A few months ago, we brought you the story of Robert Pelloni, a twenty-five year-old game designer who has single-handedly developed an RPG for the DS. Video of the title, appropriately named "Bob's Game," was pretty damn impressive, especially for a project undertaken by one person.
There's only one problem. In order to finish the game and get it into stores, Pelloni needs a software development kit from Nintendo. After 17 weeks of waiting for a response from the Big N (they claim the process takes 6-8), he's decided that drastic measures must be taken.
To that end Pelloni has barricaded himself in his office in protest and is broadcasting the event via webcam. At present, he is willing to go a minimum of a hundred days before giving in but notes that he may have to extend the lease on the office if it carries on longer than that. He's twelve days in at this point, so it's a long way to go yet if Nintendo doesn't acquiese.
Here are the rules Pelloni has laid out for his protest (emphasis his):
"I cannot leave this viridian room. The door is locked and barricaded from the outside. I am sleeping behind the camera, and yes- I've got a shower. Food is delivered once a week by a friend. I have no internet access, television, or game consoles besides those I am developing on."
Robert claims that he meets the requirements for licensing from Nintendo. If that's the case, it's puzzling that the company has not yet agreed to make it available. There's likely more to this story than meets the eye and I'll be keeping a much closer watch on Bob's Game over the coming weeks.
[Via Kotaku]
Contest:
11:00 PM on 12.21.2008
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agree. He should prove that he does meet the requirements instead of being an attention hug.
I'm sure he's proving all of the required material to Nintendo. He has no need to give any old blog any information. That said, I do wonder what he's trying to prove with this. I'm a bit skeptical that this barricading will accomplish much of anything.
Seen the video. A lotta heart went into the game. Fuck Nintendo and their antics. Anything we at the community can do to help?
I remember a game called The Misadventures of Flink back on the Genesis, made by like 2 or 4 guys working out of their garage. It was a great little game.
Now, this game looks interesting, but imagine if it said "Square Enix" on those videos. I bet then many of us would say the game looks mediocre (we'd probably get posts like: WTH! Chrono Trigger looks better than this and it's over 10 years old!).
Basically, while I'd like to see Nintendo go ahead and help this guy out, I don't know that the game would find a market outside of those few who actually know and care about the story of its development.
It doesn't look AMAZING on the merits of its graphics and gameplay as shown in the videos, but it certainly doesn't look worse than a considerable amount of the DS library. Which is not to say that it would sell well amongst those unfamiliar with its history, but I wouldn't sell it short either.
In fact its surprising to see restrictions on developments seeing the title libraries now.
He could still publish it for the iphone, or start shopping it to other mobile game carriers. Or he could sign-up for the XNA program, and make an XBLA version. Or he could take the WiiWare route. Or he could just do a flash version a la Apollo Justice demo.
The guy has other avenues to get his game into the channel. All of which are ridiculously more cost effective.
He should quit his bitching.
On the other, I'd hate for the guy (Bob) to have any kind of health issues because of this protest.
Seriously, I'm more worried for the guy's health (mental or physical) than the game getting fully accepted. There's no telling what Nintendo will do, (after all, World of Goo was 'allowed' to be made, but that was on WiiWare - DSWare may/may not be as 'open' and if it isn't then it's pretty much a moot point for any indie devs to have any kind of hope of developing on the DS.)
Bottom line is I hope for the best, but "knowing" Nintendo, I don't expect much.
There's a shocker.
Fair? This is business.
Regardless of the business license, this is his first commercial game.
Companies are very conservative and want some kind of track record before they invest in something. Just like you need experience for a job and you need a job for experience the trouble lies there. Would you risk hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses on a lone person who doesn't have experience and most likely the funding to publish a game?
I say this because handing over a dev kit is serious business for these guys. They risk losing a lot to piracy and competition if he is not serious (Bootleg DS machines that play the actual games anyone?).
He would have to be prove he can afford to pay the licensing fees and prove he can get it published on his own. I doubt a 25 year old kid can cover the cost of his ass in court if he ever lost the damn thing.
I am sure they are going to make this kid wait until DSi-ware since it keeps a fair amount of encapsulation from the hardware.
This guy is astoundingly arrogant and self-centered.
oops, i didnt just say that..!