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[deadeye]

Apparently there's a fellow by the name of Robert Pelloni who's spent the last five years making a "retail-quality adventure title" that he hopes to publish for Nintendo DS (and I guess the iPhone as well).

It's called "Bob's Game."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZf2E_wBvng

While I definitely applaud the guy for his dedication, I have mixed feelings about the work he's done.  He has coded and drawn everything from the ground up all by himself, but the overall quality seems a little short of what a company like Nintendo expects from it's publishers.  At least from what I've seen of the game, which isn't much... Mr. Pelloni has withheld certain secret gameplay mechanics and story details that he's afraid other people will steal from him.

Then there are the rather grand claims Mr. Pelloni is making, such as "it's the largest game ever made by one person" and that he hopes his game will become one of the last old-school 2D retail console games.

Not to mention, in the midst of shopping around for a publisher he posted a one-month time-lapse of himself working on the game in his underwear.

So, genius or wacko?  Or both?  Destined for greatness or great failure?  I can't quite tell.  On the one hand I really want to see him succeed at his dream.  On the other I have my doubts.

No matter what the outcome, it's definitely an interesting story.


POKEMAN

[Melly]

Maaaaan, I don't give two shits for your underwear wackyness, just show me the gaaaames. The good stuff.

[William Broom]

The game looks kind of bad. It's a real warning sign when he spends the first minute of the video gloating over his uninspired artwork for cliched characters (and then the next minute is just him in his underwear  ). It could be good, but he should really drop all the hype, especially about being 'the last 2D console game', which is quite ridiculous. Also, being the largest game of anything doesn't mean it will be good.

[neon]

you know, that could be the biggest game ever made.  but that would just make it the biggest pile of shit ever made.  not exactly resume-quality credentials.  i mean - the assets are terrible at best, the game looks incredibly boring - i have yet to find a redeeming quality in this.  although the guy certainly has a shitload of dedication, he needs to drop the hype.

[Farmergnome]

The game looks kind of bad. It's a real warning sign when he spends the first minute of the video gloating over his uninspired artwork for cliched characters (and then the next minute is just him in his underwear  ). It could be good, but he should really drop all the hype, especially about being 'the last 2D console game', which is quite ridiculous. Also, being the largest game of anything doesn't mean it will be good.

Whats bad about it?  Dudes got mad devotion, I dont think we should be shootin him down cus he spent some time on his art and is proud of it, I hope he does well, realy.  Sure the graphics arent uber, but they def arent crap.

[Saint]

the art is all completely hand-clicked tiles and sprites- done the right way,
pixel by pixel, like the classics we all know and love.

What? People don't give a shit about what techniques you use, the only thing they see is how it looks (unless, of course, it looks absolutely beautiful and other artists get interested in how you achieved the effect).

I think this is Bob's main problem, he assumes that just because he made it hard for himself, his game deserves credit. This is not true - he might deserve credit himself for being persistent, but it's not changing the quality of the game.

To be fair, though, I think he does deserve credit for working on a game for 5 years, that in itself is no small feat. And while I thought the trailer was a bit underwhelming, if he does all of the things listed well, the game could be good - IMO games produced by smaller teams tend to be more coherent. I'm just afraid he's setting himself up for disappointment if he expects the industry or the gamers to treat him better just because he chose to do it the difficult way; there's a reason most similar games are developed by teams.

[Renton]

I don't know. Kudos for his dedications, and the game world does look really big, but he didn't really show anything but npc sprites and a huge portrait of himself. And if he really is the end game boss, I'll pass. I don't think I'll ever be able to beat that huge ego.

I mean "completely hand-clicked tiles and sprites"? I didn't know pixel art could be done any other way.

"Look guys! I made a game! And I made it by myself so you should all worship me!"

I just don't get some people.

[Benza]

Does anyone else think it looks like something made in RPG maker?
Also the fact that his creativity came up with the name "Bobs Game" doesn't bode well.

[Renton]

:hand up:

[Jared]

Wow, thanks deadeye. I had no idea about this. Granted I'm agreeing with most people about him coming off pretentious, which normally annoys me, I'm highly interested in following his career/this game.

Thanks again!

[Don Andy]

This'll probably end up as one of these games where the author thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread, naturally gets criticized for it and then goes on a "You just don't understand the game" sulking.

Not saying that the game actually IS bad. I won't say that till I played it myself.

But I agree that it does neither look like something I'd buy (if I were a mindless customer basing his opinion solely on screenshots and trailers) nor something that any "big" publisher would pick up.

It looks like it'd be a great freeware hit though.

[deadeye]

IMO games produced by smaller teams tend to be more coherent.

Really?  I see it as being the other way around.  Big projects with large teams and a large budget tend to have strict art direction and quality control to insure the look and feel of the game is consistent throughout.  With smaller, amateur teams little things tend to get overlooked.

Plus, small-time indie devs are very rarely professional writers, so story/plot/dialogue can get a little wonky at times, even in the best of games.  Sure, this can happen in A-list commercial games too, but generally not as often.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing.  I think it's part of the charm of indie games.  You trade off a little flub or hiccup here and there for fun and originality.

[Saint]

Really?  I see it as being the other way around.  Big projects with large teams and a large budget tend to have strict art direction and quality control to insure the look and feel of the game is consistent throughout.  With smaller, amateur teams little things tend to get overlooked...

Oh yeah, definitely. I think I was thinking more about coherency in terms of quality, while games made by large teams usually have boring parts that was made by a... let's say "less focused" level designer, models made by artists with vastly different experience levels and some programming elements that work better than others, I personally think that one-man (or few-man) projects tend to have a more even quality throughout. Or maybe it is because they aren't under as much publisher pressure to push out the game, whatever the reason I appreciate having to worry less about random boring sections in games I like.

Of course, seeing as it's been five years and he picked up the skills while making the game there should be vast differences in quality between the things he made early and the things he made recently, so the point is kind of moot.

[William Broom]

The game looks kind of bad. It's a real warning sign when he spends the first minute of the video gloating over his uninspired artwork for cliched characters (and then the next minute is just him in his underwear  ). It could be good, but he should really drop all the hype, especially about being 'the last 2D console game', which is quite ridiculous. Also, being the largest game of anything doesn't mean it will be good.

Whats bad about it?  Dudes got mad devotion, I dont think we should be shootin him down cus he spent some time on his art and is proud of it, I hope he does well, realy.  Sure the graphics arent uber, but they def arent crap.

I didn't mean the graphics looked bad. I meant the gameplay. Or rather, the lack of it. It looks like there's a crapload of walking around and not much else. It looks like Persona 3 without any of the supernatural elements. Maybe some people will like that kind of game (The Sims isn't the most popular game in the world for nothing) but it really doesn't appeal to me.

[shockedfrog]

Although the graphics aren't particularly stunning, there's something about the presentation and smoothness of the game that stands out to me, assuming I'm not being fooled by too much video trickery.

He's certainly dedicated and not completely without talent, and a potential asset to a team if he's able to work as part of one, but I can't see this living up to any of the hype.