'Bob's Game' dev confines self in Nintendo protest

by Justin McElroy on Dec 22nd 2008 12:28PM

You've got to feel for Bob Pelloni. The guy sinks 15,000 hours over five years into making a DS RPG -- completely by himself -- called Bob's Game. Now, when his labor of love is finally ready to be shown to the world, the poor guy can't wrestle the last thing he needs, a disc containing the development kit (or SDK), away from Nintendo. After 17 weeks of trying, Bob's getting serious and locking himself in solitary confinement for 100 days in protest.

Bob's got no internet, no television, just the tools he needs to work and a phone to check his email (in the hopes that Nintendo tries to get a hold of him). If you'd like to pitch in and help out, Bob's asking that you drop a line to Big N. We'll do the same, and let you know what we hear.

[Via Wambling Gamer]

Source

Tags: bobs-game, DS, nintendo

Reader Comments (121)

I'd rather protest the making of DS games.

Kinda curious to know why you think that?

I commend this guys dedication to the medium, now Nintendo give this guy a GOD DAMN DEV KIT!

Remake =/= Port.

Typical Nintendo.

They've shut down like 500 Chrono Trigger remake projects too.

What on earth does this have to do with Nintendo and Square protecting their copyrights?

Mmmyup. Especially when there's already the DS remake of Chrono Trigger that was released 27 days ago.

Hate to say it, but based upon the videos the guy has put up before, he's not up to Nintendo-licensed snuff. He should move his project to XNA or something for developers of his level really.

Really? Have you *seen* some of the crap that is "nintendo certified" on the Wii? The Nintendo seal of approval hasn't meant anything in years.

You're either the biggest troll ever or haven't seen a Wii games shelf lately.

The seal means that the game runs on the platform intended. It hasn't meant anything other than that since the SNES era. If his game runs, it'll qualify for a seal of quality.

"The Nintendo seal of approval hasn't meant anything in years."

You obviously have no idea what that seal is.

Hint: It has nothing to do with how fun a game is.

how about you stick to making predictions on how many licks it will take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop.

Well, didn't it read "Seal of Quality" before? Approval only means it can run on the Nintendo system it's made for. Now, is this game quality? I don't know, haven't checked the vids.

Should have read the prior comments.

Christmas has got me all effed up.

Sorry. I meant, "The HOLIDAYS have got me all effed up."

we need a Joystiq Podcast Apreciation Group that Apreciates Bob's Game. or JPAGTABG.

or just a new forum topic for this guy.

I read that as JPEGTBAG.
So when I read your post, I thought you were saying that we should all join tea-bag each other naked and take pictures in protest.

Now excuse me as I'm going to go buy 250 copies of HAZE, in a last second ditch to help Free Radical.

"Bob's getting serious and locking himself in solitary confinement for 100 days in protest. Bob's got no internet, no television, just the tools he needs to work and a phone to check his email"

Wow that'll show em Bob. I don't think Nintendo can take that kind of pressure.

They better PRAY TO GOD that he doesn't pull the big guns out and make an ONLINE PETITION! Do you really want that on your hands NINTENDO?!?!?

for some reason i imagined jack bauer saying that, and boy did i lol

Yeah, I imagined it like Jack interrogating Reggie.

"can't take that kind of pressure"

Neither can this dude's nuts. How about spanking it, did he include that in his protest?

I'd rather see him go insane with cabin fever.

Now there's a game!

According to the game trailer he already has.

In the month in 30 secs, Bob seems to be naked or in boxers for the majority of the time.

The game itself seems like a GBA game and a very dull one at that.

Why not? I emailed Nintendo to help this guy out. It's Christmastime.

I kinda think the guy should get his kit too. Yet, the fact that he doesn't wear much clothing when he codes creeps me out a bit - maybe Nintendo got the same vibe. Some guy sitting in his boxers in a tiny room coding all that time...sounds like another unabomber type candidate. (Yeah, I know Ted was all anti-tech but you get my meaning.)

Problem is, Nintendo can't give in and send him one now, because then everyone who wants a devkit will do the same thing.

This is the same reason why Joystiq doesn't negotiate with terrorists.

Read his page. He claims, he's not just 'any guy'.
"I fulfill all the requirements- I'm a financially stable registered company with a FEIN working from a commercial address.
When Nintendo decides to approve my developer license application I will end my protest."

An odd predicament indeed. But if he did it completely alone, i could understand them not handing out an SDK. But what exactly does he expect to do with this? Retail release it to make money, retail release it just for the sake thereof? Release it period? I mean, depending on what he wants, homebrew's an option, but if it's his dream to have the Nintendo Seal of Quality slapped on it, then it's not an option.

It really depends on what he wants as to whether or not this course of action is appropriate. Someone care to clarify?

Seal of quality????

You're kidding, right?

http://www.nintendic.com/imgpop.php?path=/nintendo-ds/imagine-series/imagine-cooking.jpg

You mean that thing in the bottom-left hand corner?

I don't think the number of employees (1 in this case) should really come into play if he really is a truly registered company as he says he is.

Every time I've seen this guy turn up on various forums he gets mad when someone asks why this took thousands of hours to make, or why he doesn't get a job with an established company and then pitch the idea, or why all the "demo" videos he's shown are just walking around and talking. He's a tool and I hope he starves to death in there.

I also wish I had the luxury of hiding in a room for three months when I didn't get my own way on something.

It is amazing he thinks the "Big N" really cares if he is shut in or not. kudos to his effort...

This is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. Can I do that too? Ferrari isn't sending me a car so I'm going to starve myself until they give me what I want. Everyone send them an email so I get my way because I'm more special then every other person.

If he wants an SDK then he should find a damn publisher. If publishers don't like his game than it probably sucks.

Nintendo doesn't have support for bedroom programmers. If that's the kind of environment he's looking for then lay down $100 and join the XNA creator's club.

According to his site, he's not asking for Nintendo to 'give him' the SDK, he's asking for the opportunity to purchase one.

He seems to be more angry at the runaround than anything else - he put in for a developer license (which he claims he meets the requirements to), and has not heard back.

The alternative is that Nintendo told him 'No' and he's conveniently ignoring that.

I can consider all possibilities, but assuming he's telling the truth, I can see where he's coming from.

Game looks boring as hell. The camera should LEAD the player, not chase them. Or at the very least, keep the player in the center. If he can't even get something simple like that right, I fear what other design failures are in his project. Who wants 3/4 of the screen occupied by what is behind them when they are trying to get somewhere?

Also, he comes off as pompous, so f*** Bob. He is not half the man that Jonathan Mak is.

Well, we are only seeing one of the two screens. It's supposed to be a DS game.

Maybe I'll e-mail him to ask him for a better title. Why put thousands of hours of work into a game if you're going to take 2 seconds on the title

I like so many people are taking a shit on this guy. He's a gamer like us who's trying to follow his dream of making a game. He's put,what,5 years into making this game all on his own? I give the guy my complete respect and shot an email over to Nintendo giving them a piece of my mind.

When any of you people accomplish something on this scale,i'll make sure to be there to take a shit on the deal.

I'm taking a dump on his work because he's a current-era Derek Smart and hasn't done anything worth respecting. If dev. time by definition led to a good game then I might care. But it doesn't, so I won't!

That's not healthy...

No. It's very not healthy at all. No social interaction, no sunlight except filtered through a window, no excercise. Dude might be doing himself some real physical problems. But to do this has already shown he's mentally unhealthy so put it down to Karma balancing him out.

Nerd locks himself in room for 100 days. Alert the presses.

Why doesn't he stop being a big baby and just try to release it elsewhere, like on Steam?

And if that fails, just release it for free like so many people do with their early games. Then at least he can use the game to get hired somewhere.

probably because he wrote the game for ds.

Without a DS development kit.

throw a Z on that bitch

Wow... NDF is out in force against this guy huh?

Surely asking for a SDK isn't too much to ask, but then again, perhaps Nintendo can never be wrong?

Lighten up guys.

Nintendo, give this man a damn SDK disc so that we can judge his actual work and not merely videos on his website.

P.S. Whoever said that this guy should pitch his idea to a larger games company is an idiot. That'd be like me walking into Warner Bros. or Universal Studios with a script for a movie... it ain't gonna happen no matter how damn good that script is.

You do some work on other people's projects first, then you say, "Hey, I made this in my spare time. Any possibility of working it into a retail release?" This guy wants to start at the top. It doesn't work that way.

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'Bob's Game' dev confines self in Nintendo protest

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