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You'll be aware that Space Giraffe has hit Xbox Live Arcade today for 400 MS Points, but you may not be aware that the man behind it is one of the videogame industry's true legends. For over 25 years and from Llamatron, to Gridrunner, to Tempest, to the Xbox 360's Neon visual music synthesiser and now Space Giraffe, Minter has consistently produced unique, off-beat and ridiculously addictive games that make hardcore gamers happier than a llama with a spitoon.

Asked by: Aceybongos
Answered by: Jeff Minter

You created Neon, the Xbox 360's visual music synthesiser program, for the launch of the console. But was an Xbox Live Arcade game something you always wanted to do?

Jeff Minter: When we heard of Live Arcade it seemed like a very good place for us to work, and so we were very happy to do a game for XBLA and hope to do a good few more.

What did you learn from Neon that went into Space Giraffe, and were you able to share any code or technology between the two programs?

Jeff Minter: Neon was begun on old alpha hardware and had to be finished very early to get into final hardware. Since then it's been through a PC port and was then backported onto the 360 and extended in many ways. The current gen of the Neon engine is much more effecient, handles more stacks (layers) per effect and can take live camera input. This version of Neon forms the framework into which Space Giraffe was built. Designing the levels in Space Giraffe was done from inside the neon editor - the game runs as special Neon modules running inside the effects stacks.

Why Space Giraffe?

Jeff Minter: http://homepages.nil...yox/pix/wtg.jpg

Could you give us an idea of how the game plays and � more importantly � what the experience of playing the game does to your head?

Jeff Minter: Well, at first access it presents as a "tunnel-shooter" which looks like an evolution of Tempest 2000 - which is fair enough, because that is the starting point for the game. In play you'll discover that there's a lot more subtlety to the game than just shooting everything in sight - in fact what you want to do is shape the level in such a way as to be able to herd up specific enemies for dispatch by an entirely different method. In Tempest you wanted to keep enemies away from the edge of the surface where you are, whereas in SG once you're playing properly you actually want to gather them there for execution in the most profitable manner.

I find playing it to be quite chilling and relaxing, really. Part of the game is to widen your perception and learn to see and hear the necessary game cues in amongst all the psychedelia, and the act of doing that somehow helps you get towards the "Zone" so often mentioned in the context of shooting games. You need to fully engage your senses but also relax and enjoy the ride... after a while you get a lovely feeling from playing. I wanted the act of playing to be a pleasure in itself, something that people want to do just because it feels nice rather than always feeling they have to get a better score than last time or the experience is a failure. That isn't to say that high scoring isn't fun - it certainly is - just that the game is nice to play just for playing's sake.

Is Space Giraffe the mutated offspring (or perhaps new and improved Frankenstein's monster) from your classic games of the past?

Jeff Minter: I think it builds on past experience - as I mentioned before the starting point was Tempest 2000, but I wanted to move away from the pure Tempest ruleset and make something more its own entity, and I wanted to use a lightsynth as the main game engine, something I have wanted to do for a while.

A lot of people have suggested that Space Giraffe could be the new Geometry Wars � how do you react to that, and what's your view on Geo Wars?

Jeff Minter: I'd be very happy if we did half as well as Geo Wars. I really love Geo Wars, it's the perfect embodiment of what the best of XBLA is to me really - games designed in an oldschool, arcade style but with modern graphics and controls.

Space Giraffe has a very distinct and quite retro visual style � do you think it might put some gamers off?

Jeff Minter: Oh, for sure. SG is very deliberately psychedelic and bright and some people just hate that style. Those people are just going to moan about headaches and hate SG with a passion. Fortunately there are people who love such psychedelia though, and they'll love the giraffe. That's the beauty of Arcade, though, everyone gets to try before they buy, and SG has a nice deep demo mode so that everyone should be able to find out for themselves which side of the divide they are on.

At first glance Space Giraffe looks like quite a simple shooter, but there's actually far more depth than that. Was that extra depth something you were aiming for from the start?

Jeff Minter: Well, yes. I think that it's one of the things you see in the very best of old arcade game designs, where a lot of gameplay complexity and depth can emerge from the interaction of a fairly limited set of rules. I tried to design SG in a similar way, making it accessible in the familiar guise of a shooter but with extra stuff you can learn and exploit once you get comfortable and which you can use to build your score. The underlying rules are pretty simple but there's a lot of nuance and risk/reward possibilities that emerge in the gameplay. You can play safely and defensively when you're feeling pressured or showboat and whore for points and bonuses when you're confident.

What would your advice be to someone who was about to play Space Giraffe for the first time? How would you prepare them?

Jeff Minter: I would say just be chilled out, play the tutorial mode a couple of times, then play the real game. If you die don't just restart on the level you died at - go back to the beginning and play through the opening levels again. It really doesn't take long, and a few cycles of that should give you a solid feel for the game, and some decent restart bonuses to start you on your way through the rest of the game.

You make no secret of being a high score addict � how has this manifested itself in Space Giraffe, and do you think Xbox Live has brought back the good old days of comparing your high scores with all your mates?

Jeff Minter: Scoring is great fun, and XBLA is the perfect place for score-attack games, with the online leaderboards and the ability to taunt your mates on your friends list when you beat their scores. And SG really is a score attack game. It's not a game that you just want to thrash through to get to the end. At first you'll play a level just to survive, but once you've learnt that, you'll start a second level of learning where you learn how to wring the maximum amount of points out of each level. This is what will really mark out the best SG players - they will be the ones with the skill and knowledge to really milk a level of all the possible point-scoring possibilities. For example I can score as many points by the time I get to level 17 as most people will get by the time they reach level 40 - but if anyone knows how to rinse the levels it's me, of course. I'm pretty confident I'll post the top score on Wednesday, but there are a couple of our test team who are quite capable of denying me that top spot, or kicking me off if I get there first, so we'll see, and I expect some really good battles to ensue. Watching how the leaderboards develop is going to be really interesting and fun, I think.

Space Giraffe received a very low review score from OXM360 US. What's your reaction to that?

Jeff Minter: Yeah, I was kinda surprised by that. The bloke obviously just didn't get on with the game, and hey, that's fair enough, as I said some people are just going to hate the style and there's nothing I can do about that. If you choose to be distinctive some people are always not going to like the direction you go in. So I certainly don't expect every reviewer to love the game. Some are going to decide it's not for them.

However I think OXM US went too far, since they basically labelled the game as "broken" and implied that *nobody* could play or enjoy it, whereas in fact that's far from the truth. During test we had loads of people from inside and outside the biz play the game and hardly anyone had a bad word to say about it. The actual truth is that if you hate it, you hate it, but if you like it you'll love it. Giving a 2 is like saying "Everyone will hate it", and in that respect I think OXM did us an injustice. A more appropriate rating from a reviewer who doesn't like it might be a 4 or 5 and a "Meh, sucked for me" comment whilst at least admitting the possibility that some people will enjoy it.

Already there are counter-reviews appearing and in a way I'm pleased that it has created such heated discussion, because at least people are taking notice and talking about SG and that is much better than it coming out and being ignored.

Given the discussion that review score has whipped up, how would you persuade gamers to try Space Giraffe for themselves?

Jeff Minter: All I would say is don't let someone else make up your mind for you, either way! The whole point of XBLA is that you can take the free download and make up your own mind. If you don't hate SG straight away, persevere with the demo, it's not one of these over-in-30-seconds demos, there's easily enough there for you to get your teeth stuck into and start getting a feel for the game. I've deliberately chosen the lowest price point to make it easy to buy for anyone who thinks they'll enjoy it. So just try it and if you think the full game's worth 400 points then buy it, if you don't then fair enough. We just want to give people a game that they'll enjoy at a decent price, that's all.

Now Space Giraffe is out in the wild, what are your plans? Would you like to work on further XBLA titles?

Jeff Minter: Yes, of course we'd like a bit of a rest first but I already have a good idea what I'd like to do next on XBLA.

Outside of Space Giraffe, what other Xbox 360) games are you enjoying or looking forward to? Anything on the other consoles?

Jeff Minter: Well I must look at Bioshock since I've heard it's so good (haven't played the demo yet but everybody seems to be loving it so I'll definitely take a look). I'm really looking forward to Beautiful Katamari, too, as I loves me some Katamari. Halo's coming soon as well and I'm sure that'll be ace. Elsewhere I'm looking forward to Super Mario galaxy on the Wii and the new Wipeout on the ps3.

I'd like to thank Jeff for taking the time to answer my questions - especially when there are sheep and llamas to be fed! You should check out the Llamasoft website at www.Llamasoft.co.uk, or swing by Jeff's blog at http://stinkygoat.livejournal.com/. I highly recommend Jeff's in-depth guide to getting the most out of playing the Space Giraffe demo - if you still aren't feeling it after this much TLC, I doubt you ever will!

Space Giraffe is available on Wednesday, August 22, from 10am BST.

[xXBADGERXx]

Aaah , musings from the man called Minter , I`m in retro heaven now