Interview With robert Pelloni

Robert pelloni the creator of bobs game was kind enough to answer a few questions of mine.
Down to earth guy didnt bag about is enourmously great talent at all, so heres the entire transcript in its purest form.

What inspired the idea for bobsgame? Its pretty unique but seems to have found its following.

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I had the idea for the general theme and "feel" of "bob's game" when I was very young, maybe 10-12. I have an older brother who played a lot of NES/SNES, Dragon Warrior and later Chrono Trigger type stuff. I liked those games, but I found the themes really confusing- I was always wondering why there wasn't anything like that set in reality. "Maniac Mansion" was close, and so was "Earthbound," but they weren't exactly what I was looking for. I kept thinking about the idea, and at age 19 I decided to try and make it.
The idea for a "game within a game" came a bit later, while I was working on the engine, and many gameplay and story ideas I had while I was working on it. That being said, there's a TON of stuff that hasn't been seen yet. :)

You said that the game is less focused on combat, will there be fighting of any kind?
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There are some events that have an action element, for sure.
Instead of traditional combat, there's challenges involving minigames. I don't really mean that in the common "microgame" sort of way, but more like complete games inside the game.

If you had to define the game to a genre....?
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Real-time adventure simulation? I'm not really sure. I've tried to make something unique in execution, so it sort of spans several genres.

Will the game be launched under bobsgame? i think thats a good choice of title but others disagree.
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Yes, it'll be "bob's game." This has a double meaning, as revealed in the trailer. It's referring both the "a game by one person," and to the game tournament involving the in-game character Bob who has also created a much different game.
I'm essentially the end boss, so Yuu is trying to beat me at my own game, so to speak.

Would you consider the tag lines "one mans game by one man", or "How do you prove youve done the impossible?".
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Probably just "a game by one person," if any. I'm referring to the fact that it's been called impossible to make a retail game single-handedly, by industry professionals and even some veterans. I'm not sure people really know that- which is what makes it relevant. It really hasn't been done before, not by a single person for a major commercial console. I've had a lot of people say I'm boasting about this, because they don't realize or don't care that it's relevant- but the people that do realize it are very enthusiastic about it. It's what makes the game really unique and gives it a personality, more like a book or movie script by an author, and less like an artificially manufactured product. Books generally aren't improved by being written by groups of people, they lose their quirkiness in an attempt to please everybody.

The level of depth to the npcs seems astounding, will we see this throughout the game?
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Yes. Most of the important characters have a lot of dialogue- many of them have their own little side-story that progresses day by day. There's a way to determine which characters have something new to say, so you won't be going around randomly talking to people trying to find out something new. I've played a *lot* of games, and I know what works and what doesn't. Using this knowledge, I've especially tried very hard to remove all of the little irritations that seem to pop up in every game.

As for "Yuu," will his character have a deep and intriguing backround or is the game more focused on his development throughout the game?
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Yuu definitely has a history to him. I've shown in the second video that the game starts in a completely different time- and I cut that video specifically to disguise what's actually going on there.
This is kind of upsetting some people, and I apologize for that. I want to keep the main story under wraps for now, so it'll be a surprise when it actually gets played. I think once the first reviews start getting released, there's going to be a realization that there's a lot more going on than anyone thought.
Five years to work on something is a long time, and I guess I'm expecting people to read between the lines on that. Most of them get it, but some of them criticize it at face value, which is missing the whole point.
My first video said "There's a lot more to it, a lot of secrets, a lot of gameplay, 200 characters, just trust me." and people didn't believe it. They said "There's no gameplay. Where are the characters?"
The second video said "Here's some gameplay and characters, there's a huge amount left to show, but it's a secret." People said "That's all he has, I'm sure of it."
So the trailer flips through the first half of the game, shows the hundreds of characters, shows some secrets, hints at the story- which is what I've been saying all along- I guess some people just aren't going to get it!

Is there any customizable elements to Yuu and his surroundings? Will we be able to furnish his house or clothe him?
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That's assuming he stays in the same house... :)

Once I've played the game is there incentive for a second playthrough? This is usually a problem with story based adventures.
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There is indeed a second playthrough. I've come up with a creative solution for this, and I've programmed the entire environment myself, so who knows? It might be a pretty complex rework.

After this project would you consider attempting to work for any other companies?
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I'd love to work at a ton of companies, but more than that I'd like to try working on a second project with some talented friends of mine. Some of them have business management degrees, some are accountants, 3D modelers, programmers, or graphic designers. Some can write symphonies and play 4 or 5 instruments, and some can write short stories that change your whole way of thinking or make you laugh until it hurts. I've been starting to organize this group over the past year, and we're putting together a pretty interesting little studio.

Do you particularly admire anyone in the videogames industry?
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Gunpei Yokoi, though he's not around anymore. If I remember correctly, he went from working on the maintenance staff at Nintendo to coming up with this wacky idea for a "directional pad"- and eventually designed a 7-hour-long masterpiece that can somehow be beaten in 30 minutes.. He had this idea for a stereovision gaming console (You may have heard of it) that flopped horribly because of the lack of technology- and (please quote me on this) it'll definitely come back to revolutionize the entire industry. The guy was 15 years ahead of his time.

What is your favorite video game?
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Super Metroid, or Mario 64. Or maybe a hundred other games. It's impossible to answer this question. :)

When can we expect to see the game on shelves?
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Sooner than you'd expect. All that really has to be done is a port over to the Nintendo DS SDK, and then it just goes through bug testing, QA, and manufacturing. So maybe a month or two, plus however long that takes.

Street fighter.......4!!!!!

Yes finally im updating possibly my favorite Japenese game i played.
as a street fight vet (but not an expert) i found the game to be pleasently in keeping with the series mechanics. fighters still move and react exactly the same as if they were in 2d and it adds a nice weighty feeling to the attacks. I only had enough for one game but it was so worth it.
i began playing through the arcade mode, the only one available to me and i was feeling pretty good about my self. Playing as Akuma from turbo revival, i was owning all. on the stick and six button set up the game really came into its own. controls were fluid and combos were easier to pull off. its how the game is ment to be played.
then i was challenged.
using Ryu, this japanese fellow wiped the floor with me, perfecting me twice and almost another time. thus ended my credits and i moved on.
this 100 yen demo converted e from a maybe buying this to highly anticipating the day i can get my mitts on a retail copy.
In short, buy it.

Bobs Game

To any of you who havent seen this go to www.bobsgame.com
it looks like a real achievement for bob to produce something that looks better than half the shovelware realeased for nintys handheld kudos to you!

From the little information available, it seems to be a logic based simulator where interaction is favored over combat with some potentialy interesting puzzles available, but the sheer number of NPCs with unique reactions make this game so amazing. More information should be available soon so i shall be visiting this subject many times

Silent Hill Arcade

Just a quick post on this.
Off the three games I played in japan this was by far the worst.
SHA was betraying the concept of SH a freaky survival horror game which made vets cak themselves in fear. However this wouldnt have mattered if it was atmospheric or even a little scary. it was not.
The cliches of light gun arcade games were all there and made it fairly predictable and quite easy up untill a boss of stupid proportions with a tiny weak spot that killed us almost instantly. Very cheap in my opinion almost as bad as psycic ai
finally the guns themselves felt light and lacked the power im used to from playing time crisis.
all in all i supose there are worse games out there but there are better ones tantalisingly near.