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Xbox LIVE Indie Games - The January 2012 Thread where we await 12/21/12

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FunInfusedGames

Member
Any particular reason why these are not available in Finland? (Does it have something to do with rating games (indies are not rated IIRC)?)
Really would have liked to try out Orbitron :/
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Microsoft limits which countries we can release XBLIGs to.

Not sure why they don't include more countries. My best two guesses are the unrated nature of XBLIG titles and the cost/time for setting up the infrastructure to release games in other countries being more than MS is willing to swallow.
 
R

Ranger X

Member
Phreaker said:
Castleminer Z is quite different in that it is a survival horror-style game where you craft your ammo and weapons in addition to your shelter. Still, for $3 who am I to complain. I've gotten a lot of playtime out of both already and they are updated often. I'll probably get that Guncraft game too when it comes out. :) Shoot, I'll probably double-dip on Minecraft once it's out on 360 if any of my XBL friends get it.
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You tell me, I keep imagining restarting a Minecraft game on my couch. Damn, that will be hard to resist really.
 
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wwm0nkey

Member
Only Voxel game I am looking forward too is GunCraft and they have the very smart idea of going to the PC AND Xbox community at the same time.
 
O

OnPoint

Member
Dark Octave said:
So the Minecraft genre's name is officially "Voxel"?

I'm curious when this happened and who coined it.
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I like to use the word "Craftalike" for games that play like Minecraft.

Voxels are the term used for the blocks that make up the graphics. They're 3D pixels, for lack of a better term.

A voxel game doesn't have to play like Minecraft. Used correctly, "voxel" should only apply to the art-style or graphics.
 
P

Phreaker

Member
Dark Octave said:
So the Minecraft genre's name is officially "Voxel"?

I'm curious when this happened and who coined it.
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I guess since Infiniminer? It used procedurally generated voxel-based maps. Just because a game uses voxels doesn't mean it's in the Minecraft genre though. Take for example that block zombies game above. It looks more like a twin stick shooter than a crafting game, but it is using voxels.

Voxel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voxel
 
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Gaspode_T

Member
Some of the voxel art style games aren't using voxels at all, just polygon 3D models with shapes of cubes, the trademark of voxel games is kind of ability to tear apart and destruct landscape where the dev doesn't have to worry about encoding geometry information for every single layer of the landscape (or whatever it is being broken apart). I do think it's cool - there was even a popular voxel based military PC game back in the 90s I played multiplayer, I remember being able to shoot holes in doors and weird stuff that was almost unimaginable before then. I can't remember the name of that dev but they were famous for early voxel games.
 
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OnPoint

Member
I'm downright shocked at how little attention Evilquest is getting in this thread. I've been putting a bit of time into it every night (I'm on the fourth area now) and I have to say that it's a very well made action-RPG. It's a sure front-runner for my pick of January GotM so far (even if Dark Octave is doing the thread this time around).
 
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Ranger X

Member
OnPoint said:
I'm downright shocked at how little attention Evilquest is getting in this thread. I've been putting a bit of time into it every night (I'm on the fourth area now) and I have to say that it's a very well made action-RPG. It's a sure front-runner for my pick of January GotM so far (even if Dark Octave is doing the thread this time around).
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If I had time I'd play it honestly. But right now I would need 27 hours per day...
 
D

DaveVoyles

Member
I wish I had the time to play games. I have a mammoth collection of them sitting at home at the moment. I commute and travel a lot, so I'm frequently stuck playing mobile platforms (Mega Man 2 on iOS FTW!)

I do plan on starting EvilQuest Tonight though.

Also, I feel for Brand. That game looks awesome (I'm excited for it!) but I think it will be difficult to make any of that money back on the XBLIG market, unless they go the PC route as well.
 
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HadesGigas

Member
Catching up on some indie game playing...

Plugemons has some of the worst jumping controls I've ever seen. Quit during stage 2. Didn't get to any "puzzle".

Lootfest Live Design, didn't feel like a game. The tools for creating things are kinda nice and if they were a level editor portion of an actual game instead of the whole game it'd be cooler. Couldn't figure out how to fight zombies or do anything with any point other than "race" an RC car.

Lots of Guns, kinda fun but also the kind of game you can get your fill of well before the 8 minute trial runs out... Like the Rocket Riot-style graphics.
 
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Ranger X

Member
HadesGigas said:
Lots of Guns, kinda fun but also the kind of game you can get your fill of well before the 8 minute trial runs out... Like the Rocket Riot-style graphics.
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Some people, like Wario64 are playing that type of games for WEEKS (and also pulling out impossible scores). I guess it's not for everybody.
 
W

Wibblewozzer

Member
Gaspode_T said:
Hmmmm,. the only game coming up in searches is Delta Force and that doesn't seem to be it..I should probably ask about it in the "I can't remember" thread
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Comanche: Maximum Overkill is what I got by doing a quick search. Just managed to get the Comanche name from Giant Bomb dudes playing Outcast recently and mentioning it. I have to believe that's the game in question?
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
Comanche: Maximum Overkill was well known for its voxel graphics. You pilot a Comanche helicopter. I sold it and played it, weird box and all.

There was another game called Ultrabots that had a lot of problems as a game, but also used voxels. It was Novalogic's claim to fame in the PC era of the early 90's. The Delta Force games and their flight sims all used voxels.
 
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RelentlessRolento

Member
I fel bad for downloading so many good indies on XBL but only buying one (Wizorb) I've played most of the demos, etc. I need to just sit down and decide on what to buy. Soulcaster2 prob will be next
 
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Warm Machine

Member
Dave Long said:
Comanche: Maximum Overkill was well known for its voxel graphics. You pilot a Comanche helicopter. I sold it and played it, weird box and all.

There was another game called Ultrabots that had a lot of problems as a game, but also used voxels. It was Novalogic's claim to fame in the PC era of the early 90's. The Delta Force games and their flight sims all used voxels.
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Ultrabots used polys and prerendered scaling sprites, no voxels. But yeah, it was a Novalogic published game. Novalogic had great boxes for their products.
 
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Gaspode_T

Member
Apparently the new Hypership Out of Control will be out pretty soon for those who can pull themselves away from intelligent SOPA discussion

I am kind of sad that even the XBLA releases these days are releasing with a whimper, I can find barely anyone talking about Haunt or Scarygirl and I can't even find reviews of them...frustrating state of affairs.
 
F

FunInfusedGames

Member
Hypership Still Out of Control is available now...

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Hypership-Still-Out-of-Control/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550a5c

Hope you all like it!

I've seen Scary Girl mentioned a lot of my Twitter feed lately though I had no idea what it was / is. It does seem there isn't much promotion done on XBLA games these days either. Part of that probably has to also do with the fact that games are kinda buried on the Xbox. I'll just complain and dream one day that MS will allow us to customize the dash. Game Library, Game Marketplace, Netflix... that's all I need.
 
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Gaspode_T

Member
I saw toythatkills tweeting about Clover price drop so I just tried it out...oh my god this game is amazing, it tickles my fancy like I can't even explain...I just love this sort of laid back vibe and graphics and music and tons of voice acting...I almost feel embarrassed about only paying $1 for this one. It was in my Picks section which probably means tons of other people who've bought indie games have bought this one too. The nice thing about Picks is that it's sort of self-healing algorithm, no crappy games should get in there over time (unless you buy only crappy games).

I bought Hypership! One of the first day sales is me :p I wish it could have online scoreboard, but it's not a deal breaker, if it comes down to it I can take a screen of my TV. I got up to just below 1200 speed and I thought I was breaking a record or something but then I realized I didn't even get the awardments for speed yet, I got 7 or 8 of the others though.

Block Zombies is amazing for a 5MB game. Extremely polished, controls are great, music and sound FX are good, gameplay is solid, goals are clear, very impressed. It deserves a look even if you are a zombie hater, just because the colors are so vibrant and it's so well done.

They are starting to rotate the games in the Contest Finalists section, I don't know why it's not just expanded (same with Kotaku's Finalists) but it's nice to see games like Lexiv and Alien Jelly get some love.
 
O

OnPoint

Member
FunInfusedGames said:
Hypership Still Out of Control is available now...

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Hypership-Still-Out-of-Control/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550a5c

Hope you all like it!

I've seen Scary Girl mentioned a lot of my Twitter feed lately though I had no idea what it was / is. It does seem there isn't much promotion done on XBLA games these days either. Part of that probably has to also do with the fact that games are kinda buried on the Xbox. I'll just complain and dream one day that MS will allow us to customize the dash. Game Library, Game Marketplace, Netflix... that's all I need.
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So I got Hypership Still today... and it's running kinda laggy on my system. Kind of hampering my enjoyment a bit... any other reports of this?
 
F

FunInfusedGames

Member
So I got Hypership Still today... and it's running kinda laggy on my system. Kind of hampering my enjoyment a bit... any other reports of this?
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First I've heard. Are you talking laggy during gameplay or just slow on saves / loads? Is it always or just at certain times (for instance areas with lots of blocks)?

Were you one of the people with the older Xbox Hard drives that had slow saving issues with Volchaos too?
 
O

OnPoint

Member
FunInfusedGames said:
First I've heard. Are you talking laggy during gameplay or just slow on saves / loads? Is it always or just at certain times (for instance areas with lots of blocks)?

Were you one of the people with the older Xbox Hard drives that had slow saving issues with Volchaos too?
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I just booted it up now to see if I could get a better description... and it seems to be running fine now. So weird.

It was happening during gameplay. It felt like it was running at like 7/8th speed or something, like it was kind of stuttering, but consistently. It never seemed to kick it into gear. I had no problems with VolChaos, but I do have an older Xbox with an upgraded 60 gig HDD.

Now it's fine. Oh well haha Sorry for the false alarm
 
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Gaspode_T

Member
Two devs are reporting on official forums that their games have been victims have 'ratings abuse' which has been reported to be a problem for a long time.

EvilQuest and Block Zombies both got a bunch of low ratings in a single day, but seriously who the heck is enough of a ********* to do such an evil thing. Anyway, just a reminder: if you like a game, give it 5 stars. Don't even give it 4. For me 'no rating' = haven't played it yet, 'crap' = 1 star, 'good' = 5 stars. I have rated maybe 150 games, how many have you rated? Helps make the Top Rated list worthwhile if it's actually a good ranking.

Many months ago the xbox.com website could be used to rate games with just a silver account, and someone found a job listing for 'programmer to make bunch of Xbox.com accounts and use them to script simple action'. Now I think you have to have gold from PC or silver has to rate from an Xbox itself so I'm not sure how it would even be possible...changing the system to only accept ratings from people who have bought the game might be an interesting solution.
 
H

HadesGigas

Member
Gaspode_T said:
Two devs are reporting on official forums that their games have been victims have 'ratings abuse' which has been reported to be a problem for a long time.

EvilQuest and Block Zombies both got a bunch of low ratings in a single day, but seriously who the heck is enough of a ********* to do such an evil thing. Anyway, just a reminder: if you like a game, give it 5 stars. Don't even give it 4. For me 'no rating' = haven't played it yet, 'crap' = 1 star, 'good' = 5 stars. I have rated maybe 150 games, how many have you rated? Helps make the Top Rated list worthwhile if it's actually a good ranking.

Many months ago the xbox.com website could be used to rate games with just a silver account, and someone found a job listing for 'programmer to make bunch of Xbox.com accounts and use them to script simple action'. Now I think you have to have gold from PC or silver has to rate from an Xbox itself so I'm not sure how it would even be possible...changing the system to only accept ratings from people who have bought the game might be an interesting solution.
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Eh? EvilQuest has 4/5. That's a victim of abuse? Is there some actual evidence of this?

Seems like it was a lot more obvious before when games were dropping into 3 or 3.5 territory.

And no... don't think I'll subscribe to your "1 or 5" idea either.
 
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Gaspode_T

Member
Well, for the 1 star games I actually tried and basically were broken games I do think they deserve a 1 star...there have been only a few that I found so offensively bad though. Most of the games that don't interest me I just don't rate (Silver Dollar...gigantic anime boobies...etc) 95% of the games I'm giving 5 stars to, giving a game that's pretty good only 3 or 4 stars basically just doesn't help it at all, anything less than 5 pushes it down the top rated list. The system is just kind of messed up, but it's similar situation on the mobile app stores too.

Apparently the EvilQuest devs noticed a huge spike of low ratings within a single day. It happened before to some Xona Games games, it's a pretty sensitive topic because how could you prove what's going on without evidence.
 
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FunInfusedGames

Member
I'm not sure it's ratings abuse as much as the market has become a market looking for voxel games and other stuff to give them a laugh. Thus they aren't looking for "real" games as a whole and rate down things that are. That's my theory at least.

FYI Hypership Still Out of Control is rated lower than Hypership Out of Control despite being a clearly better version of the game. Hypership was rated 4 stars for a really long time, until the original allegations of ratings abuse started. HSSOOC is already down to 3.5 stars :(
 
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qupe1975

Neo Member
Ratings could be because some people actually may not like the game they played and some people seem to think their game is deserving of 4* or higher, when infact they are nothing above average. It's all subjective.

Block Zombies is highly repetitive, 3* from me. Maybe people think not enough has changed in Hypership to justify another purchase/higher rating. I haven't played the new Hypership yet so can't comment on the differences.
 
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OnPoint

Member
The new Hypership is, so far, very much the same game. It's just streamlined with an additional level. Keep in mind this is coming from a very big fan of Hypership. I'm not disappointed, but I knew what it was going into it. People hoping for a sequel may have been letdown by this.
 
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