 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bob's Game" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Bob's Game | |
|---|---|
 Logo | |
| Developer | Robert Pelloni |
| Platforms | Nintendo DS,Windows (Demo), Mac, Linux, Android |
| Genre | Role-playing video game |
Bob's Game (stylized as"bob's game") is arole-playing video game under development since 2003 or 2004 byindependent video game developer Robert Pelloni. The project is most notable for the erratic behaviour of its developer, whose quest to get an officialSDK for theNintendo DS eventually escalated into a 30-day protest, vandalizing a store, an announcement of a competing console, and severalcrowdfunding campaigns, with Pelloni intermittently giving eccentric statements and interviews.
Bob's Game was to be a2D role-playing video game developed solely by Pelloni since 2004 for theNintendo DS.[1] According to an interview he gave to theOrlando Sentinel, Pelloni spent over five years and over 15,000 hours working on the game.[1] The game was to feature over 200 characters and, according to the interview, "more gameplay than just about anything out there on the portable system."[2] In August 2008, Pelloni posted a preview of the game onYouTube that had received over 100,000 views by September 15, 2008.[2]
Development started as a result of a conversation about video games that Pelloni had with friends, discussing creating a video game based in thesuburbs that had aDungeons & Dragons mindset, similar to theEarthBound series. He also drew motivation from titles such asSuper Mario 64,Super Metroid, theDance Dance Revolution series, and a similar game developed by one person titledCave Story.[citation needed] According to theSentinel interview, Pelloni was fascinated by other similar video game projects getting published after participating in onlineInternet forums. At the same time, he was also "disheartened" over how the video game industry did business, saying that "it's a standard practice for some publishers to take a game engine and put in licensed assets to coincide with, say, a movie release for example."[2] This motivated Pelloni to self-developBob's Game and, as a result, he spent most of 2006 and 2007 in isolation while developing the game.[2]
Pelloni said that the hardest part of developing the game was the background graphics, as he had no artistic experience. He would not consider the game "100% complete" until he received thesoftware development kit (SDK) fromNintendo, which would allow him tocompile the game according to Nintendo's code specifications. However, he stated in theSentinel interview, "[Y]ou can't get access to [the SDK] unless you've published a game before."[2] Pelloni had received responses from somevideo game publishers but did not start talks with any of them as he wanted to retain creative rights to the game. As a replacement for the standardcredits roll at the end of most video games, he said he would provide a summary of the making of the game.[2]
According to an article inThe Escapist, in 2008 Pelloni was directed by Nintendo to talk to theWarioWorld division, which directed him to marketing; marketing then directed him back to theWarioWorld division.[3] Nintendo told him that they would inform him of their decision whether to grant him an SDK for the game in between six and eight weeks. No response came from Nintendo. After 17 weeks of trying and failing to get Nintendo to provide him with the SDK, on December 11, 2008, Pelloni decided topublicly protest by locking himself in his room for 100 days or until Nintendo provided him with the SDK, whichever came first.[1] According to Owen Good ofKotaku, he staged the protest in an effort to gain publicity by making Nintendo look like a corporate bully beating down on anindie game developer.[4] His room had no Internet access (save for broadcasting a live feed of him in his room via awebcam) or television and had only amobile phone with which he could make calls and send emails and the materials he needed to work on the game.[5] Pelloni made the following comment when he decided to protest:[3]
"I cannot leave thisviridian room. The door is locked and barricaded from the outside. I am sleeping behind the camera, and yes- I've got a shower. Food is delivered once a week by a friend...This is my 100 day protest to Nintendo!"
— Robert Pelloni
Pelloni's protest garnered popularity on various Internet forums and websites.[6] On the 21st day, December 31, 2008, he started to release addresses of Nintendo executives and to sendNintendo of America presidentReggie Fils-Aimé holiday greetings. He also threatened to bundle the game as akiller app using aNintendo DSi homebrew device, and said that he was translating the game into several languages, planning to release it worldwide to "significantly cut into Nintendo's bottom line".[7] According to Chris Greenhough ofJoystiq, he said that he was talking to a Chinese firm about releasingBob's Game on aflash cartridge and negotiating withWalmart to distribute the game.[8] He also threatened to get the game released on other distribution platforms includingXbox Live Arcade,Steam, theiPhone, and thePlayStation Network.[9] On January 6 he declared that he was better thanShigeru Miyamoto,Shigesato Itoi,Hideo Kojima,John Carmack, andWill Wright combined.[10] Though he apologized for his comment two days later, according to Andy Chalk in anEscapist article, he threatened to "exact a horrific vengeance if the company continued to deny him the SDK." At this point, he started to complain aboutparanoia and having persistentheadaches.[10]
The protest ended on the 30th day on January 10, 2009, with Pelloni saying that he was suffering from a "wicked headache". Pelloni describedNintendo as a "heartless corporation, only interested in the biggest profits".[11] He ransacked his room in frustration and posted a lengthy comment on his website, declaring his defeat. In light of the statement and the lack of any visible movement on the webcam,[4][9] a concerned user from the/v/ board on4chan was able to retrieve Pelloni's telephone number from hisWhois information. The user contacted his sister in an attempt to have somebody check on him.[4] Then, on January 11, the police broke into his room to check on him, finding him well.[9]
According to Rob Hearn in an article on the websitePocket Gamer, shortly after conceding, Pelloni resumed his protest and attack on Nintendo. He had apparently worked himself intoBob's Game, portraying himself as the game's main antagonist and finalboss. He redefined the object of the game as being to take down "Gantendo" (aportmanteau of "Ganon" and "Nintendo"), with the game's main protagonist being named "Yuu". In addition, he had retooled the story to incorporate events leading up to and after his protest.[12] On February 1,Griffin McElroy ofJoystiq reported that Pelloni had vandalized theNintendo World Store inNew York City, saying that this was "Level 50" of his newly revived protest.[13]
On February 6, 25 weeks after sending his request for an SDK, Pelloni received a letter from Nintendo rejecting his request. According to JC Fletcher ofJoystiq, this was the same form letter thatXiotex Studios received on their rejection to develop games forWiiWare. In the letter, Nintendo said that they require "secure business facilities, sufficient equipment and staffing, financial stability and other attributes that would distinguish the developer" and that they deal with confidential information, making them highly selective in whom they grant SDK access.[14]
In March 2009, Pelloni announced on his website that the protest and ensuing events had been a viral marketing ploy to advertiseBob's Game. According to an email he sent to the press, he said that he had been able to fool the entire Internet gaming community and expressed disappointment in the media, saying that "'angry developer litters' is considered more newsworthy than 'angry developer'."[15] He referred to the marketing of the game as "an old-school marketing style for an old-school style game."[15] According toJames Stephanie Sterling ofDestructoid, he claimed that his stunts "are the mark of somebody who deserves to be a part of the game industry."[15]
On March 31, 2009, it was reported that Pelloni had released aplayable demo ofBob's Game, which, according to his website, required a flash cartridge and was playable on theNO$GBA emulator.[16] On April 2, 2009,MTV.com's Stephen Totilo interviewed Reggie Fils-Aime about theBob's Game incident. Fils-Aime said that Pelloni had applied to be a licensed developer for Nintendo, but Nintendo rejected his application after a standard evaluation because he did not meet their requirements. He noted that he is happy that people are motivated by games developed under similar circumstances, such as 2D Boy'sWorld of Goo as well asTetris andPokémon, and that Nintendo enjoys "taking big ideas with small budgets and bringing them to life."[6]
On March 4, 2011, Pelloni announced a new portable console called the nD that would be sold for $20 withBob's Game as the first title.[17] On June 9, 2011, the final day ofElectronic Entertainment Expo 2011, Pelloni uploaded a video called "nD Commercial" toYouTube. In early 2013 Bob silently deleted all the references to the nD[citation needed] and put up a live stream of him working on to his official site bobsgame.com. As of May 8, 2013[update], the website has been updated to show a "new phase" ofBob's Game called "Bob's Game Online: nDworld". After playing a short demo, players are asked to register and after doing so are directed to a website telling them to wait for future updates; at first they were also told they would have to pay for the service in the future.
On November 25, 2013, Pelloni made aKickstarter for the puzzle game fromBob's Game, which failed on December 15, 2013, with $477 out of the goal of $6,667. Despite the Kickstarter failing, the game was released on theOuya on January 1, 2014. Shortly after the Kickstarter failed, Pelloni created aPatreon page, which he later removed.[citation needed] On April 23, 2014, Pelloni launched the first and only Kickstarter for the previously announced action-RPGBob's Game, saying that if thecrowd-funding venture was successful, he would invest the money to work from a "hack-van" in order to complete development on the title, and if not, he would put development of the game on indefinite hiatus.[citation needed] On May 22, 2014, with 17 hours left, the game was successfully funded.[18] Pelloni acknowledged this success shortly thereafter on his website.[citation needed] According to aForbes article published in January 2015, the developer has given up on the project, and plans to refund backers.[19] However, on January 20, 2016, Pelloni denied this claim as he stated via Kickstarter that he had not permanently stopped working onBob's Game, and had been pitching the game to investors and publishers, to no success. Pelloni cited an unstable living condition and extensive re-writes to the game's code as additional reasons for the delay,[20] he also started to separate the game into a puzzle game and a RPG game.[citation needed]
In May 2016 analpha version ofBob's Game was successfullySteam Greenlighted.[21] In September 2016, the puzzle gameBob's Game was released onitch.io for Windows, MacOS and Linux while being under ongoing development.[22] This was followed by a full Steam release on February 21, 2017.[23] On June 24, 2021,Bob's Game was renamed took, shortly after the Steam store page for the game was removed.[24]
In August 2016 thesource code of the game was released onGitHub under a non-commercialsource availablesoftware license,[25] to allow the community to contribute. The author says that he wrote the game originally inC, switched then toJava, and later converted it with an automatic code converter toC++.[26]
