Bobwatch Day 21: Things get kind of weird

by Justin McElroy { Dec 31st 2008 at 5:00PM }

We were in support of Robert Peloni, the sole developer of homebrew RPG Bob's Game, when he began a 100-day lock-in to convince Nintendo to sell him the SDK he needed to release his game on DS. At least, we were on day 12 of said protest. We're 21 days in now, and things are getting ... well, they're getting a little odd.

What kind of odd? Well, Peloni has started releasing the addresses of Nintendo execs and offering semi-creepy holiday greetings to Reggie. Oh, also, he's begun threatening to ... well, as he said:

"If I cannot legitimately publish my game, the only option left to fulfill this goal is to bundle a KILLER APP with a DSi enabled 'homebrew device.' ... 'bob's game' is being translated into many languages, including Japanese, and will be released worldwide. Unfortunately, this has the potential to significantly cut into Nintendo's bottom line."

We still hope Bob can work something out, we just ... well, we can see why Nintendo might be a little hesitant about working with him.

Tags: bobs-game

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

SirFishouse @ Dec 31st 2008 5:03PM

Stay the course!

Erluti @ Dec 31st 2008 5:46PM

Don't encourage him.
Nintendo has been making classic games for over 20 years and is the leading console manufacturer at the moment, I feel like they know what they are doing when it comes to distributing dev kits.
Also, this seems like it would be a "we don't negotiate with terrorists"-type situation. Not saying he's a terrorist, but at this point if Nintendo pays him any attention, any kid who's ever wanted to make a Nintendo game has a good reason to lock himself into his room and send whiny emails.

Levi @ Dec 31st 2008 6:00PM

Erluti

Nintendo lets so much garbage onto their systems this generation, how can you say something like that? Bob's Game looks so much better than 99% of the crap on the DS and the Wii. A classic adventure RPG with so much character. These are the kinds of people that need to be making games, not the money hungry dicks who shovel their crap onto the Nintendo shelves.

Nintendo USED to be a good company, now all they care about is getting their damn systems into your grandmother's hands.

Levi @ Dec 31st 2008 6:03PM

I have more. Nintendo's back catalogue has a bunch of games like Bob's Game, and his game *looks* to be just as on par with all of them. In fact, judging from the video, it almost looks original! I didn't see any magic, monsters, conspiracy... to make a full game without all the overused crap is a tough feat.

I will be buying his game one way or another, whenever or however it releases.

That's not to say that I support his odd ways of getting attention, though.

Zorink @ Dec 31st 2008 6:22PM

your avatar is disturbing

Shmil @ Dec 31st 2008 6:29PM

Yeah, I know we have naked Peach avatars around here, but Lurr of Omicron Persei 8 raping Leela seems pretty disturbing

Jerk Face [GT:xJERKFACEx] @ Dec 31st 2008 6:31PM

Technically, we don't know it's rape.

...Technically.

Charlie @ Dec 31st 2008 7:18PM

Screw nintendo why doesn't he just release on iPhone/iPod Touch? No dev kit, free "advertising" through positive sales and hype in the App Store, and Apple takes a flat 30% of whatever he wants to charge for his game, including transaction fees.

Gaming platform of the future I tell you. Apple will come out with a caddy for it that has analog nubs, buttons, and more batteries, and it will be the most successful mobile gaming platform.

Levi @ Dec 31st 2008 7:50PM

Charlie,

releasing his game on the iPhone/Touch platform would involve completely reprogramming it. Different API, different language. Not quite as simple of a port as taking his game that he wrote in "straight C" to XNA, for example.

rTwelve @ Dec 31st 2008 8:26PM

"In the meantime, I'm working on the Android and iPhone ports for 100 days straight.
These platforms are awesome! Yuu doesn't even need a publisher! What a great idea!"

Mr Khan @ Dec 31st 2008 10:24PM

Whatever Nintendo does, it gets shat on for. People complained when they were too strict, but now that they have an approval policy which is the same as the competition, they get trashed for letting "any old garbage" on the platform.

Nintendo hasn't changed, they've just re-discovered their strength

Ignatius @ Dec 31st 2008 11:03PM

Don't encourage him? At least he's trying on his game, unlike ALL STAR CHEER SQUAD FOR THE WII!

Jesus.

zuburi @ Jan 1st 2009 1:57AM

HAHAHAHA HE IS USING YUU INSTEAD OF YOU HAHAHAHA

Fuck this brat.

KirbyMeister @ Jan 1st 2009 2:02AM

Nintendo's never going to give him an SDK, since he's using a home office. Even the oh-so-hyped WiiWare is only licensed to people who pass Nintendo's development criteria - that is, there are no breaks for the so called 'garage game' developer.

http://www.warioworld.com/apply/
Hey, everyone! This is where you apply to become a Nintendo-approved developer. You need an industrially-zoned business office and a bunch of successful titles under your belt. Nintendo doesn't want to talk to anything lower, despite what they've said in public.

Getting your games on consoles is a bitch to do because console manufacturers want complete control over the whole lot - including their developers. They're too worried about no-name developers with no good coding skills releasing crap games and sullying their brand.... however, this was only a problem back during the Atari era when videogames were still new and the technology wasn't good enough for most of the ideas people had. Nowadays all Nintendo's job is, is to make sure that we say "press A button" and refer to the controller as a "Wii remote". (Google: Lot check)

I haven't even talked about actually manufacturing, distributing, and selling the cartridges, in which you would need an actual publisher to do that for you without investing startup cash in a factory and more licensing from Nintendo.

Oh yes, there is homebrew. But you can't sell homebrew, since using it requires having enough technical skill and trust in people that go to hacker conventions to:

1. Install modified savegames onto your SD card which are intentionally bypassing the security on your device
2. Permenantly install unsigned software onto the device's memory
3. Trust that the person who gave you the stuff didn't put exploits in it
4. Never update your device, ever, except for other unsigned morsels of code that modify the update to leave the backdoors in place.
5. Not to mention any of the above can be based off of copyrighted console manufacturer code and thus illegal for you to use.

That 4th one is the hardest, since online play usually is conditional on you installing the latest firmware. No updates, no play. Some of the more advanced homebrew communities such as the Wii and iPhone scenes have had time to research and circumvent the patches. But then again, not everyone likes playing cat-and-mouse especially when they suddently lose online play for a week while the hackers sort out a fix.

Of course, the upswing of this is that with the increase in device security it's actually becoming viable to create safe, watered-down development environments for the homebrew set, as seen by iPhone, XNA, Android, etc. Nowadays someone with a good idea doesn't have to wait for a publisher to approve it, then shit all over it and call it a game.

So my best recommendation, Bob? Don't drive yourself insane, sell it on another console or portable that will allow you to publish. Fuck Nintendo.

Strategy_Panda (The Sandwich Poisoning Crew) @ Dec 31st 2008 5:07PM

yes, I would agree that watching someone sit in their unlit basement for 21 days is really odd.

Eric W. @ Dec 31st 2008 5:09PM

Why keep giving him attention? The guy sounds like he needs help, not Internet fame.

Turd Ferguson (formerly antsmarching) @ Dec 31st 2008 5:17PM

when i saw the post i thought he started whacking it or something

sinai @ Dec 31st 2008 5:09PM

way to feed the trolls, engadget.

also: BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, eat my ass, bob. i haven't even played your game, but this stunt you're pulling is an obvious indicator that you lack imagination and creativity.

jeff @ Dec 31st 2008 5:25PM

Creepy stunt or not, I still support him. I want to play BOBS game.

Levi @ Dec 31st 2008 6:07PM

"way to feed the trolls, engadget."
I love it when people talk to websites. Way to talk to a website.

"also: BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, eat my ass, bob. i haven't even played your game, but this stunt you're pulling is an obvious indicator that you lack imagination and creativity."
This stunt may be sort of dumb, but it has absolutely nothing to do with his creativity. Don't be an idiot.

Jerk Face [GT:xJERKFACEx] @ Dec 31st 2008 5:10PM

I'm going to sound like a dick here:

If his game was any good, wouldn't he be able to find someone to publish it for him? Further, if he's trying to be an indie developer (a lofty, but worthy goal) and make it in the industry he should be developing on the PC, not on a god damned console. You know what SDK you need to make a PC game? Oh yeah - none. And you can still reach a ton of people that way and get yourself known. And now that he's just sending creepy messages and worthless threats out of his douche-vault? There is no way in hell it's going to happen.

Hey Bob? You're doing it wrong.

Roto13 @ Dec 31st 2008 5:23PM

He's not looking for a publisher, he wants to be able to buy a dev kit.

Levi @ Dec 31st 2008 6:08PM

Yeah. If you read his website, he claims he has publisher interest. It's not until he is allowed to buy the dev kit that he can send the finished product to publishers.

Jerk Face [GT:xJERKFACEx] @ Dec 31st 2008 6:32PM

I'll repeat my point again - he's going for the wrong system. XNA and PC are perfect for the kind of work he wants to do.

Mr Khan @ Dec 31st 2008 9:50PM

Or even if he's determined to make it for DS: homebrew it.

Moptimus Slime @ Dec 31st 2008 10:36PM

if he has "publisher interest", why doesnt he ask them for a dev kit? Oh wait, because nobody fucking cares.

Go the freeware route and let Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft come to you. Thats how World of Goo won awards. Thats how Cave Story grew into an unstoppable force. This asshole just got greedy.

Namssorg @ Dec 31st 2008 5:13PM

What a whiney baby. This is why they hire people to talk to the god damn customers, so that the engineers don't have to! PEOPLE SKILLS! Good job, Bob. I thought your game looked really interesting, but now I am no longer on your side, and you're like the crying baby on the back of the plane that everyone is annoyed at, but no one is going to speak up and stop.

fred @ Jan 1st 2009 1:22AM

maybe someone took his stapler.

Zertoss @ Dec 31st 2008 5:12PM

Sounds like a channer. He'll become an hero before he comes close to his hundredth day.

Donald @ Dec 31st 2008 6:14PM

If that is true, then nothing of value will be lost.

mynk @ Jan 1st 2009 4:07AM

sounded like a channer to me too.
if you see his posts on /v/
tell him to try XNA instead
Fuck Nintendo (nothing personal)

egoant @ Dec 31st 2008 5:16PM

Ummmm... Bob? How about you spend 30 days converting it to an XNA game? Microsoft couldn't possibly say no! Of course, the community might.

Levi @ Dec 31st 2008 6:09PM

Agreed. I don't know the differences between C and C#, if any, but it should be a pretty simple port. Then he could release it on the PC too, with 360 controller support.

EgoAnt @ Jan 1st 2009 1:51AM

There are significant differences between C and C#, but once the project was ported to XNA it could also be released on the Zune (not that many people would get to play it then...)

Still, I think that Nintendo isn't his only option here, and as much as I love a good publicity stunt on the internet, if he wants to build a killer app, it should be for an emerging market rather than an established one. Nintendo has killer apps coming out of its nether regions.

ConsumerWins @ Dec 31st 2008 5:21PM

Report this dood to the FBI please.

Rob Accomando @ Dec 31st 2008 5:20PM

Did the guy who made Cave Story do this? No.

He made it free forever and it finally is getting picked up.

uranutan3 @ Jan 17th 2009 8:33AM

But Cave Story wasn't developed as a console game. The only way for people to play this if it was released for free would be via emulators or flash carts.

Also, it seems like he put WAY too much work into this to give it away for free.

Levi @ Dec 31st 2008 6:11PM

Yeah, that's my problem with his stunt. Cave Story was released for FREE, and it wasn't until years later that professionals yanked him aside and said "can we make some money off this??"

If he had released his game for free and the community liked it, cool. Then he has interest to be hired as a game designer, or maybe even port his freeware to Wiiware, like Cave Story.

ALH @ Dec 31st 2008 6:50PM

A million times this. Its impressive that bob has made a game all by himself, but his attitude..ugh. You cant BAAAAAWWWWWWWWWW your way into people respecting you or your product.

samfish @ Dec 31st 2008 5:22PM

I can't wait for the day where he finally snaps and turns into a jibbering, drooling fetal-positioned mental patient due to prolonged deprivation.

Fx.Dr @ Dec 31st 2008 5:29PM

Why? Joystiq already has enough editors.

Oh man, I can feel the -1's already...

Zertoss @ Dec 31st 2008 5:44PM

Joystiq's readers aren't always so predictable.

finnith @ Jan 1st 2009 4:22AM

I would say that we're predictable because everytime someone does that they end up with three hearts.

mashuu83 @ Jan 10th 2009 7:31PM

That day is today....

mr mobius @ Dec 31st 2008 5:24PM

Why not make it for Wiiware?

Bob is now annoying me.

His game characters in his trailer seemed really dull, so if his game is actually good, I'd be surprised.

Catprog @ Dec 31st 2008 5:54PM

To make it for wiiware you need a devkit

Roto13 @ Dec 31st 2008 5:25PM

At first I just found him annoying, but his last couple of updates have been oozing that special kind of paranoia that makes his story fun to follow. I would never pay money for his game, but it's fun to watch him slowly freak out.

Jeff @ Dec 31st 2008 5:25PM

His head is stuck up his ass...he doesn't care about the game itself...he just wants to see it in a retail shrink wrap.

I wouldn't even download it though.

VaultICEE @ Dec 31st 2008 5:34PM

I thought this game was going to be pretty cool, and dare I say it, fun, but if he's having this much trouble and starting to freak out over it... I dunno.

He shouldn't be trying to attention whore all of us because Nintendo isn't giving him the attention he wants. He might have had a small chance he'd get it but I doubt they'll ever work with him NOW...