There's a big difference between putting up with a bit of an ego or a little quirk and sacrificing your whole staff to please one person which is what I focused on for the most part. The "get rid of them immediately" attitude comes from 2 1/2 years of letting myself be tortured by people who thought that having talent meant we should do whatever they wanted. I didn't write this article based on cutesy little ideas I thought people might like or find "smart", its based on real bad experiences I've had, and boy oh boy have I had lots of them.

If that artist/ programmer/musician etc isn't worth the junk they put the rest of the team through then they need to go down the laundry chute. You need to trust your gut when it says something stinks like a big rotten ego.I've never found getting rid of a person like that kills the momentum of the project. Usually when someone actually gets fired its a big relief. A lot of artists complain to me that they lose their desire to work with someone like that around.

I have to agree with this. I've seen many projects lose all their momentum due to total jerks being on the dev team (whether they're writers, artists, programmers, or musicians) and people being unwilling to tell them to cut it out or get out. I've even personally complained to the individual(s) in charge of the team when it's a project I'm involved in, and people are often unwilling to be 'harsh' or 'unfair' and kick someone out when their work is up to par. I personally don't even consider trying to work with someone anymore if I can't at least get along with them, and if it looks like they won't get along with the rest of the team I have a hard time finding it worth the effort to give them a chance.

Sounds like a fun contest. Have you nailed down any ground rules or anything for the contest yet? I imagine the other mods and admins would probably make the rules of the contest a major factor in deciding whether or not to allow it. If memory serves, vaguely defined rules and exceptions were the only thing that caused problems the last time, so I'm sure that if you get those out of the way first it'll go fine.

All I've heard: the system's good and all, and has a great deal of potential, but most of the notable games seem to be Nintendo's own titles. Is development hardware (flash cartridge type stuff) readily accessible yet? I'm wondering how/if/when a pixel art app could appear.

This is due to the fact that Nintendo always has been very protective of their hardware details and devkits. To this day, you CANNOT get a devkit without providing a list of previously published games, evidence of the security of your facilities, proof of a large staff and a large cash investment. Almost all of what could be called 'indie' development on Nintendo consoles is entirely the result of reverse engineering.

Janus is smug and rude. I would never go into a thread regarding something you guys had worked on and trash it so openly. I would never ever say anything demeaning to another artist in a public forum and I would certainly never do that if I was moderating the place. If Janus represents the mentality of this forum, and you guys are fine with his comments, then it's just one more clue that I'm losing touch with the current hobby pixelling scene. I don't know why I keep coming back to a forum that drives me batty about once a year.

- Adam

Saying the game isn't fun is trashing it? I didn't even say anything about the parts you worked on. I'm so sorry for actually telling you what I thought about the game. Next time I'll lie.