Thursday, October 29, 2009
GarageGames Exits, Unity Enters?
Jeff Tunnell, one of the founders of GarageGames, writes a few words about the passing of the "GarageGames" name into history, and some of the magic of the company's first years.
Jeff Tunnell: GarageGames Name Joins Torque Game Engine In Retirement
An excerpt:
"We got paid back in so many ways though. Like our first booth at GDC, a wooden concoction I had a friend make for us. Our little 10 X 10 booth was the busiest per square foot of any booth at the conference, with people lined up 10 deep just to get in to talk to us. Or like seeing employees at big companies like EA walk by and thrust their clenched fist in the air and shout, 'GarageGames!' with us knowing that they were using Torque in their off hours trying to escape the Man."
He does note that while he can't see the name of the company retired without feeling "tugs on (his) heart strings," he completely understands their move and can't disagree with the "Torque Technologies" crew in their decision to rebrand the company.
In my opinion, the company-formerly-known-as-GarageGames is now adapting to a world Jeff Tunnell and the other founders helped build. The line between "indie" and "mainstream" is becoming increasingly blurred, and the barrier to entry for game developers has been almost entirely obliterated. Now, instead of "haves" (supported by mainstream publishers) and "have nots", we have an entire spectrum of game development studios. This now includes a professional, commercial "indie" tier that was only in its infancy ten years ago.
But now that Torque is focusing on this growing niche and in some many ways leaving the "entry level" game developers behind, another company is jumping in... with a vengeance. The Unity game engine has grown in popularity among indies, particularly due to its iPhone support, browser-based-app support, low price tag, and popular titles from Flashbang Studios like Off-Road Velociraptor Safari*.
But now they've announced that the "indie" license option has a new price:
Free.
In an interview at GamaSutra, Unity CEO David Helgason explained, "The thinking was that Unity Indie isn't generating a significant portion of our revenue, and we've always had this vision of democratizing our tools. We have over 13,000 customers using our product, so we figured, let's take Indie and just give it to everyone. Whether that becomes a cash flow positive or a cash flow negative -- and some people will upgrade -- is not really important. What's important is to get this in the hands of as many people as possible."
Now, I don't know that part of the business. It seems to be the similar strategy GarageGames used to pursue with the dirt-cheap $100 Torque Game Engine (and one currently employed on a wider level with Microsoft and their "express" edition of their compilers). A strategy they have now abandoned to focus principally on the "pro-sumer" audience. Is Unity jumping into a fallow niche with a great deal of potential, or has GarageGames (soon to be Torque Technologies) learned hard lessons that the Unity team is about to discover?
From a business perspective, I don't know what to expect. They know their business way better than I do. But while there are some license restrictions that may give indies pause (and no source code), the free indie option for Unity can't be anything but good news for indie and hobbyist game developers. It may not be the be-all, end-all - and no game engine is or will be - but there's a lot that can be done with it.
So get to work... and have fun!
Unity 3D Game Engine
* If you haven't played it, DO SO! It's a blast. Their other games are pretty cool too, but that one remains my favorite.
Labels: Biz, game development
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:56 AM (Permalink)
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It's definitely a constantly changing industry and I think both us and Unity are always trying to not stagnate with it, which is why we are always moving towards a direction and adapting as needed.
I just wanted to point out that Torque has always been the strongest brand behind what we've done rather than GG. Many times when talking at a conference with people you mention GG and they don't recognize you, but you mention the Torque engine and they instantly know who you are, so we're sticking with our Torque brand.
"GarageGames Exists" almost sounds forboding and in all honesty it's not, we're doing better than ever and we care just as much about the entry level user as we always have. For example right now TGB is still very affordable and honestly a better entry level point than 3D technology anyways. With Torque 3D we have a free object limited/watermarked/no source version out that's been out since Torque 3D 1.0. So there are entry level options and we aren't abandoning that, just trying to adapt and keep growing as we have been :)
- Matt Langely
Lead Tool Development Engineer
TorquePowered.com
I just wanted to point out that Torque has always been the strongest brand behind what we've done rather than GG. Many times when talking at a conference with people you mention GG and they don't recognize you, but you mention the Torque engine and they instantly know who you are, so we're sticking with our Torque brand.
"GarageGames Exists" almost sounds forboding and in all honesty it's not, we're doing better than ever and we care just as much about the entry level user as we always have. For example right now TGB is still very affordable and honestly a better entry level point than 3D technology anyways. With Torque 3D we have a free object limited/watermarked/no source version out that's been out since Torque 3D 1.0. So there are entry level options and we aren't abandoning that, just trying to adapt and keep growing as we have been :)
- Matt Langely
Lead Tool Development Engineer
TorquePowered.com
I still think my favorite part of Unity is the learning curve is very smooth, and it's very easy to get into, and it doesn't have the okay should this be a scripting or source change issues that I had with Torque, I might even be able to finish a game with it :p
I like Unity, I have demoed it twice and have been trying to justify buying it for quite some time now, but things have been tight. Now I have it, and will probably buy the iPhone add on in a year or so to take on a gaming project me and my wife designed.
While I am curious about python(boo) I am excited about being able to use java(C#) for game development since that is the language I am most fluent in.
While I am curious about python(boo) I am excited about being able to use java(C#) for game development since that is the language I am most fluent in.
Matt - Thanks for the clarification, and thanks for coming by.
I don't disagree with you on the name change. GarageGames carries a high nostalgia factor, and it's sad to hear the name is being retired, but the rationale is reasonable.
As far as TGB or entry-level pricing is concerned - your wording is "right now," and that's kind of colors the expectations. We don't know what to expect with TGB's replacement, and I know a lot of us expect a similar price-hike for Torque 2D as was saw with the 3D technology.
I can't say I've done any sort of scientific poll of the community, and maybe we're all sitting in an echo chamber, but there does seem to be a prevailing feeling that Torque is pulling up its stakes in the entry-level arena in pursuit of the mid-tier or "pro-sumer" market. It could become an "aspirational" technology for entry-level developers to "graduate to" once their sales justify it.
But for now - it's just not even being considered by many students / hobbyists / beginners / wannabes that I've spoken to. At the last couple of Utah Indie nights, people were talking about Flash, Game Maker, Unity, RPG Maker, XNA. Not Torque. That was quite a change from about three years ago.
I guess you can take that data point for whatever it's worth. I think all it would really take is for a couple of high-profile, successful T3D games to grab some of that attention back.
I don't disagree with you on the name change. GarageGames carries a high nostalgia factor, and it's sad to hear the name is being retired, but the rationale is reasonable.
As far as TGB or entry-level pricing is concerned - your wording is "right now," and that's kind of colors the expectations. We don't know what to expect with TGB's replacement, and I know a lot of us expect a similar price-hike for Torque 2D as was saw with the 3D technology.
I can't say I've done any sort of scientific poll of the community, and maybe we're all sitting in an echo chamber, but there does seem to be a prevailing feeling that Torque is pulling up its stakes in the entry-level arena in pursuit of the mid-tier or "pro-sumer" market. It could become an "aspirational" technology for entry-level developers to "graduate to" once their sales justify it.
But for now - it's just not even being considered by many students / hobbyists / beginners / wannabes that I've spoken to. At the last couple of Utah Indie nights, people were talking about Flash, Game Maker, Unity, RPG Maker, XNA. Not Torque. That was quite a change from about three years ago.
I guess you can take that data point for whatever it's worth. I think all it would really take is for a couple of high-profile, successful T3D games to grab some of that attention back.
Coyote Said: I can't say I've done any sort of scientific poll of the community, and maybe we're all sitting in an echo chamber, but there does seem to be a prevailing feeling that Torque is pulling up its stakes in the entry-level arena in pursuit of the mid-tier or "pro-sumer" market.
I completely agree, and I agree that T2D is most likely going to be expensive. It's a shame as T2D is pretty much the only engine of its class that supports 2D game development on this level.
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I completely agree, and I agree that T2D is most likely going to be expensive. It's a shame as T2D is pretty much the only engine of its class that supports 2D game development on this level.
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