Imagine a world where game developers don't actually need to code anything. Their engine, project management tools, and content development tools have already been prefabricated for a nominal fee, and all they need to do is create a beautiful, content-rich game. Entire firms would be dedicated to manufacturing individual pieces of software, similar to cogs in a machine, each refined to a point of near perfection. We're not there yet, but the day is coming.

The concept of interchangeable parts incited a revolution in the 1800's. Suddenly, master crafters became obsolete, and those with only basic training could produce quality wares in less time for a lower cost. “Middleware,” the gaming industry's version of the spark that fired the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution, will open avenues of development never before available to lower budget developers.

At the show, Garage Games made an appearance, showcasing both their new Torque engine, along with version management software developed by their booth mates, IonForge. The engine itself can be licensed by any would be developer for $100, and the source is included with the fully built world-builder. A fully functional tool, Torque works with OpenGL and DirectX, boasts a vehicle physics engine, and has an in-engine coding language similar to C.