Indie Game Jam Show Collapses Due To Interference From "Pepsi Consultant"

Sockatume (732728) writes "Would you like to see a half-million-dollar TV show in which four teams of indie developers and Youtube personalities compete to create amazing videogames? Tough luck, because GAME_JAM from Maker Studios has spectacularly imploded. Although a lot could go wrong with this kind of show, the blame isn't being levelled at game developer egos or project mismanagement but the heroic efforts of one Matti Leshem, a branding consultant brought in for Pepsi. After imposing Mountain Dew branding rules that even banned coffee from the set, his efforts to build a gender divide amongst the teams culminated in the competitors downing their tools and the production collapsing. Accounts from Adriel Wallick, Zoe Quinn, and Robin Arnott are also available."

Comments

Are programmers really this naive?

[ZeroPly]

These guys made a deal with Pepsi, the epitome of a soulless American corporation which will drown fat teenagers in high fructose corn syrup to get a quarterly profit, and they expected Fiji water and organic bananas on the set?

There are about a gazillion indie film makers looking for work. If you don't like corporate, don't do corporate. Your little vanity project is helping keep the lardasses in this country hooked on Taco Bell and buckets of Pepsi, so please don't expect sympathy that your precious self had to drink some Mountain Dew.

I don't know, maybe for their next project they can ask for $5 million from Nike, and do the entire project barefoot... or better, see if Fox has any interest in a "I'm a clueless techie dork" reality show...

Drama queens...

[Karmashock]

There is nothing I have more contempt for in our culture then this belief that grown adults are permitted and sometimes even encouraged to behave emotionally in matters of business, politics, philosophy, and sometimes even science.

By all means... have your feelings. But don't get so out of control that you stop talking or can't make a rational argument anymore. Be mad... but make your case clearly and rationally. Wait your turn as others have their say. Then let the chips fall where they may. Ultimately, if you decide to walk out on a project do it because of the logic... not because you're having a temper tantrum.

Was the marketing guy annoying people with his nonsense? Yes... not allowing coffee on set is obnoxious amongst his other little requirements. But honestly, who cares. You could just get a coffee thermos and put a mountain dew sticker on it. What he cared about was that the camera didn't see coffee. Easily done.

As to the gender nonsense... that's actually a real question that people outside the industry would want to know. Answer the question. if you just hate the question that much then say so... and yes... be mad about it.... but don't throw a hissy fit.