Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

Few people know Robert Pelloni, but he could very well be the poster child of torment suffered at the hands of a gaming giant. Pelloni, over the past five years, worked 15,000 hours in total, creating “Bob’s Game”, a DS and DSi title, emphasizing adventure and exploration. In the final stage of development, Pelloni required an SDK from Nintendo, the last step towards molding the C language coded game into a viable commercial release. Given that his company, Robert Pelloni LC, is only a one-man company, it’s understandable that Nintendo would choose not to cater to his needs. It doesn’t explain why they apparently held him up for almost a year, met him at GDC and shuffled him between divisions, but then that’s not the point.

Pelloni, sick of waiting for a reply, arranged a 100 day “tensai” (Japanese for “genius”) sit-down protest. He would keep himself barricaded within the room, with a camera detailing his every move and wait for Nintendo to respond to his demands. Site posts became more erratic as the days passed. Sample this one:

“There is nobody like me. I have created the entire game, start to finish. I am far better than Miyamoto, Itoi, Kojima, Carmack, and Wright COMBINED. NONE of these “designers” could create the entire thing if their lives depended on it! They rely on the assistance of others- and take all the credit. They don’t even deserve their titles! I have bested them all by far.”

Much insanity and many more headaches later (about 30 days into the protest to be exact), Pelloni finally gave in, announcing his abandonment of “Bob’s Game” amidst an admittedly sad array of last words:

Nintendo sells all these games about “doing your best” and “being the hero,” telling kids “you can do it if you try,” but in the end that’s just a story, a marketing lie that sounds good. That’s business. That’s the real world. In reality, if Link approached the castle gate, a guard would just throw him out. It doesn’t matter how much courage he has. It doesn’t matter how talented he is with his sword, or how pure hearted he might be. He’s wearing a dirty tunic and he has no credentials. “Get out of here, you stupid kid.” The evil kingdom of Ganon (Or should I say “Gantendo”) spreads across the land, Zelda dies, and the credits scroll. Game over. That’s the real Nintendo, I guess.

Whether in anger or because he was “RAIDED BY THE POLICE WHILE FAKING HIS OWN DEATH ON WEBCAM”, Pelloni’s room, where he spent those five years developing his title, has been thoroughly trashed. So far, Nintendo has issued no comment whatsoever on the entire affair. Frankly, we doubt whether they even cared in the first place, but as Pelloni said, “That’s business”.