The XNA Indie Games Official Thread

[Aaron]

Wow. Storage Inc. is excellent!!!!

Agreed. I played it right up until I ran out of time, though I'm kind of hesitant to buy it not knowing it's longevity, considering its only like 8mb.

[InfectedZero]

Agreed. I played it right up until I ran out of time, though I'm kind of hesitant to buy it not knowing it's longevity, considering its only like 8mb.

Dude trust me. There is alot of content. I scrolled down the level list and it took a long time to get down to the last one scrolling, plus level difficulties, various to choose from. I'm 100pts short and Im pissed I cant buy it.

[Aaron]

Dude trust me. There is alot of content. I scrolled down the level list and it took a long time to get down to the last one scrolling, plus level difficulties, various to choose from. I'm 100pts short and Im pissed I cant buy it.

Cool. I'll buy it as soon as I get more points. From the demo, it seemed like one of the best games on the service so far. The mechanics are really smart, and it play so well.

[MCD]

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/ga...-d802585502c7/

anyone tried this game? for 800mp I doubt I will be buying it anytime soon (and it wasn't my type of game) but I was surprised to see it translated, probably the first Japanese Indie game I've come across that have English/Japanese language in the options.

hope more Japanese games get translated and at a lower price please!

[chubigans]

I just sent off a strongly worded email to Microsoft regarding our game. Hopefully it'll get the message across that they done screwed up' real good. Gah, what a mess. :(

[N.A]

Agreed. I played it right up until I ran out of time, though I'm kind of hesitant to buy it not knowing it's longevity, considering its only like 8mb.

There is 100 levels.

[InfectedZero]

Just got done playing the Streets of Fury demo and thought it was really good. Its actually a really good beat em' up.

[xbhaskarx]

I just sent off a strongly worded email to Microsoft regarding our game. Hopefully it'll get the message across that they done screwed up' real good. Gah, what a mess. :(

They don't know your GAF username, do they?
j/k

[SAB CA]

After playing Downtown Smash Dodgeball, Streets of Fury, and going back to play Bricks4Ever after seeing so much talk about it at various places, I then played Storage Inc... and while I was enjoying the gameplay, the game bored me to tears!

Bah, not a single lick of music! The coolest thing about Shenmue's Stocking minigame was that it's music made it seem SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than what you were actually doing. It made it feel like you had this amazingly awesome job racing a super power machine with 2 horns of domination and woe on the front, moving around vital elements of existance, trying to do all you could before your experience came to an end....

And then Storage here... has... Forklift sounds.... And box sounds. Good, well done sounds, but still...

Anywho, you get the point ^_^ Smash Dodgeball got the presentation and such SO right. It's music is fantasticly retro, and uplifts everything you're doing. And then looking at the community ratings, it's dropping to around 3 stars... bleh. Just hate seeing games that get everything so right, so well put together, getting ranked down -_-;

Anywho, interested in seeing what we get next. Overall quality does seem on the uprise. Starting to look forward to these things like XBLA games.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Smash Dodgeball got the presentation and such SO right. It's music is fantasticly retro, and uplifts everything you're doing. And then looking at the community ratings, it's dropping to around 3 stars... bleh. Just hate seeing games that get everything so right, so well put together, getting ranked down -_-;

I'm sure the price has a lot to do with the ratings. If Miner Dig Deep was $10 I doubt it would score quite as high as it does now.

[SAB CA]

I'm sure the price has a lot to do with the ratings. If Miner Dig Deep was $10 I doubt it would score quite as high as it does now.

Agreed good Dr! It's a shame, too. Hope it stays remembered until mandatory price drop.

[Son of Godzilla]

Dodgeball is also ridiculously oldschool and offers (or at least I found) no hint about how to control it in the slightest.

[LocoMrPollock]

I just sent off a strongly worded email to Microsoft regarding our game. Hopefully it'll get the message across that they done screwed up' real good. Gah, what a mess. :(

Not a very good game and 400pts is too much.

[Psychotext]

Not a very good game

There's nothing like constructive criticism.

[LocoMrPollock]

There's nothing like constructive criticism.

I can only speak for myself, but I just didn't like game. I mean you gotta disarm a bomb by finding the hidden pistons but you can use a tool to find the pistons just by moving the tool over the right square or peg, or you can use a chaff grenade to reveal the pistons.

Top that off with bad presentation and a 400pt price point. Yeah, I think 80pts would have been more appropriate considering the other top tier indie games you can get for 400.

Anyway, just my opinion.

[Psychotext]

That's far better than your original post.

[thewesker]

My problem with the game stemmed from having no idea what I was doing. I could find no tutorial or instructions, I was completely in the dark.

I'm not going to play a game let alone pay for it if I am given no indication of what to do or how to do it. The game made no sense to me.

[Psychotext]

Guided tutorials are a must for anything more complicated than a basic two stick shooter I reckon. I've warmed to so many games simply because they said "Hey, here's what you're supposed to do... now you try it".

[Anso]

Guided tutorials are a must for anything more complicated than a basic two stick shooter I reckon. I've warmed to so many games simply because they said "Hey, here's what you're supposed to do... now you try it".

Yet another reason to try Atomhex. Two-stick shooter that is only enjoyable after you've learned the mechanics. And fuck me it kicks ass after that.

[SAB CA]

Dodgeball is also ridiculously oldschool and offers (or at least I found) no hint about how to control it in the slightest.

Hmm? It has a "how to play" that explains specials being done after the 4th step of dashing/at the apex of a jump, explains the controls (even has a forced reset feature by pressing 3 buttons, like playstation games), the stats are pretty straight forward...

The biggest "Wait, what?" moment I had with the trial, is trying to figure out if you can play multiplayer in it. So far, it hasn't worked for me. Maybe it requires a gamertag signin or something (Like Storage INC).

Even if oldschool, it's still much moer a game than half-made stuff like the massage programs, or that Headshot game. Oy, the taste of IG buyers...

On to another topic at hand...

Shellblast HD: The presentation was interesting, and I liked the (that has to be metal gear, right?!) stage start up music... but I didn't find it all that intuitive. I was playing while on the phone, though, so that doesn't help much. I definitely like the fact that you have a "purpose" for the game, though. Also I think the "Last 10 seconds!" effects were pretty cool.

I'd have to play again to say anything deeper, which I can't at the second. Wasn't my type of game, but it wasn't too bad, either! I remember there being some type of thing that grated on me, but don't remember exactly what it was -_-;

I'll play it again, and give a more focused impression again later ^_^ Oh, and since the cover isn't loading on XBLIG, can you show it here, so we can see? Might catch a few people here with the pictures, even.

Oh, to the people complaining about no idea what they were doing... didn't the game have beginner and advanced tutorials? Though I think selecting the begin'r one glitched out on me once... (I think I went back from a menu, and for some reason, wasn't able to select the option, only the advanced one.) It worked after starting over again, but it was kind of weird.

[MightyHedgehog]

Just saw the new Gamerbytes story put up by Rlan on Nathan Fouts' upcoming Live game, Grapple Buggy.
This is the new game coming from the creator of the pretty cool Indie Games shooter, Weapon of Choice.

Shadow Complex is pretty big right now, but what are you going to do for your Metroidvania fix afterward? You'll need to check out Grapple Buggy. This new trailer shows off the game's storyline, which Nathan Fouts tells us will be fully voiced. The game is slated for Xbox Live (Arcade or Indie, it's all still on the table) in 2010.

So, unless he gets it approved and published for Arcade, it'll be an Indie Game release sometime next year.

Looks great and has that very same highly colorful (almost gaudy), Amiga-like psychedelic Psygnosis look to it that WoC had. The early pics are here, at the MBG website. More Metroid-like action-exploration games can't be a bad thing, right?

[LocoMrPollock]

Just saw the new Gamerbytes story put up by Rlan on Nathan Fouts' upcoming Live game, Grapple Buggy. This is the new game coming from the creator of the pretty cool Indie Games shooter, Weapon of Choice. So, unless he gets it approved and published for Arcade, it'll be an Indie Game release sometime next year. Looks great and has that very same highly colorful (almost gaudy), Amiga-like psychedelic Psygnosis look to it that WoC had. The early pics are here, at the MBG website. More Metroid-like action-exploration games can't be a bad thing, right?

That looks really good.

[SickBoy]

Can't stand the aesthetic Mommy's Best is using in their games. I played the trial of WoC briefly, and really didn't care for it (mainly on gameplay, but I thought it was ugly, too).

This looks like more fun, and visually better, too, but they'd really go a long way IMO if they abandoned this "my alien construction set vomited on your screen" appearance.

[MightyHedgehog]

Can't stand the aesthetic Mommy's Best is using in their games. I played the trial of WoC briefly, and really didn't care for it (mainly on gameplay, but I thought it was ugly, too). This looks like more fun, and visually better, too, but they'd really go a long way IMO if they abandoned this "my alien construction set vomited on your screen" appearance.

Yeah, not everyone can dig the secondary color-heavy look. I like it, though I can understand why it turns a lot of people off. I think it might fare better on first look if he went with a modified palette. The actual sprites look fine, IMO, even with so much heavy segmented/jointed stuff (which I personally dig). Reminds me of quite a lot of Genesis/Amiga stuff.

[N.A]

Storage Inc... and while I was enjoying the gameplay, the game bored me to tears! Bah, not a single lick of music! The coolest thing about Shenmue's Stocking minigame was that it's music made it seem SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than what you were actually doing. It made it feel like you had this amazingly awesome job racing a super power machine with 2 horns of domination and woe on the front, moving around vital elements of existance, trying to do all you could before your experience came to an end.... And then Storage here... has... Forklift sounds.... And box sounds. Good, well done sounds, but still...

The song name from Shenmue is 'Working Man', just download it and use custom soundtracks?

The game is great.

[InfectedZero]

I whipped up a quick video review of Storage Inc, nothing to snazzy but I really wanted to review it for some reason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6n6Lb5yaKI

[toneroni]

I just sent off a strongly worded email to Microsoft regarding our game. Hopefully it'll get the message across that they done screwed up' real good. Gah, what a mess. :(

Goodluck! let us know how it goes..

[chubigans]

Well they said it was a bit of a glitch on their end and they're looking into it now, so that's good. Here's the box art, which was designed with a ton of input from GAF:

[InfectedZero]

Good to hear that they are finally doing something about it.

[toneroni]

I'm surprised they got back to you so fast. Good stuff :]

[chubigans]

It was actually someone on GAF who PMed me and said they could help when they saw my post, and they did! So a huge thank you to them.

[chubigans]

Alrighty, looks like the problem is solved. We can resubmit in a few days and we'll have the proper stuff on our descriptor this time.

I have to say they really came through nicely for us in a short amount of time, so thanks MS and friendly GAF user!

[Psychotext]

I assume that'll get you back in the new games list... which is cool.

On a different note, how many Indie Games are showing up as unrated for you Americans? In the UK it's down to about 120 unrated... sadly though many of those are actually quite good games. =/

[todayzee]

Alrighty, looks like the problem is solved. We can resubmit in a few days and we'll have the proper stuff on our descriptor this time. I have to say they really came through nicely for us in a short amount of time, so thanks MS and friendly GAF user!

Everyone knows that Microsoft is always listening and watching - sometimes in a good way!

xxoo

[GarthVaderUK]

Alrighty, looks like the problem is solved. We can resubmit in a few days and we'll have the proper stuff on our descriptor this time. I have to say they really came through nicely for us in a short amount of time, so thanks MS and friendly GAF user!

Yay!

[Anso]

Top 6 DBP games will be shown at PAX, really looking forward to seeing what games made it. I'm expecting Dust at the very least.

[Anso]

Oh, one more thing. Some info on Morsel Games upcoming game Kaleidoscope. I'm the Morsel composer and did some additional game design on this game.

XboxIndies media post with concept art, movie and music: http://xboxindies.com/2009/08/fillin...-kaleidoscope/
Interview with the main designer and programmer about the game: http://www.indiegameblog.net/2009/08...-kaleidoscope/

Kaleidoscope is still being finalized but we're aiming for a September release. It's also submitted to DBP09 so we'll see what happens :)

[Diablohead]

Top 6 DBP games will be shown at PAX, really looking forward to seeing what games made it. I'm expecting Dust at the very least.

Hope dust gets into the top 6, it deserves the attention.

[Anso]

Hope dust gets into the top 6, it deserves the attention.

Yeah, definitely looks great. Still haven't seen much actual gameplay mechanics but it runs as smooth as silk and hacking and slashing always brings a smile to my face.

[Alec]

This isn't entirely related, but anyone know how I can get into the Rock Band Network XNA Beta?

[Noogy]

I'm expecting Dust at the very least.

Thanks for the praise. Kaleidoscope looks fantastic by the way. Need more games like it :) Are you or your team heading to PAX this year?

[Nelo Ice]

dust and cloudberry kingdom(i think thats what its called) should be in the top 6 for sure

[Anso]

Thanks for the praise. Kaleidoscope looks fantastic by the way. Need more games like it :) Are you or your team heading to PAX this year?

The artist will be there representing and OverClocked ReMix will be pimping my music, wether or not we're part of the Top 6 isn't revealed until later ;)

[RadarScope1]

I've got 90 points sitting my account. Somebody tell me the names of the best 80 point games that are not Brick4Ever or Johnny Biscuit.

[cjelly]

I've got 90 points sitting my account. Somebody tell me the names of the best 80 point games that are not Brick4Ever or Johnny Biscuit.

I MAED A ZOMI3 G4ME

[Psychotext]

Try some of these: http://www.xboxindies.com/games/?p=80

(I like the zombies game, Zoomaroom, Ladybird Galaxy, Dr Popper and GLITNIR)

[Anso]

I've got 90 points sitting my account. Somebody tell me the names of the best 80 point games that are not Brick4Ever or Johnny Biscuit.

NextWar: Quest for Earth! Also Philip Muwanga's Hexy Trench (I think that's 80..)

[Psychotext]

Oh... if Hexy Trench is 80 now, then that for sure.

[SickBoy]

Oh... if Hexy Trench is 80 now, then that for sure.

It's still 200.

[Anso]

It's still 200.

My mistake then.. still worth it :P