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Welcome Back GarageGames!

by Eric Preisz · 01/20/2011 (4:27 am) · 553 comments






You've been patiently waiting and the time has come. GarageGames is back! We've changed our name back to GarageGames and we are dropping the prices on all products to $99.00 to celebrate our new direction and return to our indie roots. It's been a storied ten years for the GarageGames name and we are looking forward to ushering in the next decade.

The return of GarageGames is much more than a $99 price point. It's a commitment to the community who grew with us over the years. It's a return to the values that brought people together to make great games without the burden of unbearable pricing or royalties. Our community is a diverse group of people who are willing and able to help each other grow as game developers and we can't wait to take that community to the next level. So before I dive into details, let's put some stakes in the ground:

We are committed to delivering you a full source solution without royalties at a price that indies can afford,

We are committed to a better out of the box experience: more intuitive tools focused on design, better tutorials and documentation, and web-site updates that support our most valuable feature…our community,

We are committed to bringing in more talent that can help us execute reliable processes, provide better quality, and set higher standards that exceed your expectation ( btw…we are hiring ).

You will find real evidence of our commitments scattered through this site that we updated late last night. The most obvious is the $99.00 price tag. We believe that this price makes the Torque product line available to everyone with a serious itch to make a game without opening the flood gates for free users who may not be as committed to the same goals as paid developers who rely on our support in the forums. You will notice that we are sun-setting TorqueX and providing refunds to those who pre-ordered iTorque 3D. We know that what we need more than anything is a more focused roadmap and these choices are a difficult, but necessary, step in that direction. You can find more product updates on this blog.

You may be wondering who the new owners are. First off, they are modest, so they asked that I not make them the focus of this blog. I'm guessing; however, that you do want to know that we are in good hands. Trust me...we are. Over the past couple of weeks I talked with dozens of interested parties but none of their values aligned as closely as they do with Graham Software Development. I can't thank them enough for suggesting and supporting the low price-point and the resurgence of the GarageGames brand. These guys are just like us; they are indie developers with the drive and desire to build something that changes the way people make games.

There's a lot for us to do. Setting and achieving a new, higher standard for game development tools won't happen overnight. On top of that challenge, we are switching over to new services ( web hosting, payment processing, etc. ) and moving into a new building (we are staying in Vegas, just moving to a bigger location ). We are also hiring and will be adding new people to the team ( did I mention that we are hiring? ). So you may see a few fresh company faces in the forums. Because of these moving pieces, you may notice the occasional web-site glitch or other disruption. So thanks, in advance, for your patience as we make these changes.

In closing, I can’t thank you enough for sticking with us during this time. The team stayed together through the transition and I can't help but think that your enthusiasm and kind words played a big role in making that happen. We look forward to meeting our new goals so that we can continue to deliver on the promise of bringing royalty free, full-source, game engines to everyone!

So let’s hear it in the comments. It's time to make some noise for GarageGames!

~Eric Preisz
CEO, GarageGames, LLC.

About the author

Manager, Programmer, Author, Professor, Small Business Owner, and Marketer.

#441
01/25/2011 (10:20 am)
@Morrie
PhysX is required for the Physics demo and runs in software mode if the hardware is not enabled. Make sure your video drivers and DirectX are up to date. If you're still having problems post in the T3D forums and myself or someone else will be able to help you.
#442
01/25/2011 (10:23 am)
Bah, double post.
#443
01/25/2011 (10:25 am)
@Morrie - physx is just the physics API used in some of the demos. They'll work (on the CPU) regardless of graphics card, but can potentially be much faster with certain nvidia cards.
#444
01/25/2011 (10:42 am)
@ Jason Parker. Yeah, I will have to look into the history of Studio licenses. I'll ask Eric (or some of the guys that have been around at GarageGames for even longer) to fill me in.
#445
01/25/2011 (11:05 am)
I think the ability to keep the license with the company used to be called "commercial licensing" and that there was no web interface for managing it until the "studio licensing" came out.
#446
01/25/2011 (11:54 am)
Bob may have it right. I first started around here when TGEA was just about, but not quite, ready, IIRC. At least, that's when I first started inquiring about licensing.
#447
01/25/2011 (11:56 am)
Thank you. You saved me. I was about to jump ship but im back on board. Full steam ahead.
#448
01/25/2011 (1:01 pm)
Welcome Back GG, I was worried you were gone forever. Still the best looking indie game engine. :)
#449
01/25/2011 (2:33 pm)
Ditto ^
#450
01/25/2011 (2:40 pm)
Actually, studio licences per product were more expensive than the product (a $25 surcharge per product i believe).

Am I the only one who sees gift purchasing as pointless, send money by paypal or stand over them while they buy it with your details.

I think to consider gift purchases in the same paragraph as dismissing the studio option to me seems very much like IAC strategy than GG strategy.

Sure the $99 price point is attractive to most, but then you shift the onus onto us to prove that people we work with are licensed, I'm sure that's not going to happen, in the same way I don't ask my artists if they own 3d max, I don't care if they own 3d max, I pay for art, I don't pay to question their integrity or the licensing information.

I cant say for certain how many more people are like me or in a similar boat so to speak, but i can say with certainty that GG is more likely to make some more money off me with some form of continuation of the studio system, heck, I've said it elsewhere but I'll say it here, at this point I'm willing to say I'd buy non source binary seats at $50 a pop
#451
01/25/2011 (2:49 pm)
Several years ago I bought my friend a license for DarkBASIC for Christmas. He got busy and never used it for anything, I'm not sure he still remembers he even has a license.

While Torque is considerably less expensive (for now), I'd still hate to buy it for someone only to have it go to waste. If I bought it for a friend or a part of my development team and it turned out they couldn't or wouldn't use it, I'd like to be able to transfer it to someone else.

Right now my teenage nephew has wavering interest in indie game development. I'd like to get a license for him. If I knew I could transfer it to someone else, even if it was one of these strangers in the forum who just don't have the $99 right now, I'd feel more confident about buying it.
#452
01/25/2011 (2:51 pm)
Welcome back guys!
#453
01/25/2011 (4:16 pm)
@ Scott Burns

Thanks for answering my question.. now all i have to do is find some resources to cover cost.. funny when it was 1000... i had money to spend now that it is at a great price.. I'm on a tighter budget.. I might have to put my son on a baby diet.. (kidding)...

Again Thanks for the help

Kou
#454
01/25/2011 (4:46 pm)
Great news to hear you guys are back with what sounds like the original ethos you had. Putting an emphasize on the Garage part of garagegames. I like the pricepoint. A grand was way out of my disposable income reach.

All the best
Hope its a great year GG gang
#455
01/25/2011 (4:46 pm)
@Bloodknight: Sending money via PayPal costs money. You lose a percentage. The calculations give me a headache. Standing over people remotely isn't an option :)

Studio licenses are still a good idea, no matter what the cost of the engine actually is. And an even cheaper binary license might be a good idea, but it'll have to be sorted when/if the current prices go up a bit.

The one-transfer-per-month system with studio licenses should be enough to avoid abuse.

@Vangkou: Is your son old enough to work? ;)
#456
01/25/2011 (6:15 pm)
@ Scott Burns

When you say, "up to date" with DirectX, which version are you referring to? DX9.0c? DX10? DX11?

Thanks.
SC
#457
01/25/2011 (7:23 pm)
My two cents on Paypal vs. Gifting on license.

When you send em the money thru paypal.. it is approx 4 bucks they lose to withdraw the money... and that assumes they know how to with draw money from paypal.

Gifting and having GG deal with it so I know it is taken care of and nothing ccan go wrong makes me feel better.

I'd hate to send someone the money to get T3D, and find out they had to buy a new tire becasue they lost one the week I sent them the money. By the same token, with GG option I know they got the license. Not pizza that week.

Cliff

Side note: this is not directed at anyone person. Not the artist I paypaled the money to to get his license, or at anyone I am thinking of getting a license for.
#458
01/25/2011 (7:23 pm)
@Spencer
When I say "up to date" I mean running the latest version of whichever DirectX you're running whether it be 9, 10, or 11.

It's a common misconception for people to think they are up to date for, say, DX9 because their system says they're running 9.0c. As Microsoft usually updates the DX SDK about 2 - 3 times a year the best thing to do is to just run the web installer for DX to see if it updates anything.
#459
01/25/2011 (7:23 pm)
@ Bloodknight. didn't meant to come off as though I was "dismissing the studio option" Meant to let people know we are considering it (as well as the gift option). But didn't want to oversell that and get people's hopes up either - only to not deliver at some point in the future.
#460
01/25/2011 (8:48 pm)
So good to see Garage Games is back