Has garage games abondoned the indie?

#41 People making barely above minimum wage still somehow afford to buy new cars or even decent used cars. It is just a matter of priority. The artist version will cost a TGEA owner $205 it looks like after the discounts if everything holds up like Brett is saying. Then if you need source code access in the future to complete your game it will be another $500. If you don't own any Torque engines $500 now and $500 later. Not a bad deal. If you are in a 1st world country you can afford this if you want it enough. For those perhaps living in a 3rd world country, well there are other options.

#42 oh yeah... it's crap... you can trust me on this one stadi...


you say this at the end of your post...

"you are just cheap buddy, your definition of indie is way off"

but in the middle of your post you state...

"There are also plans for a lower priced version of Torque 3D, so the indie has not been abandoned "

which sounds to me like, in those precious few lines, you've succeeded in contradicting yourself more than making any sort of a rational point...

you also say something about "my idea of indie", when i haven't even said anything as to indicate what my "idea of indie" might be...


and, as far as me being cheap... well, how do you know that the money i have in just one money market account couldn't license several copies of you, along with all your houses, and your all your cars... and still have enough change left over to license a copy of the wife and kids to boot...

so lets keep it above getting on about personalities and such... you have no idea what my financials are... what i might consider cheap, might take you two or three years to make...

this aint about me... it aint about my "ideas of indie" (as you put it)... and it certainly aint about how cheap i can be, or how cheap anyone else can be...

what it IS about, is something that you obviously failed to grasp...

--Mike

#43 It is a bit pricey. And with today's economy I just don't agree with it. Not to mention the additional funding that goes towards actual indie projects and a PC that can actually run Torque 3D at it's full potential. We're talking thousands of dollars.

I would just wait for a price drop, I think it's inevitable. Just a matter of time.

#44 I can understand that the current version of the game engine is worth $1000 and that it's fair to charge for a product what the product is actually worth. Here's the thing though: Why not allow people to buy older versions for what they used to cost? That way people who can afford to pay for the new features would still pay $1000, and the indies who can't would still pay garage games $100 (as opposed to not using the engine, in which case garage games gets $0 from people who can't afford 1000). $100 is more then $0. I seriously doubt that people who CAN afford a better product for $1000 will be greedy and use $100 one because they are sure to get a lot more profit with the new features $1000 offers.
There is also a matter of brand loyalty to consider. Lets say an indie developer who can't afford $1000 product, buys an older version for $100. He/she learns the engine. Later if his/her situation improves to a point where he/she is able to pay a lot more for a more powerful game engine, they'll be more likely to buy the $1000 Torque game engine vs. some other game engine from a competitor because they already know the product and the company somewhat.
However, if an indie starts out on a different game engine, the same thing may happen but with a different product. So even if the Torque engine is better then the competitor, the developer may choose the competitor because he/she has established brand loyalty with that company and knows the product better.

Anyways, that's just my thoughts about it. I'm sure folks at garage games know a lot more about marketing then I do.

For all those folks like me who can't afford to shell out $1000 check out these two free game engines:

jMonkey Engine (java): http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/
Crystal Space (C++): http://www.crystalspace3d.org/

#45 @Creature
You really should read through links that are provided to you. You might want to read that link I gave you in your original thread again.

#46 Scott, I did read through it. A lot of people (read: most) may not post a question or dig through old to pics and then find out that you can still buy the old version. They'll just look around the main site quickly, not find it in the store. Assume that you can't buy it because of this, leave and go w/ an alternative. That's still $0 vs. $100 if they did find it in the store.
If perspective customers can't quickly and easily find something on a website, they leave and that's revenue lost.