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Xbox LIVE Indie Games - July 2012 and onwards

Pretty much ignored indie games on the 360 for a year. Is there anything great that came out in the meantime?
I saw there are ports of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy on there, are those official or just someone copying them?
Also saw there's a new "Enhanced" version of Little Kingdoms. Anyone played this?
 
Jucksalbe said:
Pretty much ignored indie games on the 360 for a year. Is there anything great that came out in the meantime?
I saw there are ports of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy on there, are those official or just someone copying them?
Also saw there's a new "Enhanced" version of Little Kingdoms. Anyone played this?
Click to expand...

Well JForce actually made a FPS Halo/Minecraft mix called Murder Miners for $1 and its pretty damn good actually.
 
I gave Smooth Operators a download and enjoyed it for a few days until I moved onto a new game. I recommend it to those who enjoy management games.
 
toythatkills said:
Was that their amazing "we're making a game so incredible that it's going to change the world FOREVER" game?
Click to expand...

JForce was such an insufferable bunch of assholes for a while. "Well we are making these terrible cashgrab games because we are working on an XBLIG game THAT IS BETTER THAN EVERY OTHER XBLIG GAME EVER MADE COMBINED (cue video footage of their game Unstoppable, a mediocre looking twin stick shooter). If that game is ever released it will sell 1/100th of their previous games, guaranteed.
 
Jucksalbe said:
Pretty much ignored indie games on the 360 for a year. Is there anything great that came out in the meantime?
I saw there are ports of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy on there, are those official or just someone copying them?
Also saw there's a new "Enhanced" version of Little Kingdoms. Anyone played this?
Click to expand...


Little Racers Street ($1) "Rc Pro Am" style game.

mVVtm.jpg


Gtw3A.jpg




Apple Jack 2 ($1) Old school 2d platformer.

iz1fu.png


OErDN.png




Wizorb is now available for $1 (use to be $3)
 
toythatkills said:
Dunno that I'd go as far as "pretty great," the animation alone makes it look like it's going to be as bad as the other 750 games of this type on XBLIG
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Doesn't look bad to me :/, also that was a year ago so I imagine a lot more work has gone into the game since then.

MTMBStudios said:
JForce was such an insufferable bunch of assholes for a while. "Well we are making these terrible cashgrab games because we are working on an XBLIG game THAT IS BETTER THAN EVERY OTHER XBLIG GAME EVER MADE COMBINED (cue video footage of their game Unstoppable, a mediocre looking twin stick shooter). If that game is ever released it will sell 1/100th of their previous games, guaranteed.
Click to expand...
I understand that people do not like cash grab games but it did help fund their stuff and I wouldn't go as far as to call them assholes, helped play test their new updates for Murder Miners and they were honestly pretty cool people and willing to actively listen to feedback.

They also do post on here :P
 
EDIT: How do I resize images, so that mine isn't taking up the entire screen? I'm going to remove it for now, so that it doesn't seem obnoxious.

My first XBLIG, Piz-ong, came out yesterday! (Marketplace Link)

It's extremely simple, and essentially just a pong game with a few added features to make things more interesting. I don't plan on it selling much (or any copies!), but I just wanted to have a finished product under my belt and use it as a means to learn C# and XNA.

On another note: The review codes for XBLIG are working again, as of today. So I have codes if anyone wants one.


xboxboxart.jpg
 
I like the way that Indie Games are featured on the new dashboard, feels good. Pinning is nice too, although you can't currently pin "XNA Connect" and launch it from the pinned location from what I can tell.

It is easier to see how many stars your giving something, which is good.

It is good that the codes issue is now fixed, although the time taken and lack of information regarding it was inappropriate.
 
My first XBLIG, Piz-ong, came out yesterday! (Marketplace Link)
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Congratulations on Piz-ong - looks juicy! The box art and name have good production values.

As mentioned - its good the codes are back :)
 
Eclectus said:
Pinning is nice too, although you can't currently pin "XNA Connect" and launch it from the pinned location from what I can tell.
Click to expand...

I gave them feedback about this from the very first beta release and they never bothered to fix it. One guy replied and gave me a link to an xbox replacement page. Derp.
 
changesimprovements.jpg


New screenshot of Arcadecraft. New Japanese style cabinets. Updated standups, updated HUD, and now you can upgrade your power supply to have more games on the arcade floor.

Barkers, nice to see Avatar Golf up on the new dash as the main tile.
 
Just IMO but there should be a new permanent uber thread created with OT style information in the first 2 or 3 posts, using the July one forever feels sad :P

I am actually hearing sales for indie games are spiking up after the new dashboard was released, It is honestly a minor miracle that indie games has not be pushed in some sub folder yet again (my constant complaining to them over the last 2 years may have had a decent role in convincing them to never try that again) - honestly though there is a long and complicated story behind XBLIG / XNA that I know basically through friends and foes who were on the grunt trenches in those teams ... I definitely won't be able to tell it myself for at least the next 10 or 20 years for fear of retribution and snipers zooming in on me LOL. I can only say that XBLIG remains one of a kind - PlayStation Mobile is similar but not on PS3.

I grew up dreaming about being able to make console games and have people play them and now it is awesome to see so many garage developers get to do that, sales sensations or not. I love PC games too but I am console gamer at heart, starting with Atari 2600, NES, etc...so many people are making console games, console games! It is just awesome and no amount of hate thrown at the service can change that.
 
I want to hear the full story Gasplode! I'm happy to wait 20 years though lest you be sniped from afar.

I have to say that the new dash is spectacular for XBLIGs. It sits along side XBLA and GoD. It has just as many tiles as the two others AND you are forced to pass it to get demos, add-ons, and extras.

You can pass that approval from us on to your MS overlords!
 
Yeah, it's definitely an improvement from how it was.

Shame "Game Type" is now an outdated piece of commentary though haha
 
Gaspode_T said:
I grew up dreaming about being able to make console games and have people play them and now it is awesome to see so many garage developers get to do that, sales sensations or not. I love PC games too but I am console gamer at heart, starting with Atari 2600, NES, etc...so many people are making console games, console games!
Click to expand...

Hear, hear!
 
Major Nelson Xbox Live stats:



Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

  1. CastleMiner Z
  2. Murder Miners
  3. CastleMiner
  4. Avatar Laser Wars 2
  5. Avatar Deathmatch
  6. Total Miner: Forge
  7. The Impossible Game
  8. Avatar Legends
  9. Paintball War
  10. The $1 Zombie Game
  11. Miner Of Duty
  12. Avatar Laser Wars
  13. Hidden in Plain Sight
  14. Fortress Wars
  15. Block World
  16. Avatar Paintball
  17. Miner4Ever
  18. End Of Days: Infected vs Mercs
  19. Don’t Die Dateless, Dummy!
  20. Toy Stunt Bike 2


link:
http://majornelson.com/
 
Gaspode_T said:
I am actually hearing sales for indie games are spiking up after the new dashboard was released, It is honestly a minor miracle that indie games has not be pushed in some sub folder yet again (my constant complaining to them over the last 2 years may have had a decent role in convincing them to never try that again) - honestly though there is a long and complicated story behind XBLIG / XNA that I know basically through friends and foes who were on the grunt trenches in those teams ... I definitely won't be able to tell it myself for at least the next 10 or 20 years for fear of retribution and snipers zooming in on me LOL. I can only say that XBLIG remains one of a kind - PlayStation Mobile is similar but not on PS3.
Click to expand...

I can confirm download numbers are up quite a bit for Avatar Legends. (Avatar Golf too) The dash update has been a nice boost.

In regards to the story on XBLIG, I think the saddest part is that there are any foes in the first place.
 
Gaspode_T said:
I am actually hearing sales for indie games are spiking up after the new dashboard was released, It is honestly a minor miracle that indie games has not be pushed in some sub folder yet again (my constant complaining to them over the last 2 years may have had a decent role in convincing them to never try that again) -
Click to expand...

You've definitely got the gratitude of the community - some things can't be solved overnight, but seeing the Indie Games where they are really gives Devs a 'fighting chance'. The service really is unique, having Indie games on consoles matters. Minecraft's recent dethroning of CoD for most unique users during a week is an example of this. An open market is a good market.
 
I've seen a slight uptick in sales of Volchaos and Trivia or Die since the new dash but my other titles remain pretty stagnant. It's nice to have a dash change actually benefit the service for once.
 
I'll have a longer, more detailed blog post on this in the next couple days, but I took our Volchaos engine and fashioned a Minecraft-like game out of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXECiOYzWxM&feature=youtu.be

This was seriously SUPPOSED to release on April 1st as kinda a joke. Except it took a lot longer than expected and I ended up getting kinda burnt out and taking most of the summer off from game development because of it.

I'm expecting this to be done and released in November. Then we'll be doing a Trivia or Die spin off / sequel and a new original iOS title.
 
Weren't you also working on a Zelda-like? Or am I thinking of a different dev?
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I've done some work on that too... that's my BIG project. I plan to release a few smaller things along the way so people don't forget who I am. My Zelda-like is a long way off. And probably going to be PC instead of XBLIG. I really want to build this into a sustainable business and unfortunately going a year or more until a release isn't going to help that.
 
Warm Machine said:
Thanks!

Expect it after the first week or two of January (11th or 15th or something). Don't want to get buried by the AAAs this month and next. Hopefully we can get some press that way too.
Click to expand...

Did you ever decide definitively if it's launching with the ability to have pinball machines in the mix of your arcade?
 
Warm Machine said:
Thanks!

Expect it after the first week or two of January (11th or 15th or something). Don't want to get buried by the AAAs this month and next. Hopefully we can get some press that way too.
Click to expand...

One other question not really answered in your FAQ. You mention that you have to fix games as they break, etc. Do you have risk/reward options there, too? i.e. hire a cheaper tech to save money, but have a 50% greater chance of him messing up the board repairs and ruining the machine, etc...
 
vireland said:
One other question not really answered in your FAQ. You mention that you have to fix games as they break, etc. Do you have risk/reward options there, too? i.e. hire a cheaper tech to save money, but have a 50% greater chance of him messing up the board repairs and ruining the machine, etc...
Click to expand...

I actually attempted to build a Pinball machine. It would have worked but there is a lot of custom art that has to go into creating them. The nice thing about how I'm doing the arcade machines is that they are predominately typography based as well as their little pixel art game screen.

A single pinball machine would take me a couple days while the video game machines are a three a day sort of thing. The pinball machines would also require a larger texture. Like a single 512x512 with half of it being the table art, a quarter the backboard, and the last quarter the bumpers, flippers, targets, etc. We are memory constrained right now and we had to make the call between the japanese import machines or pinball machines. The imports won. That said, I'd love to revisit them and attempt to put them back in as an update down the line.

As far as the repairs go, the fixes are a set cost based on the type of damage that was done. When a machine breaks it stops making money completely until it is repaired. So the longer you wait to fix it, the more money you lose overall.

We had thought about having an employee or service contractor you could buy that would auto fix broken machines for you. A large $5000 - $10000 upfront cost for a year long repair term and during, or at the end of the term, you see whether or not the cost was worth it. We track those stats internally anyway so it wouldn't be a big deal to collect them and put them in a dialogue box. It also saves the player from doing micromanagement. It is still on the table but would likely appear in an update as opposed to part of the released game.
 
Warm Machine said:
I actually attempted to build a Pinball machine. It would have worked but there is a lot of custom art that has to go into creating them. The nice thing about how I'm doing the arcade machines is that they are predominately typography based as well as their little pixel art game screen.

A single pinball machine would take me a couple days while the video game machines are a three a day sort of thing. The pinball machines would also require a larger texture. Like a single 512x512 with half of it being the table art, a quarter the backboard, and the last quarter the bumpers, flippers, targets, etc. We are memory constrained right now and we had to make the call between the japanese import machines or pinball machines. The imports won. That said, I'd love to revisit them and attempt to put them back in as an update down the line.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I understand about the time-intensive nature of adding pinball, but I hope you can get back around to it. A nostalgia-ish arcade isn't an aracde without some of them. Plus the sound ambience they could add would be great.

Good luck with the game. Will it be in peer review soon? I'll check it out on my son's XNA account when it is.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUOpiOqwIVw

I've been prototyping my next iOS release using XNA, which allows me to more quickly make gameplay changes that it would working on a less familiar iOS environment. Considering that there wouldn't be a lot left when I get this done to make it a full fledged XBLIG release, I'm thinking I might do that too.

Not saying 100% that I'll be doing that, but there is probably a good chance I will.
 
Space Crüesader is the first XBLIG I've played since the Uprising, I think, because everything has just looked pretty awful.

It's a twin-stick of the best kind, basically. None of this "hey, wait around for three minutes at the start of the game while we populate the screen with enemies" rubbish. Oh no, Space Crüesader wants to kill you and it wants to kill you damn quickly! As far as I could see, lives are unlimited but you have a timer and losing a life costs you a little time. Your goal in each level is to rescue a few ships (by hovering over them and not getting killed) before the time runs out. Easier said than done.

It's kind of more difficult than it should be 'cause the background and foreground can blend in to one another making stuff difficult to see, but I can mostly overlook that because losing the odd life that way isn't TERRIBLE. Mostly it's just nice to play a twin stick that feels like you're playing it straight away instead of waiting ages for it to start.

Actually, tell a lie, I played FromPulse. Had high hopes for it but it was awfully loady.
 
toythatkills said:
Space Crüesader is the first XBLIG I've played since the Uprising, I think, because everything has just looked pretty awful.

It's a twin-stick of the best kind, basically. None of this "hey, wait around for three minutes at the start of the game while we populate the screen with enemies" rubbish. Oh no, Space Crüesader wants to kill you and it wants to kill you damn quickly! As far as I could see, lives are unlimited but you have a timer and losing a life costs you a little time. Your goal in each level is to rescue a few ships (by hovering over them and not getting killed) before the time runs out. Easier said than done.

It's kind of more difficult than it should be 'cause the background and foreground can blend in to one another making stuff difficult to see, but I can mostly overlook that because losing the odd life that way isn't TERRIBLE. Mostly it's just nice to play a twin stick that feels like you're playing it straight away instead of waiting ages for it to start.

Actually, tell a lie, I played FromPulse. Had high hopes for it but it was awfully loady.
Click to expand...

The debate about the backgrounds lasted throughout the development. Just getting the option in there to DIM the backgrounds was a monthlong battle near the end when playtest feedback confirmed what I kept telling him. Initially in one of the last levels you couldn't even SEE the warp holes consistently. The backgrounds that are in now are about 20% darker right off the bat with the option to reduce the brightness lower from there. It *is* better, but not enough, IMO. You do get used to it, though. My son had a very strong idea of what he wanted artistically, and, well, it was his first game. Overall, he did an amazing job.

There's also a TON of strategy hidden in the game mechanics to boost scores that's not really spelled out but left for the player to discover. For example, you can use the ships you're rescuing as shields. If you're near a sentry or the edge of the screen where asteroids are coming in, hover just on the opposide side of the rescue ship while the meter fills up and let the disabled ship take the damage. Or better yet, destroy the sentry next to the ship while the ship is being rescued and it will absorb the bullets when it explodes while you are hovering safely on the other side of it.

Co-op is also fun for another reason. The goal is to survive as long as possible *together*, but in our house it quickly became see how much score you can screw the other player out of (you get a portion of their score x your multiplier when you have to rescue them). So balancing those two objectives makes a session of co-op really fun for us.

Glad you enjoyed it. I was really surprised he didn't at least place in DBP 2012. Strictly from a gameplay and polish standpoint it's one of the best XBLIG indies this year (Yes, I'm biased, but I think it's a fair statement).
 
I bought Space Crüesader today - tried 3 times to get to the end and couldn't - gets quite crazy on the last level! Actually I had one more rescue to go on the last level and ran out with seconds to go...so nail biting. Maybe one tweak could be to allow you to restart later stage but starting with score zero. The second to last stage I got something like -300,000 (minus 300K) as a bonus which is kind of interesting ("hey you might have beat the stage, but you actually still kind of suck")

The game is uber polished, fun and playing with a custom soundtrack made it 100x more interesting to me as well so maybe that should be more prominently displayed (view Beat Hazard Ultra success)

The other game I tried was Brimstone - which is so on the verge of greatness I come away begging for the dev to polish it more and more like the Bloody Checkers guy did for that one (relentlessly polished it over months and months and finally it got a big audience). It needs to play more like Gauntlet and less like a roguelike - it already DOES play a little like Gauntlet but basically you have a strange balance where enemies are standing next to you whacking you most of the time where Gauntlet you are shooting them as they come. Think like top down Torchlight or Diablo, that is more of what I would want it to feel like.
 
I messed around with te Space Crüesader demo myself yesterday. I'm pretty impressed by the level of polish in it. The controls had a really nice, tight feel and I like the ship-rescuing mechanic. It was a little too easy to lose track of what was flying where... it might be due to the background issue mentioned already, but it wasn't a super huge problem. All in all, I'll buy this next time I have points on my account.
 
Warm Machine said:
Thanks!

Expect it after the first week or two of January (11th or 15th or something). Don't want to get buried by the AAAs this month and next. Hopefully we can get some press that way too.
Click to expand...

i'll definitely be purchasing, looking forward to it. Good luck with everything
 
Gaspode_T said:
I bought Space Crüesader today - tried 3 times to get to the end and couldn't - gets quite crazy on the last level! Actually I had one more rescue to go on the last level and ran out with seconds to go...so nail biting. Maybe one tweak could be to allow you to restart later stage but starting with score zero. The second to last stage I got something like -300,000 (minus 300K) as a bonus which is kind of interesting ("hey you might have beat the stage, but you actually still kind of suck")

The game is uber polished, fun and playing with a custom soundtrack made it 100x more interesting to me as well so maybe that should be more prominently displayed (view Beat Hazard Ultra success)
Click to expand...

Being able to get to the end is like riding a bike. Practice, practice, practice, and suddenly you can do it every time. Once you can get to the end every time it then becomes about final score. On those last two traditional levels (before the boss level where it becomes a vertical scrolling shooter) you can't get distracted at ALL by points or shiny things. It's rescue to rescue to rescue. And using the shield bulldoze method (turn on shield, hit everything like a 95 year old driving) to clear sentries and bloodhounds, plus the rescue ship-as-shield trick become very effective ways of finishing. Also, try not to have shields on when rescuing ships as that takes 2x as long.

Glad you're enjoying the custom soundtracks. He pulled his hair out to get them working decently (the XNA API for streaming is hilariously/depressingly bad and buggy). It was a nice addition.

Thanks for buying it, too. I'll tell him he made a few NEOGAF sales. :)
 
i did the "message to all friends" brag thing so hopefully he made a couple more off that too...

I tried another of the recent hot XBLIG games which is Aeternum, very very impressive shmup effort. Totally worth buying IMO. Even Japanese guys on twitter are kind of "uhhh, this isn't made by a Japanese person? How does it feel like this much of a Japanese game?"

The sound effects have some sort of Twinbee effect I like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkhRBhl_bGg
 
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