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“bob’s game” Kickstarter updates after twenty months

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For an overview of bob’s game, see my post The strange tale of “bob’s game.”

Robert Pelloni’s Kickstarter for his game “bob’s game” succeeded back in May of 2014. I wrote about it in a post called “bob’s game” Kickstarter succeeds. Since it succeeded, he made a single Kickstarter update a year late rin May of 2015. Of course, I wrote about that too in post titled bob’s game Kickstarted: one year later. Now we finally have another update. You can check out the update on Kickstarter under the name Small update.

The condensed version of his update is that it seemed pretty honest about his troubles. He “set the bar low for the Kickstarter,” but it seems he set it too low. He used the money to get an apartment for eight months but eventually ended up living out of his van for the next six. She pitched the game to invenstors without success. He eventually got another apartment and enrolled in online classes. (It’s unclear if he’s still in school.) He also discussed some issues he had porting “bob’s game.”

It looks like he’s hoping to port the bob’s game puzzle game first to multiple platforms to help give him income to work on “bob’s game” the RPG. (For some context on the name, bob’s game is a puzzle game. It’s a stand-alone game, but it’s also the final game within the RPG “bob’s game.” “bob’s game” is a game about bob’s game.)

Both bob’s game and “bob’s game” have been listed on Steam Greenlight.

Good luck, Robert!

I’ve linked the original sources, but I’ll reproduce the update as well as the Steam Greenlight descriptions here:

bob’s game (puzzle game) from “bob’s game” Steam Greenlight description:

bob’s game is the best puzzle game ever made.

The legendary bob’s game is the final game from the infamous homebrew Action-RPG “bob’s game” (a game about the puzzle game- note the double quotes!). You can check out the separate Greenlight entry for that game here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=604630184

bob’s game is a multiplayer puzzle game- but not just any puzzle game, *every* puzzle game! It’s a build-your-own puzzle game with a puzzle game creator where you define all the rules to your own custom game!

More than that, great care has been made to ensure that bob’s game is the *best* version of every puzzle game. I went through every puzzle game forum and wiki I could find and made sure to implement every detail and feature required by tournament level hardcore players. It has wall kicks, floor kicks, spin kicks, T-spins, adjustable timing, powerups, you name it.

The rules of bob’s game change in real time as you play it, morphing from game to game and making every round completely unique. Or you can choose to play just your favorite game type against your friends with fantastic controls, super tight timing, and features and powerups from other games.

bob’s game is completely customizable, allowing the player to create in-depth rulesets to mimic existing puzzle games or create entirely new ones to add to the online library.

Create your own puzzle modes! Invent custom rulesets or challenge your friends to a sequence of all your favorite games. Compete in an online world championship and improve your skills to reach the top of the public leaderboard.

bob’s game is constantly evolving with new theme packs, new rules, and user-designed puzzle packs.

This game is not complete, the Java demo featured in the video is an early alpha “MVP” version and I’d like to add many more features. I am also currently porting it back to C++ from Java so that it runs as smoothly as possible with no garbage collection hiccups and can be ported to any platform.

It will be released and continuously updated for desktop PC both standalone and in browser, and on mobile for Android and iPhone, with the source code available to be ported to any other platform.

You can play the alpha version that appears in the video as an embedded game inside the “bob’s game” RPG Demo 3 for PC here: http://bobsgame.com/files/bobsgame_demo_3_dist_win.zip

 “bob’s game” Steam Greenlight description:

“bob’s game” is a game about a game called bob’s game. I worked on it for a long time. It’s not done so I want to get it on Early Access.

See more about it on http://bobsgame.com

Please download and play the demos if you have questions about the gameplay.
(Remember: Don’t give up on Tetrid, there is a trick to it.)

Download Demo 1+2 for PC here: http://bobsgame.com/files/bobsgame_demo_2_final.zip
Download Demo 3 for PC here: http://bobsgame.com/files/bobsgame_demo_3_dist_win.zip

Also see the separate Greenlight entry for the bob’s game puzzle game (the best puzzle game ever made) here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=603367632

I’ve also listed the custom BobEdit tools and “bob’s game” engine used to make this game on Greenlight, so that others can make games using them if they want:http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=604913553

“bob’s game” Kickstarter update #2, Small update:

I set the bar low for the Kickstarter but I was hoping it would make enough for at least a year or two of development.  Unfortunately it barely made the minimum amount, but in my situation I had to take what I could get.

I chose to get an apartment instead of trying to live in a van, thinking I’d be better off with the convenience and hoping that I’d be able to figure out something else in that time.  This only gave me an 8 month extension, and I spent most of it still very traumatized and frustrated and I did not find any other solutions.

Once I ran out, I ended up living in my car again for another 6 months until I could find another way to support myself.  I tried sending a pitch deck to over 300 investors and even went door to door on Sand Hill Road.  I emailed every publisher I could find.  I applied for YCombinator and 500 Startups.  None of that worked, so I ended up enrolling in online classes and taking out student loans.

So now I’m back in an apartment and I’ve slowly started getting back into development after almost 2 years of sleeping in a car.

I’ve listed both the puzzle game and the RPG on Steam Greenlight, in hopes that I could get on Early Access, which would really be great for my situation since I could possibly make some steady income as I worked on the games.

I’m still moving forward with the games the best I can and I will still fulfill the backer rewards when I am able to do so.  I am still living on borrowed time, but I’ll do the best I can with the time that I have.

I’m currently porting the Java puzzle game to C++ so that it runs as smoothly as possible. It will be released and continuously updated for desktop PC both standalone and in browser, and on mobile for Android and iPhone, with the source available to be ported to any other platform.

I am doing this as it is the fastest way that I can possibly gain some reliable income, so that I can work on the RPG without worrying about my situation.​

I am not sure what I’m going to do with the RPG. I rewrote it in Java as an MMO so the game world could be continuously updated on the fly.  I was successful at doing that but it is very cumbersome to develop on at this point and it needs to be worked on by a team with funding, not one person with no resources.​

I had gotten caught up in the Silicon Valley hype and thought it would be possible to get investment for a fairly large existing project with a cool online demo. Unfortunately that was not the case.  It would probably have helped to have had some traction and numbers, but maybe it’s just too small of a project for big investors to care, or maybe my background is too risky, or maybe it’s just not good enough.

I’m also unhappy with the state of Java, and the client doesn’t run well enough on mobile which I was really hoping for and one of my deciding factors.​  I had anticipated that Java would become more popular because of Android and hence also more supported on the desktop, but because of some security issues and the lawsuit between Google and Oracle it became less popular.  I would really like to port it back to C++ but that will take a long time, so for now I will stick with Java. I will probably just scale it back to a single player desktop game and release manual updates, or have a good upgrade function built in.

32AB – bobsgame.com’s forum is online

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bob's game

It looks like something happening with bob of bob’s game. Frequent commenter Nox pointed me in the direction of bobsgame.com, which is now titled “32AB” and contains a forum with little information.

bob’s posted on the forum once in reply to a thread asking for his life story that he once posted.

“Please do not post the story, thank you. I will post an updated version in the future.”

I’ve talked about it a bit in the past, and I have an archived copy. Honestly, I have little hope he’s going to release anything, but he does have my money already, and I’d be pleasantly surprised to see a release of any sort. It’s been an interesting ride regardless of the outcome.

The strange tale of “bob’s game”

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bob’s game is an interesting tale. The newest information is the death of the nD, but read on to learn more about the game.

[Last updated on 1/20/2016.]

Current status and summary (kept updated with this article)

“bob’s game” (with quotes) is an RPG. Within “bob’s game” is a puzzle game called bob’s game (without quotes). In the RPG, the puzzle game is created by a person called bob. The real person, the creator of these games in real life, is Robert Pelloni.

Currently, Robert is still struggling financially and hasn’t found investors for the game. He has listed both “bob’s game” (the RPG) and bob’s game (the stand-alone puzzle game) on Steam Greenlight.

See below for the history of “bob’s game.”

Act I: Creation

Bob created an RPG with an old school feel aptly called “Bob’s Game.” He created it 100% by himself and hoped to get it released on the Nintendo DS. He seemed to prefer Nintendo over other alternatives. At this point, everything seemed fairly normal, and some people were beginning to show interest in his game.

Act II: Protest

In an attempt to get an SDK for the Nintendo DS, Bob contacted Nintendo but was passed back and forth. He felt like he was being ignored by Nintendo and proceeded with a protest in December of 2008; Bob locked himself in his basement with the intent to stay there for 100 days. He had no contact with the outside world besides his phone and a live webcam.  Eventually he began to get hostile towards Nintendo. He started posting contact information of Nintendo executives and making wild claims. He claimed he was better than many game developers combined by far and even listed them, including Nintendo’s own Shigeru Miyamoto. That seems like burning a bridge to me, but at this point, no one knew what Bob was thinking. He also claimed to be working with a DS flash cartridge producer with the intent of bundling Bob’s Game on the flash cart as a way of pressuring Nintendo.

Act III: Breaking point

Eventually, in January of 2009 after 30 days, he snapped before even making it through half of his 100 day protest, trashed his room, and left. Later he went to the Nintendo World Store in New York City, made a scene, and threw his business cards everywhere. He then either rewrote the game or more likely revealed that what we’ve seen of Bob and his creation of Bob’s Game represents the Bob and Bob’s Game inside of the real game, Bob’s Game. He differentiates by saying that he, Robert Pelloni, created Bob’s Game, a game about the evil Gantendo; the final boss, Bob; his game, Bob’s Game; and an antagonist, Yuu. Confusing.

Act IV: Revealing the truth

Soon after Pelloni received a formal rejection from Nintendo, he admitted in March of 2009 that his actions had all been viral marketing. Everything had been staged, and he even released a video showing how the video of him causing havoc at the Nintendo World Store were really filmed in his house.

Act V: The demo

This is the turning-point in the saga of Bob’s Game. Pelloni released a demo in the form of an .NDS file in March of 2009. To play it, gamers had to use either a homebrew flash card for DS or a DS emulator. The game featured a world that looked like classic RPGs but set in suburbia. In many ways, it was visually similar to Earthbound. As a game about games, Bob’s Game would, apparently, allow you to obtain different consoles and games in the game to explore the history of gaming. In the demo, you get to control Yuu and play Tetrid on the Gantendo GameToy. Tetrid is a lot like Tetris except rather than using tetrominoes (shapes consisting of four connected blocks), it uses shapes of three blocks. These don’t stack as neatly, making Tetrid much harder than Tetris. To beat it, you might have to take advantage of some exploits. Of course, I’m not talking about exploiting Bob’s Game; I mean you have to exploit Tetrid. It’s an interesting idea. The important thing to take away is that Bob’s Game had actual content and was surprisingly fun!

Act VI: The nD

Things took a weird turn again next. Pelloni revealed in March of 2011, two years after releasing the original Bob’s Game demo, that Bob’s Game would be a core title for a new project on which he was collaborating with others – the nD. The nD was an extremely low cost handheld console designed to play indie games. It looked like an SNES controller with a screen and was targeting mainly 2D games. The idea was that the console was cheap enough that developers could make a game for it and then give away the console with their games. Alternatively, people could get free nDs with various other purchases (movie tickets, for example). So what happened to the nD?

Act VII: Back at work?

As of this new year, 2013, the official nD site, http://www.the-nd.com, is redirecting to the official site of Bob’s Game, http://www.bobsgame.com. There’s no longer any mention of the nD on bobsgame.com either. I guess it failed and he doesn’t want anyone to notice.

Bob's Game 2

There’s now what appears to be a webcam feed of his room again. Of course, we can’t really trust it anymore, can we? I’m not very optimistic that Bob’s Game will ever get a real release (or that it was ever really finished). However, the demo existed, and was actually fun. That’s something!

Act VIII: bob’s game -online- nDworld

On May 8, 2013, bobsgame.com has been updated with a Java game. Players first control Bob in his iconic room and later control Yuu, playing minigames on an nD in Bob’s interdimensional tournament. [Edit, 12/8/13: The minigame is a puzzle game involving falling blocks that shifts rulesets as your progress.] At the end of the demo, Bob teases “bob’s game -online- nDworld.” Then players are asked for their e-mail address to register for updates and are asked to purchase a “BobPass” to help with development. More information on this new phase is available on post, “A new phase of Bob’s Game.” I believe we can call “bob’s game” performance art as much as we can a video game at this point. In fact, notice that he always puts “bob’s game” in quotes? He might be telling us something.

Act IX: The bob’s game (from inside bob’s game) for OUYA and PC Kickstarter

On November 25, 2013, a little over six months since the “bob’s game -online- nDworld” Java demo, bobsgame.com began redirecting to a Kickstarter project. He hopes to raise $6,667 to release the puzzle game with the changing rules from his previous online demo. He’s referring to this puzzle game as the bob’s game (from inside “bob’s game”). I pledged to it. For more information on this phase, check my post, bob’s game from bob’s game for OUYA Kickstarter.

Update from 12/16/13: Unfortunately, the Kickstarter was unsuccessful. Pelloni did, however, answer my questions in a reddit AMA. See the questions and answers here.

Update from 2/5/14: The bob’s game minigame (from inside bob’s game) was released on OUYA. In addition, Robert posted a FAQ on his site that explained some history behind the development, but he’s removed it and asked that it not be shared. More information can be found here.

Act X: The full “bob’s game” Kickstarter

Robert Pelloni just started raising funds on Kickstarter for the full version of bob’s game. It seems like we could be very close to an actual release! He once again has quite a bit of information about his and the game’s history available at bobsgame.com.

You can read more about all this on my post, The full bob’s game now on Kickstarter.

Update from 5/23/14: The Kickstarter succeeded yesterday!

Update from 5/23/15: It’s been one year since the Kickstarter completed. He went missing, it seemed he was working, he had given up and was going to reimburse backers, the game was back on track, and now it’s been just shy of three months from an update. Read more about it in my new post, b0b’s game Kickstarted: one year later.

Update from 1/20/16: Twenty months after the Kickstarter completed, Robert has made a second update to the Kickstarter – and the first since the Kickstarter completed. He’s had financial troubles and hasn’t been able to find investors. “bob’s game” (the RPG) is now listed on Steam Greenlight here, and bob’s game (the puzzle game) is listed on Steam Greenlight here. You can read more about this is my latest post, “bob’s game” Kickstarter updates after twenty months.