Space Giraffe Designer: Microsoft Is Holding Me Back

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Space Giraffe Designer: Microsoft Is Holding Me Back

Space Giraffe designer Jeff Minter is back. Or he would be if Microsoft would let him.

Talk to anyone from the 8 bit generation about llamas, and there's only one name that springs to mind: Jeff Minter.

Jeff Minter, known as the Hairy Yak, was one of the originators of Llamasoft [http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/frontpage.php], a company that defined eccentric with games that were based around hippy psychedelics, inane tunes and furry animals. Though he's been designing games for decades, Minter is probably best known to 360 owners as the guy who rather famously pitched a fit [http://stinkygoat.livejournal.com/115261.html] about the fact that a rehash of Frogger outsold his own shooter, Space Giraffe.

His latest release is Gridrunner+++, but Microsoft isn't answering his calls. "We sent it off to [Microsoft] months ago, but they've just not said anything - we're just waiting for them,", Jeff said in an interview with Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/], "Basically I'm going to carry on with the PC version of it if I don't hear from them soon, because they're just sitting on the demo we sent them three or four months ago. We haven't heard a thing."

Part of the reason for Microsoft's reluctance to move forward may be the lower than average sales of Space Giraffe, which received a less-than-enthusiastic reception from XBLA users. Minter, however, believes that the whole shop setup on XBox Live is daunting and only promotes the most recently-released games; If a game can't get recognized within that crucial week of release, it goes down to bargain bucketsville.

Personally, I'd buy any of Jeff Minter's game for the sheer ride; even though I've still never figured out what to do in Ancipital. [http://www.v-direct.org.uk/Ancipital.htm] (If you're one of those people unlucky enough never to play something that will shred your eye and ears simultaneously, you can download the PC version of Space Giraffe here [http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/downloads/SpaceGiraffe.exe]).


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[L.B. Jeffries]

Thanks for the link, I've only had the chance to play it on the console for a few minutes.

You always gotta wonder about someone who introduces a totally new game concept and expects people to greet it with open arms. When are truly original ideas ever accepted by the masses? You could almost define how unique a product is by how much it sells. The more people are buying it, the more it probably is just something old and familiar.

Fun game though, using visual distortion as an obstacle was definitely something I'd never seen before.

 

[qbert4ever]

Oh yeah, it was new and inventive alright. The only problem was that it was an explosion of epilepsy that made me want to take sandpaper to my eyeballs. Even taking that away, it was a lackluster arcade shooting thing which had me begging for something less boring (like, say, E.T.) at best.

Aside from that, very original.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

*sigh*

Space Giraffe sucked fossilised dinosaur crap through a bendy straw the length of the Alaskan Pipeline. And I'm one of those soft-and-fuzzy "games are valued differently by different people" types saying this.

Maybe if Minter's next project does better Microsoft will pay more attention... but until then, I can't blame the Suits on this call.

-- Steve

 

[dthree]

Fun game though, using visual distortion as an obstacle was definitely something I'd never seen before.

Really? Never seen E3, Rez, Geometry Wars, or Lumines?

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Fun game though, using visual distortion as an obstacle was definitely something I'd never seen before.

Really? Never seen E3, Rez, Geometry Wars, or Lumines?

Not quite on the same scale, in my opinion. In Geometry Wars it gets cluttered, in Space Giraffe you straight up cannot see or understand what's going on at all.

 

[ukslim]

dthree - none of those games does what SG does. It's the feedback monsters later in the game, which when you shoot them, ramps up the parameters on the light synth, so your view is even more messed up than normal. It's a long way into the game before you encounter these - because they're little bastards.

It's a shame Yak seems incapable of writing an interactive tutorial - he's written an excellent 'getting started' document, but you have to find that independently of the game. He's developed the in-game tutorial a little for the PC version (and made it unskippable) but it's still entirely possible to play through that and still not get the point of the game.

Which is:
- don't treat it like a twitch game. Each level has strategies, and "shoot everything and have your wits about you" is never enough.
- aim for high scores and complimentary end-of-level messages ; replay levels to achieve that.
- not being able to see stuff is often the point. You can't dodge bullets when you can't see them, so instead, be where the bullets can't be.
- If you don't take pleasure in the WinAmp visualiser and its ilk, then you might not take pleasure in SG either.

 

[dthree]

Fun game though, using visual distortion as an obstacle was definitely something I'd never seen before.

Really? Never seen E3, Rez, Geometry Wars, or Lumines?

Not quite on the same scale, in my opinion. In Geometry Wars it gets cluttered, in Space Giraffe you straight up cannot see or understand what's going on at all.

True, thats exactly what I felt about SG.

 

[Galletea]

Well, his fit was short, and his game really hurt my eyes.
I hope the next one is easier to look at for a few minutes.

 

[Miral]

Talk to anyone from the 8 bit generation about llamas, and there's only one name that springs to mind: Jeff Minter.

Actually, when I hear someone talking about llamas, it usually brings to mind Will Wright and Maxis...