November Update
by Eric Preisz · 11/11/2010 (1:00 pm) · 291 comments
Today, InstantAction informed employees that it will be winding down operations. While we are shutting down the InstantAction.com website and Instant Jam game, Torquepowered.com will continue to operate while InstantAction explores opportunities with potential buyers for Torque. We thank all of our past and current customers for their support.
- Torque Management
Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
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rockinliam
- Posts: 466
- Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:26 am
Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
Uhoh, poop is going down, just saw this on their website, they want buyers for the brand...
Skillset: C/C++, OpenGL, C#, Lua, PHP, MySql, Web Dev etc.
Website: https://liam-griffiths.co.uk/
Website: https://liam-griffiths.co.uk/
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Jackolantern
- Posts: 10891
- Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:00 pm
Re: Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
Wow! And this was after Torque 3D really seemed to be making in-roads. I guess Unity has hurt them more than we had previously thought.
I didn't like the direction they were heading, nor did I think it was going to end up suiting them well. They seemed very ready to ditch the hobbiest segment when they released T3D and changed over to Torque Powered, dropping the Garage Games moniker, but I was always wondering who they were going after. Ultra-low budget professional indies? I was never convinced that was a segment worth solely focusing on. Hobbiests may be high maintenance with comparatively little money to spend, but there are orders of magnitude more of them than professional indies when you consider that every person wanting to start out with hobbyiest game development has to first buy an engine even if they don't stick it out and produce anything.
Sad to see an older company sinking, but I can't say I didn't see the writing on the wall. They pissed off a lot of their loyal fanbase with the change in management during the Torque Powered change, basically chasing them kicking and screaming to other engines (aka Unity). InstantAction seemed like a failed endeavor from the start and a waste of company resources.
It is just hard to find an example of a high-flying company being driven into the dirt this fast by new management with "new ideas".
I didn't like the direction they were heading, nor did I think it was going to end up suiting them well. They seemed very ready to ditch the hobbiest segment when they released T3D and changed over to Torque Powered, dropping the Garage Games moniker, but I was always wondering who they were going after. Ultra-low budget professional indies? I was never convinced that was a segment worth solely focusing on. Hobbiests may be high maintenance with comparatively little money to spend, but there are orders of magnitude more of them than professional indies when you consider that every person wanting to start out with hobbyiest game development has to first buy an engine even if they don't stick it out and produce anything.
Sad to see an older company sinking, but I can't say I didn't see the writing on the wall. They pissed off a lot of their loyal fanbase with the change in management during the Torque Powered change, basically chasing them kicking and screaming to other engines (aka Unity). InstantAction seemed like a failed endeavor from the start and a waste of company resources.
It is just hard to find an example of a high-flying company being driven into the dirt this fast by new management with "new ideas".
The indelible lord of tl;dr
Re: Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
It is sad and somewhat disheartening to hear about company's having to pull the plug. But you have the chance to learn from their mistakes. I remember reading the article about Kiko: http://hitechstartups.wordpress.com/200 ... s-failure/
(I dunno if that one is it, but it was something like it)
When I read that, I thought about our company and I remember feeling really motivated to kick things into high gear. And we did! And then our first project bombed horribly. But it also taught us a lot. So in retrospect it may have been a good thing that it failed haha
(I dunno if that one is it, but it was something like it)
When I read that, I thought about our company and I remember feeling really motivated to kick things into high gear. And we did! And then our first project bombed horribly. But it also taught us a lot. So in retrospect it may have been a good thing that it failed haha
w00t
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hallsofvallhalla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 12023
- Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:29 pm
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hallsofvallhalla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 12023
- Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:29 pm
Re: Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
haha here is my response
Thank you for your criticism, though it was completely and totally misplaced in the topic at hand. While we are working with interested parties looking to purchase the Torque properties and dealing with the majority of our workforce looking for new jobs, tensions are running rather high. I removed the comments and temporarily removed your posting rights. I will restore them shortly. If it had been someone else that caught it, they may not be restored.
If you have any further questions or criticisms, I'll answer them directly over e-mail. I will also ensure that the rest of the team sees them.
I'm sorry about the heightened level of moderation happening right now, but it is a very tense time for all of us and I'm trying to keep the peace as well as stopping general trolling and avoiding extremely heavy-handed moderation (full account suspension, etc).
Thanks,
Dave
--
David Montgomery-Blake
Community Manager - TorquePowered.com, the developers of the Torque Engines and MarbleBlast games.
Re: Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
lmfao. They suspended your posting rights?!
Geez haha
The same thing is happening with CodeIgniter, which by now everyone here on IR knows is my favorite PHP framework. The community is upset because we've waited for significant updates (2.0) for over a year. And now that it's come around a lot of what was requested seems to have been completely ignored.
For a good while it was excusable that they concentrate a little more on their commercial products. But a lot of blog posts started popping up from influential members of the CI community, and this spurred a change in Ellis Lab it seems. They're promising more commits etc etc.
Is it too late for Torque to come around? Maybe if they sell it the new owners can turn it around
Geez haha
The same thing is happening with CodeIgniter, which by now everyone here on IR knows is my favorite PHP framework. The community is upset because we've waited for significant updates (2.0) for over a year. And now that it's come around a lot of what was requested seems to have been completely ignored.
For a good while it was excusable that they concentrate a little more on their commercial products. But a lot of blog posts started popping up from influential members of the CI community, and this spurred a change in Ellis Lab it seems. They're promising more commits etc etc.
Is it too late for Torque to come around? Maybe if they sell it the new owners can turn it around
w00t
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hallsofvallhalla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 12023
- Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:29 pm
Re: Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
who would buy it?
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Jackolantern
- Posts: 10891
- Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:00 pm
Re: Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
Wow...yet another sign that the Garage Games of old is long, long, gone. Erasing contrary, yet completely realistic posts and suspending someone's posting ability because "tensions are high" over there? WTF? We don't care about how tense it is over there, and we shouldn't! Are these people at Torque Powered business newbies or something? You never make a single outwardly-visible business or business moderation decision based on the feelings of the staff. That is utterly unprofessional and disgusting IMHO.
Meh, I knew they were doomed and voiced my predictions right at the change to Torque Powered and Torque 3D. I may even try to dig up my old posts where I said it. They were aiming at a market segment that could not sustain them while Unity was eating up their potential market like a black hole. This just proves to me that they are unprofessionals completely out of their league.
EDIT: Here it is! Over a year ago. While I didn't say "This is the end of Torque" (I doubt many would have honestly speculated that the Titanic of an indie company known as GG could be sunk so fast), I had serious, serious doubts about their ability to sustain themselves with their imaginary market segment they were aiming at. And I wasn't the only one voicing some trepidation about the change in that thread, either.
Meh, I knew they were doomed and voiced my predictions right at the change to Torque Powered and Torque 3D. I may even try to dig up my old posts where I said it. They were aiming at a market segment that could not sustain them while Unity was eating up their potential market like a black hole. This just proves to me that they are unprofessionals completely out of their league.
EDIT: Here it is! Over a year ago. While I didn't say "This is the end of Torque" (I doubt many would have honestly speculated that the Titanic of an indie company known as GG could be sunk so fast), I had serious, serious doubts about their ability to sustain themselves with their imaginary market segment they were aiming at. And I wasn't the only one voicing some trepidation about the change in that thread, either.
The indelible lord of tl;dr
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hallsofvallhalla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 12023
- Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:29 pm
Re: Torque Slowing/Shutting down.
haha funny you should say that, this was my response right after he emailed me.
I understand the tension but you fail to see the customers tension as well. I have been dealing with you guys for years asking for things and have been ignored. It is pretty upsetting that this is the way we get treated after we have been ignored and stepped on for so long. Delete the thread if you wish but hiding our thoughts to get a buyer will only make it worse. Companies see that. Be true and truthful and it will work out. Get rid of all this devious construction you guys have fell in to.