Continuing to make our rounds here at MWSF, we took a couple of minutes to talk with Jay Moore of GarageGames. Maintainers of the Torque engine, GarageGames was showing off two Torque-created titles at the show: Marble Blast and Orbz.

Marble Blast, which pays homage to an old title by the name of Marble Madness, puts players in control of a marble, which must then be safely navigated through a series of levels. Features include a controllable camera, brightly-colored graphics, and clever level designs, including several based off of artist M.C. Escher's work.

Orbz is described by Moore as "billiards meets Quake inside Mario Party." Basically put, several players control an orb and attempt to collect stars, all the while collecting various powerups that can help, hinder, or create general chaos. An an interesting usability point, a five-year-old boy was able to set up and host a server game after playing the game for only an hour.

As for future plans, GarageGames plans on having around 12 titles out by this year's E3, and 30 out by next year. While some of the games will be using the Torque engine, other titles will be selected cream-of-the-crop indie titles.

GarageGames expects Marble Blast and Orbz for the Mac to be available for download sometime in the next few weeks.

GarageGames

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