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Plan for Clark Fagot
Plan for Clark Fagot
| Name: | Clark Fagot |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Jun 14, 2005 | |
| Rating: |  Not Rated | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
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| Profile Page: | View profile page for Clark Fagot |
Blog post
Thoughts on the BraveTree/GarageGames merger/acquisition.
I'm once again going against Joe's advice and posting a plan with no pretty pictures.
This plan is actually just going to be a re-hash of my comments in this thread regarding the benefits to all (including the community) of the BraveTree and GarageGames merger (note how pride makes me call it a merger not an acquisition).
We've all been excited about this move for a while. It's been a definite positive for our productivity. I no longer have to talk to accountants, lawyers, and insurance agents (although they are all perfectly nice people, just in case any of them are reading this :). Joe no longer has to get on the phone to do biz dev. In fact, I work from home several days a week now (I sit on my couch at 10:30am as I type), simply because I can and I like the change of environment.
But the benefits go well beyond that. To answer some of the questions that Brian Russey (rightly) raises in the thread I linked to above, allow me to focus on how this change affects the work I do.
Any little project I decide to pick up and work on for a week can now be a productive task rather than blue sky work where the payout is uncertain. E.g., at the beginning of the year I spent some evenings allowing Torque to do scalable shells (which means that the screen pretends it's, say, 800x600 even when it's bigger or smaller). Anyone who has worked on creating a multi-res shell knows what a nice feature this is (previously only available in the Unreal engine). It's the type of project that doesn't really work as a resource because there are so many teeny (but important) changes to make. But it can easily be added to a future version of Torque and suddenly everyone has access to it just like that. Before, although I could contribute the code back to Torque (and in the past I had done that with a number of enhancements and bug fixes) it didn't really behoove me to make a practice of doing new things and then contributing them to Torque simply because we needed to make sure our time was spent on tasks that brought in money in a timely fasion -- all the other indies out there know where I'm coming from on this one I'm sure.
Another example is the work I'm doing on network physics and collisions for dRacer. I've spent a good amount of time studying why when vehicles get near each other you get what JoshW calls the Torque jitter. The reason comes down to all the objects on the clients and the server having their own idea of "what time is it?". The result of all this study has been a system which I think will help propel Torque even further ahead of the competition when it comes to networking. So far I only have proof of concept working, but it's looking like this will solve a big problem with mutliplayer racing games and other games which want to have a lot of networked contact between the game objects. As BraveTree we would have a hard time monetizing this work. It would go into our games, but clearly it's value goes well beyond usage in our own games. We could have simply contributed it back to GarageGames, but as an indie you don't want to be giving away cutting edge work you do just because you don't know how to fully realize it's value. As GarageGames, the value of this project can be easily realized by simply adding the code to HEAD.
Then there's the component system, which I can now keep a more watchful eye on to make sure it conforms to my vision of what it can be. We had a deal in place before, but a lot of the work of getting it into Torque was going to fall on the GG staff, so it wasn't clear that it would end up being exactly what I think it can be. The merger allows me to take a more active role in flushing out how it will work.
Of course, the one thing the merger doesn't do is give everyone more time. So, unfortunately, not all these technology benefits are going to be realized as quickly as we'd all like. But they will happen.
Another one of Brian's concerns was that he wants tech not games, so the announcement that BT is joining GG to make more games leaves him uncertain. I strongly believe that you want us making games. That's because blue sky research is really not, in my experience, very useful. Research projects need grounding or else they get nowhere. New ideas come from new problems, and new problems come from new games. If you have someone sitting back in a chair thinking about what the issues are going to be for you guys while you make your games, you are going to get a bunch of elegant solutions to problems you don't experience, and hand wavey gestures when you bring up more mundane problems which these arm chair engineers didn't bother to think of.
This plan is actually just going to be a re-hash of my comments in this thread regarding the benefits to all (including the community) of the BraveTree and GarageGames merger (note how pride makes me call it a merger not an acquisition).
We've all been excited about this move for a while. It's been a definite positive for our productivity. I no longer have to talk to accountants, lawyers, and insurance agents (although they are all perfectly nice people, just in case any of them are reading this :). Joe no longer has to get on the phone to do biz dev. In fact, I work from home several days a week now (I sit on my couch at 10:30am as I type), simply because I can and I like the change of environment.
But the benefits go well beyond that. To answer some of the questions that Brian Russey (rightly) raises in the thread I linked to above, allow me to focus on how this change affects the work I do.
Any little project I decide to pick up and work on for a week can now be a productive task rather than blue sky work where the payout is uncertain. E.g., at the beginning of the year I spent some evenings allowing Torque to do scalable shells (which means that the screen pretends it's, say, 800x600 even when it's bigger or smaller). Anyone who has worked on creating a multi-res shell knows what a nice feature this is (previously only available in the Unreal engine). It's the type of project that doesn't really work as a resource because there are so many teeny (but important) changes to make. But it can easily be added to a future version of Torque and suddenly everyone has access to it just like that. Before, although I could contribute the code back to Torque (and in the past I had done that with a number of enhancements and bug fixes) it didn't really behoove me to make a practice of doing new things and then contributing them to Torque simply because we needed to make sure our time was spent on tasks that brought in money in a timely fasion -- all the other indies out there know where I'm coming from on this one I'm sure.
Another example is the work I'm doing on network physics and collisions for dRacer. I've spent a good amount of time studying why when vehicles get near each other you get what JoshW calls the Torque jitter. The reason comes down to all the objects on the clients and the server having their own idea of "what time is it?". The result of all this study has been a system which I think will help propel Torque even further ahead of the competition when it comes to networking. So far I only have proof of concept working, but it's looking like this will solve a big problem with mutliplayer racing games and other games which want to have a lot of networked contact between the game objects. As BraveTree we would have a hard time monetizing this work. It would go into our games, but clearly it's value goes well beyond usage in our own games. We could have simply contributed it back to GarageGames, but as an indie you don't want to be giving away cutting edge work you do just because you don't know how to fully realize it's value. As GarageGames, the value of this project can be easily realized by simply adding the code to HEAD.
Then there's the component system, which I can now keep a more watchful eye on to make sure it conforms to my vision of what it can be. We had a deal in place before, but a lot of the work of getting it into Torque was going to fall on the GG staff, so it wasn't clear that it would end up being exactly what I think it can be. The merger allows me to take a more active role in flushing out how it will work.
Of course, the one thing the merger doesn't do is give everyone more time. So, unfortunately, not all these technology benefits are going to be realized as quickly as we'd all like. But they will happen.
Another one of Brian's concerns was that he wants tech not games, so the announcement that BT is joining GG to make more games leaves him uncertain. I strongly believe that you want us making games. That's because blue sky research is really not, in my experience, very useful. Research projects need grounding or else they get nowhere. New ideas come from new problems, and new problems come from new games. If you have someone sitting back in a chair thinking about what the issues are going to be for you guys while you make your games, you are going to get a bunch of elegant solutions to problems you don't experience, and hand wavey gestures when you bring up more mundane problems which these arm chair engineers didn't bother to think of.
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 06/14/05 - Plan for Clark Fagot 04/21/05 - Plan for Clark Fagot 02/06/05 - Plan for Clark Fagot 04/14/04 - Plan for Clark Fagot 10/22/03 - Plan for Clark Fagot 01/06/03 - Plan for Clark Fagot |
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Submit your own resources!| Matthew Langley (Jun 14, 2005 at 18:26 GMT) |
| Chris Calef (Jun 14, 2005 at 18:38 GMT) |
| Clint S. Brewer (Jun 14, 2005 at 18:40 GMT) |
| Dave Myers (Jun 14, 2005 at 18:55 GMT) |
| Stephen Zepp (Jun 14, 2005 at 20:21 GMT) |
Without bringing BT into the fold, GG wasn't able to extend the core vision as powerfully as we will be able to now, and with the addition of all of the incredible talents BT brought to the table, the entire Torque experience just gets better and better!
For a blatently obvious example think about Torque Constructor: Matt Fairfax was a BraveTree employee, but he's been working non-stop on TC for quite a while. Now that the merger is complete, all of the combersome corporate mechanics of "lending" talent back and forth between two companies simply goes away completely--and that means better tech, and better games for everyone!
Welcome aboard guys--and you know that I'm going to tease everyone about me having actually started working for GG before any of you did! /duck
| Phil Carlisle (Jun 14, 2005 at 21:39 GMT) |
This is a great move and my congratulations go out to both sides of the merger!!
| Tim Muenstermann (Jun 14, 2005 at 23:40 GMT) |
| Stephen Zepp (Jun 15, 2005 at 01:02 GMT) |
| Vernon Finch (Jun 15, 2005 at 02:56 GMT) |
Looking forward to seeing all the ideas come to fruition :)
| Michael Cozzolino (Jun 15, 2005 at 12:57 GMT) |
Oh and I feel like this too
Quote:
I love the merger, in hapiness for BT, GG, and my own selfish desires to gain your impressive additions! All in all I think its a win win for everyone!
| Tyler Frans (Jun 15, 2005 at 17:34 GMT) |
| Clark Fagot (Jun 15, 2005 at 18:11 GMT) |
| Tyler Frans (Jun 15, 2005 at 18:47 GMT) |
| Mark McCoy (Jun 15, 2005 at 20:45 GMT) |
| Jay Moore (Jun 16, 2005 at 07:00 GMT) |
@Clark - I'm going to chime in on your blog rather than craft a separate one, because I think you've said it well and I want to agree with you.
The english language is at times very limiting - as everyone at GG knows I struggled with how to communicate this extremely exciting event without delivering a wrong impression. Merger has its own loaded meanings, but I admit aquistion maybe more so - GG really does strive to be non-evil in all our business affairs, so using the this very corporate language just feels less than the way our companies have combined forces.
The truth of the matter is combining forces is the next strategic step for a long-term partnership. Blending our companies best leverages the strengths of both companies. You and Joe have expressed the benefits to BT. Now that GG is getting to make games 'again' (for some its a return to an old love with new methods, for others its all new) this merger comes at a very key time. Now we get to leverage an advantage any indie would value, to make tech and games with the experience, creativity and talent of a combined BraveTree and GG team. Having fresh from the trenches game developer makes BT an excellent contributor to Torque to hone the technology and to leverage it for the fun we all crave.
@Stephen - GG will be diversifying the markets we serve with our technology and games (many like the educational market we already have) - the goal is to strengthen the technology and open more opportunities for indies.
We've always said we need to bring best of breed technology, collorative community and open markets together to make GarageGame's mission a reality. Each year we make progress on all fronts, BraveTree expanding the garage moves us all one step closer to making independent game dev. a sustainable segment of the game industry.
| Dan MacDonald (Jun 16, 2005 at 19:56 GMT) |
I really think the result of this (lets call it) parntnership is going to result in more games and more technology sooner from GG. Having done the business side of things myself, I can't emphasize enough how much of a pain it is. It's such a distraction. Having GG take over the business aspects lets the BT team do what they do best, make cool tech and make cool games.
A good move by both parties IMO.
| Ivan Lazarte (Jun 18, 2005 at 15:29 GMT) |
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