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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.

#81
01/20/2011 (8:31 am)
Awesome news guys and Welcome Back!



#82
01/20/2011 (8:34 am)
@ Dave (Wyand):

Quote:Plus it feels great that I can finally talk about what I've been doing these past couple of weeks. :)

Come on! I'm curious! :-)
#83
01/20/2011 (8:35 am)
Great to hear, but what a waste of $900 it was to have supported T3D from the beginning. We get nothing out of it while the price decreases so much.
#84
01/20/2011 (8:40 am)
ah... refreshing. Typed www.garagegames.com into my browser and it didn't change!

Welcome back, guys... and welcome back to the fantastic name and logo.

#85
01/20/2011 (8:44 am)
I'm very happy for you all! Best of luck with the (re)re-branding!

I hope to hear more about T2D soon; just glad it didn't get the chopping block...
#86
01/20/2011 (9:01 am)
Awesome news!
#87
01/20/2011 (9:02 am)
It is most excellent to see that a company with slightly unorthodox methodology can find ways to effectively excel in the modern tech environment. Thus, permit me to add my voice to the chorus of praise.
#88
01/20/2011 (9:03 am)
Truly wonderful news :)
#89
01/20/2011 (9:06 am)
Welcome back, GG! Where have you been for the past couple of years?!

The nice shirt you sent me is now current again :)
#90
01/20/2011 (9:10 am)
I'm so very, very happy! I'm excited for the future!
#91
01/20/2011 (9:13 am)
Wow, nice news indeed. And hey, Torque 3D is still in my products. Thank you guys. ^^
#92
01/20/2011 (9:16 am)
That is incredible news!! Looking forward to continue to use Torque as our game engine of choice:)
#93
01/20/2011 (9:17 am)
Super good news
and I come back now...GG...I miss GG....
#94
01/20/2011 (9:26 am)
Are you guys still keeping the studio licences for Torque 3D (FAQ) says otherwise? What if you are a growing company and you intend on buying the licences to assign them to your staff/contractors, surely you wouldn't want us to waste money and put them in their names for the staff to leave after their work is done? Or can we just buy them under one account and they can then be used by the PC that they are assigned to in the office?

I dont begrudge paying the full price for T3D when I did. Having a product that still in development and being supported is now more important to me. So money well spent. Just some clarification on the licences being assigned would be great so I can pick up some more at the end of the month.
#95
01/20/2011 (9:30 am)
Ok...well scratch that. Torque link doesn't work in my account...which leads for me to ask, what about us basic guys?

Well anyway, I posted the news up at IndieOtaku(hope you guys don't mind, I used the GG logo): clicky
#96
01/20/2011 (9:37 am)
YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

GREAT NEWS FOR ME I LOVE GG LOGO !!!

YEAHHHH
#97
01/20/2011 (9:44 am)
Phew! Good news! I just set up a VPS server for ThinkTanks today and was bumming about the master server being down.

So I guess we just wait for the DNS to update?
#98
01/20/2011 (9:53 am)
Glad to hear the great news! I'm looking forward to continuing with T3d.
At this rate we will be near 1000 posts by the end weekend.
#99
01/20/2011 (10:00 am)
@Andrea
You will need to purchase the $99 discounted engine for source. We will not be moving binary licenses to source licenses.

@Avneet
I am sorry that you feel that it was a waste of your money, but it could have been worse. The company could have dissolved and you would have to maintain complete and total support of your purchase yourself. This is an introductory offer to those who have been longing to use the full source engine and not intended to be a slap in the face to existing licensees at all. In fact the vast majority of them, including those who have purchased several $1000 licenses for their companies, have been more than happy with the announcement.

@Glen
We are working out some issues with the DNS and hosting backend changes. Eric alluded to them in the blog and we will be working through them to stabilize everything. Sorry for the inconvenience.
#100
01/20/2011 (10:19 am)
@David - as you've answered the questions above, do you have an answer to #94 ?

By the way - this is post 100, on the blogs page it reads 99 posts, and also at the very top the latest comment doesn't reflect the same number :)