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Xbox LIVE Indie Games - The August 2010 Thread

toythatkills said:
Nope, go for it, we love that stuff :D


Cool, cool. Well this is the third game I'm making, the first for 360. Taking my time on it, wanting to make sure the art is where I want it to be. It's early in development so the player character is placeholder, but this "concept art" (I put that in quotes because those will be the assets in the game) shows how it's basically going to look like (unless I change the aesthetic again):



concept_better.jpg







Feedback is welcome!

I'll have more updates on my blog in the near future.
 

CloakBass

Member
That certainly looks really cool. What can we expect in terms of how the game is played?

BTW has anyone tried Happy Jump yet? I downloaded it out of curiosity (mediocre game if you were wondering) and it looks like they just lifted one of the music tracks right out of Space Harrier :lol
 
CloakBass said:
BTW has anyone tried Happy Jump yet? I downloaded it out of curiosity (mediocre game if you were wondering) and it looks like they just lifted one of the music tracks right out of Space Harrier :lol
Hah, I wish I was more familiar with Space Harrier so I could see that.

The game itself, I wouldn't go as far as mediocre. It's Doodle Jump but with more awkward controls (amazingly) and none of the style or the humour. 16 player could be interesting, I suppose, but I couldn't try that. Combo system is cool though, that'd be nice in Doodle Jump.
 

Gowans

Member
Just checked out breeze & really like it.

A little difficult but the animation and control of the fan is hypnotising.

I wish they would allow a couple of things tho, if you have to press a to retry allow it to start the level too also allowing right stick to function the same as the left would allow lazy one handed play.





Bloody hell, military sniper sim is hardcore, I can't hit shit!
 
jetpacks was yes said:
Platform/exploration, no enemies. Closest example would be something like knytt, I'd say.
I love you :p

Gowans007 said:
Bloody hell, military sniper sim is hardcore, I can't hit shit!
Heh, that's what's so good about it. It feels like you're properly sniping, it turns it into a skill instead of the dull sniping in every FPS ever.
 

Gowans

Member
Jet Pack War just popped up so I gave it a go.

Now this could be good, priced right, a zippy little avatar with jet pack shooter two catchy enough songs too.

Online only bar the practice mode but man the camera is so close and right behind the avatar, you can't see shit.

With a little tweaking it could be fun.
 

Gowans

Member
toythatkills said:
Heh, that's what's so good about it. It feels like you're properly sniping, it turns it into a skill instead of the dull sniping in every FPS ever.
Yeah I'm having fun with it, finding it oddly facinating trying to get my shots and then viewing the ballistic reports.
 

fernoca

Member
Got yesterday:
  • Tobe's Vertical Adventure
  • Leave Home
  • Arkedo Series - 03 PIXEL!
  • Arkedo Series - 01 JUMP!
  • まもって騎士 (Protect Me Knight)
  • Alawishus Pixel
I already owned Tobe, Pixel and Jump on another account; but since is no longer mine I bought them again. I completely forgot about Leave Home till someone posted it was reduced in price to 80 MS Points; so it was a no brainer.

Any other (good) 2D-like retro games? (Pixelart/look prefered) :p
 
fernoca said:
Got yesterday:
  • Tobe's Vertical Adventure
  • Leave Home
  • Arkedo Series - 03 PIXEL!
  • Arkedo Series - 01 JUMP!
  • まもって騎士 (Protect Me Knight)
  • Alawishus Pixel
I already owned Tobe, Pixel and Jump on another account; but since is no longer mine I bought them again. I completely forgot about Leave Home till someone posted it was reduced in price to 80 MS Points; so it was a no brainer.

Any other (good) 2D-like retro games? (Pixelart/look prefered) :p

Platformance, Breath of Death VII, Johnny Platform, Banana Split, Decimation X, Falling, Tester Phase One, Pixel Boarder, Kaiten Patissier, Green Island
 
Huh, interesting :lol

Stuff I played the other day...

Avatar Squadron was alright, it has a nice cartoony look to it and is a horizontal shmup. Fire feels a bit weak but there's some nice scoring in that if you kill a section of enemies they drop a medal which earns points/extra lives. Huge bosses, loads of levels, funnyish. Not the best shooter on the service but fun for a while.

Basketball Trick Shot has some hilarious drawings of cheerleaders. The game itself needs you to set the power/spin/angle of a ball to avoid obstacles and get it in the basket. The physics feel all wrong and you can't really plan your shots, just shooting at random and then making adjustments until it happens to work, not the funnest.

Circa sounded nice for a few seconds. You shoot stuff and each enemy plays a guitar riff or something, and as you kill more enemies a tune builds up. Then you kill more and the whole thing sounds like a complete mess. Then you realise that you can't see enemy fire let alone avoid it. Then you realise that the best strategy is actually sitting in the middle holding A down. Then you realise your first impressions that this was good, were wrong.

AXEH<&#12456;&#12475;> could be an excellent hex-based strategy game but the trial doesn't last as long as the tutorial and I didn't get to any kind of combat, have to try that again. Looks nice-ish though.

Word Attack Action. I don't get these kind of games to be honest. Not only is one enough because none of the other ones do anything new, but, well, they're not much fun. Letters drop, a la Tetris, and you form words. It's too hard to plan ahead because you never know what letters you'll get, and then you resort to placing stuff at random or spelling three letter words and the word "boredom."

RC Helicopter Sim seems to have one view, from your avatar's perspective as you fly your helicopter around. This doesn't work at all in 2D and depth perception is absent which makes it impossible to tell where you are. I didn't like the controls much either, found it impossible to maintain height while moving left and right, maybe that's authentic though, being an RC.

&#39764;&#29289;&#12394;&#21191;&#32773;&#12392;&#35598;&#12398;&#36986;&#36321; is interesting. You control the level and a bouncing slime jumps around depending on the angle of the level. You also have some special moves that consume MP so must be used sparingly. You can speed up the level turning, super jump, or warp to the left/right slightly to avoid falling off an edge. It's nice but can be slightly awkward sometimes, worth 80 points though. PRESS START BOTTON.
 

fernoca

Member
HadesGigas said:
Platformance, Breath of Death VII, Johnny Platform, Banana Split, Decimation X, Falling, Tester Phase One, Pixel Boarder, Kaiten Patissier, Green Island
Already own Platformance and Breath of Death.
Kaiten and Green Island were nice, but felt empty.
Might have to check the others and Aesop's Garden. :)
 
toythatkills said:
Looks excellent, and will sound excellent with them doing the music! They did music for Cubed Rally Racer on iPhone, didn't they?

Thanks! They did indeed! Also for a Nokia game, "Reset Generation".

Doc Logic will be using tracks from the album "Vaporware 2.0". Another game we are working on, "Cosmic Weapon", will use more of a "8 Bit Weapon Greatest Hits" vibe.
 

Feep

Banned
All right, my musician has submitted the final boss theme of my upcoming game, Sequence. I get one last chance to request any changes be made, so take a listen to tell me what you think.

(I already requested the strange mute at 1:21 to be removed)

Original artist: Ronald Jenkees
Arranger: Bradley Burr

End of All Things
 

N4Us

Member
toythatkills said:
AXEH<&#12456;&#12475;> could be an excellent hex-based strategy game but the trial doesn't last as long as the tutorial and I didn't get to any kind of combat, have to try that again. Looks nice-ish though.

I was having some trouble with the trial, for some reason moving the card at the right would be normal, but if I even slightly tilted left then the card go slide all the way to the left. It doesn't seem to be anything with my controllers or the like, maybe I just need to redownload it...
 
Solar Struggle

First reaction:"OMG a Colony Wars-like game on the indies channel!!"

After playing it:"WTF is this?"

Actually the game is not bad but is not what it looks,definetly, and at least visuals are nice
 

SmallCaveGames

Neo Member
fernoca said:
Got yesterday:
  • Tobe's Vertical Adventure
  • Leave Home
  • Arkedo Series - 03 PIXEL!
  • Arkedo Series - 01 JUMP!
  • &#12414;&#12418;&#12387;&#12390;&#39438;&#22763; (Protect Me Knight)
  • Alawishus Pixel
I already owned Tobe, Pixel and Jump on another account; but since is no longer mine I bought them again. I completely forgot about Leave Home till someone posted it was reduced in price to 80 MS Points; so it was a no brainer.

Any other (good) 2D-like retro games? (Pixelart/look prefered) :p

Opac's Journey? :) See forst post. Exploratory/RPG style platformer.

"Jetpacks" that looks nice man!

And gotta say, there's something appealing about Alpha Squad....can't quite put my finger on it.
 

Spyn Doctor

Neo Member
Hi all!

You are probably already aware of www.indienerds.com by now, where Gerald is doing some great video reviews of some of the better XBLIGs.

He's still waiting for his GAF account to be approved, so he asked if someone else could post links to his video reviews in the meantime. So here they are. Have fun!

Oh, and since I was doing this, I shamelessly took the liberty to highlight the last game in the list, which I think is especially good! :D

Doc

Along Came A Spider - plattformer with a twist, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOcKEvEEAnY

AvaGlide from Haiku Entertainment - Pilotwings with Avatars, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpQjlz5vt3U

Beat Hazard from Cold Beam Games - shot your music collection, 400 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVMSGB0_MjE

Breath of Death VII from RainbowDespair - oldschool RPG full of parody, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV1yQNq7Q2Q

Breeze from Null City Software - addictive and beautiful, 240 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyZ27vbbPV0

Crossfire from Radiangames - Space Invaders evolved to a real game, 240 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g-V6x_5Ss0

Dark - short but stylish platformer, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I32qwUgdgF0

Dead Shift - preview - Zombies in a Sandbox for fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGRzwF_SmfA

Decimation X from Xona Games, the Space Invaders on drugs superhit, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABV7tetHuwU

Gerbil Physics from Pencel Games - gerbils in boxes to blow up, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilwCGN22n1U

Invader from Big Daddio - tough but fun shooter, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNtg9-3edvk

Kissy Poo from The Zman - got kids? Have a look 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfIxvrI_cII

Kong360 - Gorilla Warfare from SpaceDude - FPS without FP but Gorillas instead, 240 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4EBPe64VU

Lumi from Kydos Studio - the most beautiful platformer on XBLIG, 400 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDmLhMNxXgg

Mechanoid Army from Mancebo - little known but cool platformer, 240 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrb7F8aQtWo

Missile Escape from Maximinus - fresh, simple, addictive, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmyYBBmKS_8

MotorHEAT from Milkstone Studios - a fast racer for everyone, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzFRmttZpr8

Opac's Journey - open (under)world platformer "Metroidvania", 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFd4TAVwOFs

Pixel Boarder from Pixel Friends - retro snowboarding in 3D 240 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkK74Sp0VlY

Pixel from Arkedo - impressive platformer with a kind of retro look, 240 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXkase3EglA

Shoot 1Up from Mommy´s Best Games - must play shmup, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QNS4dp6xcg

Sleepwalker from Debreuil - the real one button game … it´s fun, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUYxciCbRYQ

Soul from Kydos Studio - save your soul, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbBY4RlCKLU

Soulcaster from MagicalTimeBean - 1 Level scorebeating retro platformer, 240 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPozdKuNLWI

Square Off from Gnomic Studios - excellent 1-4 player shooter, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-OhhfhoUuw

Trickshot from Sterlingware - ski, shot, laugh 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1cE7swdJL8

Twin Blades from Press Start Studio - anime styled hack´n slay, 400 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xKKyLbPayg

Urban Space Squirrels - the best riddles ever in a platformer, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aml6hGs8BBs

Wool from Milkstone Studios - sheepherding game (no kiddin!), 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sbxnkoF4Q0

:D :D :D Your Doodles Are Bugged! from Spyn Doctor - even cooler than Lemmings, 80 MSP :D :D :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEZrkbwL_5E
 
Bought Military Sniper Sim today and I have to say its pretty awesome.

Kinda easy once to have the elevation dialed in for a specific distance then you just have to dial in for the correct wind speed. Almost complete with the 250 yard ones. Tried the assessment and managed to only get 1 hit.

The game is pretty deep but I think it could have been even better with a few additions:

-More guns with with different types of ammo
-Factor in bullet rotation
-More varied challenges
 
Reminder about the Clover charity promotion thing:

HadesGigas said:
Clover: A Curious Tale is out. Fully voice acted remake of last years Indie Game release Clover.

At long last Clover: A Curious Tale has returned home to Xbox LIVE Indie Games. What's even better than that though is the fact that this weekend all proceeds will be donated to War Child.

If you buy the game on Xbox LIVE on the 21st or 22nd August, Binary Tweed and Blitz 1UP will be waiving their royalties and instead giving them straight to charity. Please remember that the offer only applies to this weekend, and only the XBLIG version.

The good peeps at Microsoft did try very hard to organise Microsoft waiving its 30% cut, but unfortunately changes in a huge organisation take a lot of time to effect.

For those unfamiliar Clover: A Curious Tale, it's the new an improved version of Clover that was co-developed by Blitz 1UP, and has a ton of new features.

It's now fully voice-acted. There's 50% more puzzles, and even the ones that were in the original have changed. Everything's been made to look prettier, from the menus and dialogue screens to the all-new character animations. The whole soundtrack was re-recorded.

There's three new endings as part of a playable epilogue. There's a side quest. There's even a secret clue about a hidden truth in the plot, that's so incredibly secret and subtle no-one's figured it out yet - not even all the PC players that have had the game since March!

So, if you don't buy a copy this weekend, not only are you a mug for depriving yourself of a great game, but you also hate war-afflicted children. Could you really live with yourself if you didn't buy it?

If you hold off on buying it until this weekend, some of the money goes to charity. Which might take some sting out of paying $5 again if you already own the original. (Though the PC release costs $10 anyway, so you get two versions for that price on Xbox.)


http://www.binarytweed.com/
 

nli10

Member
Quoting the big list
MotorHEAT from Milkstone Studios - a fast racer for everyone, 80 MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzFRmttZpr8
end of the quote

Wait? This has dropped in price?? Wow - it was a must buy at its higher price point - now it's unthinkable not to get it.


Essentially it's burnout without the guff and with no corners. It's brilliant and the BEST RACING GAME ON THE 360.
 
Japan does it again, ADVENTURES of CAPTAIN Becky, 80smp:



The actual game is a seemingly decent platformer where you avoid various spiky things and hit them with your spiky thing:



It also has an edit mode with extremely unrealistic options for everything from chest to arm length. So you can make the Becky of your dreams/nightmares. I'd recommend using this first because the default Becky is pretty freaky looking (unless it's random?).
 
OH MY FUCKING GOD
DOWNLOAD THIS ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN BECKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I went into the edit mode and did some work..just when I figured I had it perfect I hit A but I accidentally had it set to "SET RANDOM REGULAR"

The results were OH MY FUCKING GOD

I'm going to start up a dozen XBL accounts just so I can buy this game 12 times. HOLY FUCKING OMG HILARIOUS

EDIT: Game isn't completely terrible either.

EDIT x2: A review? Sure why not.
 
Looks like it's "Japanese games get out of peer review day". In addition to Becky, there's three others.

&#12385;&#12360;&#12426;&#12398;&#12489;&#12461;&#9733;&#12489;&#12461;&#28271;&#29017;&#12406;&#12425;&#12426;&#26053; (Doki Doki Something About Hot Springs Goolge Can't Translate Vey Well) is a "hot spring shooting wire game" where you play as a little girl with a grappling hook bunny and gun (water cannon?) trying to save her father from some sort of evil hot spring. You have to shoot at the rubber duckies without falling in the water or getting shot by the enemies. Not bad once you get used to swinging around to "aim".



&#27784;&#40665;&#12398;&#30913;&#30707; (Silent Magnet) is a platformer starring a little guy who can't jump or do much of anything besides walk and change his magnetism. So you gotta change between "N" and "S" to be magnetically pulled and tossed through the level before time runs out.



As well as BLASTER AND MORION. Ugly 3D twin stick shooter sequel to BLASTER AND AMETHYST. Run around square shaped floating islands shooting bug and/or robot things until your future gun that shoots balls overheats while getting to seven checkpoints to win.
 
HadesGigas said:
&#27784;&#40665;&#12398;&#30913;&#30707; (Silent Magnet) is a platformer starring a little guy who can't jump or do much of anything besides walk and change his magnetism. So you gotta change between "N" and "S" to be magnetically pulled and tossed through the level before time runs out.
It could almost be Lumi :lol

Hopefully I'll get a chance to play some of these later on, I'm so behind. Gotta check out Clover while the charity thing's on!

Any impressions of it yet?
 
toythatkills said:
It could almost be Lumi :lol

Hopefully I'll get a chance to play some of these later on, I'm so behind. Gotta check out Clover while the charity thing's on!

Any impressions of it yet?

The user interface is much improved and the voice acting is good enough. Same game at the heart, though. So lots of running back and forth picking up the one item you need for the current puzzle because of the strict limit on how much you can carry.
 

Gowans

Member
PepsimanVsJoe said:
OH MY FUCKING GOD
DOWNLOAD THIS ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN BECKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I went into the edit mode and did some work..just when I figured I had it perfect I hit A but I accidentally had it set to "SET RANDOM REGULAR"

The results were OH MY FUCKING GOD

I'm going to start up a dozen XBL accounts just so I can buy this game 12 times. HOLY FUCKING OMG HILARIOUS

EDIT: Game isn't completely terrible either.

EDIT x2: A review? Sure why not.
:lol I'll defo check this out today then!
 
HadesGigas said:
The user interface is much improved and the voice acting is good enough. Same game at the heart, though. So lots of running back and forth picking up the one item you need for the current puzzle because of the strict limit on how much you can carry.
Is the animation any better or does it still have the worst walk cycle in the world?
 
toythatkills said:
Is the animation any better or does it still have the worst walk cycle in the world?

I don't much remember what the walking looked like in the original. Says they have "all new character animations" on their site, though. Here's a trailer.
 

nli10

Member
Just a quick note to say that I signed up for the XBLIG things to see about making PC games and found out that as a UK University mature student on an extended part time post-grad I can get 12 months free creators club once I link in my uni account.

As we have a link thing so that I can log in and read medical journals at home I did this in seconds and it's all set up.

Chances are I won't get time to make an actual releasable game, but it means I can make something and play it using my 360 which will be a fun trip back to the days of me making text RPGs on the Amstrad CPC and giving the tapes to my friends.

In short - if you are a UK uni student you can probably get all the tools to make Indie Games for free and put them on the Xbox store HERE once you verify. But heck - you guys probably already know this & I'm LTTP as usual.
 

Cth

Member
Yeah, it's fairly well known.

Also, as I remember, you can't put games onto XBLA for free with the university tools, you still need a regular account for that.
 
Played Clover and the walking animation is as bad as it looks like from the trailer, but in HD you can actually see that his hands are in his pockets and it actually makes sense. Bought it, partly for charity, partly for what it promises
 
http://www.ska-studios.com/2010/08/23/z0mb1es-infects-rbn/

http://www.rockband.com/songs/UGC_5003729

GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES Infects Rock Band Network

After 308,000 Sales, GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES Infects Rock Band Network
Xbox LIVE Indie Game I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 celebrates a successful year with the release of its theme song to Rock Band Network and a new partnership with retailer Hot Topic.

Schenectady, NY – August 23, 2010 – The highest-rated Xbox LIVE Indie Game, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 has had overwhelming success this past year. Gamers from across the globe have spent over 24.6 million Microsoft points on Z0MB1ES, which have accounted for game sales of over 308,000 copies since its release last August. To celebrate this achievement, Ska Studios is excited to reveal that the legendary Z0MB1ES theme song is available for purchase off of the Rock Band Network music store and that retailer Hot Topic will be selling a new Z0MB1ES t-shirt exclusively through HotTopic.com.

Over the course of a year, the Z0MB1ES theme song has gained an enormous following among the gaming community. So much support that fans have openly demanded that the tune be made available for play on Rock Band. Today, those demands have been answered with the release of I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 to the Rock Band Network music store for play in Rock Band 2 on Xbox 360. This nine minute and forty-five second epic song of epicness only costs a dollar and is 56 megabytes of concentrated fun. Additionally, those who purchase the track are encouraged to upload their Z0MB1ES Rock Band performances to YouTube with the tag “RBN-Z0MB1ES”. Throughout the next few weeks, Ska Studios will watch all tagged videos and award prizes to a few of the most entertaining and highest scoring performances.

No celebration is complete without fancy new wearables, which is why Ska Studios partnered with the folks at Hot Topic to sell Z0MB1ES t-shirts through their online store including an exclusive new design. This new tee – designed by Z0MB1ES fan Aron Mayo – features the game’s signature angry face and is almost guaranteed to attract both attention and admiration. Z0MB1ES apparel including the exclusive t-shirt will be available for purchase from HotTopic.com later this September.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Question:

I have 130 mspoints right now. Whats the best indie game I can get with it? Genre doesn't really matter, but if I had the choice I'd want a puzzle-ish game.
 
Apple Jack is still the best value for money EVER at 80 points and is slightly puzzley but it's a platformer more than anything.

For pure puzzling, Pocoro (in the OP!) is still the best 80pt puzzle game in my opinion.
 
N4Us said:
Good job Ska Studios, now you know what to do next: ZP2K10.

He's making that.

http://www.ska-studios.com/category/zp2kx/
ZP2KX Got Playtested
All last week, a handful of helpful XNA Creator’s Club members downloaded the alpha build of our upcoming Xbox LIVE Indie Game ZP2KX and played the heck out of it. Now, post playtest, is the time where James takes into account all the feedback that he received, fixes a few lingering bugs and gives the entire ZP2KX package a silky smooth spit shine. And while I’m well aware that you’d love to have more information on the game, to know when it’ll make its release and if there will really be pterodactyls included, I can not yet comment. All in time, friends. All in time.

What I will say is that there’s a good chance of another playtest and further development on the title, so its release will not be anytime in the super immediate future. Oh, and yes, there will be actual pterodactyls in the game
 
I hate to be that guy but Mamotte Knight is the highest rated game in Japan's XBL service.
Japan rocks.

Oh I bought Decimation X. Good stuff. I'll have to switch to a stick though cause neither the analog nor the d-pad is cutting it.

Also bought uh..Exelinya Burst. Basically toss stuff at stuff and make huge explosions. I'm pretty clueless as to how everything is supposed to work but hey things go boom and I get a ton of points so whatever I'm satisfied.

Even bought Ninjya Chop because..well....because because because!
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Also bought uh..Exelinya Burst. Basically toss stuff at stuff and make huge explosions. I'm pretty clueless as to how everything is supposed to work but hey things go boom and I get a ton of points so whatever I'm satisfied.
I think that's the only Alpha Secret Base game I haven't bought, it was a bit tooo odd :lol

We won't go into Ninja Chop :p
 
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