Space Giraffe

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Space Giraffe
Space-giraffe-logo.png
Developer(s) Llamasoft
Publisher(s) Llamasoft
Designer(s) Jeff Minter, Ivan Zorzin
Platform(s)
ReleaseXbox 360
22 August 2007 [1]
Windows
15 December 2008 [2]
Xbox One
21 January 2016
Genre(s) Fixed shooter
Mode(s) Single-player

Space Giraffe is a fixed shooter video game by Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin of Llamasoft. The game was released on 22 August 2007 for Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade. [1] The main graphics engine is based on the Neon Xbox 360 light synthesizer visualisation software built into the console. Llamasoft released a version for Windows on 15 December 2008. It was made available on Steam on 19 March 2009. [3]

Contents

Gameplay

Although the game is aesthetically similar to the arcade game Tempest , Minter has strongly denied that Space Giraffe is an update to Tempest, as it introduces significant gameplay changes. [4]

The player controls the Space Giraffe as it moves around the outer rim of a 3-dimensional extruded surface. Enemies appear in notably greater quantities than in Tempest, beginning at the opposite end of the third dimension and approaching the player, firing bullets. The Giraffe can destroy these enemies by firing at them.

A line on the surface behaves as a VU meter, indicating the "power zone". Damaging or destroying enemies extends the Power Zone, and at all other times it slowly contracts, contracting more quickly when the giraffe is stationary. While the power zone is not at zero:

The player can collect power-up "pods" which allow the Giraffe to jump; jumping also fills the entire power zone. The Giraffe can store up to five pods, and one is lost each time it jumps. Collecting extra pods when the giraffe already has five provides extra benefits: the first extra pod grants an extra life, the second grants Fast Bullets, and the third awards a token which counts towards accessing the bonus round, but only if no other pods were missed during the stage. Further pods collected provide bonus points.

Enemy shots can be targeted by the Giraffe's own shots, which has the effect of pushing them back. Although they can be pushed back beyond the far edge of the surface, they are never destroyed, and will resume moving forward again when able, possibly returning onto the surface and even destroying the Giraffe.

When a stage is completed, the Giraffe flies along the surface to the far end. During this period, all enemy shots remaining on the surface are harmless to the player, and the player scores a bonus for each one the Giraffe passes, based on the length of time that has passed since it was fired. If the player happens to collect a Pod while the Giraffe is leaving the surface, they are awarded Fast Bullets on the following round.

The player can use a Smart Bomb once per life, which automatically attacks the enemies nearest them.

PC version

The PC version (released 15 December 2008) differs in a number of ways to the Xbox 360 version, including using a re-worked Neon engine which makes everything more presentable, less psychedelic and easier to see what's going on within the game. The new version also includes an "Acid Mix" that resembles the more intense graphics in the Xbox 360 release. [2] On 20 March 2009 the game was made available for download from Steam. [3] The PC version is priced noticeably higher than the console version. This is due to Minter's belief that people avoided the console version because of a poor perception of value. [5]

Development

The name "Space Giraffe" originated from Minter's posts on the Jeff Minter fan forum YakYak and on his blog in which he semi-seriously referred to the player's character in the game as resembling a giraffe. [6] [7] This immediately attracted calls from readers and forum posters that the entire game should be named Space Giraffe, and this was used as the working title for the game, and then adopted for the final release because by that time it had already been the subject of widespread publicity. Minter in an interview related:

...all over the place along with stories talking about 'Jeff Minter's new game Space Giraffe,' and in fact I rather liked that name, and so it's stuck. I don't think I need to call it anything other than Space Giraffe now, and indeed it's been so widely reported as such that I actually think it would be harmful to rename it now." [8]

The game includes humor and references that are common to Minter's games, including allusions to Super Mario Bros., Pro Wrestling for the NES, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Commodore 64, and even to Microsoft's J Allard. [9] Some of the early screenshots of the game include obscenity, though such obscenity does not appear in the release version. The inclusion of obscenity is Minter's known way of preventing mainstream gaming media from reproducing early work-in-progress screenshots, by rendering them unprintable. [7] [ failed verification ]

Reception

Reviews for Space Giraffe from both game critics and game players have been polarized. Jeff Minter has stated of the game, "It’s like Marmite. You won’t know unless you try." [17]

The first published professional review of Space Giraffe came in Official Xbox Magazine's September 2007 issue. Dan Amrich ("OXM Dan") gave Space Giraffe a 2/10 rating, stating "You'll frequently die because you couldn't pick out the pulsating assassin from the warped playfield floating over the throbbing LSD nightmare that is the background, which makes this game uniquely aggravating." [13] Minter has noted that the OXM review "basically spoiled our launch completely" stating that by the time more positive reviews came out the game was no longer getting promoted by Microsoft. [5] OXM later named Space Giraffe the "Worst Game of the Year" for 2007 in March 2008. [16]

Space Giraffe has received a more positive review from Angry Gamer, scoring an unusual "Holy crap this is awesome hell yes / 10". [18] The reviewer 'Flamey' praised the addictive mood of the game, although on the Angry Gamer podcast, Space Giraffe was called "annoying and pointless", with a reviewer commenting of the creator of the game; "Jeff, we love you, we just don't love Space Giraffe." Conversely, veteran video game journalist Stuart Campbell described Space Giraffe as "one of the best games released this year at any price" [19] but Campbell used the first letter of each paragraph to spell the phrase "MINTER IS A BIG TWATTY SPACKER TRUFAX". The February 2009 issue of PC Gamer awarded the PC version of the game a score of 92%.

Space Giraffe was also listed as 94th in Edge magazine's "The 100 Top Games to Play Today" list in the Edge 200th anniversary issue.

Space Giraffe was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die . [20]

Sales

Space Giraffe sold almost 10,000 copies in its first two weeks of release. [21] Minter himself has expressed disappointment at the low sales of Space Giraffe, especially in being outsold 10-to-1 by a remake of Frogger . [22] [23]

Sound

Music

Playlist
TitleArtistType
Flossie's FrolicYak (Jeff Minter)In-Game
SatipnRedpointIn-Game
Side of the AngelsJim McCauleyIn-Game
Gardening By NumbersRedpointBonus Level
Welsh Numbers StationCatryn BurnellMain Menu

Flossie's Frolic was created using Fruityloops by Jeff Minter. [24] The song was later lost by Jeff, but recovered [25] by a member of YakYak.org, eventually finding its way into Space Giraffe. The sheep vocals for the song were done by Flossie, Jeff's pet sheep, who has since died. The song also went by the name of "Silly.mp3."

Welsh Numbers Station uses a sequence of specially recorded Welsh numbers in the style of numbers stations. [26] The bonus level music, Gardening By Numbers, also has similar numbers spoken in the background.

Before release, there was interest in licensing music used in Tempest 2000 (also used in Tempest 3000 ) from Atari, but no deal ever went through. Per Ivan Zorzin, one of the developers who worked on the game:

Now to make a bad story really short let's say so "forget to talk about anything with 'Atari' unless you have a really big wallet and you want to be raped". [27]

Sound effects

Some of the sound effects that appear in the game also appeared previously in Gridrunner++ , another game by Llamasoft released in 2002. The "mu-mu" noise that is heard when the player collects a power pod is a KLF sample from the track "What Time Is Love?".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Minter</span> British video game designer

Jeff Minter is an English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 1981 with games for the ZX80. Minter's games are shoot 'em ups which contain titular or in-game references demonstrating his fondness of ruminants. Many of his programs also feature something of a psychedelic element, as in some of the earliest "light synthesizer" programs including Trip-a-Tron.

<i>Llamatron</i> 1991 video game programmed by Jeff Minter

Llamatron is a multidirectional shooter video game programmed by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft and released in 1991 for the Atari ST and Amiga and in 1992 for MS-DOS. Based on Robotron: 2084, players of Llamatron control the eponymous creature in an attempt to stop an alien invasion of Earth and rescue animals—referred to as "Beasties"—for points. Players advance by destroying all of the enemies on each level using a laser that fires automatically in the direction that the Llamatron is moving. Various power-ups exist to aid the player in defeating the wide variety of enemies and obstacles they face along the way.

<i>Tempest</i> (video game) Atari vector arcade game from 1981

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<i>Revenge of the Mutant Camels</i> 1984 video game

Revenge of the Mutant Camels is a horizontally scrolling shooter written by Jeff Minter for the Commodore 64 and published by Llamasoft in 1984. Enhanced versions for the Atari ST, Amiga, and IBM PC were released in 1992 as shareware.

<i>Tempest 2000</i> 1994 video game

Tempest 2000 is a tube shooter video game originally developed by Llamasoft and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar in North America on 13 April, 1994. It was released in Europe on 27 June and in Japan on 15 December of the same year, with the Japanese release being published by Mumin Corporation. Part of Atari Corp.'s 2000 series, it is a remake by Jeff Minter of Dave Theurer's 1981 arcade game Tempest, which used Atari's QuadraScan vector color display technology.

The Virtual Light Machine (VLM) is a light synthesizer developed by Jeff Minter in 1990. It was installed into a number of electronics, including the Atari Jaguar CD and Nuon DVD players.

<i>Gridrunner++</i> 2002 video game

Gridrunner++ is a shoot 'em up written by Jeff Minter for Pocket PC, then for Windows. It has since been ported to Mac OS X and iOS. It was only available as shareware for download from the Llamasoft website, with a registration fee of £5. It was followed-up by Gridrunner Revolution (2009) and Gridrunner iOS (2012).

Neon is a light synthesizer developed by Jeff Minter ('Yak') and Ivan Zorzin ('Giles'). It was based on an enhanced version of the graphics engine originally to be included in Unity, which became an independent project after Unity was cancelled in 2004.

<i>Defender 2000</i> 1995 video game

Defender 2000 is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed by Llamasoft and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar on December 1995. Part of Atari Corp.'s 2000 series, it is a remake by Jeff Minter of Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar's 1981 arcade game Defender, which drew inspiration from Space Invaders and Asteroids.

<i>Space Invaders Extreme</i> 2008 video game

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<i>Gridrunner</i> 1982 video game

Gridrunner is a fixed shooter video game written by Jeff Minter and published by Llamasoft for the VIC-20 in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Commodore PET and Dragon 32. Many remakes and sequels have followed, including versions for the Atari ST, Amiga, Pocket PC, Microsoft Windows, and iOS.

Gridrunner Revolution is an action game developed by Llamasoft for Windows. It was released on 25 September 2009. On 18 December 2009 Llamasoft released an updated version with integrated Online Scoreboards On 23 February 2010 the game was made available to buy on Steam

<i>Minotron: 2112</i> 2011 video game

Minotron: 2112 is a video game for iOS written by Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin of Llamasoft. It is a remade mobile version of Llamatron for the Atari ST and Amiga, which itself is an updated version of the 1982 arcade game Robotron: 2084. It is the Minotaur Project game representing the Mattel Intellivision.

<i>Minotaur Rescue</i> 2011 mobile video game

Solar Minotaur Rescue Frenzy, shortened to Minotaur Rescue for the iOS App Store, is a multidirectional shooter for iOS developed by Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin of Llamasoft and released in January 2011. It was Llamasoft's first iOS game. On the iPhone, the game supports up to two players at the same time. On an iPad, it supports up to four.

<i>Caverns of Minos</i> 2012 iOS video game

Caverns of Minos is a vertically-scrolling shooter for iOS developed by Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin of Llamasoft and published via the App Store. It was announced on the Llamasoft blog on January 12, 2012. Its biggest influence is Caverns of Mars from 1981, but includes elements of Lunar Lander and Oids. It is the Minotaur Project game representing the Atari 8-bit family.

<i>TxK</i> 2014 video game

TxK is an action video game developed by Llamasoft and designed by Jeff Minter. The game was released on the PlayStation Vita on February 11, 2014. The game was planned for release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Android platforms until Atari made legal threats against Llamasoft, citing similarities between TxK and Tempest 2000.

<i>The Escapists</i> Strategy video game

The Escapists is a strategy game played from a top-down perspective. The game was developed by Mouldy Toof Studios and following a Steam Early Access release in 2014, was released in 2015 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It was released on iOS and Android in 2017. A Nintendo Switch version of the game containing all downloadable content was released in 2018. The game was launched on the Epic Games Store on 23 September 2021, with the weekly free game campaign of Epic Games. Players assume the role of an inmate and must escape from prisons of increasing difficulty.

<i>Tempest 4000</i> 2018 video game

Tempest 4000 is a shoot 'em up video game developed by Llamasoft and published by Atari, SA. It is a modern reimagining of the classic arcade game Tempest, which was released in 1981. In Tempest 4000, players control a spaceship and navigate through a series of increasingly challenging levels while fighting off waves of enemies. Tempest 4000 was released for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch.

<i>Akka Arrh</i> 2023 video game

Akka Arrh is an action video game developed by Llamasoft and published by Atari. It combines elements of shooter and tower defense games. The original prototype dates back to the 1980s but was never publicly released. The modern version was released for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X/S.

<i>Moose Life</i> 2020 video game

Moose Life is a forward-scrolling shoot 'em up game for Microsoft Windows developed by Llamasoft. Similar to past Llamasoft titles like Tempest 2000 and Polybius, the title incorporates influences from classic arcade games of the early 1980s, along with psychedelic visuals and electronic music to create a trance-like effect. It supports virtual reality using Steam VR and PSVR.

References

  1. 1 2 Llamasoft Blog » Available Wednesday 22 August. Price 400 points
  2. 1 2 "Space Giraffe".
  3. 1 2 "Space Giraffe on Steam".
  4. ↑ "Space Giraffe interview: it's not Tempest". Engadget. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  5. 1 2 Purchese, Robert (16 December 2008). "Llamasoft's Jeff Minter Interview Page 1". Eurogamer. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  6. ↑ YakYak • View topic - the space giraffe
  7. 1 2 stinkygoat: giraffes out for the lads!
  8. ↑ Leone, Matt (1 December 2006). "Previews: Space Giraffe: Exclusive look at Jeff Minter's Xbox Live Arcade game". 1up.com. Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
  9. ↑ Reed, Kristan. "Space Giraffe". Eurogamer. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  10. ↑ "Space Giraffe". Metacritic. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  11. ↑ Space Giraffe for Xbox 360 Review - Xbox 360 Space Giraffe Review
  12. ↑ "IGN: Space Giraffe Review". xbox360.ign.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2007. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  13. 1 2 Official Xbox Magazine, September 2007 issue
  14. ↑ February 2009 issue
  15. ↑ Space Giraffe Review (Xbox 360)
  16. 1 2 OXM's 2007 Game of the Year Awards - Page 3
  17. ↑ Llamasoft Blog » Message To Dissenters: Man Up and Grow a Pair
  18. ↑ Angry-Gamer.net - Space Giraffe
  19. ↑ Stuart Campbell. "WHY THE LONG FACE?: The rights and wrongs of Space Giraffe". World of Stuart.
  20. ↑ Mott, Tony (2013). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die (2nd ed.). Universe Publishing. ISBN   978-1844037667.
  21. ↑ stinkygoat: stage one
  22. ↑ The Escapist : News : Jeff Minter Vents on Original Game Development
  23. ↑ stinkygoat: jesus fucking christ
  24. ↑ "does anyone have a copy of my old tune I did on Fruityloops". www.yakyak.org. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  25. ↑ "does anyone have a copy of my old tune I did on Fruityloops". www.yakyak.org. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  26. ↑ "The Soundtrack :D". www.yakyak.org. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  27. ↑ "The Soundtrack :D". www.yakyak.org. Retrieved 8 June 2019.


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