GarageGames

GarageGames
Limited liability company
Industry Computer software
Interactive entertainment
Founded Eugene, Oregon, U.S. (2000)
Founder Jeff Tunnell
Tim Gift
Rick Overman
Mark Frohnmayer
Headquarters Vancouver, WA, U.S.
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Eric Preisz (CEO)
Products Torque 3D
Torque 2D
iTorque 2D
Torque X
Website www.garagegames.com

GarageGames is a game technology and software developer. GarageGames is the parent company of GG Interactive, developers of educational technology in the areas of computer science, video game development and programming. In addition, the company has been a video game developer and publisher. GarageGames created several game engines targeted for indie development. Founded in Eugene, Oregon, the company now has offices in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States and its headquarters in Vancouver, Washington. In 2007, GarageGames was acquired by IAC[1] and the company was renamed TorquePowered. In 2011, the company was purchased by Graham Software Development and reverted to the original name GarageGames.

History

See also: InstantAction

GarageGames was founded in Eugene, Oregon in 2000 by Jeff Tunnell, Tim Gift, Rick Overman, and Mark Frohnmayer. Working in their garage on severance checks, the founders derived the name GarageGames as a play off the term "garage band", and is meant to evoke a similar attitude in game development. The stated goal of the original founders of GarageGames was to offer licensing of game engines to virtually anyone, allowing independent game-makers more options in developing and publishing video games. In 2001, GarageGames released the Torque game engine. It was used to create the Tribes game series and was released at an initial price point to allow independent game developers access. Later the company expanded its product lines with additional tools, and more advanced engines and introduced tiered licensing. In 2005, the company introduced Enterprise licenses for large companies and educational institutions available for annual fees ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. In 2006, its developer community surpassed 100,000 users. Over its history, the company launched several of its own games, including Marble Blast Ultra for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Live Arcade.

In 2006, GarageGames acquired BraveTree Technologies, developers of Think Tanks and real-time networked multiplayer physics technology. In 2007, Barry Diller and InterActive Corporation (NASD: IACI) acquired a majority interest in GarageGames for an estimated $80-100M in cash [2] and renamed the company InstantAction.[3] InterActive Corporation later bought out the remainder of GarageGames' equity for an undisclosed sum and on July 15, 2009, Louis Castle, notable for his Command & Conquer series, would become the CEO of GarageGames and InstantAction.[4] The company headquarters were moved to Las Vegas and some employees relocated to Portland, Oregon. Shortly after the move, the "GarageGames" brand was retired.

On November 11, 2010 it was announced that IAC was shutting down InstantAction, and the intellectual property for the Torque game engine would be sold off.[5] On January 20, 2011, the Torque engine and GarageGames brand was purchased and the company was re-launched, as GarageGames again, with new CEO Eric Preisz. The company moved to a new office in Las Vegas, Nevada.[6] In 2011, GarageGames began doing game and technology-based service work. The company created the Microsoft Digital Literacy Program for Windows 8 and an undisclosed project for a World Famous Theme Park. The company also created game-based learning courses for online colleges in the areas of criminal justice, customer service and career development.

In 2014, GarageGames CEO Eric Preisz announced the establishment of GG|Interactive, a subsidiary of GarageGames that would focus on bringing game design, game programming and game development courses to middle schools, high schools and colleges. Under the product name Dev|Pro: Game Development Curriculum, the company offers digital education courses in the areas of computer science, game design and programming. Offices for GG|Interactive were established in Vancouver, Washington while the Las Vegas offices remained open.

Torque

Main article: Torque (game engine)

GarageGames offered the Torque Game Engine for sale in 2000, offering the technology under a per-seat "Indie" license.[7] GarageGames also offered "Commercial" licensing options to companies with more than $250,000 in annual revenues. In September 2012, GarageGames announced that both the Torque 2D Engine and Torque 3D Engine would be offered free as an open source MIT license. Torque is primarily a video game development technology. Various versions of the engine have been used to develop more than 200 published games.[8] It has been licensed by Electronic Arts, NC Soft, Sony, Disney, Vivendi Universal, Hasbro, and many other game teams and publishers and it's officially supported middleware for Microsoft and Nintendo.

Torque is also used for non-game applications like serious games and virtual worlds. It's been licensed by NASA, L3, Lockheed Martin and it has been used for dozens of virtual worlds applications like Onverse[9] and by IBM for internal and external training simulations.[10] Torque is currently used for education in more than 200 schools and universities worldwide.[11]

Game development

Title System Release date Genre Ref(s)
Chain Reaction Windows Puzzle
Fallen Empire: Legions Windows 2008 Action
Legions: Overdrive Windows December 20, 2010 Action
Marble Blast Gold Linux September 1, 2002 Platform, puzzle
Macintosh
Windows
Xbox Live Arcade
Marble Blast Ultra Xbox 360 January 25, 2006 Platform, puzzle
Rack'em Up Roadtrip Windows Sport
Rokkitball Windows April 2008 Action, sport
Think Tanks Windows 2005 Action [12]
Xbox Live Arcade [13]
Z.A.P. Windows March 2008 Action [14]
Tribes 2 Windows March 30, 2001 First-person shooter [15]

References

  1. ↑ "IAC/InterActiveCorp Takes Game Designer Stake". Wall Street Journal. 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  2. ↑ "Barry Diller's Web Gaming Play". Bloomberg.com.
  3. ↑ "IAC's Grand Acquisitor". Fast Company. 2007-12-01. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  4. ↑ "Lou Castle to Head Up InstantAction as New CEO". Industrygamers.com. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  5. ↑ "November Update | Eric Preisz | Blogs | Community | GarageGames.com". Torquepowered.com. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  6. ↑ "Welcome Back GarageGames!". Garagegames.com. 2011-01-20. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  7. ↑ "Torque Game Engine - Engine Details". DevMaster.net.
  8. ↑ "Products : Torque : Powered". . GarageGames. 2006-09-21. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  9. ↑ "The World is your Playground with Onverse". Garagegames.com. 2009-08-31. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  10. ↑ "Blog Archive » The IBM Innovate Quick internal metaverse project". eightbar. 2007-05-08. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  11. ↑ "Solutions : Education". . GarageGames. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  12. ↑ . IGN http://www.ign.com/games/thinktanks/pc-664193. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ↑ "GarageGames Acquires BraveTree". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  14. ↑ . IGN http://www.ign.com/games/zap/pc-14345198. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ↑ . GameSpot http://www.gamespot.com/tribes-2/reviews/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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