned for some cool updates about what's happening this year.