GarageGames: Information from Answers.com

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"Garage Games" redirects here. For InstantAction game platform, see InstantAction.

GarageGames

Type	Video game developer, Video game publisher
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Eugene, Oregon, USA
Key people	Josh Williams (CEO & CTO) Alex Swanson (VP GG Studios) Brett Seyler (VP Bizdev) Andy Yang (GM InstantAction) Randy Dersham Jeff Tunnell (founder) Rick Overman (founder) Mark Frohnmayer (founder) Tim Gift (founder)
Industry	Interactive entertainment
Products	Video games, Web portals, Game engines, Game publishing
Employees	90
Website	http://www.garagegames.com/

GarageGames is located in Eugene, Oregon and on the web at GarageGames.com. As the makers of Torque game development technology, they have provided professional level cross-platform technology and tools since 2000. The Torque Game Engine was the original technology behind the Tribes series of games, and has been used since to develop countless games on Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii, including GarageGames' own Marble Blast Ultra which is a best-selling hit on Xbox Live Arcade.^[1]

History

In 2007, the company received a majority investment by Barry Diller and Interactive Corporation (NASD: IAC).^[2] GarageGames was founded by four industry veterans: Jeff Tunnell, Tim Gift, Rick Overman, and Mark Frohnmayer. The founders literally worked in their garage on severance checks and released Torque Game Engine in August 2001. The name GarageGames is intentionally similar to the term "garage band", and is meant to evoke a similar concept in game development. The stated goal of GarageGames is to offer licensing of game engines and publishing to virtually anyone, in contrast to leaving would-be game makers at the mercy of large publishers driven by sales in the retail channel. To that end, in 2007, GarageGames also announced the development of a new game platform called InstantAction at InstantAction.com.^[3]

On July 15, 2009, it was announced that Louis Castle, notable for his Command & Conquer series, would become the new CEO of GarageGames.^[4]

Game development technology

Licensing

GarageGames originally offered the Torque Game Engine for sale in 2000. Eschewing industry standards for game engine licensing, they offered the technology under a per-seat "Indie" license for a much more affordable price than available alternatives.^[5] The Indie licensing model (available to individuals and companies with less than $250,000 in annual revenues) and the affordable price endure today. GarageGames also offers affordable "Commercial" licensing options to companies with more than $250,000 in annual revenues. Estimates based on the size of the GarageGames community (100,000+) put the number of Torque licensees in the 50,000 range.

Products

Torque Game Builder
Torque Game Engine
Torque Game Engine Advanced
Torque X
Torque for Wii
Torque 360
Torque Networking Library (open source)

GarageGames.com also sells more than 100 3rd party game development products.

Release timeline

Torque Game Engine

1.0	08/09/01
1.1	10/17/01
1.1.1	01/21/02
1.1.2	07/25/02
1.2	09/24/03
1.2.1	02/19/04
1.3	09/17/04
1.4	11/23/05
1.4.2	01/25/06
1.5	10/24/06
1.5.1	04/05/07
1.5.2	05/15/07

Torque Game Engine Advanced

1.0	02/15/07
1.0.1	04/02/07
1.0.2	08/10/07
1.0.3	08/31/07
1.7.0	04/04/08
1.7.1	13/06/08

Torque Game Builder

1.0	02/25/05
1.0.2	04/20/05
1.1	06/20/06
1.1.1	08/09/06
1.1.2	09/28/06
1.1.3	11/29/06
1.5	07/10/07
1.5.1	07/14/07
1.6	12/16/07
1.7	01/30/08
1.7.1	02/01/08
1.7.2	02/08/08
1.7.3	05/14/08
1.7.4	08/07/08

Torque X

1.0	07/05/07
2.0	03/13/08

Torque for Wii

1.0	07/16/07
1.5	02/14/08

Torque 360

1.0	12/01/06
1.5	03/16/08

iTGE for iPhone

BETA -.-	09/02/2008
Beta 2	02/02/2009

iTGB for iPhone

BETA -.-	08/27/2008
1.0	09/30/2008
1.0.1	10/13/2008
1.1	12/22/2008
1.2	05/08/2009

Applications

Torque is primarily a game development technology. Various versions of the engine have been used to develop more than 200 published games.^[6]. It has been licensed by Electronic Arts, NC Soft, Sony, Disney, Vivendi Universal, Hasbro, and many other game teams and publishers and its officially supported middleware for Microsoft and Nintendo. Minions of Mirth and Dreamlords are successful Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) implementations. Games like Think Tanks, Marble Blast Ultra, Screwjumper and others are more core, or action-oriented.

Torque is also a popular solution for non-game applications like Serious Games and virtual worlds. It's been licensed by NASA, L3, Lockheed Martin and it has been used successfully for dozens of virtual worlds applications like Doppleganger's vSide (formerly the Music Lounge) and by IBM for internal and external training simulations.^[7] Torque is currently used for education in more than 200 schools and universities worldwide.^[8]

Future

At the annual Indie Games Con in 2007, GarageGames announced a new component-based merge of their game engine technology slated for a 2008 release.^[9] GarageGames' online platform InstantAction.com makes use of a browser plugin technology that allows any arbitrary graphics application to run inside the browser. It has been rumored that this plugin technology may be integrated with Torque and made available to Torque owners in the future allowing game publishing on demand.

Game development

Of the following, Marble Blast Online, Think Tanks, Z.A.P., Fallen Empire: Legions, and Rokkitball are currently available at InstantAction.com.

Marble Blast Series

Originally released in 2002, the cross-platform game Marble Blast was created with Torque Game Engine and has been published on Shockwave.com, Yahoo Games and Real Arcade. Marble Blast Gold is available on GarageGames' website and Marble Blast Ultra is currently an Arcade Hit title on Xbox LIVE Arcade.^[1] The newer Marble Blast Online is available at InstantAction.

Think Tanks

GarageGames acquired Bravetree Studios, the original developers of the Think Tanks series of games in 2005.^[10] Think Tanks was featured on Xbox LIVE Arcade and currently sells on GarageGames' website. The newest version is available at InstantAction.

Z.A.P.

Released in March 2008, Z.A.P., also known as Zero All Productivity, was developed in collaboration between GarageGames and Bad Habit Software, a newly formed game studio composed of games industry veterans who have worked on console and PC titles including Syphon Filter, Warhawk, Ratchet & Clank, and Tribes. In Z.A.P. each player pilots a spaceship through a top-down maze while trying to achieve certain objectives, usually some combination of shooting down other players and securing flags. Modes include Capture the Flag, Hunters, Zone Control, Retrieve, and Z.A.P. Match.

Fallen Empire: Legions

Legions is GarageGames' spiritual successor to the popular Tribes series of games originally developed by Dynamix. The game was put into open beta in 2008 on InstantAction. The game is now out of beta and fully available for play.

Rokkitball

Rokkitball is a futuristic team-based game that's best described as basketball with rocket launchers and magno-beams. Launched on InstantAction.com in April 2008 with support for up to eight players, Rokkitball puts players on an ultramodern playfield with multiple goals. The tactics reward a combination of precision fire and team positioning to disrupt the enemy and control the field. Challenging bot players can be used to fill out games if there are too few humans, or to practice your skills when friends aren't available.

Rack'em Up Roadtrip

Rack'em Up Roadtrip is a 2D pool game commissioned by Oberon Media and developed by GarageGames.

Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction is a game developed by Monster Studios and GarageGames that features gameplay similar to The Incredible Machine.

Game publishing

Early in the company's history, GarageGames offered publishing terms to independent developers for distribution through its website game store that appealed to many small and independent game studios. To date GarageGames has published more than 50 titles in their game store. GarageGames has also self-published a number of titles on console platforms.

InstantAction.com

With the 2007 majority investment from IAC, GarageGames announced the development of a new online gaming platform called InstantAction. The platform is said to offer console quality games in a streaming play experience inside a web browser. InstantAction.com launched with a closed beta in January 2008. On February 2008, the beta became invitation based. As of March 6, 2008, InstantAction.com is in full open beta. As of January 2009, the site features a total of 9 games. 5 games are from independent developers (Galcon, Cyclomite, Lore: Aftermath, Ace of Aces, and Zap) and the remaining 4 are first party games (Fallen Empire: Legions, Rokkitball, Marble Blast Online, and ThinkTanks).

References

External links

GarageGames website
GarageGames profile on MobyGames

v • d • e GarageGames

Game development products	Torque Game Engine • Torque Game Engine Advanced • Torque Game Builder

Developed games	Fallen Empire: Legions • Marble Blast Gold • Marble Blast Ultra • Realm Wars • Zap! • Mobile Blast Mobile

Published games	Aerial Antics • Bridge Builder • Chain Reaction • Dark Horizons: Lore • Dimenxion • Gish • Orbz • Produce Panic • Puzzle Poker • Robot Battle • RocketBowl • ThinkTanks • TubeTwist • Tribal Trouble • Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa

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