Blog for John Spivey at GarageGames.com

Multiverse.....and GOOGLE???

John Spivey — 2007-10-30T03:32:40+00:00

Here is the proof. When these guys come knocking on your door things happen.

Google and Multiverse teaming up?

Ummm yeah.......*blink* *blink* *rubs eyes* ..... yep thats what it says.

As soon as I saw the Multiverse model I thought "What a great idea". Lots disagreed. Suppose I need to buy stock in the Multiverse company.

I know. Not much of a blog entry but forums didnt seem the right place for this.

Independent Game Development Zone (still not quite there YET!)

John Spivey — 2007-10-27T00:55:18+00:00

Its been roughly a week or so since I made the announcement about Indiedevzone.com. Reviews have been mixed. Most people are loving the idea of having a new resource available to them for game assets. The largest bit of complaints I have heard so far have been in relation to the payout to contributers. I have even been told that I should make no money off other peoples work. Well I hardly want to discuss that all over again but I believe that I have come up with a nice model.

Development of www.indiedevzone.com has been slow going. Much, much slower than I had anticipated, (having to work full time on top kindly sucks as well) but things are looking up. In a effort to save more money on hosting expense I have managed to find a nice open source shopping cart and bulletin board. I have already received a few requests from folks to contribute assets. So things really are looking up.

You can view the site at THIS location. Keep in mind that the store is not open yet and there is not much to look at. Target date for opening day is mid November. Keep your eyes peeled for our opening day contest. By then there will be some content added and I should have all the shopping cart issues ironed out.

Thinking about the project I have realized that it may take quite some time to build up our coffers with content but I am dedicated to the project. Documentations and contracts are almost complete as well.

One nice feature that will be implemented will be the tutorials section. I plan on providing some tutorials for BSP modeling using 3D World Studio and Constructor. Sorry Quark guys but I have lost enough hair messing with that. Well anything is possible I suppose.

So by all means get signed up for the Message Board and throw out some ideas for what you might like to see.

Oh and another thing. Yeah the web site is simple. That was very much intended. I really wish to keep everything really basic and easy to use. Sometimes simple is better and I think this is one of those cases.

Well back to killing the buggies in the shopping cart. Take care and happy game making.

Indie Game Assets

John Spivey — 2007-10-17T15:45:52+00:00

After years (yes YEARS) of playing with Torque I have learned many things. My most recent revelation is that I am not a programmer. I am much much better at game art. This brings me to another mini-revelation. The Torque Community needs some kind of inexpensive way to obtain game assets for their projects. Art is my field, more specifically world building. There are many other forms of game assets that people need.

There are people out there that just like to write code that could not build a castle wall to save their life. There are modelers out there that could give a hoot about scripts. I still have not seen much in the lines of killer particles (AFX pack excluded of course) Especially the people who are just in this as a hobby, like me. If there are people out there like me, which I am sure there are, then they are fairly skilled in their area and have something to offer. I hope to get those people an outlet for their labor of love. Sure money is nice but imagine if someone released a game with your stuff in it. Yeah that would be great.

So what is the solution here? Well thats what I am writing this blog here for.

I am currently in the process of setting up a web site where people can submit game assets to be sold at VERY reasonable prices. I liken it to TurboSquid. However TurboSquid is really not set up for Indie's on a budget. There is so much stuff to be sold there at, what I consider to be, insane prices.

"...game assets for the working class."

I don't want to throw out the URL just yet because I don't want some wise guy snagging it up before I have secured everything I need.

The premise is quite simple. You have assets sitting on your computer that are really doing nothing. There are people in the community that would drool all over your stuff. Why not let them purchase the assets, make a little scratch, and everyone is happy? Now keep in mind that this is not intended to be a cash cow for yours truly. Also I would not expect you to be able to quit your day job on the earnings. If I can manage to keep the site alive with money made then the site stays alive. Anything extra will just be icing on the cake.

The pricing formula I wish to follow is this. If you make some form of asset, whatever that asset would be, you simply divide it by ten (10) and there is your price for sale. So if you spend 3 hours on a model and you feel that your time and effort is worth say $10 an hour then the model to you is worth $30.00. So when you submit the model you tell me that you feel the model is worth 30 bucks. If its agreeable then the site automatically assumes that ten people will buy the model. The model sells for $3.00. All sales would be split 50/50. Half for designer, half for the host site. The host site will absorb all transaction fees associated with the sales. Its a fairly standard rate.

Keeping prices low is entirely what the site is all about. This way developers don't have to plan too terribly much for purchases. I have put together some numbers on my end and so far I am not convinced that there is enough money to be made in keeping a site like this. BUT the wife gave the green light on start up funds so the ball is rolling. It sounds like a great way to get assets out there.

This is in no way associated with GG's, partners, or anything. Thats not to say that I am not interested in such things. Its just a disclaimer to let people know that this is a separate entity.

What I need from the community is a general nod of approval and any input that you all might have to offer. There will be more to come in the lines of particulars for the site once it is fully integrated, MB set up and things of that nature.

Let the comments/flames begin.