It's been a while since the Space Giraffe kerfluffle where Yak Minter threw a hissy fit in his blog regarding poor scores given to the XBLA psychedelic shooter (and the point where it was compared to Joyce's Ulysses, but I came across an interesting piece recently that talked about Space Giraffe in reference to (wait for it) a piece of literary theory known as 'authorial intent.' The post-structuralist conception is (at least in part) that the critic's will and opinion always supercedes that of the author. What does this have to do with Space Giraffe? Well, it's one way to look at why there was such heated discussion over Space Giraffe:

The collision between the Llamasoft's eccentric design aesthetic and the expectations of entire modern internet did not fall in Minter's favor .... At least a couple of online discussions link to a post on Minter's personal blog where he expresses muted optimism at the game's tepid sales after its launch last summer, and another on the game's official development blog where he angrily rebuffs players (and reviewers) who find the game too difficult or unfriendly to "man up and grow a pair", ranting that the expectation of the modern gamer to encounter some easy tutorial levels followed by a steady-but-gentle difficulty curve is more pandering to the masses than a time-tested refinement in game design philosophy.

This alone paints an interesting portrait of a truly old-school game designer discovering the sort of controversy that would arise only as a result of the almost anachronistic insertion into the XBox Live Arcade catalog that Space Giraffe represents - a brand-new, high-definition, surround-sound game that still somehow feels like it's from 1985. What brings it all around to my thoughts on authorial intent are articles like this one, where Minter insists that Space Giraffe is not a followup to Tempest. Except... it totally is. I put forth that not a single person who has played the original Tempest, and who has had no contact with Minter's own thoughts on Space Giraffe's design, will fail to immediately think "Aha! Tempest!" upon seeing the newer game. Furthermore, even if they like the game enough to stick with it and discover all the ways that it's different - and there are indeed many - they will still consider it a Tempest offshoot.

It's not a particularly long piece, and many may cringe at the collision of literary theory and, uh, gaming, but it's not that often we see such a visceral response from an auteur to critics that stretches out over a period of time.

On Authorial Intent and Space Giraffes [The Gameshelf]

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]

This game is about expanding your perception. It demands that you learn to see. Most of the reviewers who gave the game low scores, I claim, were too closed-minded; they weren't receptive to this kind of teaching, which the game is obviously telling you it wants to do, if you are quiet enough and listen.

The game could be much clearer about its intentions. There's a tutorial, but it only teaches you the basic game mechanics (and not very clearly, at that). The tutorial never says anything like "this game is going to throw ever-more visual insanity at you, and your job is to make sense of it all". That would have been undesirably heavy-handed, but I know that if Jeff had structured the game so that this intent was somehow clear to the player from the start, there would be many fewer bad reviews.

He goes on to say that maybe Space Giraffe is like James Joyce's Ulysses - a firestorm for controversy, but some people just don't get it. Me? Not a fan of Ulysses, but I'm pretty fond of Space Giraffe.

In which I compare Space Giraffe to Ulysses [Braid via GameSetWatch]

Thanks, Protector one!

Space Giraffe Page on Xbox.com
Street Trace Page on Xbox.com

Welcome to the Space Giraffe Launch Blog! We're now very close to Llamasoft's latest emission through the auspices of XBOX Live Arcade. So if you've an XBOX 360 and you're all hooked up to that there internet you're in a for a real treat for a mere 400 XBLA points! Over the next few days you can expect this blog to be chock full of all manner of Space Giraffe info.

There's a 100 levels to play through, a rogues gallery of nasties bound to test your gaming skills and it's here you'll be able to find out what you need to succeed straight from the yak's mouth, he'll be along soon.

I'll just be glad when the game is out (for a whopping 400 points on XBLA) and there will be no more cries of dispair in this house - until one of the games I'm looking forward to gets pushed back again and again and again.

Llamasoft Space Giraffe Launch Blog [via Jeff Minter's LJ]

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