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The XNA Indie Games Official Thread

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that looks amazing

just bought Soul, i made a game with zombies, and shoot 1up...which on top of decimation x and groove brings my total to $5 for 5 indie games
 
Man just been having a peep and there are some shit hot new Indie Games, they are getting better and better.

Is it time for a 2010 GAF 360 Indie Games Top Picks thread?

Whos up to the task, I wana see what I'm missing. (quite enjoying Square off at the mo)
 
Gowans007 said:
Man just been having a peep and there are some shit hot new Indie Games, they are getting better and better.

Is it time for a 2010 GAF 360 Indie Games Top Picks thread?

Whos up to the task, I wana see what I'm missing. (quite enjoying Square off at the mo)
Click to expand...

There is a recommended thread in here, somewhere can't look from work. I did one over at GRcade too.

There are loads of games worth at least trialing but there is a ton of sh*t too.


On another note, is there any way we can create a petition to try and get offline play for Indie games?
 
qupe1975 said:
On another note, is there any way we can create a petition to try and get offline play for Indie games?
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Offline as you don't need to be logged in to run Indie Games? That probably won't happen, due to the fact that the games aren't rated by the ESRB.
 
qupe1975 said:
On another note, is there any way we can create a petition to try and get offline play for Indie games?
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Unlikely. I've come to the opinion that, after reading all of the suggestion threads on the Creators forums, and the amount of disagreement there, coupled with other more logistical factors, we'll never see any further, major changes to the indie games service.
 
Noogy said:
Offline as you don't need to be logged in to run Indie Games? That probably won't happen, due to the fact that the games aren't rated by the ESRB.
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Thanks Noogy... it's a shame because I have read people saying they will not purchase games because of this, and others say they will scale back their purchases. I have the issue my Live connection keeps playing up and when I am playing something and then get a code 7 it seriously pisses me off.

Out of interest, and please excuse my stupidity here, how does being logged into Live verify anything? I don't see what difference playing offline or online makes once I have purchased it via the Marketplace.
 
qupe1975 said:
Thanks Noogy... it's a shame because I have read people saying they will not purchase games because of this, and others say they will scale back their purchases.
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That's an odd stance, but then I'm constantly connected to LIVE when my Xbox is on so I guess I just don't think about it. It feels wrong if I'm offline!

qupe1975 said:
Out of interest, and please excuse my stupidity here, how does being logged into Live verify anything? I don't see what difference playing offline or online makes once I have purchased it via the Marketplace.
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Do you mean verify your age? It doesn't need to, but online functions aren't rated by the ESRB (notice all those "game experience may vary online" messages on games) so by Indie Games being classed as "online games," they avoid having to be rated - they just need to be connected to get away with it. Something like that, there's certainly no verification.

Apologies if that's not what you meant at all!
 
Gowans007 said:
Man just been having a peep and there are some shit hot new Indie Games, they are getting better and better.

Is it time for a 2010 GAF 360 Indie Games Top Picks thread?

Whos up to the task, I wana see what I'm missing. (quite enjoying Square off at the mo)
Click to expand...
We need something to get the names out. I wouldn't have found gems like Flipside and Arkedo's Pixel if it wasn't for this thread. I wish there was a way to promote games in your profile.
 
SapientWolf said:
We need something to get the names out. I wouldn't have found gems like Flipside and Arkedo's Pixel if it wasn't for this thread. I wish there was a way to promote games in your profile.
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Yeah I tried a recommend thread a while ago but the op was horrific to update.

Maybe a new thread every season with some solid recomendations.
 
Gowans007 said:
Maybe a new thread every season with some solid recomendations.
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This is a fantastic idea! I love this idea.
sew.jpg


xxoo
 
HomeSlice and the Zombie Bunnies is alright. It looks ace, and is fun to play, it's a twin stick shooter where you have to shoot Rabbids Zombie Bunnies, and there are also sword attacks on A and B for a bit of extra style, and some enemies can only be killed by slicing them up, stuff like that. It's fun, yeah, but when you kill a Rabbid Bunny they just disappear in a puff of smoke and it makes the experience feel slightly hollow, somehow. Like, it doesn't feel like there's enough feedback when you kill stuff.

Space Maze has just been passed too and that looks like it'll be good, haven't downloaded yet but looks like a decent puzzler in the vein of Penguin Slip-Slide (which everyone should have, a lesser known gem, that.)
 
I appear to have been wrong. Space Maze, from the trial, looks like it only has 15 levels. And I finished all but one in the eight minutes, and nearly got the last when the time ran out. The game includes some timing based gameplay too, which should never be in a puzzle game (including you, Puzznic.) The challenge should be in the solving!
 
toythatkills said:
Penguin Slip-Slide (which everyone should have, a lesser known gem, that.)
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Game is no longer for sale. SGN pulled pulled all their games and deleted their accounts or something. So if you own any of these or any of these, they're now collector's items!
 
intheinbetween said:
hey guys, anyone knows what happened to Arkedo Series?
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The originals are still there. Maybe sales are too slow to justify cranking out more sequels. I think it's an awareness issue. MS needs an "XNA Game of the Week" or some other excuse to put the quality titles on the dashboard.
 
Dr Zhivago said:
To be fair, it's not MS's job to market other people's games. There's a reason why EA & Activision spend so much on marketing.
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Well they are low cost games, on a very niche market (Indie games are only avaliable on certain countries...)

Didn't Biology Battles or something cost 100K? And I saw the google ads of that game here in neogaf a few times, and well ,it didn't performed very nice...

The problem is 360 users are already bombarded with DLC content, new games, Arcade games, movies, avatar items, etc.. while Indie games are almost totally ignored in the dashboard which after all is used as a marketing tool...

MS should improve the service, allow achivements, a specific channel were developers could post news about their games or something, you can't even know if some game received a price drop or a new patch if it wasn't for the forums like these...
 
Nice one :D

Decay - Part 1. It's a point and click and whoa, looks gooood. It looks brilliant, it sounds lovely, and the plot is pretty fucking dark, as far as you're allowed to go in the trial, dark, it launches straight in with a suicide - then you're suddenly playing and you can find suicide notes and stuff around the place, and just hints of this guy's life, it's really pretty affecting.

Just the general atmosphere and feel and tone of the thing is incredible.

If I have one doubt, it's the episodic nature making me worry about its length. I'm kinda worried I'll pay up and it'll be over in half an hour or something, but if it is, it'll probably be a great half hour.

Here's the intro on Youtube.

I would urge everyone to give the trial a go.
 
Well, I'm three dollars poorer, and your worries are well founded. There were maybe ten minutes more content past the trial, with a couple of nice set pieces.
 
INTERNET said:
Well, I'm three dollars poorer, and your worries are well founded. There were maybe ten minutes more content past the trial, with a couple of nice set pieces.
Click to expand...

wow...dissapointing, I tried the trial, and really liked what I saw, but 3 euros for 20 minutes or so of gameplay? I pay 1 euro for a twenty minute game, but at least the description of the game said so...

And I hate those "Episode 1" games in the service, because the next episodes, normally aren't released....
 
HadesGigas said:
Game is no longer for sale. SGN pulled pulled all their games and deleted their accounts or something. So if you own any of these or any of these, they're now collector's items!
Click to expand...

Was it every publicly stated why this happened? Don't quote me on this, but I seem to recall reading a thread on the XNA forums and it was implied by one of the MVPs that SGN did not remove the games themselves, and that it was MS.
 
SapientWolf said:
The originals are still there. Maybe sales are too slow to justify cranking out more sequels. I think it's an awareness issue. MS needs an "XNA Game of the Week" or some other excuse to put the quality titles on the dashboard.
Click to expand...
MS is working on a short show to play on the dash like Major's Minute, only for indie games. It will star Rab Florence of Conselvania and Videogaiden fame. He's a man who loves his indie games, so should be a great show.
 
HadesGigas said:
It's already out, on the UK dash only. And it seems kinda retarded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJpOfbVKtu0
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So bad. If anything it will scare people away from Indie Games.

Anyway, picked up some games today.

Abaddon - Got a price drop to 80pts and is well worth it. It's an interesting take on tower defense mixed with a dual stick shooter in space. Also really nice presentation and even some decent writing for a Indie game.

Arkedo Series: Pixel - Never gave this a chance before because I didn't dig Jump or Swap, but this is pure win. Sorry that I waited so long to try it.

Breath of Death VII - Better than 90% of DS and PSP rpgs (imo) and it's only a buck. No brainer.

Light's End - Breath of Death put me in the mood to try out this old school rpg, it's actually not bad and the price is right at 80pts.

Carney Vale Showtime - Not sure when it got a price drop, but at 240pts, I couldn't resist.

Horn Swaggle Islands - Pretty decent Tower Defense game. I passed on it when it first came out at 400pts, but for 80pts, it seems like a great value.

Old Space - Fairly decent arpg set in space, for 80pts = bought.

The Shadows of the Underworld - Possibly the best game I've played on the service so far. Easily among the top five, anyway. And for 80pts? Win.

Time K - Braid like game where the emphasis is on manipulating time in order to reach the exit before time runs out. Great visuals and again only 80pts.

Zombie Armageddon - Had passed on even trying the trial on this multiple times for some reason, but finally gave it a shot, and it's now among my favorite Tower Defense games. It even has a fairly decent story rendered in MS-Paint and somewhat competent voice acting. The ingame graphics are presented nicely and at 240pts, you get an 11 level campaign, multiple difficulty choices and a unlimited survival mode.
 
INTERNET said:
Well, I'm three dollars poorer, and your worries are well founded. There were maybe ten minutes more content past the trial, with a couple of nice set pieces.
Click to expand...
Ouch, sorry for the recommendation :(

HadesGigas said:
It's already out, on the UK dash only. And it seems kinda retarded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJpOfbVKtu0
Click to expand...
If you're familiar with Consolevania/VideoGaiden, it makes a certain kind of sense, and it's likable and even funny. If you're not, then yeah, it just seems dumb. Whether a person gets it or not, I can't imagine it does much to help sales of the games it features. It's more "look at me" than "look at them."
 
Pandoracell said:
Was it every publicly stated why this happened? Don't quote me on this, but I seem to recall reading a thread on the XNA forums and it was implied by one of the MVPs that SGN did not remove the games themselves, and that it was MS.
Click to expand...

Wow, we start talking about them, and they rise from the dead. A game called Avatar Deluxe Blackjack just came out, made by a company called Digital Gaming Arts. They have a (empty) website whose favicon thingy is the SGN Games logo.
 
Stumpokapow said:
*rolleyes*
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Yeah, silly me. Advertising should be paid for by the Government.

It's exactly the same situation as the iPhone app store. People throw stuff up there and then complain that no-one can distinguish it from the other 30,000 things. If it's your product, it's up to you to make people aware of it.
 
Dr Zhivago said:
Yeah, silly me. Advertising should be paid for by the Government.

It's exactly the same situation as the iPhone app store. People throw stuff up there and then complain that no-one can distinguish it from the other 30,000 things. If it's your product, it's up to you to make people aware of it.
Click to expand...

No it's not, iPhone app store makes millions and millions of dollars every month, Indie games dosn't reach the thousands or barely....

Makes sense for developers spend money on ad's for iPhone app store, it dosn't for Indie games, it's too niche to justify the inversion.

Indie developers should use the web 2.0 to get awareness for their games,and make the gaming journalism try your game, if you have a quality product they'll talk about it, instead of spending dollars they probably couldn't get back...
 
Relaxed Muscle said:
No it's not, iPhone app store makes millions and millions of dollars every month
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A microscopic fraction of iPhone apps make real money. There's plenty of people who just chuck stuff onto the app store and expect the money to just roll in.
 
http://bit.ly/bFloVU

Here's the first part of the press release I sent out today. Simply put, whoever has the World Record (according to Twin Galaxies) in "You Will Die" (xblig, 80 pts) gets 10,000 ms points.

------------------

Xbox Indie Developer Awarding 10,000 Microsoft Points to the Highest Score in 'You Will Die'


Dead Pixel Arcade, the developer of the critically acclaimed Xbox 360 Indie title, You Will Die, is announcing the You Will Die 10,000 MS Point World Record Bounty. You Will Die is the first ever Xbox Indie title to be included in the Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard and to celebrate that accomplishment, Dead Pixel Arcade has set a 'bounty' on the You Will Die World Record. 10,000 Microsoft Points will be awarded to the person holding the World Record as of August 1, 2010. Second Place will receive 1600 Microsoft Points, and the 3rd highest score in the world for You Will Die will receive 400 Points.

YouWillDie_screenshot_1.jpg
 
Nice.

Good way to promote your game. Send this to everyone you know (people you know probably don't visit the same websites than you).
 
Dr Zhivago said:
Yeah, silly me. Advertising should be paid for by the Government.

It's exactly the same situation as the iPhone app store. People throw stuff up there and then complain that no-one can distinguish it from the other 30,000 things. If it's your product, it's up to you to make people aware of it.
Click to expand...
Most iPhone owners at least know the app store exists and has quality apps. I don't know if that's true for 360 owners and the Indie Games store. It's not about promoting individual games. It's about increasing awareness for a platform MS stands to profit from.
 
DerrickH said:
http://bit.ly/bFloVU

Here's the first part of the press release I sent out today. Simply put, whoever has the World Record (according to Twin Galaxies) in "You Will Die" (xblig, 80 pts) gets 10,000 ms points.

------------------

Xbox Indie Developer Awarding 10,000 Microsoft Points to the Highest Score in 'You Will Die'
Click to expand...

Now THAT is how you promote a game! $150 for you to sponsor a contest that will hopefully result in thousands of purchases? Brilliant!

I just saw it posted on Kotaku.
 
Arkedo has been talking about how a publisher wanted to make something larger out of their series. That and two finger heroes got them a good chunk of press.
 
intheinbetween said:
hey guys, anyone knows what happened to Arkedo Series?
Click to expand...
Camille Guermonprez said:
we have an undisclosed project running right now which is not an Arkedo Series, but we can’t talk about it yet. We had three months to get a prototype to people we have been dreaming to work with for ages. Work is finished in three weeks from now, then we’ll resume work on SLASH! while waiting for the final answer on whether our proto goes commercial or not.

Also, we are discussing upgrading the Arkedo Series to XBLA and/or PSN right now, and even if nothing is signed yet I am pretty optimistic as things are moving really quickly. I guess it helped to be able to show the games and the initial public reaction, not just ideas on paper. The good news is that it will not be just a compilation. It will be our first time on XBLA and PSN, so we want to come with something more.
Click to expand...
http://www.edge-online.com/features/interview-arkedo-studio?page=0,1
 
This year's Dream.Build.Play winners have been announced!

http://creators.xna.com/en-US/news/dreambuildplayoldspicewinners

This year’s global Dream.Build.Play competition featured two tracks; the Standard Dream.Build.Play that everyone knows and loves, and a new track, the Old Spice Challenge. We received more than 350 games from over 110 countries; a number of creators have started to publish their games to the Xbox LIVE Indie Games Channel.

Dream.Build.Play Final Six:

Nicolas Daures and his team from France earned the grand prize of $40,000 for “Lumi”, a Platform/Action/Puzzle game in which the player controls a small creature whose goal is to bring back to life its surrounding world.

Nenim Ananbanchachai and his team from Thailand took home second place and $20,000 for their 2.5D action side-scrolling game, “A.R.E.S.”.

Yoichi Hayashi and his team from Japan, received third place and $10,000 for their forced rail shooter with simple and stylish graphic spaces consistent of primitive and solid figures, “Prismatic Solid”.

United Kingdom’s Norman and Steven Hunt and team came in fourth place and received $5,000 for their intense music driven arcade shooter, “Beat Hazard”.

Jason and Matthew Doucette of Canada came in fifth place with their 2D spaceship shoot'em up, Duality ZF.

United States' Luke Schneider placed sixth place with his twin stick shooter, JoyJoy.

Old Spice Challenge
New this year, Dream.Build.Play partnered with Old Spice to invite developers to take the Old Spice Challenge. Participants were asked to create a fun, innovative and polished game that captures the spirit of the Old Spice brand for the chance to win a $60,000 Grand Prize and a chance for five finalists to be published on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

After a month of community voting, Old Spice announced today that the action-packed adventure game “Newton vs. The Horde” was voted as winner of the Old Spice Challenge and its development team, led by Graham Stewart, will be awarded $60,000. To celebrate the win, Old Spice is giving away free game codes to the first 8,000 people who visit the Old Spice page on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
To read more about the winners, visit the Dream.Build.Play website.
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Xona Games put up trailers of the winners here:
http://xona.com/2010/05/04b.html

It's heartwarming to see ARES up there, as the music was composed by HyperDuck, who is also handling my game. That's two wins in a row for them!
 
And here's the details about the free copy of Newton vs. The Horde:

One (1) free copy of ‘Newton vs The Horde’ (the winning game in the Microsoft Dream-Build-Play 2010 Contest) available to the first 8,000 Xbox Gold and Silver members who download the free game trial of ’Newton Vs The Horde’ on Xbox LIVE or Xbox.com (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/offers/00000001-0000-4000-8000-0000585504a8), who are legal residents of the 50 U.S. (including D.C.) and 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. Offer starts at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (“PT”) on 5/4/10 and ends either at 11:59 p.m. PT on 5/21/10 or when the 8,000 limit is reached. Within four weeks following the end of the Offer, a game token code with redemption instructions and expiration information will be sent to the e-mail address tied to Xbox LIVE account used to download the game trial.
 
Why don't they just make it a free download for a week or two? Seems dumb and arbitrary to have a 2-6 week delay to send out codes. Old Spice has been paying for more ads on the dashboard than I ever saw Toyota run, so why can't they be allowed a free advergame?
 
HadesGigas said:
And here's the details about the free copy of Newton vs. The Horde:

One (1) free copy of ‘Newton vs The Horde’ (the winning game in the Microsoft Dream-Build-Play 2010 Contest) available to the first 8,000 Xbox Gold and Silver members who download the free game trial of ’Newton Vs The Horde’ on Xbox LIVE or Xbox.com (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/offers/00000001-0000-4000-8000-0000585504a8), who are legal residents of the 50 U.S. (including D.C.) and 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. Offer starts at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (“PT”) on 5/4/10 and ends either at 11:59 p.m. PT on 5/21/10 or when the 8,000 limit is reached. Within four weeks following the end of the Offer, a game token code with redemption instructions and expiration information will be sent to the e-mail address tied to Xbox LIVE account used to download the game trial.
Click to expand...


Oh fuck off.
 
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