Space Giraffe video [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

Mayhem

10-15-2006, 09:10 AM

For those of you who follow Jeff "Yak" Minter, then here's a WIP video of the first few levels of the new Space Giraffe game he's working on...

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-8021122538400892764&hl=en-GB

I recommend original size and smooth video to fully see everything going on LOL

If you think it looks like T3K, then you'd be part right, though apparently only the first few levels will be totally Tempest like, the rest will be... different somehow!

(no, Jeff unsurprisingly hasn't said what yet)

diskoboy

10-21-2006, 02:17 AM

*sigh* :(

No Jeff Minter fans.

I'm gonna cry.

This man has been one of my favorite developers since Gridrunner. I seriously want to try some of the stuff this guy must take.

Mayhem

10-24-2006, 06:33 PM

A fair bit of it is placeholder stuff though, until such time as it gets filled with the real item.

Nebagram

02-06-2007, 05:57 PM

With GTA IV, Mario Galaxy and Halo 3 coming out this year, it's safe to say that I'm looking forward to Space Giraffe more than any other release in 2007. Flossie forever!

Mayhem

02-06-2007, 07:07 PM

Jeff is hoping to submit to the XBLA process in March or April. How long it takes to appear after that, who knows. He's also aiming at it only costing 400 points.

atari_overlord

02-06-2007, 08:11 PM

Once this comes out I will not be able to hold off getting 360 any longer. And with that comes the TV. My wife will be elated.

Steve W

02-06-2007, 08:58 PM

After the cancellation of Unity for the GameCube, I still have some lingering doubt that this one will make it out. I hope I'm wrong, though. I don't understand why Unity was cancelled and not upgraded to the Wii. To be honest, from everything I'd seen of Unity, I couldn't tell what the game was about. I think one of the reasons it was killed was that he had no idea what the gameplay was going to be about, he was spending most of his time focusing on the graphics. So he went back to the well and rehashed the Tempest gamestyle for the 360 with Space Giraffe. I hope that he decides to rework Unity for the Wii. Can you imagine playing something along the lines of Tempest 2000 or Rez, with a Wiimote? That would be exhausting, but fun.

ubersaurus

02-06-2007, 11:42 PM

Unity was supposed to be a tempest style rail shooter, I think.

rbudrick

02-08-2007, 03:48 PM

I seriously want to try some of the stuff this guy must take.

Whattaya mean? I see that stuff all the time wherever I go.

-Rob

JJNova

02-08-2007, 07:22 PM

CaryMG

02-14-2007, 09:53 AM

*sigh* :(

No Jeff Minter fans.

lol

I'm a huge Jeff Minter fan !

I love all of his work for ATARI arcade machines/Jaguar/nUOn/GameCube/XBOX360

:)

diskoboy

04-20-2007, 07:13 PM

Todays 4/20/07 - Jeff Minter announces he's finished with Space Giraffe.

Coincidence or not? ;)

I'm already frothing at the mouth.

Steve W

04-21-2007, 01:19 PM

It's done already? Crap, I guess I'll finally have to break down and get a Wi-Fi adapter and an Xbox Live account.

PapaStu

04-21-2007, 02:17 PM

It's done already? Crap, I guess I'll finally have to break down and get a Wi-Fi adapter and an Xbox Live account.

That doesn't mean that its going to release anytime soon though. XBLA stuff can take a while to hit the masses.

diskoboy

04-21-2007, 02:19 PM

That doesn't mean that its going to release anytime soon though. XBLA stuff can take a while to hit the masses.

Yeah - I got this info from joystiq. They still say he's doing small tweaks. But the game is pretty much finished. I give it about 2 months (minimum) before we see it.

Mayhem

04-21-2007, 03:11 PM

Or in my case next month (fingers crossed)... Jeff will be at one of the usual gatherings here in the UK, so hopefully he'll bring a unit and the game for all to play :)

Nebagram

04-22-2007, 02:45 PM

he said on his lj he was still tweaking it as of Friday, so I imagine it won't be with MS for a good couple of weeks.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

04-22-2007, 08:17 PM

I have a hard time talking to Minter followers due to their crazy fanboyisms. It's like talking to a console fan that doesn't see the glaring flaws their company makes. Specifically with Unity. The reason it was canceled (according to all resources) is because there wasn't enough time to finish the title before the Gamecube would die off. . .

and then... the Wii is backwards compatible. Minter himself doesn't answer questions regarding the game, but his close friends and testers are generally quick to attack anyone who asks for an explanation. Yes, I understand it must be tiring to have 100 people a month ask, "What about Unity!?!?!?" but I'm sure it would be a lot easier to hand them a link where their question is answered with some sort of explanation, as opposed to just saying "Unity is dead and it doesn't matter why. so fuck off." Who knows, when you answer the question, you might see the question less often (killing two birds with one stone!)

It seems to many of us that were strong supporters of Unity, got shafted. Since very shortly after dropping the Unity project, Jeff announced he was working with Microsoft to develop Nuon. I don't blame the man for going after the gauranteed money. I would of also. The timing just seemed very coincidental and I felt abandoned (as a lot of the forum members did also it seems). So as far as Space Giraffe goes. . . I don't care, because I vote with my monies. All 2k of it.
I think it's pretty obvious that there was a falling out between Minter and Lionhead Studios. Lionhead probably thought Minter was taking too long to develop the game. Yak probably thought they were pushing him too hard to get it finished. I'd like to know more specifics (such as who owns the rights to the existing code) and I was quite disappointed that Brandon Sheffield didn't ask him much of anything about it in his Gamasutra interview, but there's probably contractual reasons why Minter can't discuss it any more than he has.

I hope Minter does *SOMETHING* for the Wii since as cool as Space Giraffe looks, I'm not going to buy an Xbox 360 just for it (and a handful of other Live Arcade releases). He's had what amounts to a lot of low level experience with the architecture during Unity development and I know he could do good things with the remote.

...word is bondage...

swlovinist

04-22-2007, 11:05 PM

I am a huge Minter Fan, mostly for his C64 and Vic 20 stuff which was impressive. I own every version of Tempest as well, and I hope that this does see the light of day, although it looks like yet another Tempest(not a bad thing). With leaderboards thrown in, I am excited.

Nebagram

05-25-2007, 08:32 AM

http://llamasoft.co.uk/yak/SpaceGiraffe_video_60.wmv Jeff's got a new trailer up, and if you peek at the livejournal there's also a 274MB gameplay video which looks pretty damn sexy. :)

Nebagram

08-11-2007, 07:24 PM

IT IS DONE. (http://stinkygoat.livejournal.com/109449.html)

Just have to wait for MS to pull their fingers out and set a date, now...

diskoboy

08-11-2007, 09:02 PM

IT IS DONE. (http://stinkygoat.livejournal.com/109449.html)

Just have to wait for MS to pull their fingers out and set a date, now...

Supposedly, it's slated to be released within the next few weeks. I've heard rumors that it will be out August 22nd.

I have 1600 points in my account, and (up to) 800 are reserved soley for Space Giraffe, even thought they're saying it'll be 400pts.

PDorr3

08-12-2007, 01:01 AM

400 points? that would be awsome...It seems like any new or original XBLA game released is 800 points, meanwhile almost every "port" of an old nes, arcade, or sega game is 400 points, so hopefuly we start to see more original games bearing the $5 price.

Nebagram

08-18-2007, 09:05 AM

SG gets 2.0 in the latest OXM... and Jeff goes off the deep end!

Best details, including all of Jeff's f-word-fuelled vitriol, can be found HERE (http://cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108120&page=4). To be fair though, whoever reviewed it was clearly a 'tard.

Mayhem

08-18-2007, 03:50 PM

To be fair I think all of us (mainly at YakYak) were pretty much flabberghasted at the score... and I do rather support Jeff here, because having played the game several times, I can with all certainty say that reviewer is completely shit at games!

diskoboy

08-19-2007, 01:01 AM

I've seen videos galore for this game. And I'm buying it the second I first see it on XBLA. Screw the demo. Minter knows how to make an arcade shooter. That's one thing I can say with absolute certianty.

Space Giraffe honestly looks like Tempest 2000 on steroids. So I haven't even played the game, yet, and I'll say that review is a bit far fetched. That, or thier 360's they were reviewing the game with got the RRoD's during the title screen, and took their anger out on the game (doubt it...).

Mayhem

08-19-2007, 08:15 AM

Just don't play it like Tempest okay, it doesn't work like that for the big scores ;)

Mayhem

08-20-2007, 12:09 PM

Two days to go... announcement that it'll be available on Wednesday :)

diskoboy

08-20-2007, 12:16 PM

Two days to go... announcement that it'll be available on Wednesday :)

Is it 400 or 800 points?

(EDIT - nevermind. Joystiq just announced it. And it'll be 400 points)

diskoboy

08-22-2007, 01:44 PM

Yeah - whoever gave this a 2 is obviously totally insane.

And this is definitely not the game of Tempest we all know and love... Once you get a hang of the new gameplay mechanics, the game is fun as hell. I dare say, it blows Tempest 2k, out of the water.

But those damn enemy bullets are really tough to see, so I can understand the frustration the reviewer may have had, but this is definately a top notch shooter, and a 2 is definitely an insult..

And on a side note - thumbs up for the excellent use of the KLF samples! :)

Mayhem

08-22-2007, 04:38 PM

Just to be sure Jeff did actually ask someone to make sure it was okay to use them, and they said go ahead! I can't say I had that many issues spotting bullets when playing it earlier this year but it isn't just visual, you can listen for them too. The only issue would be if you can't see blues and red all that well...

rxd

08-22-2007, 06:29 PM

I have to say this. I think the tutorial and the instructions suck. Don't get me wrong, I'm starting to get the hang of the game and like it, but I shouldn't have to figure out and/or guess at what I'm supposed to be doing. I honestly am shocked that a game that has obviously so much effort put into making it has such a bad tutorial. I'm still not 100% sure about how to play this game and this is after putting in a bit of time on it. Not hours and hours but still I shouldn't need to be guessing here. Like I said, don't get me wrong I really like the game and it's a steal at $5, but I think a lot of people are going to be turned off because they don't understand the game. I found it very frustrating at first myself.

Mayhem

08-22-2007, 07:39 PM

There have been others say the same... the tutorial is only designed to explain so much. This is quite the old fashioned arcade game, you're given a few hints and left to discover the rest for yourself, unlike today's usual handholding for the first 30 minutes. That's pretty much Jeff's summary of things...

If you're still unsure, then there's the Space Giraffe forum at YakYak.org for you to check out...

Kid Ice

08-22-2007, 10:23 PM

I downloaded this today having no idea it was Minter/Tempest style (of course I figured it out pretty fast).

2 is too high a score. One of the worst games on Live.

scooterb23

08-22-2007, 10:51 PM

This game needs to be renamed "Retina Rape"

I love the style of game, but it's almost unplayable if the demo is any indication of the total game.

norkusa

08-22-2007, 11:00 PM

Yeah, I had a hard time figuring out what the hell was going on when I was playing the demo earlier. There's just too much stuff happening on-screen at once.

Queen Of The Felines

08-23-2007, 01:33 AM

Some general info to give you a clue as to what the hell you're supposed to be doing...

1) As the tutorial states, this is NOT Tempest. Shooting everything in sight isn't going to get you any big scores. Your main goal is to let those X-shaped things reach the edge of the grid and then run your "giraffe" right over them to knock them off. The more you knock off at once, the more points you get. Of course, there's some things that are going to get in your way.

2) Every time you shoot something or grab a pod (those long lines with sparks at the end...you hear "Go Go!" when you grab one), notice the grid gets "deeper." As long as the grid has any sort of depth to it, the X-things won't hurt you when you come into contact with them. If not, they'll kill you. So, you have to balance between shooting them and knocking them off the rim.

3) Enemy fire...these are hard to see but you'll be able to spot them after some practice. They're red and blueish. Avoid or shoot.

4) "Flowers"...think of these as Tempest's spikes but with the ability to come off its spike and fly straight off the grid. If you shoot one it'll shrink, but will grow back in a few seconds. When it gets close to the edge, the "flower" part will detach and will kill you if you're above it. (They're a major pain in the ass.)

5) The A button will drop a bomb to wipe everything off the screen just like in Tempest.

6) "Jump" pods...those "Go Go!" things. These have two uses...they'll automatically stretch out the grid and they'll also let you avoid any flowers that have gotten too close to the edge.

I basically just sit in one section of the grid, shoot everything that's coming towards me, and when I see a bunch of X-things on the edge I make a quick sweep and bop them right off. (And if there's no depth to the grid, use a pod so I don't get killed.) There's also bonus rounds too but I have no idea how to activate them.

Thank God I was able to play this back in May or else I wouldn't have a clue either.

Mayhem

08-23-2007, 06:09 AM

There's also bonus rounds too but I have no idea how to activate them.

Once you have four pods, the next time you collect one you get some other bonuses instead (bit like T2K) and one of them is an Ox token. Get three tokens I think and you activate the bonus round.

I should also point out the powerzone shrinks a lot quicker when you sit still as opposed to moving about, so keep on the move :)

Nebagram

08-23-2007, 09:24 AM

Frankly, this is one of the best games on XBLA, right up there with Pac-Man CE. How it is hard to grasp is something I can't understand- all I've done is watch a few gameplay videos and I was able to dive straight in (admittedly I have quite a bit of T2K experience). Probably the best 400 points I've ever spent. :)

ubersaurus

08-23-2007, 11:24 AM

Has anyone else tried playing the game with custom soundtracks running?

Even if it doesn't play like Tempest, the T2K soundtrack is excellent for it! It also seems to change up the background visuals.

diskoboy

08-23-2007, 12:46 PM

I still can't get the 10,000,000 points in the tutorial!!

I usually top off around 8 million.

And I love it - even one of the achievements reference KLF ("Make mine a 99")

Kid Ice

08-23-2007, 03:20 PM

Not having a problem understanding it. It's not that I can't play it. It just looks bad. If I hadn't seen the llamasoft logo and sort of been expecting something like this, I seriously would have thought something had gone wrong in the downloading progress to wreck the graphics. It looks that bad!

Leo_A

08-23-2007, 03:27 PM

Kid Ice

08-23-2007, 04:25 PM

Having bad graphics is the one thing I didn't think I'd hear being mentioned, if anything, I could do with less special effects and such...

Are you sure your playing the same game as everyone else? Are you trying to say you can't see the action by saying it has bad graphics?

I respect the opinion of those who have posted positive comments here. I found the game to be nearly unplayable because it looks bad. I don't know if I'd say it has bad "graphics"...it doesn't look like a 2600 game or something...I just find it extraordinarily visually unappealing.

UGLY is the word I was looking for. I can play a game with "bad" graphics if I like the gameplay. I can't play an ugly game...I don't even want to look at the screen. It's hard to play a game when you don't look at it.

As far as gameplay goes, I will give it another try based on the positive feedback here. My impression of it is that it is a game that is so much like Tempest we need to be told "No, it's not like Tempest! You can't play it like Tempest!" Well then don't make the damn thing so much like Tempest. Better yet, just give us Tempest 2000, make this crap some kind of "enhanced" mode, take my 400-800 points and call it a day.

Nebagram

08-23-2007, 06:23 PM

If you find SG visually unappealing I'd stop at level 63 if I were you. ;-)

ProgrammingAce

08-23-2007, 08:00 PM

I like the game, but i kept getting my ass kicked. Being color-blind doesn't necessarily lend itself to playing jeff minter games...

Kid Ice

08-23-2007, 10:25 PM

If you find SG visually unappealing I'd stop at level 63 if I were you. ;-)

Actually level 2 is where it loses me...really.

I tried it again and gameplay wise it's not as bad as I thought...it's not "one of the worst games ever" bad. Basically it's modified Tempest. When I played it before I only played the tutorial levels. This time I tried the "real" levels and I found that the loss of visibility on level 2 detracted from the (mediocre) gameplay.

I'm getting a little aged though. Maybe it's the eyes.

skylark

08-24-2007, 10:02 AM

I don't know. I like the sound and visual styles, but the play itself hasn't grabbed me in the tutorial levels. I'm going to buy it since it isn't expensive and I like all the swirly bleeps and bloops, but it will probably be just another game I suck at because I can't be bothered to learn its nuances.

Oobgarm

08-24-2007, 10:23 AM

Gave it a try last night.

It's a neat game, there's just too much going on with that particular visual style, and it makes the game look really sloppy. Maybe that's what they're going for.

Still holding off on a purchase.

ProgrammingAce

08-24-2007, 04:25 PM

I like the game, but i kept getting my ass kicked. Being color-blind doesn't necessarily lend itself to playing jeff minter games...

I was playing last night when the game finally "clicked".

I finally realized that shooting things was just a way to keep the "power zone" at bay. Knocking the little bastards off the rim is where the real points are.