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Minter: "Still a taste for old-style games" News

Xbox 360 PC News by Robert Purchese

16 December, 2008

Space Giraffe developer Jeff Minter believes old-school game design should be able to coexist with modern blockbusters.

Speaking to Eurogamer after the launch of Space Giraffe on PC yesterday, Minter speculated that XNA Community Games and similar initiatives may even spark a resurgence.

"There is still a taste for old-style games," he told us. "If you look at stuff like LittleBigPlanet, which I was just playing the other day, it's basically a 2D platform game with physics. If you did that as an entirely 2D game it would still be enjoyable.

"Perhaps things like XNA will allow smaller projects to still survive and perhaps thrive. It would be a shame to lose them entirely. The older game forms are still valid game forms, in the same way that when film came along it didn't banish books, I don't see why 3D should banish 2D.

"It would be nice to keep them all alive and keep them all relevant," he added.

Minter went on to say that one thing "missing from the modern user experience" was the ability to program for the hardware, which results in us taking "what's dolled out".

The 3D graphics arms race is also to blame, and to the detriment of gameplay, said Minter, although he foresees a less dramatic shift in graphics from this generation to the next.

And he had lots more to say to us about his farm, his next XBLA game Gridrunner+++, his favourite console, and turning sheep into reindeer in our full interview published today.

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Comments: 1-13 of 13 in total

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secombe
16/12/08 @ 07:56
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Maybe Minter could somehow get on the board at Sega, then force them to return to 2D Sonic games.

I've always thought that there must be a market for more traditional games, hopefully the various download services can supply plenty of that kind of content.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 16/12/08 @ 07:56
paul_haine
16/12/08 @ 08:58
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"Maybe Minter could somehow get on the board at Sega, then force them to return to 2D Sonic games."

Nah, he'd just remake Tempest again but with Sonic running around the edges of the thing.
Michael1406
16/12/08 @ 09:09
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The first thing that comes to mind is "Duh".
kangarootoo
16/12/08 @ 09:18
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"There is still a taste for cheese flavoured trifle"... says man with nothing but cheese flavoured trifle to sell.

There is probably also still a taste for games that are actually fun to play. How about you focus on those too, eh?

/troll for a day
kangarootoo
16/12/08 @ 09:22
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From the main interview.

"Plus, I have taken steps address the issues some people had. I haven't just sat there and said, "That's the way it is, smeg off." I have taken constructive criticism onboard where it has been offered, and I think we've ended up with a better game because of it."

I feel bad now, because taking on feedback is the best thing anyone can do. Good to see Jeff is not operating in a bubble.
lasersrule
16/12/08 @ 10:21
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He's a cranky old mad hippie who makes truly sickening colour schemes, but I love him and never want him to change.
thisisatempaccount
16/12/08 @ 11:05
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Didn't he make the Revenge of the Mutant Camels? That was on one of the first compilations of freeware DOS games I ever played. The man himself, from his output, appears to be coding from inside an asylum somewhere. Long may it continue.
squarejawhero
16/12/08 @ 11:24
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Minter, maybe a game where one could see what one's doing... that'd be nice.
Redeye
16/12/08 @ 12:33
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Couldn't agree more with the sentiment, Jeff, but trying to get publishers to listen is like pulling teeth... :\
MGG
16/12/08 @ 12:59
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Who needs pubishers for games like this? Steam, XNA, etc are the places for innovation, lets not taint it with mention of publishers.....
Redeye
16/12/08 @ 14:21
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Couldn't agree more, MGG, but unless devs have the readies to finance such titles themselves, the buggers have to be brought into it somewhere... :(
kangarootoo
16/12/08 @ 14:30
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Did Mutant Giraffe game thing actually make any money? Its kind of crucial when talk of "getting publishers to listen" hoves into view, as we can't really ask them to just chuck money away. Can we?
paulf
16/12/08 @ 14:43
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i wonder whether the remix of space giraffe will make it onto xbox live?

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