Game Development Community

dev|Pro Game Development Curriculum

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.

#161
01/20/2011 (1:54 pm)
Wow, I'm so excited about this announcement.

Having purchased the full version iTorque2D in the past year I have no regrets and I'm really looking forward to a stronger community.

I just want to point out how excited I am that Melv May is still on the team and I'm really looking forward to the results of his work.

PS What is the appropriate length of time for us to wait before harping on about wanting a T2D development blog update ;-)
#162
01/20/2011 (2:04 pm)
I'd like to apologize for my earlier post. I'm not normally given to posting rants. Everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion.

I'm very happy to see that Garage Games is back in action and that they are streamlining their focus. It is sad to lose the products that they are giving up, but perhaps the tighter focus will allow them to make an attempt at those again after they gain some ground with their major products. I'm sure that the communities that gathered around those products would love to see them come back some day.
#163
01/20/2011 (2:11 pm)
Welcome back everyone, wow waited just long enough, I was about to finally upgrade to T3D in a week or two, what timing!

Sad to see TorqueX go, hope Pino's work doesn't go down the drain. Hope to see some of those kickass Starter Kits finally come down the pipe now that everything is back in order. Congrats again!
#164
01/20/2011 (2:13 pm)
Well, no one likes to pay more money than another person gets the same thing for, that is just human nature. I am not thrilled that I spent $500 on my copy, but that is water under the bridge. I do understand that it is not like the new owners saw any of the cash I paid to Instant Action.

What concerns me more is the future of T3D.

While I do not and never wanted to pay more than $99, I am forced to wonder...will the new low price point that exists now be enough so that Graham software can make money? Will it be enough so that the large team of developers who put T3D where it is today can continue past 1.1 final and on to 2.0? Will 2.0 be able to be sold for $99?

Whatever bad things can be blamed on Instant Action, it does appear to me that a huge amount of development was put into T3D. That costs money. Will $99 be able to support continued development so that Torque can be a great engine, or it will it revert to the "old days"?

Without starting any arguments, in my opinion, there was one thing you could always depend on in the old days of torque, unquestionably. No matter what bug you complained about, there was always an implied, if not stated, policy of "hey, what do you expect for $99? We are just a few guys here, and after all you have the source code, so you can fix it yourself."

But, that's water under the bridge.

I would really be sad if the current business model does not allow Torque to continue with the most excellent bug reporting and tracking it has ever had, with the most rapid development pace it has ever had, with the best interface it has ever had, etc etc.

And, I wonder, how are people going to justify add ons that cost $200 and $500 now? I think that irked me more than the $1000 price tag of T3D itself. Just idle curiosity on my part.
#165
01/20/2011 (2:18 pm)
As I've noted about add-ons in the past here and elsewhere in discussions, if it saves you development money to purchase assets (production quality or prototyping) or add-on's that you would otherwise have to spend weeks developing yourself or hiring a contractor to spends weeks on, it is usually worth the price.
#166
01/20/2011 (2:31 pm)

IRC Hour Tomorrow!


It's been a while since we had an official IRC Hour. Considering this news and all the other details, I'm officially kicking off the 2011 season of GarageGames IRC Hour. Details are in the link I posted above. Join us tomorrow at 3:00pm (PST) to talk to GG employees live and let us know what you think!
#167
01/20/2011 (2:37 pm)
Best of Luck to GG!
$99 rubs me a bit funny but I'll live.

//edit: IRC HOUR, nais.
#168
01/20/2011 (2:43 pm)
I read the EULA, you can make non-games now? That really opens up a plethora of new markets, just about anything is possible now!
www.orioncodeworks.com/images/image3.gif
#169
01/20/2011 (2:45 pm)
:) Great news! This is going to be a good year. At 99 bucks I may even want to try out T3D. Thanks for that and welcome back!

For those upset about the drop in price.. personally I'm not mad if I paid more for TGB Pro than people will for it now. I see it like this, I gained experience with the engine and helped financially support the development of it. Nothing to be upset about.
#170
01/20/2011 (2:49 pm)
Wow just saw the new EULA and I am very excited about the non-games section. I have been sitting on so many exciting educational games/tools that I look forward to working on.

Also not sure if this was answered earlier but are non source based licenses being upgraded to include source code?
#171
01/20/2011 (2:55 pm)
@William
The binary licenses will not be upgraded.
#172
01/20/2011 (3:04 pm)
As someone who paid full price for the whole shebang, I suggest Binary owners see this like a sale to get the full source!
#173
01/20/2011 (3:06 pm)
@David
So to get the source we just repurchase it? I just want to be sure I do the right thing to get the sources. I have a few different engines here and want to get the most out of them.
#174
01/20/2011 (3:11 pm)
I'm so glad that GG is back, and I agree that the $100 price tag will help build the community.

I do wish I were $900 richer now, and anyone who says they're happy to pay 1000% the price for the same product is just lying.

A little civility would be appreciated as well, knowing we wasted our money isn't as insulting as the "shut up and deal with it" response.

Customer loyalty should be rewarded. How about some free updates in the future? Maybe some free licenses for the friends and coworkers I've been trying to get to use Torque?
#175
01/20/2011 (3:17 pm)
@Shaolin Dave - Good will from GG is returning, don't worry.
#176
01/20/2011 (3:42 pm)
@Shaolin Dave Easy there Grasshopper, the high price we paid was due to Torque being in the death grip of IAC, whose only concern was to extract as much money as they could out of their investment. Those who have their heart in what Torque and Garage Games are all about are not lying when they say they're not upset about the price change, after all, it's only temporary. Meditate on this Grasshopper.
#177
01/20/2011 (4:02 pm)
I'm extremely happy.

GarageGames, was always what I thought of as Torque.

$99 is a great price point and makes T3D extremely competitive. Also will bring more people here and thus more community content.

I would love to see a system much like the bounties used to get the community to develop needed work and to integrate that in to the engine.

I'm sure some aren't happy that Torque X and i3D etc are no longer. But I'm happy, because I always felt these where hurting the main products, T3D and T2D.

Good luck and welcome back GG!
#178
01/20/2011 (4:04 pm)
Sorry Dave - the "Shut up and deal with it" was me.... My point (put very undiplomatically) was that things change so you can roll with it or not. Crying won't put the milk back in the carton. I am not "happy" that I paid more for the same product - I accept it and move forward. Once I bought 4 gigs of ECC RAM for $3000, and a month later the same exact memory cost $600. I was annoyed, but I didn't call the retailer and snivel, or tell the world that I'd never buy from that retailer again. I accepted it and moved forward.

I see this as an opportunity to clear the EULA "the Software" questions - my team mates can now pay for the engine and utilize their licenses to assist in building our game worry-free without having to play the "free non-game distribution of a tool build to assist in development" BS.

And I also see this as an opportunity to pick up T2D at a very affordable price!

I've been hanging around here (quietly for the most part) for seven years and even at their worst I think the Torque team has been pretty damned good. The engine is great - look at Mass Effect 2 or Fallout 3 or Dragon Age Origins and you'll see something that someone else paid through the nose to build that you could replicate for a fraction of the cost with Torque 3D - even at the $1000 price tag. They're all great products and the only limiting factor to what you can do with them is us as the licensees. It is up to us to create the art and make the core changes to code that make the engine we bought into the game we want.
#179
01/20/2011 (4:05 pm)
@Shaolin Dave - I hope no one has told you to shut up. I'll admit I wish I could get whatever the difference was in what I paid. But I also fully believe that this new price does not lower the value of what I paid for at all, but will actually increase the value.

With a larger community, there will be more questions asked and answered and more eager developers to encourage us with their enthusiasm.

So ultimately the negative that I can safely draw from this is that the feeling that someone got what you have for much less than you paid for it can be frustrating. But I would encourage you to understand that this takes nothing away from you, it just gives more to someone else, which shouldn't affect you all that much.

And lastly, I hope this doesn't force you out of the community.
#180
01/20/2011 (4:10 pm)
@ Micheal

Okay, I guess I should trust your word. You haven't personally let me down yet.

I'd like you to consider this, though. Last year a HL2 mod was released called "Nightmare House 2", I was one of 9 people on the development team and the only one who had a Torque license. I urged the main creators to switch to Torque but they couldn't afford the $1000 price tag, even though only 3-4 people would need it.
Now that NH2 was released as a critically acclaimed HL2 mod (actually it won 2nd place for Mod of the Year, making it the most popular single-player mod of 2010), it seems a waste that none of that publicity went to Torque because instead of having $300-$400 of licenses we had a single $1000 that didn't go to use.
For our next project, we'd probably use Torque if we still had those figures, but instead the price would be $1200-1300 because I already paid the original $1000.
The project I'm currently helping with, Underhell, will probably remain with HL2/SMOD because of those prices.


@ Don

I too think IAC was far too greedy, T3D never should have been $1000. The new $100 price point is great, I support it 100%. With lesser tools like Multimedia Fusion Dev going for over $300, it's definitely a price that can't be beat. However, while keeping the $1000 would have been the worse thing GG could do, dropping the price to $100 and telling everyone who paid the high price "oh well" comes in a close second.