Wolfire Games wants you to help humiliate one of its team members by taking (virtual) part in his beard-shaving via YouTube.
Wolfire Games is developing a reputation as a mover-and-shaker in the independent game community, thanks in large part to the fact that its co-founder Jeff Rosen helped organize the Humble Indie Bundle and was one of the more thoughtful critics of Activision’s Indie Game Competition. Now that the developer’s new game, Overgrowth is approaching the point of playability, it turns out that the studio’s COO is willing to sacrifice his dignity in order to generate some extra awareness about the project.
John Graham has been growing his beard for two years, and he promised the community that he would shave it off when the three milestones were met:
1. The placeholder “rabbot” character had to be replaced with a finished character model.
2. Based on the video, there was no second objective. It was just an excuse to come up with a sarcastic interruption song.
3. Characters had to be able to transition seamlessly from an animated state to a ragdoll state.
Now that these goals have been achieved, John’s planning to shave his beard in a little under two weeks. However, Wolfire’s set up some little bonuses for the community: if over 5,000 people subscribe to the company’s YouTube channel, John will livestream the shaving (this goal has already been met); if over 7,500 people subscribe, John will also shave his head; if over 10,000 people subscribe, the community gets to dictate what John’s new hairstyle will look like.
John’s currently asking that the community doesn’t force him to get a mullet. Personally, I think he needs to sport the tonsure look.
Source: Wolfire’s YouTube Channel
