Slashdot Mirror
Catching Up With Jeff Minter
Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield has a nice interview up today with Jeff Minter, 50% of the indie gaming force that is Llamasoft. He was the creative force behind the visualization for the Xbox 360, and is currently working on the title Space Giraffe for Live Arcade. They touch on Minter's work ethic, past projects, and a canceled GameCube project that never quite made it out the door. They also, of course, discuss Minter's plans for the future: "One thing I would like to explore in the future is making music more involved with the game, so that the type of music you put on would determine how the level played. Some music might create a more chilled level, whereas heavy metal and heavy techno might be more intense. I've got so many ideas, but we can't do them all on the first outing."
Some music might create a more chilled level, whereas heavy metal and heavy techno might be more intense. I've got so many ideas, but we can't do them all on the first outing
What happens when you play some Barry Manilow? Does the toon just curl up and die?
... new mutant camels?
Doesn't it work better the other way around, where the pros sync the music to the action?
Jaguar
Neon
GameCube
Xbox 360
Minter's stuff was moderately cool back in the Atari ST days, now he his more like a gaming Grim Reaper.
Jeff's been generating amazing ideas at an amazing rate since the early 80s - sadly AFAIK none of them have really gone anywhere, as others have said he's had the touch of death for consoles too numerous to mention :(
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
I've not seen him for ages, Daglish that is.
:)
:)
I owe him 100 quid too
Last bloke I owed money to died so I'm hoping that's not a pattern
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
...stole way too much of my childhood.
Where's Jack Thompson when you really need him?
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
A more recent example was Rez, which came out on Dreamcast which too relegated it to cult status, and the PS2 version is very rare considering how high the demand for the game remains. Music didn't change the gameplay, but rather the music was paced by the players actions. A very short, very fun and highly visual game (I'm sure Tempest 2000 fans would be proud), one that deserves a sequel.
For music that determines how the game plays, you could say DDR is already like that, but the music is selected and the steps are already been determined. I think the game by codemasters called Dance Factory generates the steps for any music cd that you put in. But a non-dance game seeding the game style from the music has still yet to be done, as far as I know.
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
I played Gridrunner on my C-64 for all of 20 minutes. It was sort of a crappy Centipede ripoff. What was most remarkable about the game,
if anything, was that it said "A Game by Jeff Minter" on the title screen, which was unusual for the day (since credits were not given then).
Otherwise the game was wholly unremarkable.
With all the truly revolutionary games which have been written over the years, why on earth is the very average Mr. Minter acknowledged?
This isn't flamebait. I want to understand why we seem to credit Mr. Minter with some sort of bizarre auteur status?
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Wow. Is it just me, or does that photo in the article make it look like he was the model for
The GNU Logo?
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I'll believe he can complete a game when, well, when sheep fly. It seems he lost his knack for COMPLETING games a long time ago, which is a real shame. I have many fond memories of llamatron.
Don't know why it isn't mentioned more. Its the most fun I've had with a computer ever. Hours and hours and hours of my life were spent on this complex, insanely fast scrolly shooter. Two planet surfaces that scrolled in opposite directions, a main character that could transform between walking and flying, warp gates that allowed access to higher game levels as the player progressed, and a bonus round that was like Marble Madness played from above at high speed. And strobe visuals that made your eyeballs melt. Awesome game.
I did get a signed Tempest 2000 Soundtrack CD out of it as I broke several traffic laws to make sure he didn't miss his plane.