Gridrunner Revolutions is exactly what you'd expect from Jeff Minter. There are swirling colors, things to shoot at, and sheep that you must collect to advance. The game comes as a downloadable 4-level demo, and I've already played through said demo about five times in preparation for this post. One time was probably enough, but there's something extremely enjoyable about shooting spaceships while a high-pitched voice exclaims, "Sheepy!" Perhaps it is just me.

Unlocking the full game will cost you $20, giving you access to countless levels and extras. To get started, head over to the Llamasoft website and download 65 megs worth of shooty sheepy goodness.

Tiga's and Llamasoft visuals go together like peanut butter and acid, the aesthetic that founder and ruminant obsessive Jeff Minter has become (in)famous for over the developer's 25-year-plus history.

"The video is loosely based on an experience I had after eating a mood ring," says Tiga, presumably facetiously in the video's official description. "In my quest to recreate it, I rented a pyramid to be used in the video. Was it worth committing to a nine-year Egyptian tour? Judge for yourselves." Go ahead. Judge.

Gridrunner+++ is actually a reworking of Minter's PC shooter Gridrunner++ for Xbox Live Arcade. As with Minter's head, it should be beautiful, abstract, and possibly filled with mountain goats.

"Gridrunner+++" (working title; the final title will likely involve less plusses). This game has already been mentioned in EDGE Magazine's "Most Wanted" section, and is a fast-paced extrapolation of the oldschool single-screen shooter, brought brilliantly into the 21st century with beautiful abstract visuals and intense, challenging but fair gameplay accessible on a variety of levels from novice to twitch-shooter expert.

I was right about everything but the mountain goats...or was I? Check out the press release below for a few more details, along with so much love for PC Gamer UK that the two should probably have rented a room.

LLAMA ALERT - Space Giraffe PC gets awesome 92% review, Gridrunner+++ is coming soon

Britain's top PC gaming magazine PC Gamer has reviewed Space Giraffe PC in its February 2009 edition and given the game an overall rating of 92% and the accolade "***** MUST BUY", making Space Giraffe one of the most highly rated games of the month. They say:

"It balances the risk, the reward and the signals so perfectly that it's either sheer luck or complete genius"… "Space Giraffe offers experiences and enemies that are actually, honestly new"…"if you give Space Giraffe a few hours and some patience you will find an immersive world unlike any other, an unforgettable one".

The February edition of PCG is in shops now, we can only recommend that you pick up a copy and read this splendid 2-page review of Space Giraffe PC for yourself.

This excellent press reception of the PC version of Space Giraffe is a testament to the effort we have put into refining and improving the game since its initial Xbox 360 release. We listened to criticism from those who found the original experience a bit too intense for comfort, and created an entirely new set of 100 more chilled-out levels which make the game more approachable for beginners - whilst retaining the original level set for those who enjoy the full-on hardcore psychedelia of the initial release. Reaction to the updated version has been universally favourable and attests to the underlying excellence of the original game design.

In developing the new levels we have also developed a much-improved shader library making possible effects which are more intricate and beautiful than before yet without being overwhelming. This shader library - and the underlying Neon engine which drives it - has already been deployed to create the beautiful background visualisations in the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game "Space Invaders Extreme".

This library will be extended further and deployed to maximum effect in our upcoming release "Gridrunner+++" (working title; the final title will likely involve less plusses). This game has already been mentioned in EDGE Magazine's "Most Wanted" section, and is a fast-paced extrapolation of the oldschool single-screen shooter, brought brilliantly into the 21st century with beautiful abstract visuals and intense, challenging but fair gameplay accessible on a variety of levels from novice to twitch-shooter expert.

Gridrunner+++ will be released at the end of April.

Space Giraffe PC is available here and now from the Llamasoft website:
http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/downloads/SpaceGiraffe.exe
- and will soon be available from a selection of the better PC gaming portal sites.

Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, explains why it was priced so, commenting on the official Braid blog he had to "guard against [...] the Space Giraffe problem." He offers up the low priced, low selling (just 19,000 downloads) psychedelic shooter as an example of how pricing came back to bite the developer in the ass (specifically the wallet).

He writes that Space Giraffe for XBLA already had a built-in audience of Jeff Minter followers, something Braid does not.

"There is a significant possibility that Braid would have been the next Psychonauts or Beyond Good and Evil (critically acclaimed but nobody played it)," Blow contends "Even at $10."

He later puts the cost into more tangible terms, commenting that "If it were just a matter of my own money, I wouldn’t care so much, but I ran out of money while developing Braid and had to borrow a lot — so I owe people a lot of money. That makes the nature of the decision a little different."

That decision, it sounds like, may not have been entirely Blow's to make. He theorizes that Microsoft would have priced the title at 1200 MS Points regardless of his wishes to go lower.

I'll be buying the game when it's released on Xbox Live Marketplace early tomorrow morning, despite having free access to it right now. I would recommend you do the same. But only if you like awesome games with a great sense of humor, fantastic gameplay mechanics and stunning artwork.

Recent Braid Review and Preview [Braid Blog - thanks, Mike!]

For those unfamiliar with Gridrunner++, demos for the PC and Mac are currently available at Llamasoft. For those who can't be bothered with the half-dozen clicks required to run it, the game is a "twitch gaming shoot 'em up" featuring "glorious, retina scorching, psychedelic themed parallax scrolling levels." It sounds like Robotron. It's fun. Go play it.

iPod touchness [Jeff Minter's LiveJournal]

Fuckwittery. Gotta remember that one. Funny.
Minter Makes Shirt [YakYak]

Poor Jeff. Lay off him already, Giraffe haters! If you love Space Giraffe, though, show Minter some love. Maybe a nice fruit basket or hand knit yak hair sweater would cheer him up.

stage one [Jeff Minter's LiveJournal via 1UP]

The dishes are done, man! Jeff Minter announces on his Live Journal earlier this week that Space Giraffe has finished its testing phase which means it is going to be out soon. It also features some screenshots of how he did on his own game throughout different levels (practice makes perfect!).

For all of you who haven't been paying attention, here's a quick review before the test:

Space Giraffe is a psychedelic shooter in a similar vein to previous title Tempest 2000. However, the similarities end on the surface, and the developer is keen to point out that this is a different and unique game.

You can score a copy of Space Giraffe very soon on Xbox Live Arcade for a mere 400 points, which is probably a better buy (at 230 points) than trying to get your Robbie Williams fix after finding out he's the youngest man to make the Sunday's Times Rich List.

Sigh. "Oh, Robbie ..." (elbows on table, hands on head) . Kim Phu

Space Giraffe Finished [Eurogamer]

Jeff Minter: Game developer, sheep owner and naughty dude. Gamasutra has a big interview with Minter in which he explains where the name for his upcoming game Space Giraffe came from, why he didn't return Jallard's email and about the time he was asked to make a game for sheep. Onwards!

...the weirdest request I've ever had in making games was when I was once offered by a research place in Wales to develop video games for sheep. I guess it was some study into the cognitive abilities of sheep. I couldn't take it up because I was busy with other stuff, but I was genuinely asked to make video games for sheep.

And so, that's how "Does Jeff Minter Dream of Electric Sheep?" didn't become a reality. Bummer! Brian Ashcraft

Jeff Minter Sheep Game [Gamasutra]

Good news! Our favorite naughty developer Jeff Minter has finished designing all the 100 levels that make up his Xbox 360 title Space Giraffe. Over at LiveJournal, Minter writes:

I'll be continuing to play over and tweak the levels until everything is completely finished, but all the main levels are now pretty much done. ...and then next week will be dedicated to the bonus round. If I can get that nailed in a week then I'll be a happy ox and on schedule for gameplay complete end of March as I hoped }:-)

Not only does Minter like naughty stuff, but also emoticons. Insightful! Brian Ashcraft

Levels finished [LiveJournal via 1Up]

Laptops make good porn banks. Just ask llama obsessed game designer Jeff Minter. He was giving a keynote at the Independent Game Summit at GDC. Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield reports:

[Minter] was showing the audience his old games. He misplaced the game Gridrunner++ ...so he was searching through his file tree — exposing for a moment on the large screen a folder entitled 'naughty.' That's my greatest fear for presenting, let me tell you! Luckily the folder wasn't opened, and only displayed for a fraction of a second...

Luckily or unluckily? Brian Ashcraft

Jeff Minter is Naughty [Insert Credit]

Okay, I have no idea what's going on in this demo of Space Giraffe. But it reminds me of that time I licked a monolith I found sticking out of the dirth in the African desert, surrounded by strange looking, half-fossilized monkey bones. Florian Eckhardt

Jeff Minter just posted the first video of Space Giraffe up on You Tube, looks like a very trippy version of Tempest. Can't wait till this hits the Xbox 360. Brian Crecente

Jeff Minter, the llama obsessed game designer behind Tempest 2000 and one of the people who created the trippy Xbox 360 visualizer, is bringing Space Giraffe to the Xbox 360.

It sorta looks like a blend of Tempest and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Too bad there aren't any llamas. I have some screens on the jump. Brian Crecente

Minter's Latest Game [Quarter to Three]

Jeff Minter — the opinionated, greasy, bedraggled game designer behind Llamasoft and half a dozen games all about dromedaries — has lashed out against the PS3 in the latest issue of EDGE, calling Sony "incredibly arrogant."

They seem absolutely certain that even when they say it's going to be considerably more expensive than existing consoles... nevertheless us eager customers will rush out in droves to buy it because it's, hey, a new PlayStation."

Yep, that pretty much sums up their marketing pitch: you'll damn well buy what we tell you to, you idiot monkeys. Minter also disparaged the launch line-up as "sucking", although please be aware that the quotations do not indicate an actual quote, and are merely the indicators of this blogger's attempt at remote ventriloquism.

If you want to read it, just pick up EDGE at your local newstand. Florian Eckhardt

Video game legend criticises Sony [BBC]