Llamasoft is not just Jeff Minter. It used to be, but then there were two. If Llamasoft was a band, Ivan Zorzin, better known as Giles Goat, is the one who builds the instruments Jeff plays:
June 15, 2020
This particular scene is about the beginning of Giles’ part of Jeff’s story: how they met, what Giles brings to Llamasoft, but most importantly it starts to show who Jeff & Giles are together, their rapport, and how (not to mention why) they work as a team. This is a film about relationships as much as it about the games (strange as that might seem to some).
Giles teamed with Jeff almost 20 years ago, at the point in Jeff’s career when he was fully immersed in the world of nextgen console software development, and it was becoming abundantly clear Jeff couldn’t do it alone anymore. It was just too much technology to be dealt with in the manner Jeff had been developing software up to that point. A new approach was required. What evolved out of that programming partnership is a division of labor that allows both coders to shine. Giles, however, mostly shines in anonymity.
While Jeff is the game design artist, Giles is the one that prepares the ground for the art to happen. Together Jeff & Giles developed, over time, a software framework, a virtual machine of a sort that exists between Jeff’s games and the destination hardware, be it the Xbox One or the Playstation 5 or really anything, potentially. Jeff writes his games to play on the virtual machine, and the virtual machine translates that game to the destination platform.
Giles builds and maintains the virtual machine. He also takes care of a lot of day-to-day management of the Llamasoft business, so Jeff has more time to focus on the design work, the work that generates the revenue.
Giles has also been a big advocate for HEART OF NEON happening. Jeff has never been against the project, but it’s not really been any kind of priority for him. Why should it be? I’m not famous and Jeff doesn’t know me personally. But Giles really went to bat for me to make that first interview weekend happen back in 2017. I’m eternally grateful to him for that.
My dilemma has been how to properly represent Giles in the film, given his first appearance in Jeff’s history is 23 years into the journey. I’ve tried all sorts of non-linear story telling tricks to introduce Giles earlier, but none have been sufficiently successful that they’ve survived the iterative revision process.
In the current version of the film Giles emerges out of the YakYak community, which is a reasonable shorthand for what actually happened, I suppose. And once Giles arrives it has been my mission to make Giles’ purpose clear and without doubt. Part of that is making clear the circumstances that lead to Giles’ assistance being a necessity. In the current version of the film, Giles is the right person at the right time.
Which is what he is.
There is an assumption that even I entertained at the beginning of this project that the Jeff Minter story is one of “rugged individualism”, the maverick out on his own, kicking ass and taking names. What has emerged is quite the opposite. Yes, Jeff started out on his own, sort of, but in the beginning he had the support of his family, a fact which cannot be underestimated. And Jeff’s ardent fans have been passionate about supporting Jeff, even before the YakYak community became a thing in the world.
It was initially surprising to me to find how quickly and almost effortlessly Jeff and Giles became a functioning unit working in harmony for the common Llamasoft goal. But it shouldn’t be surprising, because Jeff is reality has always been a collaborator. Jeff likes to be in a community - he’s contributed code and game design to a number of projects over the years that weren’t his: Tony Crowther’s BOMBUZAL leaps to mind, or SPACE INVADERS EXTREME for another. Jeff was an integral part of the NUON team during the development stage. He works best when he is wrestling with a technical problem shared with others.
In the film, Korruptor (Gareth Noyce) points out that there wouldn’t be as many Jeff Minter games in the world if it wasn’t for Giles. That is most certainly a fact.
Thank you, Giles : )