For those of you familiar with GarageGames, you know we do a bunch of cool stuff:

• We’re a developer of game engine technology and tools.
• We’re an online publishing label for independent games.
• We have a thriving online community of independent developers.
• We’re a distributor of game content to aid development.
• And not to forget, we’re a first party developer of great games!

With the advent of GreatGamesExperiment, we can add another bullet point to the list: We’re a provider of a social networking for games site that links players, developers, publishers, and games all together into one awesome mix.

Whew! That’s a lot of stuff - and that’s not even mentioning smaller ventures like our GG Press book publishing label, our world renowned Indie Game Conference, and our collaborative documentation and code developer network. Before you start thinking, “What’s next, GarageGames: The Movie?” (actually, that’s not a bad idea) let’s talk about how the Great Games Experiment (aka GGE) fits into some of our other efforts, what it is, and what it all has to do with YOU.

First things first - every developer is first a gamer, and while we have have a fantastic selection of the best indie games in our GarageGames Game Store, there’s a lot more games out there than we could ever possibly publish (or would want to). You could do a Google Search for games, but then you’d come up with 994,000,000 hits. Uncle! You could go to a portal such as Yahoo! Games, but you’re only going to find the most homogenized mass appeal games there. Really, any portal you go to is going to suffer from a lack of selection inherent in having a portfolio that is preened and hand selected. So we have two extremes here - Google serving up the widest selection with no structure, and portals serving up highly structured offerings with a thin selection. I just want to play games!

Enter Great Games Experiment. Think of it as a self-publishing portal. Any user can post a game. That means a wide selection, but it also means games getting “published” that, let’s be honest, really aren’t worth playing. This is where the social networking component comes into its own. Once submitted, other players can rate games, write reviews, suggest the game to their friends, post the game on their GGE profile homepage. This is a one-two punch: (1) any user can post a game, bringing the GGE library up to massive proportions, and (2) social networking tools manage that chaos and help bring the best games to the forefront. Do every gamer that’s ever said “I wish I could find more games that I enjoyed playing,” GGE is a gamer’s dream.

For you gamers out there, you’ve got two great places to look - GGE for when you’re feeling adventurous, and the GG Game Store for when you want reliably high quality content. It’s a sure-fire formula for an afternoon of alien blasting fun.

Now, I know there’s a lot of you that are more than gamers out there, and that’s where things really start to fit together. Let’s say you enjoy making games, but don’t consider yourself a full-on developer. You mod, you tinker, you make small game experiments. Unfit for true publishing, until now your creations were left to collect dust in your blog, on your homepage, maybe a shareware site or two. No more. Enter GGE, where you can post your creations for other game-makers to evaluate and other game-players to play. You start getting feedback and suggestions. Maybe an artist writes you an inquires as to your next experiment. You organize a game online with some of your fans. And the downloads and feedback doesn’t slow down - you keep posting new creations, and new players keep snapping them up. Next thing you know you’ve got a fan club. Better still, you switch over to GG tech for your tinkerings, speeding up your development even further and making your project accessible for the whole Torque Community to potentially help out and contribute to. You even use a content pack or two to kick-start your next project. And that project has a home now thanks to GGE.

So we’ve got things fitting togeather nicely for gamers, and for game hobbyists. What about those of us who are really serious about making games - and making a living making them?

For developers, there is no better way to get feedback, grow a following, build game sales, and attract publisher attention than posting your game/demo on GGE. Why?

• Get Feedback: You can post your incomplete demo for other players to play. The inherent social networking allows player feedback through a variety of methods.
• Grow a Following: You can start a GGE group for your game that fans of the game can join to meet one another, discuss finer points of the game, swap strategies, organize online games, and more.
• Build Sales: GGE Game pages feature a nifty “Buy Now!” button that players can use to directly access the link to your game sales page.
• Attract Publishers: If your game draws heat (high ratings, high downloads) on GGE, publishers will take notice and approach you for publishing. This includes us!

And yes, even publishers themselves can list their offerings as an additional service for those developers whose games they are publishing. When players find a game they like by a publisher, they will try other games by that same publisher to see if they like those, too.

You can see how this all fits together. Games on GGE made using Torque tech, tools, and content packs. GGE games made collaboratively with other GG community members. The best GGE games getting published in our game store. And let’s not forget, our own GG made games on GGE for all to enjoy.

We think you’ll find no better place for start-to-finish solutions for game-making. We know there’s no better place to play great games. As for GarageGames: The Movie, maybe I’ll find some film social networking sites to start to generate buzz. :)

Joshua Dallman
GarageGames Producer