[Parody Game] Bieberman
Here's a little parody game we whipped up in celebration of Halloween. Hope you enjoy it.
Here's the video of the game in action:
And here's where you can download it:
http://www.skobbejakgames.com
We apologize if this offends you in any way, not our intention. Please keep in mind however that this is a parody game and nothing in it should be taken seriously.
Here's the video of the game in action:
And here's where you can download it:
http://www.skobbejakgames.com
We apologize if this offends you in any way, not our intention. Please keep in mind however that this is a parody game and nothing in it should be taken seriously.
Comments
Parody - an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.
Well, do let us know how that goes for the game.
First of all let's not get personal, and that was getting personal. I don't feel the need to defend DD as being more than a pixelart game because those who have played it know what it is.
Second of all, I think it's fair to say what you guys made is not parody. It simply isn't. It is, a marketing device, it is, jumping on the Bieber train to stir controversy to promote an almost entirely unrelated thing.
Unless you have real artist intentions behind it, in which case I'd really like to hear the rationale behind these artistic intentions, cos we don't get it...
@Tuism: Do I seriously have to explain it. OK, the lyrics that Justin Bieber sings in the game is very resembling of of Michael Jackson, whom Justin Bieber idolizes and aspire to be like. Only its a more generic monotonous rip off of Michael's voice, implying Justin will never be as good as the original.
The scary, creepy parts symbolizes how out of control Justin has become as well as the disgusted effect he creates in a lot of males (the market the game is mainly geared towards) due to his slightly feminine nature, ergo the gay and dildo jokes. This is what makes him then supposedly "scary" thus the horror theme, also it can be further extended to Michael Jackson again and the thriller music video and how scary and out of control his life has become lately.
The dildos serve as a means to relieve him of his troubles while not getting involved yourself, representing the media, his fans and managers. They cant really actively get involved and help him they can only guide or manipulate him through external methods.
I can go on. Just use your imagination man. Ofcourse one of the reasons is for views and exposure, but we mainly did the game because we thought it would be fun to do and fun to share with everyone.
Seriously I never try to start a fight when I post here but it always seems to be the same people that pick a fight with me. Please, just chill, we're just trying to make the games that we like to make and we want to share it with people. We appreciate constructive criticism and everyone's opinions. But if youre just gonna come in and bash every single aspect of the game, without really giving a solid reason or even having a slither of support or optimism, then I know you're not being truly honest and you cant bite my head off just for tryingto defend myself, jeesh.
I don't think the art style had much effect on the overall time it took to produce though - barring a few interface areas that were a ton of painting work, the major time sink has been balancing the roguelike play.
P.S. That's how you do it.
P.P.S. Your response above still doesn't point towards it being parody - it's at best symbolic. I certainly didn't get your implied meanings from the video, a dildo doesn't really symbolise relief from pain on its own. You kinda have to be aware of the interpretations of symbols that other people will have, then use those symbols in ways that do interesting things with those expectations.
Note how I said you sound like. I didn't say you are.
And it comes down to communication.
It looks like a hit getter, and I hope it gets you hits, which is pretty much what I said in the first place, and I don't think that's "bashing" at all.
All the no.
- Gay "jokes"? Not cool.
- Implying that femininity is bad and disgusting? Not cool.
- Trying to hide from creative responsibility behind cheap sorry-not-sorry text? Not cool.
- Trying to slide out from under criticism with bullshit rationalisations that don't stand up? Not cool.
Either you're assholes or you're immature. Whichever it is, you're always going to get criticism for your disgusting attitudes and regressive ideologies, from both the professionals here AND from the wider world - where saying "dildo" or "gay" isn't rewarded with peals of unthinking normative laughter. That means you're going to keep "defending" yourselves from "attack" instead of engaging with criticism. This feeling will follow you for the rest of your life if you're not careful: Every time you feel attacked and lash out, you'll be reinforcing the wall that traps you into smaller and smaller parts of the world.Personally, I hope you either put some serious effort into understanding why these things aren't cool and grow up, or you hurry up and rage-quit already. I'm tired of giving you the benefit of the doubt when you behave this way.
I've worked independently in creative fields my whole life, and ALL great leads came from great interpersonal rapport. I feel that you're burning bridges you don't even know about yet.
As a business decision, how does the "good" (potential traffic?) outweigh the the negative of people not wanting to collaborate and cross promote with you in the future?
Just take myself as an example,I don't think of myself as a terribly influential person but I do have access to my own stats and opinions:
Personally, I'm generally inclined towards helping SA indies, even at a cost of lifestyle to myself. So from the outset SkobbeJak would have had an advantage with me as an audience. I'd never heard of SkobbeJak prior to this week, checked out your Indiegogo and found your gameplay not quite compelling enough to invest in or even tell my friends about; it pretty much felt like I'd need some other peers to point out something significantly great for me to look at it again.Today I saw your bieberman thing which confirmed to me at a fundamental level that I don't want to support the personality behind SkobbeJak, so I probably won't review my decision about the indiegogo even if I saw a positive tweet about it anymore either. After reading your awkward and misplaced justifications though, I wouldn't touch 'SkobbeJak Games' with a barge pole. I feel as though any energy I put towards potentially aiding SG would in fact be energy thrown at undermining my own brands, if other freelancers or contractors ask me about SG I'm in fact likely to inform them of the sour bile I read here. And that would include the members of other forums I'm a part of/run, the freelance sketchgroups I'm part of and the artists, programmers and sound people I do and will work worth in the future. As @danelle once said describing a similar scenario in illustration "this industry is too small to shit in the sandbox."
This is why I can't understand why SG would defend a stance so potentially damaging to it, particularly while trying to indigogo. Could you maybe explain this?
(indiegogo is a verb now, but the emphasis is placed on the final 'go': indigoGO XP)
Theres no point in arguing onwards, if you cant see this as a parody I dont know what to say, we've already gotten a lot of compliments from other people (in fact two or three people actually telling us we shouldnt have apologised, we should stand by our joke), saying its a brilliant parody.
Im not homophobe in any matter wow, jumping a bit to conclusions there, there's a lot of parodies that have done worse things.
Im just gonna shhhh and just blame it on South African syndrome, Im challenging the click masters (or they challenged me for that matter) so Im automatically wrong.
Does what @damousy said bother you at all?
What exactly is South African syndrome?
What is a click master?
As far as the game goes, I chuckled at the thought that Justin Bieber could be used as horror. But that was about where the novelty stopped for me. The other jokes were a bit juvenile, which isn't necessarily bad, but if that's the type of jokes you are going to make, then that is the type of crowd you should expect to like it. I wasn't offended by what I saw from the game, but I was actually offended by the way you told me not to be offended. Essentially what I read into your opening message was that if I disliked/disagreed with the game I should sod off because I'm the idiot. That's not really a message I think you should communicate to potential players.
That's about the extent of the constructive criticism I can give. It's true that there wasn't a lot of constructive criticism offered, but what type of constructive criticism did you expect? As far as I can tell(without playing any of the proto's) it's exactly the same as the previous prototype(just different art.sound). With this type of post people can either tell you they like it and praise it, or tell you they dislike it and bash it. Either way I think the intended goal of gaining some traffic is achieved, although I'd be very wary if it was because of the latter(long term thinking and such).
This entire forum is dedicated to improving our craft, in my experience, everyone here is actually trying to help even if they come off a little harshly sometimes.This is probably why many threads here have long answers, that attempt to outline stances and promote better discussion. Dedication to improvement.
In my post I explained why I can't understand your actions and decisions, primarily because they fly in the face of the way this business works in my experience. I seriously want to understand your approach; am I oblivious to a certain type of parody that falls outside of what I know parody to be? Did I miss the last 4chan memo? have you found a new way of improving your company's long term traction by destroying your reputation? Because from where I'm standing that's what it looks like you're doing. Perhaps the other people who have given "a lot of compliments" equate directly to massive funding in a way I'm not aware of.
This was not a personal attack from my side, and if you're reading useful critique and discussion as attack; assess your demeanour?
And I agree with what damousey was trying to caution you against. I would not give you another scrap of attention. Skobbejak games to me means - "switch the channel, those idiots are on again".
I formally challenge you!
Outside the Labia. November 14th, 20:00. Nicest person wins.
Bring spare pants, cos I'm gonna love and tolerate the shit out of you.
But first:
You are not your ideas
When someone is critiquing your work they are not critiquing you. The initial posts were purely a critique of the work presented. And then you made an awfully childish remark. Emphasis added, you claim they started 'it'. At no point did anyone make a personal attack on you. Also almost ironically you name three of the best members of MGSA I could think of. And I believe the MGSA members at large would agree with that, they generally give great feedback, and that included on your initial thread in August. Given that the community are critiquing the idea, I do not believe that they find it to be something to be jealous of. This is a completely childish remark which tarnishes your image and reputation. When someone is critiquing your idea it generally understood that they might want you to explain what you were trying to achieve with the work. Your response to Tuism here reads like: Guy are you such an idiot that I have to make this up for you. Once again this is a negative impact on your image. Ok this is just plain bullshit. People already pointed out the flaws in your reasoning for it being a parody, and it more derision to feed the Schadenfreude of people who dislike Bieber and to increase your own publicity so that you can get funding for your IGG campaign. And I believe people see it as such. Reputation--
The last paragraph says a lot. "You never try to start a fight" so you start fights without trying? You then claim that people try and pick a fight with you. This is not true, and I would have thought that after Tuism posted Saying thanks helps to change the tone away from defensive "my idea is sacrosanct" to open communication. Always evaluate any criticism for what you could learn from it, irrespective of the source, digging deeper will reward you with a better game every time. you would have understood this. so I will reiterate what I said earlier:
YOU ARE NOT YOUR IDEAS
A critique of your work is not a critique of you.
People in this community critique each other to help each other grow, and make better games. If we are critical of each other we do it because we want to push each other to grow and be better. If you feel like there is criticism, and you cannot use it to better your game and yourself ask the person what they meant.
Also I feel compelled to mention this, but you have 3 threads on the forums, and have not once posted outside of a thread of your own creation. You have only received the good will of this community, and often when you receive criticism you brush it off. I encourage you to critique other people's work so that you can have a better understanding of when people offer you critique.
As @damousey said your path on the forums has created a very negative image around Skobbejak Games. Which reflects on Tiaan Gerber and Alexander Ehlers. And could hurt future prospects of working with people. It's a very small community, and people tend to check who they are working with.
I hope that this post has helped you understand how you are presenting yourself to the community.
It's all rather overwhelming, actually :)
{
skobbejakgames.ignore;
instantiate(peace & love, my.transform.position, my.world's.rotation)
application.Load(tolerance)
}
You are not your ideas. Criticism of your ideas is not criticism of you. The view that you need to defend yourself is something you need to move past. Instead of defending yourself: you should be clarifying your position. This isn't a debate or argument, but a discussion of how to better yourself.
We give feedback to help you make better games.
And if there is a crowd of people surrounding a guy with a gun pointed at his head it's because they don't want to see him end himself. The path you are on is tantamount to career suicide.
Now I'm going to guess you're going to post some things hear that you intend to be hurtful. I'm going to ignore them. Then you're not really going to post here for a while. And in that time I think you should look at your actions and the advice given. And yes some of the people have posted comments that are dismissive of you. I apologize on their behalf.
But know this next time you post on the forums: we will be critique what you post, and we will love and tolerate the shit out of you.
Also: That would be awesome to watch. I'll bring popcorn :)
The rest of the internet needs to take lessons
Edit:
Is taking criticism well a skill one must learn or a talent? I ask this because it seems like a skill to me, I do feel that when my game is given bad criticism I feel like getting emotionally involved because it is part of myself I am putting out there.
I believe it is, I think a large part of a creative person's drive and motivation relates directly to their passion. Which is pretty much the investment of themselves in their work. It can be really tough to separate yourself from your work in order to view it objectively and critically, and in my experience, is a skill one needs to practice.
Projects are like children: you do what you can to prepare them for the real life, AND THEN YOU LET THEM GO. The other kids will either love them or hate them, but generally it's not as bad as when their parents are shadowing them and threatening to beat up the other kids if they DARE be anything but nice to their shnookums.
Not that I don't have appreciation for the personal involvement in projects: you've carried that baby and watched it grow from an intangible idea to a manifestation in reality. Whilst I believe giving birth to an actual human is a much bigger deal, these things follow the same process.
Handling criticism is definitely a skill. Being touchy about your projects is definitely a hindrance - you can easily have passion and love for a project without being aggressive and angry towards people who do you the courtesy of not ignoring you.