theexterminat

I remember in the early 2000s, I had used a GameShark and really hardcore glitched my Pokemon Sapphire. To the point of being unable to start a new game and I couldn't continue my current one.

I was terrified of telling my parents that I broke my game, because I've always hated asking them for things. So, I turned to Nintendo.

But being the nine year old that I was, I sent it to Nintendo -- LITERALLY, their address that appears in like the manuals and stuff -- in an envelope with a handwritten message with my phone number saying I was sorry for what I had done and I would never cheat again.

About a week later, I get a call from a support rep FROM HIS OWN HOUSE saying they got the letter and that he would do a factory reset on it and send it back. He did.

This was freaking magical to nine year old me. It's still magical to eighteen year old me. I just wanted to say thanks for when you guys really do cool stuff; it really means a lot.

EDIT: Woah! I've never had a comment more than about 20 or so karma, and then this is almost at 2K. Didn't even expect this to get upvoted. So, what we learned today: customer support is a beautiful thing and it pays to be nice!

OH! Ha, no problem at all. :) I found them through a ton of methods -- reddit (/r/INAT and /r/gamedevclassifieds are great), word of mouth, job ads on websites like IndieDB, and even old fashioned flyers around town.

I eat about two bags of mini pretzels per week, roughly 250 per bag. Two bags per week for nearly two and a half years... and I should probably get my sodium levels checked out! ;) If roughly 60k pretzels were demolished, and we wrote about 20k lines of code, then I can in fact confirm that every 3 pretzels resulted in one line of code. It's my new development process called... Rold Code.

crickets

Hi Cliff, you probably won't read this, but I just wanted to thank you for being such a huge inspiration to me. I've wanted to make games since I was four years old, and this year, my indie team is releasing our first game (fingers crossed!) known as Close Order via Steam Greenlight. We actually met briefly at E3 2013 (I was a journalist for a few years), and you probably don't remember. You and Lauren jumped around the corner very obviously in a hurry, and I basically jumped into your way, stuck my hand out and introduced myself, and all I could think to do was ask for a photo. Even though you were in a rush to go see Evil Within, you smiled, shook my hand, and very kindly posed for the photo -- while politely stating you were in a hurry. This moment really changed my perspective on many things. Here you were, in the flesh, my hero, and you were kind, humble, and willing to make a passerby smile. It really showed me that your heroes can be truly awesome people, and Cliff, you're awesome people. Thank you for doing what you do.

I guess if I had a question, it'd be what advice you'd give to someone about to release their first game? (Also I'll probably Tweet it at you when we go for Greenlight, so if you check it out then, I will literally squeal and document my reaction. I promise.)

Not at all! We got to build a cool virtual booth on our website, and get to see/hear about people interacting with that from the comfort of home in our PJs. ;) And plus, we get to spread our cringe-y humor even farther than just a show floor!

Life's all about perspective - we chose to turn this into something fun!