After 5 years...
by Michael Perry · 12/31/2013 (7:56 am) · 53 comments
Greetings everyone. I hope the holidays are treating you all well and that you are looking forward to 2014 as much as I am. While this blog is being posted as an employee, I'm not really announcing anything. This is more of an old school .plan, just talking a little bit about GarageGames and my time with the company.
I was struck with the urge to post a blog for several reasons. First, there hasn't been an employee blog in over a month. Second, I haven't posted a blog in a very long time. Next, I'm getting close to the big 100 mark for blogs.
However, the main reason is due to a recent anniversary that came and went without a whisper. 2013 marked my fifth year at GarageGames. For those that know the history, I am including all past incarnations up to the present. Old school GG back in Eugene, Oregon. The move to Las Vegas and renaming to TorquePowered. The shutdown and rebirth as GarageGames, LLC. Then up to the present day.
To me, five years at a tech company is kind of a big deal. If you follow the industry, there have been many startups and shutdowns across all the branches. Game engines, game studios, monetization focused groups, and kooky companies that split focus between a web-plugin/game engine/Guitar Hero clone. I survived three rounds of layoffs and a full company shutdown. I consider myself lucky to have been counted among the folks re-hired at GarageGames, LLC. It was a great day and has continued to be an adventurous experience.
This brings me to the point of the blog. What has it been like working at GarageGames? What have I seen and learned? If you check out my blog history, you will see I've jumped around a lot inside the company. Specifically, I'd like to call out my origin story: MAJOR Documentation Announcement 1. That blog truly represents old school GG, specifically the folks at Tech & Tools. I was blown away at the response. My fellow community members congratulated me, while my new teammates proceeded to create a fantastic photoshop war. Lesson learned: do not post topless pictures of yourself on the internet. You will get what you deserve =).
Rather than continuing lengthy paragraphs, the following list represents some of the bigger lessons I learned at GarageGames:
1. Writing documentation is always a rewarding experience, but it is probably the most difficult task to take on. It spawned one of my catchphrases: "Docs. Everyone wants it. No one wants to write it. It will never be finished." Do that for a few years and the very makeup of your brain will change. Hopefully, my work as documentation engineer was beneficial to those who took the time to read it.
2. Never, EVER, doubt the power of a community. It can not be overstated how powerful we are, even in our reduced capacity. We've laughed together, bled together, fought like bickering children, and survived major changes that would have broken weaker communities. Specific to my learning experience, you all taught me infinite patience, humility, and how to pick my battles. I'll still think a jackass poster is a jackass, but I do not get enraged anymore. If anything, it's a good thing if I continue to read your jackass posts and take it into consideration =).
3. If you're not having fun, you're in the wrong business. I've never had more fun than working at GG. The pranks, the Friday Night Game Night sessions, the Street Fighter IV and ping pong tournaments...it was all great. I think I miss that more than anything.
4. If you are not challenged, you are doing it all wrong. Never settle. Never plateau. Never stop looking for ways to advance in the company. I am lucky to have had teammates that pushed me to be the best. Primarily, current CEO, longtime friend, and noble leader, Eric Preisz. That guy knows me better than anyone, except my wife. He doesn't give me an inch and I appreciate that.
5. Sacrifice is a necessary component to following your dreams, but it never stops being painful. When I left Florida to join GG, my wife and I had to leave all our friends and family. However, we found new friends and family that will last a lifetime. SHOUT OUT TO THE BLENDENS and BRONSONS! When the company moved to Las Vegas, we had to give up living in the city we came to love. We adapted, but were never truly happy with the location. So once again, we moved back to Florida and I lost all friends and day-to-day interaction. The flip side was seeing my son every single day, throughout the entire workday. I would not give that up.
So there it is. Five year, five points. You will not see a "sixth year" blog from me. You can look forward to the next pointless blog from me in another five years. That's right. After five years of adventure, sacrifice, non-stop challenges, and fun, I am still on team GG. Here's to striving for ten years at the same company I always loved.
Shout outs in no particular order:
Derek Bronson
Mike Blenden
Joseph Thomas
Eric Preisz
Erik Graham
Justin Head
Scott Burns
Melv May
Dave Wyand
David Montgomery-Blake
Deborah and Jacob Fike
Matt and Talana Fairfax
Matt and Channa Langley
Josh and Lara Engebretson
Ken Holst
Eric Fritz
Davey Jackson
Ray
Steven Garcia
Richard Ranft
Brett Seyler
The rest of Tech & Tools
Ben Garney
My folks in Siberia
Bacon Henge
Ronny "orb" Bangsund
Dave Calabrese
Rene Damm
Steve Acaster
Mike Lilligreen
Konrad Kiss
Novack
Morrock
Johnny Vo
Marc "Dreamora" Schaerer
eb
Conor O'Kane
Tom Spillman and everyone else at Sickhead Games
Tim and everyone else at MGT
Sven and everyone else at Luma
All the deviants in the IRC channel
The former iTorque group
The current Torque 2D group
The unfortunate folks involved in the infamous ban hammer spree of 2011
And everyone else in the community!!!
All of the following are clickable
"Read. Read Code. Code"
"Documentation. Everyone wants it. No one wants to write it. It will never be fininshed."
"What did you get your degree in? Donuts?!"
"A wild Mich appears."
"Puppy shader!"
"RTFM"
Best regards to all and Happy New Year!
- Mich
I was struck with the urge to post a blog for several reasons. First, there hasn't been an employee blog in over a month. Second, I haven't posted a blog in a very long time. Next, I'm getting close to the big 100 mark for blogs.
However, the main reason is due to a recent anniversary that came and went without a whisper. 2013 marked my fifth year at GarageGames. For those that know the history, I am including all past incarnations up to the present. Old school GG back in Eugene, Oregon. The move to Las Vegas and renaming to TorquePowered. The shutdown and rebirth as GarageGames, LLC. Then up to the present day.
To me, five years at a tech company is kind of a big deal. If you follow the industry, there have been many startups and shutdowns across all the branches. Game engines, game studios, monetization focused groups, and kooky companies that split focus between a web-plugin/game engine/Guitar Hero clone. I survived three rounds of layoffs and a full company shutdown. I consider myself lucky to have been counted among the folks re-hired at GarageGames, LLC. It was a great day and has continued to be an adventurous experience.
This brings me to the point of the blog. What has it been like working at GarageGames? What have I seen and learned? If you check out my blog history, you will see I've jumped around a lot inside the company. Specifically, I'd like to call out my origin story: MAJOR Documentation Announcement 1. That blog truly represents old school GG, specifically the folks at Tech & Tools. I was blown away at the response. My fellow community members congratulated me, while my new teammates proceeded to create a fantastic photoshop war. Lesson learned: do not post topless pictures of yourself on the internet. You will get what you deserve =).
Rather than continuing lengthy paragraphs, the following list represents some of the bigger lessons I learned at GarageGames:
1. Writing documentation is always a rewarding experience, but it is probably the most difficult task to take on. It spawned one of my catchphrases: "Docs. Everyone wants it. No one wants to write it. It will never be finished." Do that for a few years and the very makeup of your brain will change. Hopefully, my work as documentation engineer was beneficial to those who took the time to read it.
2. Never, EVER, doubt the power of a community. It can not be overstated how powerful we are, even in our reduced capacity. We've laughed together, bled together, fought like bickering children, and survived major changes that would have broken weaker communities. Specific to my learning experience, you all taught me infinite patience, humility, and how to pick my battles. I'll still think a jackass poster is a jackass, but I do not get enraged anymore. If anything, it's a good thing if I continue to read your jackass posts and take it into consideration =).
3. If you're not having fun, you're in the wrong business. I've never had more fun than working at GG. The pranks, the Friday Night Game Night sessions, the Street Fighter IV and ping pong tournaments...it was all great. I think I miss that more than anything.
4. If you are not challenged, you are doing it all wrong. Never settle. Never plateau. Never stop looking for ways to advance in the company. I am lucky to have had teammates that pushed me to be the best. Primarily, current CEO, longtime friend, and noble leader, Eric Preisz. That guy knows me better than anyone, except my wife. He doesn't give me an inch and I appreciate that.
5. Sacrifice is a necessary component to following your dreams, but it never stops being painful. When I left Florida to join GG, my wife and I had to leave all our friends and family. However, we found new friends and family that will last a lifetime. SHOUT OUT TO THE BLENDENS and BRONSONS! When the company moved to Las Vegas, we had to give up living in the city we came to love. We adapted, but were never truly happy with the location. So once again, we moved back to Florida and I lost all friends and day-to-day interaction. The flip side was seeing my son every single day, throughout the entire workday. I would not give that up.
So there it is. Five year, five points. You will not see a "sixth year" blog from me. You can look forward to the next pointless blog from me in another five years. That's right. After five years of adventure, sacrifice, non-stop challenges, and fun, I am still on team GG. Here's to striving for ten years at the same company I always loved.
Shout outs in no particular order:
Derek Bronson
Mike Blenden
Joseph Thomas
Eric Preisz
Erik Graham
Justin Head
Scott Burns
Melv May
Dave Wyand
David Montgomery-Blake
Deborah and Jacob Fike
Matt and Talana Fairfax
Matt and Channa Langley
Josh and Lara Engebretson
Ken Holst
Eric Fritz
Davey Jackson
Ray
Steven Garcia
Richard Ranft
Brett Seyler
The rest of Tech & Tools
Ben Garney
My folks in Siberia
Bacon Henge
Ronny "orb" Bangsund
Dave Calabrese
Rene Damm
Steve Acaster
Mike Lilligreen
Konrad Kiss
Novack
Morrock
Johnny Vo
Marc "Dreamora" Schaerer
eb
Conor O'Kane
Tom Spillman and everyone else at Sickhead Games
Tim and everyone else at MGT
Sven and everyone else at Luma
All the deviants in the IRC channel
The former iTorque group
The current Torque 2D group
The unfortunate folks involved in the infamous ban hammer spree of 2011
And everyone else in the community!!!
All of the following are clickable
"Read. Read Code. Code"
"Documentation. Everyone wants it. No one wants to write it. It will never be fininshed."
"What did you get your degree in? Donuts?!"
"A wild Mich appears."
"Puppy shader!"
"RTFM"
Best regards to all and Happy New Year!
- Mich
About the author
Programmer.
#42
@Johnny - Glad you stopped by! It has always been a two-way road. The passion of the community fueled my own passion. The desire to use a better product motivated me to help make a better product. I've never tried to be the face of anything. I just wanted to do what's best for my team, GG, and the community. You and the other iTorque users were a big part of my advancement within the company and in the community. We went through good and bad times together, but it was all worth it.
01/05/2014 (8:18 am)
@Vincent - Wow! I didn't expect that kind of post. Your words motivate me even further to remain a part of the community and hopefully reinvigorates others. I still have faith that the GG community can continue pushing Torque to great heights. GG's history has shown that small groups of people can make great things happen.@Johnny - Glad you stopped by! It has always been a two-way road. The passion of the community fueled my own passion. The desire to use a better product motivated me to help make a better product. I've never tried to be the face of anything. I just wanted to do what's best for my team, GG, and the community. You and the other iTorque users were a big part of my advancement within the company and in the community. We went through good and bad times together, but it was all worth it.
#43
Happy new year and happy 5 years Michael. May the next 5 be as fun and evolutive.
Thanks for the shout out, is my honour :)
01/06/2014 (9:59 am)
Hey Mich, What a Ride, uh!?Happy new year and happy 5 years Michael. May the next 5 be as fun and evolutive.
Thanks for the shout out, is my honour :)
#44
01/07/2014 (5:02 am)
Nice blog Michael - always good to know that you guys are still out there :) Happy New Year!! It would be good at some point if you work on projects without NDA or they become void based on release schedules that you can talk about some of the projects with screenshots or videos as it would be great to find out more.
#45
@Jules - Glad you liked the blog and Happy New Year. We would love to talk about the work we are doing, since we take pride in what we accomplish. Unfortunately, NDAs do serve a specific purpose sometimes. I do talk about my own side projects in IRC, so you can ask me about that if you ever see me in IRC.
01/08/2014 (5:43 am)
@Novack - Happy New Year! It has been a really fun time. I'm glad you stopped by. Your presence has been missed.@Jules - Glad you liked the blog and Happy New Year. We would love to talk about the work we are doing, since we take pride in what we accomplish. Unfortunately, NDAs do serve a specific purpose sometimes. I do talk about my own side projects in IRC, so you can ask me about that if you ever see me in IRC.
#46
Why is this so? I think. GG managers and developers should think carefully about is not?
01/08/2014 (6:46 pm)
Now many people have left GG. T3D abandon it. While I liked the engine, but there did not sell the team to develop a user-friendly work on this engine it? In addition to "tribal" There it?Why is this so? I think. GG managers and developers should think carefully about is not?
#47
The Torque engine family has been in and out of the spotlight during that time. I've been lucky enough to experience the bright and dark times of the engine series. I will let you and everyone in on a little internal story that many of you do not know.
Several years ago, there was a heated debate internally at GarageGames. The topic was on how to push Torque amidst the rising competition. This was when Unity was barely known, but clearly identified by GG as something that could become a great threat. GG blazed trails by offering a full source, AAA game engine for $100. While groundbreaking, everyone knew it would not be a solo endeavor.
So meetings were had. How do "we" keep Torque alive? How do we shake things up while still staying in business? Do you know what the most popular idea was (which was shot down)? Some of the earliest Torque developers at GG believed the engine should be released for free under a liberal open source license. How to make money was the point of contention. Release the engine for free, but charge for editors. Free editors and charge for source. All for free, but charge for service and content packs. No single idea won out, so the traditional license model remained and lasted up until last year.
What I'm getting at is that several years ago, "the original players" believed Torque should be open source. It was the next step in the engine's evolution. While risky, that's what many believed in. The current incarnation of GarageGames delivered on that idea. I can't tell you how many community members e-mailed me directly when Unity released a free version. Then UDK released their free product, which generated more e-mails. These e-mails were not full of scorn or "I told you so's". They were e-mails from the people who got their first shot at game development because of Torque and only wanted to see it survive.
So here we are today. A new GG, with different faces. Torque now has its best shot at surviving. In fact, it is now immortal. Regardless of who is at GG or who is in the community, Torque 3D and Torque 2D are fully open source for eternity. If in one hundred years there is only one Torque user, then it has been a success. What everyone needs to understand is the fourteen years of passion and hard-work that has gone into GarageGames, InstantAction, TorquePowered, GarageGames LLC, Torque, GG.com, and on and on.
I've only experienced five of those years, but they have been the best I could deliver. On the topic of Torque, everyone drives it. If it is abandoned, it's because every last person on Earth abandoned it.
In regards to the GarageGames Community, I have this to say. Whether as an employee or community member, I will be the last one to hit the lights on the way out. So talk to me about death and abandonment when that time comes. I don't see that happening anytime soon.
01/08/2014 (8:37 pm)
@Szzg007 - I think I understand what you are saying. It's not the first time someone has said something similar. The fact of the matter is that when you have a company that's been around for such a long period of time, there is a turnover. The original company was founded in 2000 by four guys. That's fourteen years. From four guys, to 80, down to 6, back up to 20, back down to 12, and so on.The Torque engine family has been in and out of the spotlight during that time. I've been lucky enough to experience the bright and dark times of the engine series. I will let you and everyone in on a little internal story that many of you do not know.
Several years ago, there was a heated debate internally at GarageGames. The topic was on how to push Torque amidst the rising competition. This was when Unity was barely known, but clearly identified by GG as something that could become a great threat. GG blazed trails by offering a full source, AAA game engine for $100. While groundbreaking, everyone knew it would not be a solo endeavor.
So meetings were had. How do "we" keep Torque alive? How do we shake things up while still staying in business? Do you know what the most popular idea was (which was shot down)? Some of the earliest Torque developers at GG believed the engine should be released for free under a liberal open source license. How to make money was the point of contention. Release the engine for free, but charge for editors. Free editors and charge for source. All for free, but charge for service and content packs. No single idea won out, so the traditional license model remained and lasted up until last year.
What I'm getting at is that several years ago, "the original players" believed Torque should be open source. It was the next step in the engine's evolution. While risky, that's what many believed in. The current incarnation of GarageGames delivered on that idea. I can't tell you how many community members e-mailed me directly when Unity released a free version. Then UDK released their free product, which generated more e-mails. These e-mails were not full of scorn or "I told you so's". They were e-mails from the people who got their first shot at game development because of Torque and only wanted to see it survive.
So here we are today. A new GG, with different faces. Torque now has its best shot at surviving. In fact, it is now immortal. Regardless of who is at GG or who is in the community, Torque 3D and Torque 2D are fully open source for eternity. If in one hundred years there is only one Torque user, then it has been a success. What everyone needs to understand is the fourteen years of passion and hard-work that has gone into GarageGames, InstantAction, TorquePowered, GarageGames LLC, Torque, GG.com, and on and on.
I've only experienced five of those years, but they have been the best I could deliver. On the topic of Torque, everyone drives it. If it is abandoned, it's because every last person on Earth abandoned it.
In regards to the GarageGames Community, I have this to say. Whether as an employee or community member, I will be the last one to hit the lights on the way out. So talk to me about death and abandonment when that time comes. I don't see that happening anytime soon.
#48
01/08/2014 (9:05 pm)
Hi .. I hope GG alive. I hope to be like www.stencyl.com GG soon as people like. I hope GG T3D rapid emergence of a lot of interesting products. On each platform. IOS, ANDRIOD, WIN7 / 8, and in the future, I hope GG can be more convenient to let the user interaction. To have a convenient internal community, in engines, such as Unity3d/stencyl. Only in this way. GG can really live. Live with power. 
#49
I was also scared by the title of this post. Glad to see you're staying, Mich.
01/13/2014 (10:30 pm)
Wow, I really made it into the list of shout-outs? Awesome. After being away from this site for at least a year, I decided to come back and re-download T3D to play with it and see the changes, and this is what I find? :DI was also scared by the title of this post. Glad to see you're staying, Mich.
#50
01/19/2014 (11:03 pm)
Congrats on making it this far Michael! Your help has been invaluable the couple times I asked for it here on IRC. 
#52
01/20/2014 (5:36 am)
Amazing accomplishments, and amazing successes Mich! Here's to another 5!
#53
@Thomas - I think everyone has helped me just as much as I've helped others. It's all about community. Just glad to see you stop by.
@Kenneth - Thanks!
@Jesse - Much appreciated. I'm glad to see the community growing with new users such as yourself. Passionate, eager to learn, and showing great progress on their projects.
01/21/2014 (5:03 am)
@Morrock - Of course. You've been around for a while and we had a lot of great interactions.@Thomas - I think everyone has helped me just as much as I've helped others. It's all about community. Just glad to see you stop by.
@Kenneth - Thanks!
@Jesse - Much appreciated. I'm glad to see the community growing with new users such as yourself. Passionate, eager to learn, and showing great progress on their projects.
Torque Owner Johnny Vo
One big reason that got me into iTorque was the Michael Perry. My first impression of him was "good guy" and super passionate about GarageGames. And I wasn't wrong. To me Michael Perry is the face of GarageGames... at least on the 2d side :).