Bobwatch Day 21: Things get kind of weird

[wraggster]

We were in support of Robert Peloni, the sole developer of homebrew RPG Bob's Game, when he began a 100-day lock-in to convince Nintendo to sell him the SDK he needed to release his game on DS. At least, we were on day 12 of said protest. We're 21 days in now, and things are getting ... well, they're getting a little odd.

What kind of odd? Well, Peloni has started releasing the addresses of Nintendo execs and offering semi-creepy holiday greetings to Reggie. Oh, also, he's begun threatening to ... well, as he said:

"If I cannot legitimately publish my game, the only option left to fulfill this goal is to bundle a KILLER APP with a DSi enabled 'homebrew device.' ... 'bob's game' is being translated into many languages, including Japanese, and will be released worldwide. Unfortunately, this has the potential to significantly cut into Nintendo's bottom line."

We still hope Bob can work something out, we just ... well, we can see why Nintendo might be a little hesitant about working with him.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/31/bo...kind-of-weird/

[mr game porter]

**** you Bob. remember when i said "i got a BAD feeling about this"? this was one of the things that i was afraid of. i REALLY hope Nintendo does not give him a Sdk.

[trugamer]

They won't give him one, it says on the application all the criteria you have to fill before they'll even consider you, and I don't think he covers any of them.

He'd have been better off either
a) fabricating a games company with experienced game programmers and a company PO box address (illegal but he does seem desperate)
or
B) approaching a publisher and they'll let him use there SDK, if they decide to publish his games.

[spinal_cord]

He wont persuade them, option b would be his only option, and would have been the very first thing I tried if I were him. Just looking at the cost of the SDK would put me off.
All he's going to do is piss off Nintendo even more and they will pay less and less attention to him.

[havoc_012]

To be honest, the game looks like it could use a lot of polish (some missing animations, dialog boxes look really bad) and some better sprite work.

Look at homebrew games like Braid that sell for $15 and are light years ahead of this game.

I understand that he is very attached to the game that he made but I just don't see it as a retail game.

[Penguinator]

He should really release it as freeware. I think it's pretty greed to just demand sdk.
Take an example from Cave Story: Pixel did that game for five years, released it as freeware, it became huge success and now he's getting it to the Wiiware for sell. And that's only because the game is actually GREAT.

[Lastron]

He blew it.

Im slighlty worried about his mental health to... nintendo would have eventualy released this if only he haddent tipped, locked himslef up and even try to threaten them.

As said on his site, some publishers wanted to publish the game already, but nintndo themselves will neeed to give him the official SDK.


He had his chance... Im afraid he is verging on insanity and his mental health should come before the game... If this is what games are doing to us, i can unterstand why so many crimes are blamed on games!!!