Torque 3D Gaming Engine to Go Open Source

The buzz continues to grow for open source gaming efforts. A Los Angeles-based project called Ouya is billed as "a new kind of video game console" and has generated significant crowdsourced funding. And, gamers on Linux are finding a rapidly widening array of available games. But the fact remains that in the open source arena, gaming is lagging what's available on proprietary platforms.

With that in mind, GarageGames has just pledged to open  source its advanced Torque 3D engine to the world on GitHub in the next several weeks, under an MIT license. That could be good news for developers who want to build around a sophisticated 3D platform.

According to GarageGames' announcement:

"As long-time advocates of the open source movement, GarageGames believes that this direction will benefit the entire game development community by setting a new standard of quality for open source game technology. Under the MIT license, open source developers and commercial developers alike are able to use Torque in their projects for no cost and with no requirement to share their derivative works. In addition, GarageGames plans to use Torque 3D in an initiative called Innovation Friday. This program is an employee-driven, open source effort created to foster innovation within the company and community."

The CEO of GarageGames, Eric Preisz, said, in conjunction with the announcement: “Eleven years ago, GarageGames did an incredibly innovative thing when they sold a full source game engine for $100. We are excited to continue in our founders' footsteps by changing game development again by releasing Torque 3D as the best open source game technology in the world.”

GarageGames will also staff a steering committee for the open source project. You can go to http://www.GarageGames.com for more information.