GarageGames has arrived
I remember vividly the second mention I found of GarageGames online. The first mention, a Blue’s News blurb, was largely forgettable and all I can recall from the announcement was that they had a website up or something. But the second time I saw the name, ah yes, now that I remember quite well. Just as I will remember vividly the latest comic by those insane Penny Arcade guys.
Like so many other wannabe game devs out there in the wild, I had tinkered for many years with various software libraries, including some of my own creation, in the hopes of learning how to make those most magical of creations - video games. Prior to becoming aware of GarageGames I was already of the mind that my fellow teammates and I needed to simply latch on to an existing 3D engine and make something, even if it was simply a mod of an existing game such as Unreal or Quake. So we started researching which game would be the easiest to work with and then I found that second blurb:
GarageGames was going to license out the Tribes 2 engine.
I read and reread the announcement, truly with disbelief, I kid you not. I went to GDC that year and sat face-to-face with the GarageGames founders and point-blank asked them the single most important question I had: Do we get source?
The rest is history, of course, because not only did we get source, but we got a full-fledged 3D engine, not just a software library. Gone were thoughts of using Unreal or Quake and making a mod. This was our solution and gawddamned if we weren’t the happiest bunch of wannabe game makers you ever laid your eyes on.
Flash forward, what, five years or so now? GarageGames is inching closer and closer to a goal I remember Jay Moore mentioning many moons ago - being a name known to every household. At least, I think he said something close to that. And now here they are with a title on the Xbox360 and the subject on arguably the most popular game geeks comic around. Not too shabby, and I feel very fortunate to have experienced at least some portion of this with GG.
What will happen in the next five years with GG? Personally, I hope that they reach the next level in terms of distribution, on their own terms, and in their own channel. Even so, there’s no doubt that GarageGames has arrived.
Gratz GG!
