Space Giraffe designer Jeff Minter is back. Or he would be if Microsoft would let him.
Talk to anyone from the 8 bit generation about llamas, and there’s only one name that springs to mind: Jeff Minter.
Jeff Minter, known as the Hairy Yak, was one of the originators of Llamasoft, a company that defined eccentric with games that were based around hippy psychedelics, inane tunes and furry animals. Though he’s been designing games for decades, Minter is probably best known to 360 owners as the guy who rather famously pitched a fit about the fact that a rehash of Frogger outsold his own shooter, Space Giraffe.
His latest release is Gridrunner+++, but Microsoft isn’t answering his calls. “We sent it off to [Microsoft] months ago, but they’ve just not said anything – we’re just waiting for them,”, Jeff said in an interview with Eurogamer, “Basically I’m going to carry on with the PC version of it if I don’t hear from them soon, because they’re just sitting on the demo we sent them three or four months ago. We haven’t heard a thing.”
Part of the reason for Microsoft’s reluctance to move forward may be the lower than average sales of Space Giraffe, which received a less-than-enthusiastic reception from XBLA users. Minter, however, believes that the whole shop setup on XBox Live is daunting and only promotes the most recently-released games; If a game can’t get recognized within that crucial week of release, it goes down to bargain bucketsville.
Personally, I’d buy any of Jeff Minter’s game for the sheer ride; even though I’ve still never figured out what to do in Ancipital. (If you’re one of those people unlucky enough never to play something that will shred your eye and ears simultaneously, you can download the PC version of Space Giraffe here).
