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[djtiesto]

That's a whole other topic, but to be fair, I have never heard anyone use that word to describe someone with down syndrome.

To make up for the derail, I'll mention that Bad Golf is actually pretty good. It was made with the Farseer Physics Engine. They Came From the Ground is another great physics based multiplayer sports game, only volleyball instead of golf.

Hmm... about a year or so back, my girlfriend (who I just started dating at the time) asked me to go with her to see this band, Bishop Allen, with a coworker of hers. I knew nothing about the band, but went to their webpage... and saw that one of the members created an XBLIG, "They Came From The Ground". So I downloaded the game and played it... Enjoyed it very much, it's pretty basic but cute graphics, nice sound. We went to see the band in where else but Brooklyn - very unique in style but definitely not what I usually listen to - and after the band played, we ran into one of the members on the street outside the bar. I got around to asking him about the game and told him that I thought it was awesome... even though he wasn't the one who made it, it was another band member. Pretty cool experience.

 

[HadesGigas]

Made a thread for Aban Hawkins. Also free soundtruck available!

 

[SAB CA]

Is is nice to see the Alpha Squad guys are responding well to the criticism. Figured I might as well post the list of changes here, as this speaks very well to some of this issues I've had with the game myself:

From: http://www.moddb.com/games/alpha-squad/forum/thread/patch-20-additions-list

Estimated arrival: 1/19 - 1/21 (When passing review)

1. Fix search game matchmaking disconnecting host game.

2. Invite system fix.

3. Improve multiplayer spawning zones.

4. Fix Arena host sync.

5. Fix replayable dialogue events.

6. Tweak enemy balance.

7. Increase drop-rate on particular items.

8. Edit some of the level collisions.

9. Controller rumble on low health.

10. Health pack health increase.

11. Armory room "hotkey" by pressing the "back" button.

12. No UI option (placeholder for small UI option later).

13. Auto Save

14. Exit color choices also affect save image colors (for colorblind).

15. Slowed enemy bullets.

EDIT: CURRENTLY IN PLAYTEST

 

[HadesGigas]

Is is nice to see the Alpha Squad guys are responding well to the criticism. Figured I might as well post the list of changes here, as this speaks very well to some of this issues I've had with the game myself:

From: http://www.moddb.com/games/alpha-squad/forum/thread/patch-20-additions-list

Looking forward to this. Most of the fixes are things that I had issues with too.

Also, remember the soundtrack is available name your own price:
http://stemage.bandcamp.com/

 

[HadesGigas]

Out now for $3, Antipole. A game that looks to take more than a little inspiration from VVVVVV. Haven't tried it out yet, but the main differences look to be that you can jump and have a weapon. Also interesting that it's from the developer of Cosmos X2, a DSiWare game.

Trailer

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Is is nice to see the Alpha Squad guys are responding well to the criticism. Figured I might as well post the list of changes here, as this speaks very well to some of this issues I've had with the game myself:

From: http://www.moddb.com/games/alpha-squad/forum/thread/patch-20-additions-list

Hey this is good news. I'll have to give the game another look when the patch materializes.
Plus I'll have XBL Gold back by then so I can attempt some multiplayer.

Playing Cthulhu Saves the World right now. It's definitely deserving of the acclaim it is getting. It's by an extreme margin the best RPG on the XBL indie service. I just ran into some cat so I guess I'm 1/3rd of the way through.

Sword and Hammer just got released. I've watched the trailer the other day and didn't know what it was about. I'm going to download it now and find out.

http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-U...d=289d53cd-8f9c-4463-815d-3f777bd32963&type=2

I will piss myself dry laughing if it's a Dragon's Lair-styled FMV game.

 

[Kafel]

Sword and Hammer just got released. I've watched the trailer the other day and didn't know what it was about. I'm going to download it now and find out.

http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-U...d=289d53cd-8f9c-4463-815d-3f777bd32963&type=2

 

[Kafel]

I've discovered a blog this week that has an interesting approach to XBLIG, for those who are new to the service, and the others.

I’m purchasing an Xbox Live Indie Game every day, seeking out the quality titles that got lost in the shuffle and no longer appear in the top 50 downloads.

http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/


It reminds me I've missed the "You might have missed ..." feature this month. : P

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

The dude had better buy Streets of Fury.

I just re-downloaded that and it's so good. It's freaking hell without friends on the harder difficulties though.

 

[Kafel]

Sword and Hammer

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Everyone play Sword & Hammer.

 

[Neuromancer]

Everyone play Sword & Hammer.

An FMV Indie game?

Sign me the fuck up

 

[Kafel]

Corrupted seems to be a nice 4 players twin-stick hack & slash :

http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-U...d=fe3283be-74a2-4b97-9fde-654636a4a379&type=2

*

And oh joy, Catapult for Hire has now entered in serious development :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvtJwc76lps (old concept, no final art)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp30Ugp9SUI&feature=related (early dev diary, even older video)

 

[HadesGigas]

Corrupted seems to be a nice 4 players twin-stick hack & slash :

http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-U...d=fe3283be-74a2-4b97-9fde-654636a4a379&type=2

Seemed pretty good, but don't like how the trial ends right after the tutorial ends.

 

[Kafel]

I'm going to try it in a minute. You only get to play the tutorial or you were hit by the time limit in the demo ?

*

Toy Cars is the traditional top-down racers for up to 4 players. This one seems quite polished.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OKIIK7BQ9k

 

[HadesGigas]

I'm going to try it in a minute. You only get to play the tutorial or you were hit by the time limit in the demo ?

*

Toy Cars is the traditional top-down racers for up to 4 players. This one seems quite polished.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OKIIK7BQ9k

You only get to play the tutorial, which is all of "level one" but it's all hand-holding "here's a new thing to do, kill these guys with it". It takes most of the trial time, but still, would like to see how the game feels with all the pieces in place and less interruptions.

 

[Kafel]

Ok, I've just tried the demo. It's indeed quite frustrating. I wonder how's the game with a few friends and their powers though.

With the demo poorly executed and this game being 240 points, I'll pass right now.

 

[TripleBGames]

Ey up, Gaffers!

Just wanted to bring our XBLIG game Zombiez 8 My Cookiez to your attention, it's a new take on the twin stick shooter. The thing is, Zombies have evolved, they've realised cookies taste better than brains and it's up to you to save your cookies from the zombie hordes. You can shoot them, burn them, fry them or blast them, just make sure they keep their filty undead hands off your calorie laden snackage. We think the game's a whole lot of fun & hope you lot will too, there's some screens and links for more info below. You can grab the game from here or find it in the dash, and there's a couple of codes below for those who are quick...

Youtube Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwAGM40QT5Y

Frenzy Mode Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz_uXxtbbAQ

You can find out more info on Zombiez, College Lacrosse and our other games over at our website http://www.triplebgames.com or on facebook/triplebgames or follow our waffling on twitter #triplebgames


Here's the codes:

HYTRV-RVQ99-96RPQ-H87MR-6D3FY
Q4PDF-H9C23-BGM76-DBXPC-BF8WQ

Enjoy the game!
Fritz

 

[Kafel]

Enjoy the game lurkers.

 

[HadesGigas]

Heh, I never even tried Zombiez 8 My Cookies when it came out because honestly the price seems a bit ridiculous. Considering it's the most crowded genre on Indies and the title draws instant comparisons to certain other more famous games that cost 1/5th as much.

Didn't get the free codes there but decided to give the trial a shot. I like the graphics, pretty slick, and the cookie defense concept is pretty good. It seems a little unbalanced for one player though. Don't know how I'm supposed to guard four cookies for any length of time. One or two are pretty much going to be gone within a minute. And then once it gets down to one cookie it seems really easy. Even as I ran out of trial time I was able to keep the cookie in play without much issue (So here I can only imagine how much of a breeze it would be for 2-4 people). Then Frenzy mode is just overwhelming, but that's the point I suppose. Fitba mode being multi-only is a drag as that sounded like it could be interesting.

I did buy NLL 2010 though when that came out, loved that. Hope theres a 2011 version coming with the improvements you've been working on for College Lacrosse.

 

[TripleBGames]

Enjoy the game lurkers.

Sorry, couldn't think of any better way of giving the codes out than just putting them up, I'll happily give another couple away if you can think of a fairer way of giving them out?

 

[Kafel]

Sorry, couldn't think of any better way of giving the codes out than just putting them up, I'll happily give another couple away if you can think of a fairer way of giving them out?

Well it's for you. If you want GAF to talk about your game maybe you should give the codes to those able to post ? (tell you can give some to the first PMs ?)

Anyway, from what I've seen you could well be featured in the next monthly XBLIG thread under "Zombie Game of the month".

 

[TripleBGames]

Well it's for you. If you want GAF to talk about your game maybe you should give the codes to those able to post ? (tell you can give some to the first PMs ?)

Anyway, from what I've seen you could well be featured in the next monthly XBLIG thread under "Zombie Game of the month".

Ok, I've got two more codes to give away, I'll give them away to the first two people to PM me on condition that they post up their thoughts on the game to this thread.

I think that's about the fairest I can do

Cheers,
Fritz

 

[TripleBGames]

Congrats to PhlivoSong and Lyphen. They have the codes, look forward to hearing your thoughts guys.

Fritz

 

[toythatkills]

It took me about 5 minutes to browse through all the pages I had to on my iPhone to get to pm you, and was too slow. Never mind :lol

 

[Intruder_qc]

It seems this thread has been quite busy recently.

I have been busy myself play testing/peer reviewing game on #XBLIG

- As several of you they were a few Japanese game that came out recently with the typical "all your base belong to us", those should have been failed according to the language guideline (you can't use those silly automatic translator and be done with it). Several people in those peer review thread mention it. But some people still give it a pass so it went on the marketplace like this :-(

- Distant Galaxies, I have play test and peer review the game and I can see why people find it a slow pace. Especially on 1st level, very few enemy and short range shooting. Situation improve at later level where you get more varied enemy and more actions. I talk to developer about it while it was still in play test, but he was preferring a less intense pace (he design the game like he would like to play it after all). I know today he put out a new version in peer review that include a new level in trial mode that will give a better ideas of the game in later levels. It never hurt to send your opinion to the devs. some of them are actually listening.

- Alpha Squad indeed a game with great polish (graphic/design/visual/audio), it has some flaws, many of them are going to be fix in the new version as reported earlier. Currently the most major stopper for them is that the network is quite flaky. I have been helping the guys at Dragon Divine in testing several build this week to track down those problems. Yesterday they were finally able to trace the source of one of those dread CODE 4. hopefully the new build i'll be testing today will fix this issue. But talking with the devs, they told me that they are still some network issue that are inherent to XNA 3.1 and that they only have been fix in XNA 4.0 :-( (currently their game was build upon XNA 3.1 and will need some rewrite for part of the graphic engine to be compatible with XNA 4.0).

- Sword and Hammer, yes this is definitely a FMV a la Dragon Lair or Maddog Mcgree or other similar laser disc game ;-). I had fun testing this game, but I can see this wont be everyone cup of tea. I was able to beat the game with Gregor Hammer of The King in easy mode ;-).

More game are coming into play test and peer review, the one that people should look for are Dirchie Kart that should soon pass peer review (think of it as something similar to mario kart with up to 4 local players). another shmup that just been release a few days ago Solar Strugle Survival.

 

[erpg]

I'll give toythatkills my code, he'd provide much better feedback anyway.

Thanks though, hope you do well!

 

[OnPoint]

I always miss the free codes lol

Damn it

 

[TripleBGames]

I'll give toythatkills my code, he'd provide much better feedback anyway.

Thanks though, hope you do well!

It's alright I've sent him a bonus one you can keep your code

 

[Kafel]

- As several of you they were a few Japanese game that came out recently with the typical "all your base belong to us", those should have been failed according to the language guideline (you can't use those silly automatic translator and be done with it). Several people in those peer review thread mention it. But some people still give it a pass so it went on the marketplace like this :-(

It's already good that an effort to put some english in these games is done. No need to be excessively strict with that part of the community.


TripleBGames >> Nice ! I can't wait to read ttk's impressions about your game. ; )

 

[toythatkills]

It's alright I've sent him a bonus one you can keep your code

I was going to make him keep it anyway, and just bought it if I liked it, he got it fair and square!

But that's mighty ace of ya both

Will post impressions as soon as I can download it

 

[NewFresh]

It's alright I've sent him a bonus one you can keep your code

It is always good to see people active in the XBLIG development scene. Just watched the trailer and the game looks fun so I will be checking it out once I leave work.

One question though, Do the cookies get smaller if you shoot them?

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

It's already good that an effort to put some english in these games is done. No need to be excessively strict with that part of the community.

True. There are some games entirely in Japanese in the US store(with no english option). That's a real annoyance. I think one of them is even a text adventure of some sort.

 

[TripleBGames]

It is always good to see people active in the XBLIG development scene. Just watched the trailer and the game looks fun so I will be checking it out once I leave work.

One question though, Do the cookies get smaller if you shoot them?

The cookies have a health level, if you shoot them or if the Zombz are munching on them then they degrade through 3 damage levels and finally split into 3 crumbs that you are left with. Normally at the end of the game you'll be frantically protecting one crumb section of one of the cookies, they are lighter and more easily dragged by the Zombz but are indestructible.

 

[Intruder_qc]

It's already good that an effort to put some english in these games is done. No need to be excessively strict with that part of the community.

I know that, but they were laws written/discuss by other members of the community and everyone need to follow them if not... well

Code is the law ;-)

As a certain Captn. Teague would say hehehe.

And don't get me started in using foreign language character for background... if for example your game is totally in English and you put some tradionatal Kanji/Chinese character as part of some design then you will need to declare this as a language and get people to review it. If it is a language not supported... well tough luck your game will never get approved and get an automatic fail, this is really silly... Since they are too afraid that you sneak in some terrible thing that nobody in the review process can validate and that once on the marketplace some people will be offend and sue MS for profanity or something similar. This remind me the whole debacle about Little Big Planet and the music inspired Koran thing.

Finish my rant ;-)

 

[Kafel]

Well maybe we're not talking about the same games. I only meant it wouldn't be fair to fail a JP game that got its menu selection roughly translated so western players can at least find their way to start the game (basically).

*

And now for something completely different. A game that won't need non translated kanjis to obviously troll all of us :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxn5AnwArg

Rough cut promo video for upcoming My Big Head Is Weighing Me Down xna game. Best part is the title, special thanks to Harrison Hnatiuk for that!

:lolsmiley:

 

[OnPoint]

Well maybe we're not talking about the same games. I only meant it wouldn't be fair to fail a JP game that got its menu selection roughly translated so western players can at least find their way to start the game (basically).

*

And now for something completely different. A game that won't need non translated kanjis to obviously troll all of us :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxn5AnwArg



:lolsmiley:

WTF kind of game is that?

 

[erpg]

Zombiez 8 My Cookiez = fun.

I was only able to put a few minutes into 2-player mode, but it's hectic (Frenzy is ridiculous to the point of feeling defeat the second the wave starts, so we were laughing as we were failing). Cooperation and frantic rushing to clear out a friend's cookie while they're dragging it back to the plate is great.

Single-player, which I played after my girlfriend left, isn't as fun, because you can't manage everything at once (pulling a cookie stops you from being able to shoot or do anything, and even turns off electricity on touch ability, which I thought I'd be able to use to carve a path) and power-ups seems a little too sparse, but I still had a good time. Hoping I can convince 4 to have a go at it.

Really liked the sound effects, but the deep bass music drowns it out, so I'm glad I was able to tune it down to just one notch.

Thanks for letting me try it out, guys! Playing this has really made me want a top-down version of Dawn of War 2's Last Stand mode (4 players, with 4 abilities/classes vs. 20 predefined waves from random entrances).

 

[TripleBGames]

Zombiez 8 My Cookiez = fun.

I was only able to put a few minutes into 2-player mode, but it's hectic (Frenzy is ridiculous to the point of feeling defeat the second the wave starts, so we were laughing as we were failing). Cooperation and frantic rushing to clear out a friend's cookie while they're dragging it back to the plate is great.

Single-player, which I played after my girlfriend left, isn't as fun, because you can't manage everything at once (pulling a cookie stops you from being able to shoot or do anything, and even turns off electricity on touch ability, which I thought I'd be able to use to carve a path) and power-ups seems a little too sparse, but I still had a good time. Hoping I can convince 4 to have a go at it.

Really liked the sound effects, but the deep bass music drowns it out, so I'm glad I was able to tune it down to just one notch.

Thanks for letting me try it out, guys! Playing this has really made me want a top-down version of Dawn of War 2's Last Stand mode (4 players, with 4 abilities/classes vs. 20 predefined waves from random entrances).

Thanks Lyphen, glad you liked it

Keeping the electric effect on whilst dragging we had to disable as it made it too easy to plough through a horde of Zombz whilst pulling a crumb round with you. The Zombz didn't stand a chance. I'll have to check out Dawn of War's Last Stand mode, I've not played that, sounds interesting.

 

[Intruder_qc]

Well maybe we're not talking about the same games. I only meant it wouldn't be fair to fail a JP game that got its menu selection roughly translated so western players can at least find their way to start the game (basically).

Well the game that was mentioned earlier was Junk Fields and 龍炎高校伝説 (whatever it mean). Since those 2 game elected to be available for the non Japanese market and supporting English language sadly they need to be more than just enough to understand/guess.

The following rules state (I dont really like it, but since it part of the rules people should follow it, normally...) :

Valid language fail reasons include:

Bad translations: e.g. using automated processes - in the binary or the description. Warn but be lenient on small spelling, translation or punctuation issues. Fail Reason: 'Inappropriate for Xbox LIVE'

Using languages not on the approved list (currently approved languages are English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Japanese): - since the review process cannot validate unapproved languages, the game should not be in the system. This includes dead languages (e.g. Latin, ancient Greek, etc.) and made up languages that are documented (e.g. Klingon/Elvish). Fail Reason: 'Grossly misrepresents content in content info'

Not declaring ALL languages used: This is seen as gaming the system, as you are avoiding getting the game reviewed by the correct speakers. Fail Reason: 'Grossly misrepresents content in content info'

They were some quite heavy discussion on the above rules, like for example someone translating his game in a language that he doesn't know and use Babelfish or Google translate. If a native speaker for that language notice that those sentence make no sense, it will fall under that category like the 2 previous Japanese which are written in Japglish ;-) (from what I read about the text it more than just some typo or small grammar error, punctuation issue).

The one that make a lot of people more infuriated in the community was #2 &#3, as some people argue that if for example you're into an old Egypt pyramid you might see old hyeroglyph (considered dead language) and then you might not think that it need to be declared (rules #3). So people would fail your game for not the following rules #2 & #3. It's silly as that :-(.

You should have join in the fun last year where they were some flammy discussion about this on the XNA forums, a lot of fun ;-).

So Yes I am serious ;-)

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Yeah it's highly recommended that any XBL indie developers who post here should consider PMing people who are most likely to review their game or at worst just write SOMETHING about it. If a lurker gets a code chances are high they'll never post their impressions here. Maybe they have their own forum for discussing this sort of thing, maybe not. Could be those codes will just be lost to the ether.

Maybe next month toythatkills will consider compiling a list of every poster willing to accept codes in exchange for impressions/reviews. The situation out there is pretty bad as a lot of games just aren't getting any exposure. For example I was talking about Junk Fields on twitter the other night and the developer of the game gave me a code just for following him. Junk Fields is actually a really decent game and I already bought it so I handed it off to somebody who A) can post here and B) is likely to talk about it.

Anyway Cltuthu update. I just reached Innsmouth. Can anyone give me an idea how much further I have to go?

 

[Kafel]

Dirchie Kart is out :

http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-U...d=97af1c13-87de-44a0-a236-b558c81a628d&type=2

 

[OldmanAndroid]

Dirchie Kart is out :

Looks sweet! Very colourful. Whats the word 'Dirchie" all about?

 

[toythatkills]

Maybe next month toythatkills will consider compiling a list of every poster willing to accept codes in exchange for impressions/reviews.

I'm not sure how this would work. I could put a note to push devs towards "regular posters" but probably not by name, unless you've got a suggestion as to how it can work!

In broadband news, I just got a text telling me I'll be up and running on January 31st, so just in time for February! Thread may have to wait 'til the second to give me a chance to play everything, but I'll be trying to get it up on the first, if possible

 

[Intruder_qc]

Looks sweet! Very colourful. Whats the word 'Dirchie" all about?

I play test this game and its indeed quite fun, as for the Dirchie word this is the name for those little cartoon like character that you can choose for playing. If you dont want to choose them you can also pick up your own avatar, also support custom music, so who knows maybe you can play it while listening to Mario Kart soundtrack ;-)

@toythatkills

My god still waiting for your Internet? I think everyone should wrote down the name of your provider on their blacklist. This sound like really bad service, here with my local provider when I bought my first condo I got it in the first few days I move in.

 

[Kafel]

Space Racer just got released, I'll try it in a minute. Looks like F-Zero meets Bit Stream.

http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-U...d=5b4d6b9f-26cc-49eb-9011-580182b40541&type=2

 

[OnPoint]

Space Racer just got released, I'll try it in a minute. Looks like F-Zero meets Bit Stream.

http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-U...d=5b4d6b9f-26cc-49eb-9011-580182b40541&type=2

The same developer put together Alawishus Pixel. That game was great, I'll be checking this new one out

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

I'm not sure how this would work. I could put a note to push devs towards "regular posters" but probably not by name, unless you've got a suggestion as to how it can work!

Now that I think about it it's probably too much, that's what I get for posting in the A.M. Still I guess it's a judgment call and developers should just ask before handing out codes. There doesn't really need to be a big to-do or anything. Dedicated XBL indie reviewers are in real short supply though, or maybe there's just not enough of them to cover the dozens of games that get released almost every week.

 

[Intruder_qc]

Currently trying to peer-reviewing the latest j-game from Kohei.

A cute little platformer with little maid of course and some j-pop music in the main menu (ohh and they are some pantsu shot in the game...). But I am quite terrible at the game, always ending the level with a D grade which is a failure and doesn't let me go to the next level.

It's called : Maid San's Caving Adventure

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Way to sum up Japanese videogames in two screenshots Kohei.

Oh and WARNING WARNING

If the "Special" option is anything to go by from Kohei's last game. Expect the Special mode for Maid-San's Caving to involve breast-shaking(grabbing?) and well just be really disturbing.