Monday, July 16, 2007
Torque for the Wii!
The Torque Game Engine has now been adapted to work on the Wii.
The Escapist has the news.
That's the second current-gen console (after the XBox 360) for Torque. GarageGames continues to concentrate on being the "budget engine" of choice for multiple platforms.
According to the quote by Randy Angle of Pronto Games (the folks who ported the engine to the Wii and are developing a Wii game with the engine), "We chose to develop The Destiny of Zorro with the Torque Game Engine because of its proven reliability and our developers' familiarity with it" (emphasis mine). This sounds like an interesting (perhaps accidental?) long-term strategy for GarageGames. They offer their game engine at a price that makes it easily accessible by any fourteen-year-old with lawn-mowing money. Those who actually manage to succeed at it and who move on to bigger, more professional ventures and take their Torque preference with them. Are we going to see a "next generation" of higher-end commercial studios using Torque?
Labels: Torque
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:32 AM (Permalink)
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It's the same strategy Microsoft has employed for years: give people the tools so that they get so used to it that anything else would be too hard to learn so the tools continue to get used as the people move from one job to another.
It's why Microsoft didn't bother fighting piracy in some countries; forcing people to avoid Windows meant that they would also be forced to avoid learning how to use Microsoft products. If they could avoid Microsoft products, why would they need them when they get a job or start businesses?
I am sure that Garage Games expected that people would learn Torque and take that knowledge from their hobby projects to their jobs, too.
"...applying the Torque for Wii to The Destiny of Zorro." Cute. B-)
It's why Microsoft didn't bother fighting piracy in some countries; forcing people to avoid Windows meant that they would also be forced to avoid learning how to use Microsoft products. If they could avoid Microsoft products, why would they need them when they get a job or start businesses?
I am sure that Garage Games expected that people would learn Torque and take that knowledge from their hobby projects to their jobs, too.
"...applying the Torque for Wii to The Destiny of Zorro." Cute. B-)
The trick is that MS has to do SOMETHING or people will go on using pirated versions of their products.
That, and Microsoft has done a pretty good job of doing the same strategy. For example, look at MS SQL Server. They have been slowly eroding Oracle's foundation by being the "low price alternative."
(We won't mention the OTHER low-price alternative, MySQL, which I'm a big fan of...)
It's a clever strategy. While I'm only nominally a Torque fan (I'm a Torque user who is serious about it, therefore I am painfully aware of many of its weaknesses as well as its benefits), I really hope it works out for the GG guys. A decade ago the idea of such low-priced, reasonably high-power engines was pretty unheard of.
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That, and Microsoft has done a pretty good job of doing the same strategy. For example, look at MS SQL Server. They have been slowly eroding Oracle's foundation by being the "low price alternative."
(We won't mention the OTHER low-price alternative, MySQL, which I'm a big fan of...)
It's a clever strategy. While I'm only nominally a Torque fan (I'm a Torque user who is serious about it, therefore I am painfully aware of many of its weaknesses as well as its benefits), I really hope it works out for the GG guys. A decade ago the idea of such low-priced, reasonably high-power engines was pretty unheard of.
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