One month ago, Bob Pelloni started a protest which was to last 100 days. This was after Nintendo denied him a Nintendo DS development kit for his 5 years in the making, Bob's Game.
Mr Pelloni created this 5 year project on his own and spent more than 15,000 hours on his DS RPG. Bob stayed in his appartment with no TV, no internet, no radio and no phone. With only a once a week visit from a friend to bring him some food.

That protest ended yesterday when Mr Pelloni claimed to have an agonizing headache making it unbareable to go on. He then proceeded to rant about Nintendo calling them a "heartless corporation, only interested in the biggest profits" he concluded by saying "I really wanted to finish this game,".

Personally, I think it's a shame that Nintendo couldn't just send him a dev kit so he could finish a game he's been developing for 5 years.

...Can a nitfit of one man really be called a protest?

either way, that was pretty heartless of Nintendo.

Ya, I heard about this yesterday, poor bastard. I remember seeing some youtube videos of the game, and it didn't look half bad. Nothing earth shattering (IMO), but it looked alright. Seems the big N just doesn't care about the indy devs, though.

What a said state of affairs. I would've bought his game to support him, and show Nintendo there is a market out there for this kind of game.

Dubiousduke:
...Can a nitfit of one man really be called a protest?

either way, that was pretty heartless of Nintendo.

People do 1 man protests all the time, albeit not over games but over trees and other things in nature I know nothing about.

sunami88:
Ya, I heard about this yesterday, poor bastard. I remember seeing some youtube videos of the game, and it didn't look half bad. Nothing earth shattering (IMO), but it looked alright. Seems the big N just doesn't care about the indy devs, though.

What a said state of affairs. I would've bought his game to support him, and show Nintendo there is a market out there for this kind of dev.

Nintendo only like games in which you take care of animals or feature italian plumbers or elves.

I would also have bought the game just to help the cause. I wonder how many other independant devs are being oppressed. (didn't Rare start with only 2 people?)

That sir, is just complete stupidity considering that they could have just gave him the developer kit, then work out a deal with him that lets Nintendo sell his game mass scale. They could have made a profit even if he got some of the money.

Wow, poor guy...I don't understand why Nintendo couldn't turn a profit with his game.

That's really too bad for him.

Thats terrible. From what I've seen of the game Nintendo could have made a big profit.

He should just release it on XBLA, it's indie dev friendly.

Mister Benoit:
He should just release it on XBLA, it's indie dev friendly.

Good point.

Nintendo's lost a little respect from me. All he wanted was a development kit. It's not that bad just to give it to him. And then if he got it, there's not saying if he'd get it published or not.

Aye, I for one, support Indie developers with all my heart and soul. Bob can always work on our beloved PC platform though ;)

I feel sorry for the guy.

Also, this is a great example of Nintendo's unwillingness to deviate from their own franchises.

the man is an idiot, sure you can argue that it was unfair but the bottom line is that he was obviously just an idiot and he should not have tried to attempt this protest. his last line calling nintendo a "heartless corporation" only solidifies the in my mind.

Nintendo have a history of shafting studios never mind indies - and to be a bit blunt if you're going to spend five years making a game shouldn't you sort out a platform dev kit to start with?

Pyronox:
I bet we can torrent a dev kit...

this

1. Nintendo did come out of this looking like a heartless bastard who drowns kittens and puppies.

2. The man in question was an idiot. From the sound of it, he was obsessed, which is never a good thing. And then there's the matter of him investing 5 years without covering all his bases. Poor planning and lack of preparation.

The guy should have secured all required resources in advance. If he's making it up as he goes along then he doesn't get to throw a tantrum just because something doesn't go his way.

...so Nintendo is evil because they didn't give an insane superfan a dev kit when that's what you should've tried to get first?

sure, whatever.

Wow I feel genuinly bad for this man.

Can somebody explain whats in the Dev kit?

Jandau:
The man in question was an idiot. From the sound of it, he was obsessed, which is never a good thing.

You say obsessive, I say average fanboy.

This also lead to him faking his death on line.

I am inclined to believe this gent is not all there. I went through his blog, he decided to stage this process after a delay in his application of a couple of months. Seriously, an 8 week delay and he through a shit fit. He embodies a very scary type of fanboy naivete and behaviour.

Fact is, delays in applications like this are common, Nintendo has a lot to consider before they distribute their SDK's. Security is a big issue, they do not want their processes and technology leaked to the public, and distributing the SDK to an individual is the first step in letting that happen.

I'm letting all you potential studio establishers out there know that it is not as simple as renting office space, filling out a form and waiting for a reply. Bob seemed to think it was that simple, and after five years of work, to flip out over a two month delay is odd.

We're not getting the whole story on this one.

Edit: after just reviewing his site, I am less impressed, I am getting the impression this is just a viral ad campaign by bob. 100 days that ends with 30 that ends with police involvement the spins into a villainous yet interesting to media "insane" persona that apparently leads to the "bob's game tournament" at the end of 100 days... excuse me 70. I stand by my assessment of fanboy naivete but it is obviously a different variety than the driven to temper tamper variety.

Doesn't it cost most game companies several thousand dollars to get a Development Kit? Why would this guy think they'd just send him one?

His failure gives me pleasure AND sustinance. Yes, let me drink the sweet milk of your tears, foolish man.

He's a batshit crazy Fanboy who needs to relax.

Starnerf:
Doesn't it cost most game companies several thousand dollars to get a Development Kit? Why would this guy think they'd just send him one?

As I understand it, he is not asking for them to send him the kit for free. He's adhering to all of Nintendo's Developer requirements and is willing to sign the $5000.00 cheque (a DS SDK is more elaborate than a DVD however)

Ok I'm sorry because I'm about to sound completly heartless...
That man is immature and stupid, as others have pointed out he should have planned better if I was in charge of a company and some guy I had never heard of came to my company saying he'd just spent five years making a game and nown after five YEARS he finally decided to get a development kit my first impression would be that he's extreamly irresponsible Mark_n_b already brought up the security issues, would you send it?
I wouldn't!
And then he locks himself in a room without anything to do saying he's gonna "protest" for one hundred days only to GIVE UP. I don't know what you sympathizers envisioned when you read this but the only thing I could think of was a winey brat throwing a temper tantrum trying to get his way. So I'm glad nintendo said no.

Off topic, but what is his game about? It just looked like a normal, boring life simulator. Is there some kind of ulterior motive in the game or do you just live another life in a cloud of ones and zeros?

I can't help but get the feeling that Bob's game is either some kind of viral marketing, or some kind of troll. At first it seemed like he was an ego maniac indie developer, but as things went on it just seemed to get so over the top, to the point where I can't take it serious.

Mister Benoit:
He should just release it on XBLA, it's indie dev friendly.

1. The 360 can't play a game designed for a DS, assuming it is stylus heavy controls.
2. This may be more about my priciples then logic, but indie games are pretty cheap on XBLA, and i'm sure M$ takes a large cut of it. I would put it on Newgrounds before selling all my rights to my product to Microsoft for a very small profit.

I think it is pretty outright for lack of a better word... completely f***ing stupid of him to expect such a thing. People are right, if it was a game 5 years in the making and if he was so clearly obsessed with it why in god's name did he not get a developer kit in the first place. I'm not completely sure what it is to be honest, but if it's so important wouldn't it have been high on his priority list? This story really does sound like a viral marketing campaign, for someone with no internet, phone or TV access how did he blog his events? Did he bother looking for the developer's kit on the internet? It sounds a bit shifty to me.

DoW Lowen:
I think it is pretty outright for lack of a better word... completely f***ing stupid of him to expect such a thing. People are right, if it was a game 5 years in the making and if he was so clearly obsessed with it why in god's name did he not get a developer kit in the first place. I'm not completely sure what it is to be honest, but if it's so important wouldn't it have been high on his priority list? This story really does sound like a viral marketing campaign, for someone with no internet, phone or TV access how did he blog his events? Did he bother looking for the developer's kit on the internet? It sounds a bit shifty to me.

I really don't think it's that easy to get a dev kit off the internet. I'm pretty sure that if something like that costs $5000,- Nintendo wouldn't just let it leak onto the internet.

I have to admit his actions weren't thought through well enough and maybe he should have asked for the dev kit first, but if you look at how much the thing costs, maybe he just wanted to be sure he could actually finish the game up to the point where he would need the dev kit. It would've been a waste of money if he got it first and then got stuck with the development.

Or maybe I'm just completely wrong because it seems he's stuck now so it doesn't make any real difference.

If I was the guy, I'd finish the damn thing and sell $5 downloads of it or people with the DS cards (can't think of what they're called at the moment).
Anyway, with all the garbage Nintendo releases for Wii and DS, I'm surprised they didn't "OK" it and try to make some profit.

newguy77:
Off topic, but what is his game about? It just looked like a normal, boring life simulator. Is there some kind of ulterior motive in the game or do you just live another life in a cloud of ones and zeros?

Apparently it is comparable to traditional tile RPG adventures, there are (supposedly) enemy's and bosses and involved story game-play, but bob does not want to spoil the surprise because that's the way true believers feel. I agree it looks pretty dull with what we have seen so far. More evidence this is more a viral gag than anything else.

Gamer137:
1. The 360 can't play a game designed for a DS, assuming it is stylus heavy controls.
2. This may be more about my priciples then logic, but indie games are pretty cheap on XBLA, and i'm sure M$ takes a large cut of it. I would put it on Newgrounds before selling all my rights to my product to Microsoft for a very small profit.

1. True, but given that it is a classically designed tile based game programmed in C, it should take to dpad / joystick control systems with little programming changes.
2. I have to agree, XBLA takes the whole retail packaging thing out of the equation saving a lot of money on insurance, shipping, packaging, etc. XBLA also does not take much of a cut, they pay per each individual download of the title, and given bob's nuttiness, his game would likely get a lot of curious gamers downloading.

Xbox has similar requirements to Nintendo for acquiring their SDK (which stands for Software Development Kit for those who may be wondering) so he would have to jump through similar hoops, but as has been pointed out, XBLA is much more politically open to ideas like bob's. Ironically, having the title available for XBLA would likely assure approval for a DS port.

Here's a question for y'all to consider as well, There are multiple DS approved publishers that both have access to DS SDK's that bob could work on to port his game to the official platform, their assurance of publication is likely enough of a voucher for Nintendo as well.

I'm so reminded of lonely girl.