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I had never heard about this, but my first reaction is that I feel bad for this guy, because if you consider that he was self taught he really was very talented

I had never heard about this, but my first reaction is that I feel bad for this guy, because if you consider that he was self taught he really was very talented. Checkout the gameplay videos. He wrote all of that himself in C++ and did the graphics with seemingly no training. I'm not saying it would've been a great game, because I don't know that, just that he as an individual could've been successful. I read the book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels [0] last year and it includes the story of the guy who created Stardew Valley. He also spent five years on it, working alone. He also was self taught and did the graphics himself. It was even kind of a similar type of game. I actually think Bob could've made Stardew Valley. It sounds like mental illness got in the way. One question we have to ask ourselves is what came first—the mental illness or the game development. Did the whole experience of the isolated game development actually lead to the mental illness? By the way, I don't recommend Blood, Sweat, and Pixels as a whole, but I do recommend the chapter on Stardew Valley. It's inspirational (or fatiguing because that guy worked so hard with no clear reward coming) for indie developers. [0]: https://amzn.to/3ya9Y6A https://amzn.to/3ya9Y6A Edit Addition: I feel bad for writing about the developer in the past tense. There is no reason he couldn't still be successful in life.

elliekelly 5y ago
There's an Apple TV+ original show called Mythic Quest[1] about a video game company and they did a really great episode about game development and mental health. The show is mostly a comedy and written by some of the people from Always Sunny. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythic_Quest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythic_Quest
sva_ 5y ago
> He wrote all of that himself in C++ and did the graphics with seemingly no training. From the Wikipedia article: > The author says that he wrote the game originally in C, switched then to Java, and later converted it with an automatic code converter to C++.
- WoodenChair 5y ago
  Okay, whether C or C++ or Java, the point is writing the game without ever having an industry job or educational situation where you'd have mentorship is a huge accomplishment.
danbolt 5y ago
I bought Blood, Sweat, and Pixels because I want to support Jason Schreier and the sort of nonfiction he's writing, but I've been reading it after coming off Masters of Doom and it just doesn't hit the same.
folkhack 5y ago
> One question we have to ask ourselves is what came first—the mental illness or the game development Just watched the "Bob vs. Nintendo" documentary where they quote some weird autobiography he posted to his site where he admits to killing a kitten earlier in his life: > "I got a kitten, named it Mew, and accidentally killed it the first night I had it. I was stoned, and it woke me up somehow. I got angry and put it in a big plastic bucket in the closet, half asleep and confused. In the morning it was dead - it had suffocated. [...] I shoved me further into a haze" The thought of that is horrifying to me. This guy has clear impulse control issues and reminds me of someone who's BPD/manic enough that their actions killed an innocent animal. "I was stoned and angry" isn't a valid excuse for suffocating an animal - this guy is wired wrong. Assuming this event happened before the whole "Bob's Game" fiasco I'd definitely say the mental illness came first. I'm going to go pet my cat now...

elliekelly 5y ago

There's an Apple TV+ original show called Mythic Quest[1] about a video game company and they did a really great episode about game development and mental health. The show is mostly a comedy and written by some of the people from Always Sunny. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythic_Quest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythic_Quest

sva_ 5y ago

> He wrote all of that himself in C++ and did the graphics with seemingly no training. From the Wikipedia article: > The author says that he wrote the game originally in C, switched then to Java, and later converted it with an automatic code converter to C++.

WoodenChair 5y ago
Okay, whether C or C++ or Java, the point is writing the game without ever having an industry job or educational situation where you'd have mentorship is a huge accomplishment.

danbolt 5y ago

I bought Blood, Sweat, and Pixels because I want to support Jason Schreier and the sort of nonfiction he's writing, but I've been reading it after coming off Masters of Doom and it just doesn't hit the same.

folkhack 5y ago

> One question we have to ask ourselves is what came first—the mental illness or the game development Just watched the "Bob vs. Nintendo" documentary where they quote some weird autobiography he posted to his site where he admits to killing a kitten earlier in his life: > "I got a kitten, named it Mew, and accidentally killed it the first night I had it. I was stoned, and it woke me up somehow. I got angry and put it in a big plastic bucket in the closet, half asleep and confused. In the morning it was dead - it had suffocated. [...] I shoved me further into a haze" The thought of that is horrifying to me. This guy has clear impulse control issues and reminds me of someone who's BPD/manic enough that their actions killed an innocent animal. "I was stoned and angry" isn't a valid excuse for suffocating an animal - this guy is wired wrong. Assuming this event happened before the whole "Bob's Game" fiasco I'd definitely say the mental illness came first. I'm going to go pet my cat now...