New perks! IndieGoGo campaign to port Torque 3D to Linux!
by David Montgomery-Blake · 01/10/2013 (4:54 pm) · 29 comments
Hello everyone! Our IndieGoGo campaign to port Torque 3D to Linux is getting a lot of coverage all over the Internet. I’ve seen topics pop up among Linux enthusiasts in at least six different languages (Chinese, Russian, German, Portuguese, French, and Arabic that I can recall) in the last few days as well as a ton in English all over the web. And for the most part, the commentary has been extremely positive! The difficulty, though, is convincing someone to contribute to a project that is already open sourced, even if it means that they will get the Linux port much, much faster.
In most campaigns, the problem is getting the word out. The word’s out and people are quite happy. But they’re not contributing in droves to pay to have the work done. So we’ve had to be creative with our perks and communication with the Linux community at large.
Here's an update video that answers some of the common questions we've seen. Ask any more that you have in the comments section either here or on the IndieGoGo site! You also get some rare glimpses of some of our team members!
We’ve added a few new perks. The first one is a $100 perk for an hour of a GarageGames’ employee’s time. Depending on your needs, it might be me, helping setup a solid contracting plan for your studio, or it may be one of our engineers helping optimize your game, or an artist helping you optimize your workflow.
The next one is a $250 perk which gives you an hour with Eric Preisz, our CEO. You can ask him any business-related questions to help out your studio’s estimates, successfully managing projects, or you can ask him particular questions about videogame optimization.
We also added a $4500 bootcamp perk for up to 20 people. We will fly to your location in the US and help train your staff or friends on working with Torque 3D. It’s less than our current pricing on BootCamps, so it’s a steal!
My favorite perk that we added is the GG Art Pack Perk. Here’s the packs that are included in the $75 Perk:
GarageGames Alien Art Pack Combo
GarageGames Cheetah Art Pack
GarageGames Modern Warehouse Art Pack
GarageGames Soldier Art Pack
GarageGames Soldier Death Animation Art Pack
GarageGames Soldier Weapons Art Pack
GarageGames Urban Art Pack - Building Interior Props
GarageGames Urban Art Pack - Buildings
GarageGames Urban Art Pack - Street Props
GarageGames Urban Art Pack - Vehicle Props
GarageGames Zombie Art Pack Combo
They’re made for Torque, but include the COLLADA models so that they can be used in most of the popular engines out there!
Here’s some pictures from the Art Packs that the $75 perk will net you!
(Alien Combo pack includes the rigged alien model and weapons)
(Cheetah art pack)
(Modern Warehouse Art Pack included modular pieces to create large-scale warehouse environments)
(Urban Art Pack Buildings which includes buildings that have been modified to be added to city blocks)
(Zombie combo pack includes the graveyard and configurable zombies)
We created a version of the Zombie pack for Unity 3.x to put up in their Asset Store, but a number of entanglements kept it out. If I can find it (and there's interest), I could add that to the asset perk as well! It was made for 3.x, but should work in 4.x fine.
In most campaigns, the problem is getting the word out. The word’s out and people are quite happy. But they’re not contributing in droves to pay to have the work done. So we’ve had to be creative with our perks and communication with the Linux community at large.
Here's an update video that answers some of the common questions we've seen. Ask any more that you have in the comments section either here or on the IndieGoGo site! You also get some rare glimpses of some of our team members!
We’ve added a few new perks. The first one is a $100 perk for an hour of a GarageGames’ employee’s time. Depending on your needs, it might be me, helping setup a solid contracting plan for your studio, or it may be one of our engineers helping optimize your game, or an artist helping you optimize your workflow.
The next one is a $250 perk which gives you an hour with Eric Preisz, our CEO. You can ask him any business-related questions to help out your studio’s estimates, successfully managing projects, or you can ask him particular questions about videogame optimization.
We also added a $4500 bootcamp perk for up to 20 people. We will fly to your location in the US and help train your staff or friends on working with Torque 3D. It’s less than our current pricing on BootCamps, so it’s a steal!
My favorite perk that we added is the GG Art Pack Perk. Here’s the packs that are included in the $75 Perk:
GarageGames Alien Art Pack Combo
GarageGames Cheetah Art Pack
GarageGames Modern Warehouse Art Pack
GarageGames Soldier Art Pack
GarageGames Soldier Death Animation Art Pack
GarageGames Soldier Weapons Art Pack
GarageGames Urban Art Pack - Building Interior Props
GarageGames Urban Art Pack - Buildings
GarageGames Urban Art Pack - Street Props
GarageGames Urban Art Pack - Vehicle Props
GarageGames Zombie Art Pack Combo
They’re made for Torque, but include the COLLADA models so that they can be used in most of the popular engines out there!
Here’s some pictures from the Art Packs that the $75 perk will net you!
(Alien Combo pack includes the rigged alien model and weapons)
(Cheetah art pack)
(Modern Warehouse Art Pack included modular pieces to create large-scale warehouse environments)(Urban Art Pack Buildings which includes buildings that have been modified to be added to city blocks)(Zombie combo pack includes the graveyard and configurable zombies)We created a version of the Zombie pack for Unity 3.x to put up in their Asset Store, but a number of entanglements kept it out. If I can find it (and there's interest), I could add that to the asset perk as well! It was made for 3.x, but should work in 4.x fine.
About the author
Community management and development, Educational computing systems and lab management, Flex, ActionScript, JavaScript, PHP, C++, C#, Perl, Python, Ruby, LUA, etc.
#22
Bottom line: it's difficult to raise crowd-sourced funds for free projects...which makes sense.
On the positive side, the PR for the Linux campaign is worth it's weight in gold. I assure you that we received more than $29k work of PR and advertising.
We were wondering if the Linux campaign would be working better if we delayed opening the code for some period of time and offering the early access as a reward. That's not really in the spirit of how we would want to develop it, but it might be a motivator that drives crowdsourced funding.
01/24/2013 (1:42 pm)
@Andy - We haven't given up yet on the Linux port funding. All in all, it's a great experiment on a new type of funding model for open source software. We've learned a lot from the folks at IndieGoGo and across the web.Bottom line: it's difficult to raise crowd-sourced funds for free projects...which makes sense.
On the positive side, the PR for the Linux campaign is worth it's weight in gold. I assure you that we received more than $29k work of PR and advertising.
We were wondering if the Linux campaign would be working better if we delayed opening the code for some period of time and offering the early access as a reward. That's not really in the spirit of how we would want to develop it, but it might be a motivator that drives crowdsourced funding.
#23
@David - Yes I agree now is the time to get Linux support in, as although I'm not yet even close to being in a Humble Bundle it is a gap I currently see with Torque.
01/25/2013 (1:14 am)
@Eric - While I see the point, I have to say it might be a double edged sword. I have to agree it is very much against the spirit GG had adopted and I'm not sure I would back such a project (where as I've backed this even though I'm primarily a Win dev).@David - Yes I agree now is the time to get Linux support in, as although I'm not yet even close to being in a Humble Bundle it is a gap I currently see with Torque.
#24
It would be good if a 3rd party could do the port, then recoup the costs and make something back in return (if commercial) by selling the port distribution like a linux flavor. It would get support then, or eventually release it under MIT.
02/01/2013 (8:23 am)
Just when I was about to pledge, there is only 64 hours left and $20k to go... this is a shame. I'm sure it will happen again before long by a 3rd party. If only I had $29k I'd jump at the chance to port my game to linux.It would be good if a 3rd party could do the port, then recoup the costs and make something back in return (if commercial) by selling the port distribution like a linux flavor. It would get support then, or eventually release it under MIT.
#25
is not that possible?
[edit]
may be it never happened before.but as we have seen people still funding and more than 1/3 has been collected.so cannot indiegogo authority extend the time period ?
02/03/2013 (6:00 pm)
gg should increase the time. 2 month more and i belive more than 30k will be collected.is not that possible?
[edit]
may be it never happened before.but as we have seen people still funding and more than 1/3 has been collected.so cannot indiegogo authority extend the time period ?
#26
02/03/2013 (6:06 pm)
As far as I know you can't extend the time of a campaign after its started.
#27
i am also going for 75$ perk.
hope it will not go in vein.
02/03/2013 (8:48 pm)
in last 24 hour 17 person funded a total of $475.i am also going for 75$ perk.
hope it will not go in vein.
#28
02/06/2013 (9:48 pm)
so, any decision ?
#29
02/06/2013 (10:13 pm)
We've got a couple of things up our sleeves but nothing we can share yet. This is still a goal of ours. 
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake