Jeff Minter's Sour Space Giraffe Grapes
This little tidbit was found on Jeff Minter's Livejournal page. Someone is very bitter this holiday season and I can't say that it is well directed. While Minter's post completely amuses me, I can't help but think that he could have directed his energy in a more positive way that would bring about some discussion as to why Minter's retina-melting space shooter, Space Giraffe, has seen poor sales.
"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."
I bought Space Giraffe the day it came out. Did I play it much more past that day? Nope. Not even for the gamerscore? Negative. Could I venture a guess as to why a rehashed Frogger has outsold Space Giraffe by ten to one? Absolutely!
When I asked a few friends what they thought of the title, I found that not many really understood how it was meant to be played. People saw it more as a shooter than a game centered around building combos. Even I got frustrated with the vague instructions that came with the title. I can easily empathize with Minter. It's not fun to work so hard on something only to have it go unnoticed by so many. I feel for you Jeff, I do. But how about this? Write a blog post that explains what we missed with Space Giraffe. Help us to appreciate it as fully as you do. Maybe even I don't fully understand how it's to be played. If Minter could give me a few tips, I'll gladly revisit the title. And for the record, I don't think that Frogger is an inherently better game, I just think it did well because it was recognizeable, cheap and was an easy 200 gamerpoints.
J---s F-----g C----t [LiveJournal]
[via: CVG]
TexCub
Posted to Video Games on 25 November 2007
· Comments (18)
Other stuff like this: bitter, decent game, frogger, giraffe, grapes, jeff minter, lame instructions, misunderstood, sour, space
Oh yeah, it's SO frickin' obvious that gamers are only interested in remake titles.
That's why I've spent $120 + tax in the past month or so on "Bioshock" and "Mass Effect."
The reality is that I DID play the demo of his "Space Giraffe" game...and it was lame.
The title alone is lame.
If he's going to crank out games like "Space Giraffe" and whine when they aren't successful...maybe he SHOULD go ahead and do us a favor by quitting the industry.
What a fricking BABY. Wow.
Maybe if Space Giraffe didn't SUCK SO MUCH that it gave me epilepsy, mono, AND angina ALL IN ONE DAY, I could see where he was headed with that... and I don't even know what angina is!
He might as well end it with, "Nobody understands me. I'm so deep and dark and mysterious. I should just go CUT MYSELF."
Oy, Livejournal.
He's updated his blog with the obligatory "If you don't agree with me, wank off..." post. Lame.
Don't be too hard on the guy. I would be pissed off and angry too if Froggers outsold a game I created with my all - so I agree with TexCub.
He wasn't complaining that Space Giraffe sucks, but that Frogger outsold it.
I love you Jeff, games industry legends/gay welshman unite! The man is a gaming legend show some respect :P
Oh, I meant no disrespect, Davey! I also acknowledge that he is an industry icon. There was even something charming about the frankness of his comment. And in case I didn't make it clear, I DO think that Space Giraffe is a better game than Frogger. LOL
My request for a little help understand the gameplay was genuine. I know us gays can wallow in sarcasm from time to time, but I freely admit it -- I'm missing something in Space Giraffe.
It's like in the mid-90s malls that had those Magic Eye pictures. I couldn't get those to work either and I felt cheated. There is something intangible about Space Giraffe that I feel like Mr. Minter sees, but that I am apparently ignorant of.
Maybe this has just motivated me sit down with it again when I got back home to my 360!
This page has comprehensive information about SG's gameplay: http://www.medwaypvb.com/giraffe4.html
It's a horrible shame that it turns off so many people at first blush. It's an incredible experience once you get good at it.
Should a player really NEED to go online and research a game if they want to have a rewarding experience playing it?
If I have to go online to find out how to have a good time playing a game...it's my opinion that the game designers didn't do their job properly.
All of that information can be discovered through a combination of the in-game tutorial and help file, and gameplay experience.
Some people like to have it up front, but it's not actually necessary. One could absolutely get good at the game with nothing but the game itself in front of him or her.
Tex asked for more, and here it is.
What I think he should really wonder about is why an updated Robotron (Geometry Wars) was a huge, breakout hit while his latest take on Tempest apparently isn't.
Clearly the audience is there for psychedelic updates to games from the early 80's. Maybe he's just been going a little too far into light organ/Rez territory for people's tastes.
Uhm.... is that a real image from the game? Complete with real title?
I think this is really blown out of proportion here. Jeff was upset over a game that he had slaved over for ages not managing to outsell a remake of Frogger. He ranted about it on his Livejournal, fercrissakes. LJ only exists for people to complain about their lives, and he did just that.
This isn't news, this is a guy getting pissed off and venting on LJ. Believe it or not, game developers are also real people who tend to get upset now and then.
Also, for the record, his "if you don't agree with me then wank off" post just said that if the only reason you were reading his LJ was to tell him how much he sucks then he really doesn't want to hear it.
I have yet to play Space Giraffe, due to not having a 360, so I can't comment on the quality of the game. However, the comments on this GG post make me kinda sad. If we can't rage against the inequities of the world on LJ, where can we?
Lame. It's just lacking in anything to get anyone addicted to it. There are plenty of XBLA games that people love that were at least kind of original, or somewhat new. His just wasn't one of them =\
I liked the game enough to buy it after playing the demo, but I don't play it often because frankly the visuals give me a headache after about 20 minutes. Played in short stretches, though, it's pretty fun.
And Frogger did suck, let's face it.
I say this as someone who bought SG:
Mr. Minter, I'm sorry your "difficult to learn how to play right because there's no explanation of what's happening" twist on Tempest didn't out-sell a port of one the most beloved arcade games of the past. For your next game, please try making something outside of the "I'm tripping balls to Tempest 2000" genre.
Original games can and DO perform well on XBLA. Geometry Wars, Alien Hominid, Small Arms. Even quasi-new things do well; Uno, Catan, etc. What do all of these games have in common that Space Giraffe doesn't? a clear and intuitive control scheme with visuals the player can understand at the start. SG was a test of the player's patience on every front. How long could they look at the visuals? How quickly could the player guess how to properly play the game?
SG works for limited audience because it was designed for a limited audience (whether consciously or not). The design choices they made (confusing visuals on the very first level, nondescriptive help sections, spinning levels) all drive the overall game experience away from something everyone can play into something that only a select few can tolerate.
I think that any game developer has the right to be pissed about a failing, despite Space Giraffe's shortcomings it was a brave, bold game, that given time is remarkably rewarding.
Why should games have everything laid out in a tutorial that reveals every nuance? I remember a time before gamefaqs, when if you were stuck on a section, you stayed stuck. Damn that drum on Sonic 3...
Point is this, the game is a good example of different thinking, a game that goes against a lot of the logic that has managed to create a comfort zone for gamers, and which splits opinion straight down the middle. It's a game of decent depth, innovative visuals and one that allows for a lot of self-exploration.
His 'outburst' is both justified and apt, given the fact that the guy made Space Giraffe in a very open way, and now as a result has become more reclusive, thanks to many gamers following the word of lesser writers, hacks at best.
So, his crappy Tempest knockoff failed to outsell a remake of Frogger. No need get all butthurt over it.
PROTIP: If you want to move games, you gotta make 'em somewhat decent. "OMGTRIPPYVISUALS" aren't enough.
Sure, he has the right to whine about his game's failure on his LJ.
And then we have the right to belittle him for making the same game over and over, complaining when it doesn't sell, and oh yeah, posting to Livejournal in the first place. I know I felt like a loser every time I did.
I really liked his first few games, but these days I think people just give him a free pass because he's a furry.