Jeff Minter, head of Llamasoft, is apparently a bit upset about the sales of his Xbox Live Arcade title Space Giraffe. Upset enough, in fact, to post a disparaging message to his Livejournal blog, insinuating that he means to stop making games altogether.
Prompting this reaction were apparent Live Arcade statistics, revealing that in one week Frogger on XBLA outsold Space Giraffe. Minter is clearly taking the lack of his game's success a bit hard, but we hope that he doesn't let the sheer popularity of retro titles push him away from any future development.
Minter's angry ranting was posted at 1:45 am, his time. In the event that he sobers up and removes the post, we've copied his frothy words for your perusal. Check out all the anti-retro spite after the break.
[Via CVG]
Jeff Minter's original blog post, in its entirety, follows:
Subject: jesus fucking christ
Body:
not seeing a lot of reason to continue even trying to make games, at this point, when a remake of Frogger, one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games, can outsell Space Giraffe that we put so much love and effort into, by more than ten to one, in one week.
OK, we get the message. All you want on that channel is remakes of old, shite arcade games and crap you vaguely remember playing on your Amiga.
We'll shut up trying to do anything new then.
Sorry for even trying.
Reader Comments (80)
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 1:09AM Bridget said
A few days ago when I was bored at work, I gave Space Giraffe a whirl again with the intent of trying to actually figure out what's going on. Truth be told, I think there is a pretty neat game here. This idea of balancing the killing of enemies versus keeping the power zone filled so you can buck enemies from the rim is engaging. The ability to fire left and right helps a lot too, along with deflecting enemy bullets and using pods to leap. The concepts here are completely solid and, when they work right, engaging and addictive.
The problem is that it's all buried under that horrid music visualizer. It's very difficult to see the game underneath it. Nowhere is this more prominent than when you try to avoid enemy projectiles and inevitably slam into the one you never saw coming, audio cue or not.
Minter didn't know when to quit with the visuals and, in doing so, he ruined a perfectly good concept. Now he wants to take the gaming community to task for ripping on him? Yeah, better luck next time. Definitely "Not Brilliant."
The problem is that it's all buried under that horrid music visualizer. It's very difficult to see the game underneath it. Nowhere is this more prominent than when you try to avoid enemy projectiles and inevitably slam into the one you never saw coming, audio cue or not.
Minter didn't know when to quit with the visuals and, in doing so, he ruined a perfectly good concept. Now he wants to take the gaming community to task for ripping on him? Yeah, better luck next time. Definitely "Not Brilliant."
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 1:22AM (Unverified) said
Hahaha, a "shtty mame rom" outsold his Shtty mame rom with a rainbow turd rehash of tempest. Dude is a joke and needs to sack up and say that SG sucked and that llamas will lick your balls for the exposing us to the crap that is his game.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 1:58AM DJ Clae said
I am a huge fan of Tempest 2000 on Jaguar. I forgot about this game. Didn't know what it was even going to be called. I didn't know it was out. I'm going to go buy it now.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 2:27AM Shogan said
Well I loved Tempest 2000, but Space Giraffe was a little bit too much like a bad acid trip. Maybe if he polished the game up a bit and reduced the psychedelic stuff just a little?
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 2:53AM bm111 said
Wow, a lot of butthurt frogger fans in here, huh? ;)
Let's face it, games do sell -mostly- on name. I haven't played SG, but this is a hard fact nobody can deny.
Let's face it, games do sell -mostly- on name. I haven't played SG, but this is a hard fact nobody can deny.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 2:54AM (Unverified) said
Gee, I wonder if Rez will outsell Space Giraffe on XBLA?
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 2:54AM mnemo said
Tempest and Tempest 2000 were exactly the same hardcore shooters like Space Giraffe (I even have a Jaguar in the basement and didn't play much). No wonder the "general public" won't buy it. Frogger _is_ a classic, no matter what you think of it and although I personally wouldn't buy it, it's VERY easy to understand, but hard to master. With SG I guess that most people didn't even download the demo and it's difficult to understand (!). If you want to sell something in huge amounts you need to APPEAL.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 4:18AM (Unverified) said
Poor old Minter.
Back in the 8-bit days, Minter was cutting edge in terms of games programming, pushing hardware limits and doing unique and endearingly quirky things with very basic tools. He was a hero to a lot of us who were into gaming in the 80's
Sadly for the past 15 years he's been stuck in a timewarp, rehashing the same old llama/lightsynth/frenetic shooter schtick on increasingly powerful platforms.
He's so damnned irrelevant these days it's not funny.
Here's a dollar Jeff, go buy a shred of dignity and a clue mate.
Back in the 8-bit days, Minter was cutting edge in terms of games programming, pushing hardware limits and doing unique and endearingly quirky things with very basic tools. He was a hero to a lot of us who were into gaming in the 80's
Sadly for the past 15 years he's been stuck in a timewarp, rehashing the same old llama/lightsynth/frenetic shooter schtick on increasingly powerful platforms.
He's so damnned irrelevant these days it's not funny.
Here's a dollar Jeff, go buy a shred of dignity and a clue mate.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 3:41AM ummhello said
what a retard....
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 6:48AM DrXym said
I played and liked a lot of Minter games going all the way back to the Vic-20. But Space Giraffe just looks crap. Tempest was never a good game to begin with, and a psychedelic tempest isn't going to be much better no matter how many weird effects the screen is showing. I've seen videos on You Tube of "how its meant to be played" and it looks even more boring.
I think Minter would have greater success if he recreated some of his classics and turned down the trippy dial to 5.
I think Minter would have greater success if he recreated some of his classics and turned down the trippy dial to 5.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 9:03AM DonaldMick said
One word came to mind as I read that pile of dreck:
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 9:11AM Rabite said
I got the demo the day it came out. Deleted it when it gave me a headache from all the colors. There may have been potential in the game, but if it's blotted out by all the colors flashing and shit I for one will avoid it like the plague. Try fixing your game instead of blaming the gamers for not being good enough. "Then this game/movie/book/review/etc isn't for you" is a shitty way to look at poor sales.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 9:33AM (Unverified) said
Guys, if you think Space Giraffe is a shooter, you are playing wrong. Shooting is about the last thing you should do to kill something in that game. Really, the game is about as far from Tempest in terms of how to play it as a game can get while still looking similar. It takes awhile to adjust to playing it, but once you do, you can understand just how it is different. Of course, that requires reading, playing a tutorial, and figuring out a bit how the high scores get so high compared to the people playing it as a shooter, but whatever. It's cool. I am glad Minter isn't giving up.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 10:39AM (Unverified) said
"not seeing a lot of reason to continue even trying to make games"
- you wont be missed, hack.
- you wont be missed, hack.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 10:41AM (Unverified) said
I had totally forgotten about it last night but Frogger is included with the purchase of the Live Arcade Joystick. There might be other ways to get it as well. So anyone who purchases one of those Joysticks gets a download code which would count as a sale of the game. Its possible enough Joysticks are selling to produce most of the game sales which of course are going to be larger then the sales of Space Giraffe...
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 2:07PM grossgreg said
I don't know what's worse - the original crybaby post, or the hypocritical follow up:
"To those who came on here to have a go at me and tell me how much I suck - just piss off, I don't care. If you do that I shall delete your comments and ban you. Guess what, I think you suck too, and I don't give a rat's arse if you don't like my games; they aren't made for you anyway."
A) Obviously he does care or he wouldn't have posted the original message.
B) Don't blatantly disregard gamers'/consumers' feedback and then bi+ch about how your product didn't sell.
Games are a product; too many developers have berated their customers during the past year because they put too much "love and effort" into an unsuccessful product. Although I applaud passion and devotion, many people have put "love and effort" into projects that didn't succeed. Truly successful people are the ones that are willing to overcome adversity and not sit around whining about the efforts that didn't quite meet their expectations.
It's a fact of life. I'm really surprised that so many game developers/designers took so many years in the industry to learn this lesson.
"To those who came on here to have a go at me and tell me how much I suck - just piss off, I don't care. If you do that I shall delete your comments and ban you. Guess what, I think you suck too, and I don't give a rat's arse if you don't like my games; they aren't made for you anyway."
A) Obviously he does care or he wouldn't have posted the original message.
B) Don't blatantly disregard gamers'/consumers' feedback and then bi+ch about how your product didn't sell.
Games are a product; too many developers have berated their customers during the past year because they put too much "love and effort" into an unsuccessful product. Although I applaud passion and devotion, many people have put "love and effort" into projects that didn't succeed. Truly successful people are the ones that are willing to overcome adversity and not sit around whining about the efforts that didn't quite meet their expectations.
It's a fact of life. I'm really surprised that so many game developers/designers took so many years in the industry to learn this lesson.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 2:51PM bigsofty said
ALL his games, nm this Tempest rip off and Atari wanabee rip offs... why did Frogger sell more? Because its Frogger and arcade classic... not just a rip off of a classic which is all you've ever done!
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 2:52PM bigsofty said
Sorry meant to say Minters been leeching off Williams ideas for years, not Atari...
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 4:23PM (Unverified) said
i bought it and i loved it. you made me happy. keep making games. dont get down because one game does not get bought. i told as many people to buy the game when i bought it
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 5:28PM purple monkey said
Here's a suggestion Jeff: Make better games, maybe then people will buy them. It's not that people only buy retro games, it's that people buy good games. You don't hear the devs of Geo Wars complaining, guess why? They actually make good games. I mean, Space Giraffe wasn't bad, I tried the demo, it was ok. Not bad but not good enough to buy.
You make your own breaks Jeff.
You make your own breaks Jeff.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 5:43PM (Unverified) said
I was gonna buy this game. Now I'm not. Thought it was gonna be right up my alley, but apparently I was wrong because Jeff says it wasn't made for me anyway. News Flash: the masses love banality, get over it. I can't believe this jackass would actually state in one sentence that he puts love in his creations but sees no reason to continue his work. Just because more people like Frogger.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 8:17PM atharv said
I don't know about the rest if y'all, but Space Giraffe just sounds stupid. I mean, I'm definitely gonna pay for a gam about giraffes rather than respectable games like UNO and (dare I say it) Frogger. But guess what? My most played game is Halo. Why bother with Space Giraffes when you have Halo?
And the developer is such an attention seeker. Just accept that your game sucks and you need to move over llamas to fit in society these days unless you are a Jimmy Neutron character.
I hope he's not, for the world's sake.
And the developer is such an attention seeker. Just accept that your game sucks and you need to move over llamas to fit in society these days unless you are a Jimmy Neutron character.
I hope he's not, for the world's sake.
Posted: Nov 24th 2007 5:44AM BurntMeatloaf said
Personally, I like stupid games. It's nice to see something weird that doesn't take itself so seriously, given the sheer level of pretentiousness presented by games with 2 hours of cut-scenes and overdone voice acting.
Unfortunately, this game has so many psychedelic effects, it looked more like pretentious art than a game, anyway. I could see what was going on, but I couldn't enjoy any of it with all the distractions.
Reply
Unfortunately, this game has so many psychedelic effects, it looked more like pretentious art than a game, anyway. I could see what was going on, but I couldn't enjoy any of it with all the distractions.
Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 8:34PM (Unverified) said
way to go, joystiq. for supporting your indie developers.
Posted: Nov 24th 2007 1:49AM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said
Luck made some successes.
Skill made some successes.
Complaining made none.
Skill made some successes.
Complaining made none.
Posted: Nov 24th 2007 5:38AM BurntMeatloaf said
I recall it took a lot of time to get the game through Microsoft's QA. *Someone* at Microsoft had to have told Minter that the game had issues with more than just coding standards.
No wonder he works alone. He reminds me of Bil Herd -- a genius underneath, but shelled with a fat ego. Too bad, because I liked a lot of his earlier PC and PocketPC games.
No wonder he works alone. He reminds me of Bil Herd -- a genius underneath, but shelled with a fat ego. Too bad, because I liked a lot of his earlier PC and PocketPC games.
Posted: Nov 25th 2007 8:47PM raygundan said
I bought Space Giraffe without hesitation based on fond memories of Minter's other games (I used to get up at 5am and play Attack of the Mutant Camels on the C64 before everybody else got up and wanted to use the TV).
Unfortunately, the game isn't very good, and I won't be running right out for the next one.
And what's with the hate for Frogger?
Unfortunately, the game isn't very good, and I won't be running right out for the next one.
And what's with the hate for Frogger?
Posted: Nov 25th 2007 10:05PM mardigan71 said
All we wanted was Tempest 2000. Was that so hard??? Don't give us some freaky piece of crap that's difficult to see (even on a 40" HDTV). All we really wanted from you, Llamasoft, was Tempest 2000.
Posted: Nov 28th 2007 7:46AM (Unverified) said
Hey Jeff... news flash: Space Giraffe = the last three games you made = we're all bored of it now = shitty sales. Try something new, okay, and stop bitching when your rehash of a decade+ old idea is met with shrugged shoulders.
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