So basically, he's taking his ball and he's going home...

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I actually think Space Giraffe is a lot of fun. It took a good 30 minutes or so to get used to, but after that I had a blast with it.

I think the problem here is it is a deep game that can easily be dismissed as a Tempest clone. Most people probably just play it for 5 minutes and don't it the time that it requires to get up the learning curve.

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I'm going to try to avoid a fight with the haters because "Yourgamesucksgofuckallama" isn't really a good place to start a debate so I'll just see if I can explain why SG is dope.

It's not really a shooter. It's definitely not a Tempest clone. In Tempest you basically shoot everything and if they come up to the rim you're fucked and you die. A classic shooter mentality where you just blast everything that you see on the screen is a very boring and incorrect way to play SG. The way to play and appreciate its brilliance is to use the gun to sort of herd as many enemies as possible to the rim while keeping your powerzone extended. You're constantly looking for the balance between picking off a few baddies to keep the zone extended or release jump pods (which also extend the zone) and letting them all crawl up to the edge so you can "bull them off". Bulling is an incredibly satisfying feeling because it jacks your multiplyer up and is the only way to get decent scores. Then he adds all kinds of risk/reward factors into the mix so you constantly have to make strategic decisions. And he uses the simple vector graphics of Tempest to make some really brain-twisting levels that are just a marvel of perspective and surface geometry. So just as you think you've got it figured out on the simple, flat early levels, later levelts flip things inside out and upside down in ways that give each of the 100 levels it's own particular character. Then their are feedback monsters which are one of the coolest bad guys in videogamedom. Killing them totally disrupts the visual field and make it harder to see what's going on. But seeing is not the only way to navigate SG. After you've decoded all of the audio cues, you can practically play the game blindfolded. So when it's all working and clicking, it's pure videogaming awesomeness: sound, graphics, mathematics, controls and software working in sync with your brain. Easy to play (admittedly tough to learn with the bare bones tutorial but the controls are pretty basic) but really hard to master. It's pure gameplay, no story or cut scenes or even boss battles. It's really quite great. That said, I grew up on Atari and 8-bit games and experimented with psychedelics in high school so I'm the target demo.

For all you sweet super dudes who are so much cooler and awesomer than Jeff Minter, go write some more love letters to your bro Cliffy B and quit beating up on the poor dude. He's a shareware developer who gets pissy on the internet. Big friggin' deal. Save the hate for EA.

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Just ignore this asshole. he's trying the "Derek Smart" approach. Stir up shit and let the negative pub. drive traffic to you. Fuck him and everyone like him.

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I think Minter is a hero, Space Giraffe has saved me easily over $200 in 'shroom costs; well worth the paltry amount of points being charged for it.



In all seriousness though, I remember all of the hype about him working on a new game and stuff... what did it all amount to? A pile of crap. The only reason it probably got thrown on XBLA is because of his past work experiences, but one must never rely too much on their past accomplishments as it leads to being a lazy twat who has nothing to do but cry about his poorly selling title.

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@Etchasketchist

So we should hate EA blindly eh? Even when they aren't actually developing the game and only function as the publisher? I suppose garage/indie developers should give up all hope of hitting the mainstream or making it big because we should all boycott everything big-house publishers label?

You're a bigger jackass than I realized Etchasketchist. I can tell now why you're such a fan of the sheep.

I'm a fan of good games, no matter who publishes them, what platform they're on, or how much "heart/time" one put into said games.

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@Anticrawl

Chill baby-bubba. No need to get all ad hominem up in my grill. EA's cool. Whatevah. NBA Live is crap though. Sorry my little throw-away line threw you into such a tizzy of rhetorical questioning. Sounds like you got a lot on your mind. Wanna talk about it?

Congrats on being a fan of good games, by the way. That's really awesome.

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@Etchasketchist

Someone has some issues. I never once said I was a fan of those games, and I perticularly find in-house developed EA titles to be terrible, but to blindly hate everything to come from them is foolish. All the titles you mentioned were developed by EA, my comment was on the publishing aspect. How the hell else are small developers suppose to get on their feet without the help of big publishers? Smaller publishers aren't typically willing to risk spending money on an unknown rag-tag group of kids making a game on their spare time, no matter how good the game is.

You keep doing what you have to do Etchasketchist, I'm gonna go enjoy some quality game time.

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"You keep doing what you have to do Etchasketchist, I'm gonna go enjoy some quality game time."

Wow. Simmer down now. You work at EA or something?

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@brad77

Actually at the moment I don't own any EA published or developed games. Haven't since Battlefield 2 but it's ignorant to blindly hate a corporation as a whole when they have put several small developers on the map by publishing there games. If you were trying to get in the business, made an honest great game and had the chance to get the game funded and distributed you're telling me you wouldn't take that option? And if you did would you want people ignoring your game just because of the publisher label? I'd think not.

While I don't like giving money to big corporations the fact of the matter is that even big publishing companies can help out the industry.

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My word. What an unpleasant bunch of children you all are.

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I think that if he just stopped whinning and playing with his llama's he might be able to focus just enough to maybe make a decent game...

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@ Etchasketchist

SG is dope to you. The other 99.9% of us think it is shit. Here's an easy way to look at it: add "to me" to the end of your sentences.

"Bulling is an incredibly satisfying feeling" (to me)

"So when it's all working and clicking, it's pure videogaming awesomeness" (to me)

I suppose you could add "to me and a handful of other people"

Regardless, this game deserved the 2.0 it got and the poor sales that ensued.

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And I would recommend a look at Minter's wikipedia article. This guy is about as legendary as a basement hobbyist.

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