The people following us, part two

Llamasoft always been a bit of "One of a kind" software company also because from 1982 until 2003 it has been a one man company identified with the person of Jeff Minter.

In the times when internet was not there and all the explosion of the social networking did not exist being in contact with developers was or really hard or really close, some developers became almost myths because unreacheable others became well known because of the opposite. Jeff belongs to the second category.

For quite a number of Llamasoft fans Jeff is a person they got to know personally, they met at various meetings, they spent time discussing and playing games with, they even share a pint down the pub or a curry with.

Today in the era of communication explosion where numbers are huge and everything goes at the speed of light, where what you put on the internet has to be tought four times and where a wrong word at the wrong moment or the wrong place can strike disaster "being a normal person like one used to be" it's a bit harder.

Someone have a quick glance at a game screenshot, if we are lucky enough you managed to see it lost in the ocean of gazillions of other games asking you "Look at me! Look at me!", and then maybe thinks "It's not for me!" and moves on because "It does not look like the other stuff".

This is the big challenge nowadays about being original and do something that it is truly different we do it because this is what we are and what we love to do and because we know it is good just give it a try ..

"The Atari ST with a custom paint job. Can't find a picture of it though."

"The Retrovision meetings."

".. this .."

"awwww, fluffy sheepie"

"This. Two players. Just one more go. Ok, one more. Damnit, almost got it. One more then we quit? Keep going! Wait, HOW long have we been playing this?"

"Warning: Might cause seizures."

"Llamatron for the Atari STe was the first Llamasoft game I ever bought although I had played RotMC and Ancipital on my friend's C64. Llamasoft games are Colour, Sound, The Zone I bought an Atari Jaguar just to play Tempest 2000 The CD addon just to use VLM - Light, Sound, Oblivion (soundtrack by Coil)"

"Llamasoft games are criminally-neglected fun-filled beast-centric xen-inducing masterpieces of the highest order. I love the games because they put fun above all else and because they represent unashamed individualism. With regard to a picture that means something to me, well, the picture with yourself and Jeff at blackpool meant a lot, but I'll choose something else. I love this image so much. Its a level name, it should be boring, but it made me laugh so hard. So many games take themselves so seriously, but llamasoft games celebrate and augment the seemingly mundane. I'm still laughing now at a game where I have to search for 50P, absolute genius. 'The search for 50P' "

"llamasoft games feel totally personal. they make me laugh. some super interestingness, some awesome (and this-game-wants-to-kill-me difficulty) fun.. they exude playfulness all over. the whole idea of lightsynths is like, higher level, FUTURE. i haven't seen Neon in action outside of the games it's in on PC and iOS - never saw any of the 8-bit lightsynths either - but reading about the whole performing with it as a visual instrument thing blew me away at the time.. one early reason i ever tried to make games was reading Jeff in an old PC Format mag saying something like "whatever i end up making it'll be something fun, i'll never go and make business software" hehe. SHEEPIE SAVE!"