Poor sales of Space Giraffe make Jeff Minter sad (joystiq.com)

[StormSurge]

Didn't he cry & moan when someone gave SG a poor review? Sounds like someone has thin skin.

[Malc74]

It's his own bloody fault. He's made a game that's completely inaccessible to the majority of people, and then started complaining that no one's buying it.

 

I don't think anyone apart from Minter (probably not even him, in fact) thought that Space Giraffe would sell well. But, of course, in Jeff's mind it's not his fault for writing a hardcore, visually impenetrable game, it's the rest of the world's fault for just not getting it. So we can all fuck right off.

 

And now he'll write his next hardcore, visually impenetrable game and complain bitterly when it sells six copies. And tell everyone to fuck off. Again.

 

Maybe he needs to make Frogger 2000.

[Albert]

Maybe he needs to make Frogger 2000.

Ooo, now that has some potential!

 

I would not be surprised if his next game somehow involves killing frogs.

 

..Al

[JB]

Maybe he needs to make Frogger 2000.

Ooo, now that has some potential!

 

I would not be surprised if his next game somehow involves killing frogs.

 

..Al

His love of animals apparently doesn't extend to amphibians.

[Clint Thompson]

Maybe he needs to make Frogger 2000.

Ooo, now that has some potential!

 

I would not be surprised if his next game somehow involves killing frogs.

 

..Al

 

LMFAO

(seriously wiping tears from eyes) that was great!

[ubersaurus]

Space Giraffe was cool. Once everything "clicks" for you it's very, very fun. Even if you can't see things, once you recognize the sounds they're making, it doesn't really matter a whole lot. I've played the game for over an hour straight before, and got a sizable score out of the deal once I understood that the key to scoring and survival are pretty different than other tube shooters.

 

Also, I don't know the last time you played Tempest 2000. But the "Superzapper recharge" voice clip is wildly different in this one, and honestly? If you're going to say they're the same game based on a single phrase, it sounds like you've got a vendetta.

[JamesD]

It's a Tempest clone with changes to how it's best played and a background that makes you want to hurl.

Of coarse people don't get it.

[kevincal]

I haven't actually played Space Giraffe, but it really does just look like another update of Tempest with that rim slide gimmick thrown in. I dunno, it just seems like you are supposed to shoot stuff on one side of the web, while you let the baddies load up on the rim of the other side, and then you do the rim slide. Rinse, lather, and repeat. Am I wrong? lol. I know I could be since I haven't played it. It does look cool though and I can tell what's going on. Then again, I've played tons of Tempest 2000 and a little of 3000. Surely it's not better than Tempest 2000 though right?

[telengard]

I dunno. If he toned down the colors a little in Space Giraffe maybe it would be received better. I really need to sit down and take the time to figure it out. I generally don't have much time to tinker with Live games as it is anyways.

 

As for Frogger. I'm pretty sure it was one of the titles that was dropped to $5 for a few days. So the sales may more reflect that than the quality. Personally I skipped it because the remake was not that good.

 

Yeah the psychedelics are too much for my pushing 40 eyes I guess. There seems to be a cool game underneath it all though. I love the sound effects in it. His statements sound sorta like the ones made by the head of FASA when Shadowrun wasn't getting good reviews etc. Incredulous as to how their awesome game is not doing well (Shadowrun actually is awesome though). My guess is that the difficulty is just too much for the average XBLA player.

 

I love some of Jeff Minter's games (Gridrunner on the Vic-20 is a blast) but this one is just not as good as the others. And his constant slagging on retro games and gamers is just adding to it for me.

 

~telengard

Edited November 24, 2007 by telengard

[Gregory DG]

I just wish he'd just make Llamatron 2000.

[moycon]

I personally liked the game, although it's far from my favorite Live game and I can definately see why folks might shy away from the game just because it's so hard on the eyes. Honestly how hard would have been to put in an option to turn off the VLM?

[super_dos_man]

"Lol.

 

Well maybe if he designed games that were actually games instead of giant epileptic seizures, people would actually play them.

 

What? He thought just because he put a game on a successful console for once that people would just flock to him? That pulsing images of J Allard would become all the rage?

3 hearts"

 

Said Shockgamer (3rd comment down on the joystiq article)

 

I 100 percent agree with him.

[Shannon]

He should just be happy that a console that he created a VLM for didn't flop.

[+LS650]

a remake of Frogger, one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games

Geez, I kind of like the arcade Frogger.

[+Random Terrain]

a remake of Frogger, one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games

Geez, I kind of like the arcade Frogger.

Yeah, what's supposed to be so bad about it? It's better than a lot of arcade games back then. I'm not in love with it, but it is fun to play for short periods of time.

[Warriorisabouttodie]

I count Tempest 2k as one of my fav games of all time. llamatron is also on my short list of all time fav's. I think when Minter get's it right he is a genius his games scream playability and retro cool. I have two things I don't get about his comments. 1. Since when has anything he's done been original or new? I mean as cool as Space Giraffe or ColourSpace, or Mutant Camels or llamatron and on and on were/are the one thing they aren't is original and new, they are remakes of someone else game and in some cases better.

 

Now my next question is this: Since when does Frogger suck? Frogger is a great game and a lot of fun, just because he doesn't like it and it outsold his crazy new Tempest game he's gotta put down Frogger and all time classic?

[A Sprite]

a remake of Frogger, one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games

Geez, I kind of like the arcade Frogger.

Yeah, what's supposed to be so bad about it? It's better than a lot of arcade games back then. I'm not in love with it, but it is fun to play for short periods of time.

 

Nothing happens when you lick the frog...

[so_tough!]

Fuck, I would love Jeff to do some new Jag games!!!

[The Helper]

Wow. Jeff is really acting like a whiney little bitch. I don't get it - I did not think he was like that though I saw hints of it in his response to his bad review. It also sucks that he is not going to write about development anymore. I really liked his writeups on Llamasoft history - I hope those are not included in that.

[Atari5200]

Also, I don't know the last time you played Tempest 2000. But the "Superzapper recharge" voice clip is wildly different in this one, and honestly? If you're going to say they're the same game based on a single phrase, it sounds like you've got a vendetta.

 

A vendetta over what? It's the same phrase, the yes, yes, yes,yes, is the same phrase, and I know there are phrases that use the same voice as in Tempest 2000. Instead of me having a vendetta, if you can't see this is basically just an updated version of Tempest i'm going to say you need your head examined.

Edited November 26, 2007 by Atari5200

[rxd]

One of Minters problems is that he reads the posts from the fanboys on his site and thinks everyone should feel the same way. I actually like SG and think it's a good, borderline very good game. But the criticism of the game is quite valid. It IS hard to see what the hell is going on. He claims that's part of the game design, well great, but not everyone is going to like that. There certainly are times when I say WTF just killed me?? It can be very annoying. Also he claims the game was purposely hard to figure in order to be challenging. I honestly HATED this about the game. Tell me WTF I'm supposed to do and I'll try to do it. This "figure it out as you go in order to be challenging" is BS. Again he claims it was part of the game design and it may have been, but don't cry when people don't like it. And the tutorial sucked also, no doubt about that. Even now I keep reading how I should listen for audible cues in order to know what's happening. Truthfully I still don't understand what I'm hearing and what it's supposed to be telling me. It might be easier to make the connection if I could see what's happening clearly also....

 

Finally, did he really think this was going to be a big seller? Really, I like this game but it is going to appeal to only a certain small segment of the 360 community. From the moment I tried this game I thought how this could only have a small cult following at best, it's just too "out there" for most people. Maybe playing this game gives Minter such a raging hard-on that all the goats on the farm quiver in fear (or anticipation) but if you want to sell a game to the masses it has to appeal to the masses. And it seems that the people have voted with their wallets and found Frogger to be more appealing than Space Giraffe. I personally disagree but hey, that's the way a free market works. Make games that make people want to buy them Jeff. And stop crying and whining for Christ's sake....

 

I'm actually looking forward to his Gridrunner++ for the 360 though.

[Warriorisabouttodie]

Another thing to consider: His previous games were for niche platforms that tend to have more gameplayers who are open to his way of thinking (Jaguar,ST, Amiga, C64/A8bit etc). The 360 is a mainstream console and most 360 fans want the same games over and over again with better graphics and would not be interested in something like Space Giraffe, even the name would turn them off.

 

Even if you take the flaws of his new game into consideration I believe he would of had more luck he designed the game for the Wii.

[rxd]

I don't know about that. It's hard enough to see what the hell is going on in HD, on the Wii it would be impossible. Unless of course if having less graphical power would have forced him to create a game without all the extra visual crap that everyone seems to hate. But he COULD have done that on the 360, he just chose not to...

[Shannon]

Sounds like maybe what he should have done is have the graphics toned down in the lower levels and then slowly increase them until everything is totally insane. Thus giving the player a chance to get a better feel for the game.

[Atari5200]

yep, agree, I would have enjoyed this game and probably even bought it if it wasn't so hard to see. I'm a big fan of Tempest 2000 and this game just takes that game and kicks it up a couple notches, BUT with the visuals, no thanks. If the visuals would have been toned down a bit, there's no doubt in my mind that I would have bought this game, but oh well.