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[DaveVoyles]

This happens to me also. I find that it automatically signs me back in when I return to the dash though, and it doesn't seem to have any effect on the game I'm playing, so I've never really worried about it.

(I don't play many XBLIGs with online components)

Very weird problem. I've never seen it before. If it seems to happen with random games, then it is probably more of an issue with LIVE than with the individual XBLIG games. I don't even think there is anything in XNA that allows us to fiddle with things like logging people in and out of gamertags. As far as I know, we can only check for which ones are signed in, and that's only after someone selects a button the gamepad.

And yes, massive milestone for DigitalDNA Games. It shows that XBLIG still receives plenty of traffic, but what gamers on the marketplace are truly looking for.

The fact that most of their games are very well polished say a lot too.

 

[yyr]

Just figured I'd invite people to try out the game I released today...my fifth game overall, but my first release in over 2 years. It's not what I'd call a graphical showcase, but it has a very unique concept and control scheme, and great, finely-tuned and fast-paced action.

It's called Bungee Ferret Tossing, and it's about fighting terrorists with small exploding animals.

I'll just leave this here:
http://www.yyrgames.com/bft/

I hope you guys enjoy it! =)

 

[DaveVoyles]

It's called Bungee Ferret Tossing, and it's about fighting terrorists with small exploding animals.

I'll just leave this here:
http://www.yyrgames.com/bft/

I hope you guys enjoy it! =)

I played this at the Too Many Games Expo in Philly a few months back, and it's hilarious. The particles are pretty, it controls well, and let's not lie - launching explosive ferrets from helicopters is a blast.


Today's Uprising title is City Tuesday (Marketplace Link). You can find all of the game's info here, on the Uprising site.

Game Description:
In City Tuesday you play a man who is stuck reliving the same five minutes before a terrorist attack. You must learn from the city's residents and the environment where the bombs are stashed and diffuse them before time is up.

 

[basic_text]

smooth operators is up. i'm downloading it now. this is probably the game i'm most looking forward to out of all of the titles featured in the promotion. hopefully it's good!

This looks fantastic! Can't argue for 80pts either! I'll grab this when I get home from work.

 

[DaveVoyles]

Part Descent, part Voxel builder in space - XenoMiner launches today!

Marketplace Link

 

[DaveVoyles]

Indie Gamer Chick finally has an approval logo for the games she doesn't hate!

Some more Indie Gamer Chick reviews:

Smooth Operators - IGC Approved

Gateways - IGC approved

 

[OnPoint]

Played a bunch of Entropy yesterday. I really wish I could pick objects up and move them without pushing them, but it's a fun puzzler regardless. Kinda heavy on the Portal motif though.

 

[qupe1975]

Indie Gamer Chick finally has an approval logo for the games she doesn't hate!

Some more Indie Gamer Chick reviews:

Smooth Operators - IGC Approved

Gateways - IGC approved

Fairplay to Kairi. She does get through a lot of games ). I may not agree with some of her reviews and she may not agree with some of my opinions but she is very good for XBLIG and puts in a ton of effort. Fir those that don't know her leaderboard misses a fair few titles, Gravitron X and the Radiangames spring to mind straight away, because of her epilepsy.

 

[Warm Machine]

Fairplay to Kairi. She does get through a lot of games ). I may not agree with some of her reviews and she may not agree with some of my opinions but she is very good for XBLIG and puts in a ton of effort. Fir those that don't know her leaderboard misses a fair few titles, Gravitron X and the Radiangames spring to mind straight away, because of her epilepsy.

I have to say that she reviews more games in a given week than any major site probably does. I'm amazed that she can go from game to review in a day.

 

[DaveVoyles]

On this final day of Indie Games Uprising goodness, we deliver to you, Pixel.

Marketplace Link

 

[Alfred Saxon]

Anyone getting code 3's on one or more XBLIG's then being signed out?. I think it might be this beta dash.

Hello XBLIG fans great news, I just got a update for the beta dash and my indie games are now working thank you MS

 

[toythatkills]

Hello XBLIG fans great news, I just got a update for the beta dash and my indie games are now working thank you MS

Just too late :lol

Xbox LIVE Indie Games

November 19, 2008 - September 14, 2012.

R.I.P.

 

[OnPoint]

Just too late :lol

Xbox LIVE Indie Games

November 19, 2008 - September 14, 2012.

R.I.P.

I'd really like it to not be the case.

 

[toythatkills]

I can't think of a single thing on the horizon.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

I can't think of a single thing on the horizon.

Not exactly the horizon, but Rain-Slick 4 is coming out early next year.

 

[toythatkills]

Not exactly the horizon, but Rain-Slick 4 is coming out early next year.

I did wonder whether you'd bother, that's surely the only game left though. Out of interest, did R-S 3 do anything notable on XBLIG?

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

I did wonder whether you'd bother, that's surely the only game left though. Out of interest, did R-S 3 do anything notable on XBLIG?

It's been doing about as well on XBLIG as CSTW did when it came out. So no, not particularly notable. Still, no point in not doing an XBLIG version for now since that's still a nice little bonus on top of Steam sales and it doesn't add much more work for us since our engine started out on XBLIG.

We'll stop releasing XBLIG versions of our games if...

A) we start using something other than XNA to make our games.
B) our games become too RAM intensive to put on XBLIG without wasting a lot of time to optimize things.
C) our prices go higher than $5.
D) XBLIG sales get drastically worse than they are now.
E) The 360 successor comes out and doesn't support XBLIG (or replaces the program with something else).

So basically, Rain-Slick 4 is definitely coming out on XBLIG. After that, we'll see.

 

[toythatkills]

So basically, Rain-Slick 4 is definitely coming out on XBLIG. After that, we'll see.

That's cool, it'll be nice to have all four Penny Arcade games on the same thing!

 

[OnPoint]

I did wonder whether you'd bother, that's surely the only game left though. Out of interest, did R-S 3 do anything notable on XBLIG?

Homework, formerly known as Proj-5 is still coming.

Owlboy was SUPPOSED to be coming to XBLIG, but the devs stopped responding to email.

I feel like I'm forgetting something.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

Whenever what I am working on gets finished it will get an XBLIG version soonish after release probably (only due to it using XNA).

 

[Feep]

A sad day indeed.

 

[OnPoint]

Revolver 360 sequel
Windhaven
Bleed
Evilquest II

S'about all I got

 

[Alfred Saxon]

Revolver 360 2

I am looking forward to this one alot. XBLIG's are not dead.

 

[toythatkills]

There's vireland's son's game as well, thinking about it, but there's really not much life left in it now.

 

[OnPoint]

Anybody else play through Gateways? I think I'm on the final puzzle, but I'm not totally sure. It's the one right after the text bubble says

Spoiler

something about how he's almost to the control room

in the

Spoiler

green area in the upper right corner of the map

. There are

Spoiler

two lasers firing into non-portal walls, a flipped mini-switch and four spots to fire the lasers, one behind a door and around a corner

.

I saw this and my jaw dropped. Seriously? This HAS to be the final puzzle. I've come this far, and after messing around with it, it might be too complex for me lol

Edit: After looking at the picture on the Youtube video (and not the video itself, don't want to spoil myself), it seems that it is indeed the final spot. I'm going to try my darnedest to tackle this but I don't know how far I'll get. Wish me luck!

 

[KDR_11k]

BTW, am I the only one crazy enough to buy Xenominer?

 

[OnPoint]

BTW, am I the only one crazy enough to buy Xenominer?

Yeah. We played it for a little bit and couldn't really find much fun in it. What the heck is up with the radiation!?

 

[KDR_11k]

Seems to be based on the amount of light the area gets from the sun, since there are no doors you need to have really long hallways leading into your bunkers... I programmed my bot to build a bunker like that on the push of a button.

 

[toythatkills]

Seems to be based on the amount of light the area gets from the sun, since there are no doors you need to have really long hallways leading into your bunkers... I programmed my bot to build a bunker like that on the push of a button.

How the hell did you even programme a bot? I opened the bot menu and was faced with a screen of 100 stupid looking icons that meant absolutely nothing, and had no idea what I was meant to do.

 

[KDR_11k]

There's two programs pre-installed on the bot which lets you see the syntax of the commands, a little experimentation yields:

The two big rows are the commands. The box to the right contains macros (can be figured out by cursoring over them and seeing the "edit macro" button), the bottom row is materials.

More specifically, of the two command rows the top one's actual commands, the second is directions. The triangles are forward and back, the other two are up and down. On the top row the "middle" Kanji (rectangle with a vertical line through it) means move and is followed by one direction symbol, the two arcs where one has a box inside and the other doesn't are place and remove block, both need to be followed with a direction and the place takes a material after the direction. The two symbols on the right are rotation (as the icons suggest, really) and do not require any parameters.

There are no conditionals so it's rather straightforward. The bot is probably the best part of the game, designing new patterns for it to dig or build feels quite rewarding but I wish I had more than one or the one worked faster, patterns like entire buildings take a looooong time to complete.

 

[KDR_11k]

Oh goddamn it. Xenominer crashes a few seconds after loading my savegame now, roughly when it finishes outputting the first of the initialization lines to the log on the bottom left of the screen. Only says code 4, no idea how to get more useful information.

 

[Alfred Saxon]

Gateways and Wizorb now only 80 msp each.

 

[Vert boil]

Gateways and Wizorb now only 80 msp each.

Nice. I was waiting on Gateways to drop in a steam sale (still full price on steam atm). Bought.

 

[Alfred Saxon]

Gateways and Wizorb now only 80 msp each.

Gateways is only on sale then he's putting it back up to 240 msp. I think the sale is only for about 7 days so buy it right now. Great game

 

[theviolenthero]

Gateways and Wizorb now only 80 msp each.

Thanks for the update.

 

[yyr]

The system that gives XBLIG developers prepaid codes for their games has been broken for three weeks now. This means that we can't give copies of our games to reviewers, can't do giveaways or contests that would involve copies of the games, etc.

THREE WEEKS.

Somebody at Microsoft is aware of the problem, but we still have no commitments as far as when it MIGHT be fixed.

What is even more frustrating than the fact that it's broken, and that Microsoft doesn't seem to care very much? The fact that the games press doesn't seem to care very much, either. Apart from (awesome) broadcaster Bobby Blackwolf, there hasn't been a peep about this on ANY major gaming sites or blogs. And I personally submitted the story to several.

http://www.vognetwork.com/editorials/43/Why-Is-Microsoft-Refusing-Prepaid-Codes-To-Indie-Games/
http://xboxforums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/108278.aspx?PageIndex=1

If anyone here can help get the word out, that'd be much appreciated. I feel like press exposure is our only hope for getting this fixed.

 

[Gaspode_T]

I can confirm they are looking into that one, unfortunately it probably only got the attention of the right people maybe recently but now that they are looking at it I wouldn't expect it to stay broken much longer...

There were some XNA devs joking on twitter before about "Uh oh, hamster fell off the wheel, time to holler and complain until they put the hamster back on"

 

[FunInfusedGames]

MS is extremely retroactive when it comes to fixing XBLIG issues. On several instances things have been broken (most notably the top lists) and I've sent them emails days later at which point they first realize there is a problem. Hopefully they get the token thing sorted out soon because that's a really important piece needed to promote new games.

 

[yyr]

The thing is, we know that they've been aware of the problem since the week that it started.

Gaspode_T, I'm not sure who you know or how they're looking at it, but if you could have them post some sort of "we should hopefully have it fixed by xxxx" or something on the XNA forums, that'd be really appreciated. Three weeks later, the time for joking has long since passed. We're really frustrated.

 

[U2NUMB]

Really?

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Ovary-Overload/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550c01

Not posting box art because it may be NSFW..


I might have to buy it.

 

[toythatkills]

MS is extremely retroactive when it comes to fixing XBLIG issues. On several instances things have been broken (most notably the top lists) and I've sent them emails days later at which point they first realize there is a problem. Hopefully they get the token thing sorted out soon because that's a really important piece needed to promote new games.

I dunno that that's true, really. I think the only XBLIG site that genuinely gets hits or carries any weight is IGC, and she buys all her games. No matter how many codes get sent to bigger sites they're not gonna get used except in the rarest of cases, and even then I suspect it's actually journalists buying games, like the review Apple Jack 2 got on IGN.

Might be interesting to release a game, send out fifty codes, and see which ones get redeemed and who by, and which of those actually lead to any coverage. Close to zero, for sure.

They're probably mainly of use for giveaways, really, but I'd question aswell how good those really are for promotion beyond a tiny pool of people.

 

[yyr]

Screwattack.com had offered to promote my new release with a review and a giveaway contest. I'd like to think that would carry *some* weight!

 

[Trumpets]

No matter how many codes get sent to bigger sites they're not gonna get used except in the rarest of cases, and even then I suspect it's actually journalists buying games, like the review Apple Jack 2 got on IGN.

I gave them a code actually, and they used it. Same with Eurogamer and Edge, so it is definitely worth sending them out, even if most sites ignore them. Emails cost nothing!

Pointless advice when you can't get hold of the codes anyway, but still...

 

[KDR_11k]

I think they look for a bit of a reputation, they won't review everything but if the game has at least some kind of following that's an indicator that there might be something to it.

 

[HadesGigas]

Island Adventure :The beginnig is all class:

 

[DaveVoyles]

I don't even have a response for that.

 

[OnPoint]

Yeah, there aren't words. I wonder how much it will sell.

 

[SAB CA]

So why does that ridiculous Island Adventure game up there get a notice, but noone talked about Milkstone's newest?

Some nice graphics, and fun "collect-a-thon" gameplay, with something much better looking than coins to collect The girl's VA work is a little flat sometimes; I would have liked to have seen some more focused personalities for each of them, too, just to make the experience more fun.

Personally, I'm always impressed with the variety of gameplay ans styles Milkstone has produced. They might not always be perfect, but they're way closer than any group that's produced as many games with unique art and gameplay styles usually is!

 

[OnPoint]

Yeah, it's actually one of the most solid games released on the service in some time. I know the Uprising was pretty recent, but it feels like months ago.

 

[Vlaphor]

I tried the demo of the Island Adventure game...yeah.

The worst part about it isn't what you'd think it would be. It's the descriptive dialog and text. Every bit of text is read aloud by someone who isn't very good at reading text aloud and is doing so with a cheap microphone (so you hear all the breathing and popping).

You can't skip any of it.

Not even the various choices. That screenshot up there with the four choices, each of those is read aloud (even the button is said) very slowly and you can't actually choose any of them until it's all read.