5 ms·

Indie Game Devs Post Own Game on The Pirate Bay

130 points by mambodog 15y ago

mathattack 15y ago
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Encouraging bootleggers helped the Dead. Why not others?
- city41 15y ago
  But that wasn't bootlegging, that was people legitimately recording the shows with the Dead's blessing (many bands followed suit). But it still remains it was the Dead's choice to give that blessing, and I still feel creators should maintain that right. Even if they choose to exercise that right poorly (ie, if the Dead disallowed recording) that is their choice, not the piraters.
  - mathattack 15y ago
    Same as in the article. The firm themselves chose to give away a pirated version. I am certainly not trying to claim that all piracy is good - only that some who embrace it on themselves do benefit.
- leon_ 15y ago
  Yeah, if you can't beat them, join them ... and give your stuff away for free. And get thrown of your apartment. And starve.
- dbattaglia 15y ago
  The only thing is, a pirated video game is a bitwise/identical clone of the product they are selling, whereas watching a concert on video is not even remotely close to being there in person.
Jach 15y ago
Great little story, if I wasn't supposed to be working right now I'd check out the game more. (Maybe it'll hit the Humble Bundle next time around.) They seem to understand that the greatest threat to any creator trying to monetize a product is obscurity, not piracy. Also, when you release something, some amount of Value is created and you're not going to be able to capture all of that Value no matter how hard you try. But things like this that actively play the torrenters can let you capture more of it than you otherwise wouldn't have.
- benologist 15y ago
  It's based on a short little Flash game - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/558562 http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/558562 - although the downloadable's bigger and better.
  - palish 15y ago
    That game is hilarious!
    - benologist 15y ago
      That dev makes some really cool stuff. http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/I_smell http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/I_smell Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar is another good one.
- ido 15y ago
  Maybe it'll hit the Humble Bundle next time around. I hope so for them, but you realize the HIB is basically the lottery of indie games? A tiny fraction of all indie games get on it, so the chance of each individual game is minuscule.
  - stephth 15y ago
    How is it the lottery of indie games? All the games sold on HIB - that I've played - are good, original, well polished games. Some, I believe, are some of the best games ever made, indie or non indie. It wasn't luck that put them in the HIB shelf.
    - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
      I don't think the GP was implying a purely random process, rather the fact that if there are 20,000 games submitted for the bundle, your chances of getting picked are pretty low (akin to a lottery). As an indie dev, you have some knobs in your control (how good you make the game), but many knobs won't be.
idonthack 15y ago
direct link to torrent file: http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/6617784/No_Time_To_Explain_Windows_tinyBuildGAMES.6617784.TPB.torrent http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/6617784/No_Time_To_Explain_...
nazgulnarsil 15y ago
ugh, most indie platformers haven't yet reached the level of the original super mario bros. nintendo spent a LOT of time fine tuning the controls. The lack of fine tuning is very noticeable in games like this (another really good example is meatboy). Intuitively the controls don't feel "tight". What's really going on is that there is a lack of a way for the player to create repeatable conditions so they can do experiments and thus learn the fine degree of control exhibited in speed runs of SMB. This generally happens below the conscious level.
- waitwhat 15y ago
  ugh, most indie platformers haven't yet reached the level of the original super mario bros. This is hardly surprising when Super Mario Bros is widely regarded as one of the very best games of all time, some would say the best [1], and sold more than 40 million copies, making it the best-selling game ever until 2009 [2]. You don't rubbish a new play by complaining that it's not as good as Shakespeare, or a new album that's not as good as Thriller. And you don't rubbish a platformer for not being as good as Super Mario Bros. [1] http://top100.ign.com/2005/001-010.html http://top100.ign.com/2005/001-010.html [2] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
  - eropple 15y ago
    Bad controls sink a platformer. I haven't played this one to evaluate it, but if it's sloppy, that really does make it a no-go--the difference, for me at least, between "good and worth playing" and "unacceptable, give it a pass" is really narrow. Given that developers have had about twenty years to study and reach deep into the guts of games like the original Super Mario Bros, it really does make it harder to rationalize that, as the GP poster noted, very few games are really even in the same ballpark in terms of fluidity of control.
  - leon_ 15y ago
    Well, controls are some of the things you shouldn't compromise on. If it takes you more time to get them done right then take that time and skip some fancy graphic effects.
joenathan 15y ago
The lack of a proper full screen mode really kills this game for me, I end up click outside of the window and inadvertently switching to a different application.

130 points by mambodog 15y ago

mathattack 15y ago

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Encouraging bootleggers helped the Dead. Why not others?

city41 15y ago
But that wasn't bootlegging, that was people legitimately recording the shows with the Dead's blessing (many bands followed suit). But it still remains it was the Dead's choice to give that blessing, and I still feel creators should maintain that right. Even if they choose to exercise that right poorly (ie, if the Dead disallowed recording) that is their choice, not the piraters.
- mathattack 15y ago
  Same as in the article. The firm themselves chose to give away a pirated version. I am certainly not trying to claim that all piracy is good - only that some who embrace it on themselves do benefit.
leon_ 15y ago
Yeah, if you can't beat them, join them ... and give your stuff away for free. And get thrown of your apartment. And starve.
dbattaglia 15y ago
The only thing is, a pirated video game is a bitwise/identical clone of the product they are selling, whereas watching a concert on video is not even remotely close to being there in person.

Jach 15y ago

Great little story, if I wasn't supposed to be working right now I'd check out the game more. (Maybe it'll hit the Humble Bundle next time around.) They seem to understand that the greatest threat to any creator trying to monetize a product is obscurity, not piracy. Also, when you release something, some amount of Value is created and you're not going to be able to capture all of that Value no matter how hard you try. But things like this that actively play the torrenters can let you capture more of it than you otherwise wouldn't have.

benologist 15y ago
It's based on a short little Flash game - http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/558562 http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/558562 - although the downloadable's bigger and better.
- palish 15y ago
  That game is hilarious!
  - benologist 15y ago
    That dev makes some really cool stuff. http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/I_smell http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/I_smell Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar is another good one.
ido 15y ago
Maybe it'll hit the Humble Bundle next time around. I hope so for them, but you realize the HIB is basically the lottery of indie games? A tiny fraction of all indie games get on it, so the chance of each individual game is minuscule.
- stephth 15y ago
  How is it the lottery of indie games? All the games sold on HIB - that I've played - are good, original, well polished games. Some, I believe, are some of the best games ever made, indie or non indie. It wasn't luck that put them in the HIB shelf.
  - SoftwareMaven 15y ago
    I don't think the GP was implying a purely random process, rather the fact that if there are 20,000 games submitted for the bundle, your chances of getting picked are pretty low (akin to a lottery). As an indie dev, you have some knobs in your control (how good you make the game), but many knobs won't be.

idonthack 15y ago

direct link to torrent file: http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/6617784/No_Time_To_Explain_Windows_tinyBuildGAMES.6617784.TPB.torrent http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/6617784/No_Time_To_Explain_...

nazgulnarsil 15y ago

ugh, most indie platformers haven't yet reached the level of the original super mario bros. nintendo spent a LOT of time fine tuning the controls. The lack of fine tuning is very noticeable in games like this (another really good example is meatboy). Intuitively the controls don't feel "tight". What's really going on is that there is a lack of a way for the player to create repeatable conditions so they can do experiments and thus learn the fine degree of control exhibited in speed runs of SMB. This generally happens below the conscious level.

waitwhat 15y ago
ugh, most indie platformers haven't yet reached the level of the original super mario bros. This is hardly surprising when Super Mario Bros is widely regarded as one of the very best games of all time, some would say the best [1], and sold more than 40 million copies, making it the best-selling game ever until 2009 [2]. You don't rubbish a new play by complaining that it's not as good as Shakespeare, or a new album that's not as good as Thriller. And you don't rubbish a platformer for not being as good as Super Mario Bros. [1] http://top100.ign.com/2005/001-010.html http://top100.ign.com/2005/001-010.html [2] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.
- eropple 15y ago
  Bad controls sink a platformer. I haven't played this one to evaluate it, but if it's sloppy, that really does make it a no-go--the difference, for me at least, between "good and worth playing" and "unacceptable, give it a pass" is really narrow. Given that developers have had about twenty years to study and reach deep into the guts of games like the original Super Mario Bros, it really does make it harder to rationalize that, as the GP poster noted, very few games are really even in the same ballpark in terms of fluidity of control.
- leon_ 15y ago
  Well, controls are some of the things you shouldn't compromise on. If it takes you more time to get them done right then take that time and skip some fancy graphic effects.

joenathan 15y ago

The lack of a proper full screen mode really kills this game for me, I end up click outside of the window and inadvertently switching to a different application.