Live Arcade title outsold by Frogger; famed indie "not seeing a lot of reason to continue" developing games
MCV sister site Develop reports that although Xbox Live Arcade is often touted as a great way for independent developers to make money, it seems Jeff Minter has been discouraged following poor performance of his first game for the service.
In a post on his LiveJournal, the famed indie designer has said he's "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".
He added: "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."
The game was released earlier this year.
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Comments
Remakes
"Remakes"? That's quite amusing, considering Mr Minter has spent the greater part of his career remaking Tempest - Space Giraffe is just the latest in a long line.
Re: Remakes
Minter toys back in pram now!
Re: Remakes
sorry but the figures speak for themselves...i have played the space giraffe demo and promptly deleted it...its ****e! whilst my frogger, uno, streetfighter etc. demos are all still there...develop a good game/demo and then feel free to moan about it Jeff!
Re: Remakes
I relate to his sentiments, but I'm what you'd call a hardcore gamer and I thought SG was ****. But aside from that, make a niche game and it'll sell to a niche market!
Re: Remakes
I'd agree that Space Giraffe felt like it was a mediocre game with an overdose of eye candy to try and hide this. Now a decent version of attack of the mutant camels would have gone down a lot better I think.
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved does similar but manages to make a much better game out of it.
Re: Remakes
I loved Jeff Minter`s games , all the way from Hovver Bovver through the Mutant Camel Series , I got Space Giraffe and thoroughly enjoy sitting there playing it and "getting" his little in-jokes . Maybe it`s because I grew up with computers from the dawn of gaming that I dig his games , but even i must admit , they are hard to swallow for those that don`t understand . Chin up Jeff ....... Llama Llama Llama , Mega Furry White thing :¬)
Long Tail
Online distribution keeps a game "in stock" effectively for ever, so Jeff will be making money from this for years to come.
And throwing his toys out of the pram has probably doubled sales.
Cry baby
And the industry wonders why its not taken seriously within certain circles, like the mainstream, with big babies like Minter throwing his toys out of the pram when things don't go his way.
Yes, Jeff, stopmaking games if this is how you intend to continue to conduct yourself. The industry needs to grow up in many sectors, and you're not helping matters.
Re: Cry baby
Wow, even worse than New Rally X?
I downloaded the demo because of the funny name. But that was all. The game is just nonsense to me. Lots of particles and some cryptic characters and enemies. No fun!
But I'm agreeing with Jeff, the other 8bit games are **** too.
I mean, who the hell pays for a cheap main menu, an emulator and some 15+ year old game??
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