Kafel said:

Veks and Silence just got released : http://catalog.xna.com/en-US/GameDe...d=ea28ee37-b8ad-4cac-9805-d645df8cabfe&type=2

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Down in a giant alien weapons while paying the ultimate sacrifice, should resist invasion and damage to civilians!

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Rad- said:

And WTF is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DH4PcqJiNA

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Gowans007 said:

Just played the trial of Veks and Silence love the charcter of the game even down to the rough round the edges art sytle (with adds charm).

It was fun but the trail was too short and just a straight line. Hopefully the jump & double jump are used later.

Might grab it. Anyone picked this up?

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Bootaaay said:

Tried out a couple more games;

Firstly, Ultimate Sacrifice - a Japanese side scrolling shooter

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Psychotext said:

Did the sound effects make your ears bleed? Everyone I've spoken to so far about it said they actually found the sound effects painful.

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I really want someone to clone Sega rally or another great arcade racer for xna, surprised that no one has attempted it yet.

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Dr Zhivago said:

I'll probably bite on Biology Battle now. That started out at 800, didn't it?

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(Note: English is not Oliver’s first language so a few lines were edited)

IndieGameBlog.net: Firstly could you give us some background information on you and the rest of the development team?

OS: The team consists of 3 people. My Brother Philip Schulze (age 19), who is responsible for the 3D-Models, Texturing and other graphical things. Daniel Steiner (age 18), who composed the music for Magnetic Mind with his keyboard.


And me, Oliver Schulze (age 30), who is responsible for the whole project, the game engine, some of the 3D Models and the programming. We all have different backgrounds:

Philip is a Product Designer and is working in his real job also with 3D models and makes product presentations for his customers.

Daniel is training to be a hospital nurse at the moment. He is composing music in his free time as a hobby.

I am the manager of the company Agorum Software GmbH, that develops and sells the open source document management system agorum core. There I am mainly responsible for the whole development department.

We three are all enthusiastic XBox-gamers and it was one of our dreams to make and publish a game that can be played by many others.

IndieGameBlog.net: Your first Xbox LIVE Indie Game is called Magnetic Mind, how would you describe it?

OS: It is not the first game we made for XBox. 2 years ago, we submitted “Crystal Glyder” to the Dream Build Play 2007 competition. But it was in an early development state and didn’t win anything. Here are some screens of it. http://crystalglyder.blogspot.com/2007/06/finished-yeah.html

We never finished it, because the game engine was very quick and dirty coded, maybe I’ll go over it, clean it a bit up and publish it on Indie Games…

In Magnetic Mind you play a little guy, who finds himself in a real world, where everything is huge. The guy (player) doesn´t know what happened because he lost his memory of the last few days. The player controls the guy through this world and has to find out what has happened to him.

It is a Jump and Run game, where we tried to make the graphics as polished as possible. Within the game there are many physics puzzles. Sometimes the player has to combine things to find a way through the levels.

IndieGameBlog.net:What was the inspiration for creating Magnetic Mind?

It had been always been a dream of mine to create a game that could be played by a wider range of people and that is what Microsoft offers us with the Indie Games Channel, a great thing I think!
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A screenshot from the 'Kitchen' level.

One day (after our first game Crystal Glyder) my brother (Philip) came to me and told me that he wanted to make a new game with me. At first I didn’t want to, because of the great effort you have to put in when creating one. But after playing around (again) with XNA and some animation functions we brought the character to life. I felt a great urge to create a new game with it.

Half a year before beginning I thought about a game that behaves like a 2D Side-Scrolling Jump and Run but with the great visuals and possibilities of 3D graphics. So when my brother came to me, it was very clear, that we wanted to make such a Jump and Run Game.

IndieGameBlog.net:The game has recieved both acclaim and criticism for being similar in style to LittleBigPlanet, what do you think of the reaction?

Yes, it is true, LittleBigPlanet inspired us. We knew that we wanted to make a 3D Jump and Run that behaves like a 2D Sidescrolling Jump and Run. That was before we heard anything about LBP. Over time we tried several style things for the game, how should it look like, how should the control be, etc…

One day, I saw a video about LBP and I was fascinated by the great use of the Depth Of Field Effect. So I wanted that for our game. The bricks and the fence, you can see in the garden-level, got also a little bit inspired by it. But, no one of us has a Playstation and nobody played the game till now (I did a little bit, but only at a booth at a game exhibition)…

So, what do I think about the reactions? At first I couldn’t believe that someone seriously tried to compare our small indie game to something huge like LBP and it made me a little bit proud. Then I saw comments, that said, that our game is from Microsoft and should show, that LBP is possible on a XBox, and that they are a company that only copies things and so on…. That made me a little bit angry, because that people just added comments without reading the article. I don’t like such flaming, it is to undifferentiated. They criticise things they don’t know about. These comments are as good as no comment.
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Some also mentioned that the music was ripped from LBP, Daniel, who is responsible for the music, never saw LBP and I think the music is very different.

But on the other hand, I was happy to see so many other people in the comments, that have a clear mind and that used their brains before posting. They considered the whole thing from different sides and not only from one.

Again, to clarify this: we are not Microsoft, and we are not hired by Microsoft. We are just 3 “normal” guys, that had fun, making a funny game, because that is our hobby. Not more and not less! And of course, Magnetic Mind is not comparable to LBP and it is also not meant as a rip-off, it is just inspired by it!

IndieGameBlog.net: What makes Magnetic Mind unique?

Well, very difficult quesition. I think it is the combination of everything. Great visuals, combined with physics and some puzzles, where you need your brain to get further. We also tried to get a unique style, where we tried to model and render everything as realistic as possible, as you can see in the kitchen level. So we already tried to get a little bit away from a comic style and wanted to put our guy in a real large world. Then there is the key element of the game, the Magnetic Mind. With that the guy could transport things through the level and can build up ways to get further in the levels. This key element will be enhanced in later versions of the game. We plan some things for it: for example, that you need some kind of energy, that you have to collect, to carry larger things. And there are some other ideas we have for it to improve the gameplay and uniqueness.


IndieGameBlog.net: What do you think of your chances in this year’s Dream Build Play competition?

I do not think that we will win (sure it would be great). There are too many other really great games out there. My hope is, that we get into the top ten. As I said above, this is just a hobby and we make this for fun and we applied to the competition to see, where we stand compared to the others – really only for fun!

IndieGameBlog.net: Are there any upcoming Xbox LIVE Indie Games that stand out to you?

I have some favorites: Hollandia, Go Gimbal Go, Masters of Belial, Dust an Elysian Tail, RC Racing 360, Skiddy

IndieGameBlog.net: How do you find working with XNA and Xbox LIVE Indie Games?

Very good. Microsoft built up a very good framework, that makes it relatively easy to come to a first success. And it is very flexible, it is a great toolset to bring your ideas into a game. And the best thing is, you can develop on PC and nearly the same code runs on XBox. XNA is a dream for all Indie Game developers. With it you can develop great XBox Games with nearly no budget, you need no expensive development kits. A great invention I think.

IndieGameBlog.net:How long has Magnetic Mind been in development and when do expect it to be complete?

Pure development time is about 8 months from first 3D models and the first lines of code. But we collected many ideas with our first project. So we had a good start. In overally time we spent about 900 hours. In the last days before the deadline of the competition I spent at the weekends about 16 hours a day and between the week an extra time of 5-7 hours a day additional to my normal work. So there is much hard work that has gone into the project. We hope to finish in the summer of 2010.

IndieGameBlog.net:Any other thoughts/comments?

Best luck to the other competitors of Dream Build Play 2009. You all made a great job, I know the effort that is behind such a project. Sometimes this is at the border of humanity…

IndieGameBlog.net:Thank you for your time.

You’re welcome, and thank you for the opportunity of giving this interview!

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acm2000 said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS6TGv8uCjs

now thats impressive

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Speedymanic said:

A lot of the DBP games look amazing, really can't wait to get my hands on most of them.

Anyway, latest price drops...

RBR - Fading Memories - 80ms points
Tank Strike - 80ms points (Death Tank clone, definitely worth checking out if you liked DT but didn't want to spend 1200ms points)
Biology Battle - 240ms points
Johnny Crush - 240ms points. (FP EDF 2017 clone)

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N.A said:

I was lucky enough to get to do an interview with Oliver Schulze the creator of Magnetic Mind for my Indie Game Blog:

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gafster1 said:

Do you have his e-mail? Someone needs to suggest he change his game's characters into Avatars instead. That is a very good looking title.

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acm2000 said:

ew god no, avatars should remain in party titles only

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gafster1 said:

Do you have his e-mail? Someone needs to suggest he change his game's characters into Avatars instead. That is a very good looking title.

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Seph13 said:

Seriously though, I think the guy chose not to use avatars so that he could give the main character more personality .

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Shig said:

Well, he failed miserably then. The main character has as much personality as a Homies knockoff from Dollar Tree.

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N.A said:

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Seph13 said:

Genius idea. I'm sure that idea never occurred to him and your suggestion will revolutionize his game.

Seriously though, I think the guy chose not to use avatars so that he could give the main character more personality . From the screen shots it seems like text bubbles will pop up throughout the game as the character's thoughts & speech. One of the ridiculous Avatar rules is "no talking".

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N.A said:

Just tried コロンでジャンプ (Jump): http://marketplace.xbox.com/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855028e

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N.A said:

Just tried コロンでジャンプ (Jump): http://marketplace.xbox.com/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855028e

Seems a pretty fun 2D platformer. Only 80 points too.

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cjelly said:

This is why allowing Japanese people to make Indie Games is a good thing.

Look at that Jump game and the Zelda clone; both up today and unlike the vast majority of Indie Games up there on the service, they don't make me want to puke all over my controller as soon as I look at a screenshot, let alone play the game.

Very clean and simple looking; the developers who have put games up on XBL could learn a lot from this.

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acm2000 said:

ew god no, avatars should remain in party titles only

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IndieGameBlog.net: Firstly, could you give us some background info on yourself and the rest of the development team?

MJ: We made this game with a team of five people. We are all students in Game Design and Development at the Utrecht School of the Arts. For our graduation project, we decided to team up and make this game. My role is that of the character designer and animator.

IndieGameBlog.net: How would you describe Hollandia?

MJ: Hollandia is basically a Dutch fairytale! It is inspired by Dutch folklore, art and history and there were many interesting elements we decided to incorporate in the game. All enemies for instance have a real background in Dutch stories, and the combat system is based on a popular Dutch toy.

IndieGameBlog.net:Why did you choose Dutch folklore as the theme for the game?

MJ: Well, the whole idea of making a game about Holland actually sparked when I returned home from studying abroad. In my head I had this very ugly image of Holland, and it is in the Dutch peoples nature not to be so fond of their own country. But when I got back, I was amazed by the beauty of the Dutch landscapes. I thought, why not make a game about Holland? It can be beautiful as well! So we started to do research into Dutch history and folklore and discovered a rich world of enchanting tales, perfect material for a game! Also, I feel that games tend to use the same themes over and over again, like medieval fantasy or sci-fi. There are a lot of cultures that have exciting aspects and stories as well, and we never see them in games.

IndieGameBlog.net: How is the game structured? Is it a series of levels or more open world?

MJ:The main story of the game is linear, and plays quite an important role. However there will also be lots of sidequests which give the game more depth, and make the progress through the gameworld less linear. The world consists of several environment you pass through (fields, forest, city etcetera). These areas are filled with puzzles and enemies. All these environments are connected to each other so the world is quite open.

IndieGameBlog.net: How does the combat work?

MJ:The combat system is entirely based on the old Dutch toy, the spinning top. You have to hit the top to make it spin and shoot it in the right direction to defeat your enemies. There are two different kinds of attacks: the horizontal hit which makes the top move forward, and the vertical swipe, which makes it jump in the air.

Combining these moves will enable you to do massive combos, as the top bounces back on all objects it hits.

The trick is to hit the enemies in such a way that the top will bounce from enemy to enemy, hitting as many as possible. The top gains strength when you keep hitting it at exactly the right time. Every enemy reacts differently to the top. For instance, some will steal your top, some will bounce it back and so on.

It’s a new way of combat, and once you get the hang of it is quite fun

IndieGameBlog.net: How do the adventure aspects work?

MJ:There is a compelling main story that will guide you through the game, and it’s complemented by many small sidequest. You play the story of Tulpje (“little tulip” in Dutch), the main character. She will travel around Holland, where she will meet all kinds of characters from Dutch folklore. As Tulpje advances in the game she will learn new skills for her spinning top which can be used to progress further. The focus of Hollandia is slightly more on combat than adventure.

IndieGameBlog.net:What was the inspiration for the character designs and art style?

MJ:I am a big fan of the VanillaWare Games (Odin Sphere, Grimgrimoire). They proved to me that 2d games are still cool! We actually mailed George Kamitani of VanillaWare to show him our game. He liked it so much that he made a painting for us of our main character Tulpje in his style. That was so nice!

Together with the environment designer of this game, I studied Manga Art in Japan for half a year as well, and so the style of Hollandia is a mixture between Japanese animation and Dutch influences. We looked at famous Dutch artists as Rembrandt and Vermeer for inspiration as well.

IndieGameBlog.net: How long has Hollandia been in development and do you have a timeframe for completion?

MJ: We started production on this project halfway of March of this year, so we’ve been working on it for five months. Our actual graduation deadline is August 19th, but we really wanted to submit for the Dream Build Play so we pushed ourselves a bit harder. We will release a demo of the game for public somewhere in September, and after that we will further develop it to hopefully have a complete version at the end of this year.

IndieGameBlog.net: What do you think of your chances in this year’s Dream Build Play?

MJ: There are really good entries, I’m so impressed. For us it was inconvenient that the deadlines for school and the Dream Build Play were two weeks apart. The day of the DBP deadline our game didn’t even work! We had to pull a few allnighters to finish the game for DBP. Still I think we delivered quite a nice game, and hopefully others will think so too.

IndieGameBlog.net: Are there any other Xbox LIVE Indie Games that stand out to you?

MJ: Yes, I am really impressed by some of the entries and really hope that they will be among the winners:

Dust: an Elysian tale, Magnetic Mind, HurricaneX2, Band of Bears, Guru Guru, Ones, Kaleidoscope and Aesop’s Garden.

IndieGameBlog.net: Any other thoughts/comments?

MJ: It’s fantastic to see what amazing games people come up with, and I hope the Indie scene will grow even more popular. Some of the games this year are really beautiful, and I’m pleased to see that the artwork and styles in Indie games are getting more important as well.

IndieGameBlog.net: Thank you so much for your time and good luck in this year’s Dream Build Play.

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The action-RPG AKUSHONGEMUTSUKURU was created using a plug-in, the action is heart-warming adventure. It depicts the adventures of a small boy living in the village of Lisle FENAKKU. Play time is 1-2 hours.

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mr_square said:

Woohoo! My first game, BitStream, is now up! \o/

Think of it as Dotstream, with added funk. Adaptive synesthesia-based music system, local multiplayer for up to 8 people, music creation mode, and online leaderboards.

GAF opinions much appreciated

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Psychotext said:

They're quite different... although the gameplay is similar.

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N.A said:

Just tried コロンでジャンプ (Jump): http://marketplace.xbox.com/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855028e

Seems a pretty fun 2D platformer. Only 80 points too.

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