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Xbox LIVE Indie Games - The January 2011 Thread

K

Kafel

Banned
Ballistic looks really good indeed. This game's aesthetics look much better to me than rg's previous games. No more blurry fluorescent visuals please.
 
V

Ventron

Member
LocoMrPollock said:
Anyone know what happened to Bonded Realities? I thought it was in peer review last week.
Click to expand...

It's still in peer review. It needs 2 more reviews to pass. It seems to be attracting less reviews than I expected, good thing I put it into review slightly earlier than I planned!
 
J

Jonnyboy117

Member
I just got Cthulu Saves the World, and it seems to be quite awesome so far. The writing is legitimately funny, which is what pushed me to buy it.
 
F

Feep

Banned
barkers crest said:
Color.FromNonPremultiplied will become your new best friend.

I switched to 4.0 back in the fall and it blew up a lot of my stuff. I've since fixed everything but at the time I remember being extremely frustrated (mostly due to an XmlSerializer bug in the Game Studio Connect Beta which made my game un-runnable on the 360 for over a month ).
Click to expand...
Yeah, I found this helper function last night, and it fixed everything, after around 157 Find/Replaces.

That said, I really hate Premultiplied. The use of RGB with the alpha component is NOT IN ANY WAY intuitive. And I certainly don't see any visual enhancement...in fact, due to all the extra math in the Color.FromNonPremultiplied helper function, my code is probably now significantly slower. = (
 
V

Ventron

Member
Feep said:
Yeah, I found this helper function last night, and it fixed everything, after around 157 Find/Replaces.

That said, I really hate Premultiplied. The use of RGB with the alpha component is NOT IN ANY WAY intuitive. And I certainly don't see any visual enhancement...in fact, due to all the extra math in the Color.FromNonPremultiplied helper function, my code is probably now significantly slower. = (
Click to expand...

Premultiplied is efficient because it means those multiplications don't have to happen every time the colour is used. You should use premultiplied in any new code.

EDIT: Game of the year incoming:

10wunf8.jpg


The boxart just screams quality, doesn't it? The worst part is, he used "Retarded Blobs" in his first go. Gee, I wonder why that failed peer review.
 
I

Intruder_qc

Neo Member
@Kafel

Yup I saw that LOL! Yes they are some pantsu shot ;-). I wont be surprise if it does attract a lot of trial download just because of this... sigh!
 
K

Kafel

Banned
HadesGigas said:
Saw a trailer for a platformer in development with really polished graphics, Oozi Earth Adventure. The gameplay looks a little basic though, didn't even look to have any kind of power-up or special ability.

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

Apparently it is planned to be divided into four $1 episodes.
Click to expand...

The game is beautiful but the gameplay is really too basic. Maybe the trailer doesn't show much ? The first episode will sell well but I can't see people buying the others unless features are added.
 
S

sciplore

Member
HadesGigas said:
Saw a trailer for a platformer in development with really polished graphics, Oozi Earth Adventure. The gameplay looks a little basic though, didn't even look to have any kind of power-up or special ability.

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

Apparently it is planned to be divided into four $1 episodes.
Click to expand...

I do like the style it is kind of like "Rayman" but Kafel got it right, the gameplay is sort of boring.

I notice that D-pad studios is still working on Owlboy, I hope it gets a release this year but I get the feeling it wont :(. They also had a trailer for a pc game they are working on, would be cool to have that ported to indie games too.
 
K

killdatninja

Banned
HadesGigas said:
Coming soon. Pissed Fish.

http://blog.notplana.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/PFScreen2-1024x576.jpg[/img]
http://blog.notplana.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/PFScreen3-1024x576.jpg[/img]

Wonder how they ever came up with this game concept....
Click to expand...

Gameloft decided to do XBL indie games??
 
K

Kafel

Banned
The episodic idea for a nice platformer is good to keep the price minimal though. It needs a really good story and maybe some sorts of cliffhangers, something not usual in the genre.


As for OwlBoy I don't know if it will get released one day but at least we know it's still being developed. It looks like the devs are putting a lot in that game : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IptYEiWnGGg


jam86 said:
Gameloft decided to do XBL indie games??
Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAoQQNotWj0
 
I

Intruder_qc

Neo Member
HadesGigas said:
Saw a trailer for a platformer in development with really polished graphics, Oozi Earth Adventure. The gameplay looks a little basic though, didn't even look to have any kind of power-up or special ability.

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

Apparently it is planned to be divided into four $1 episodes.
Click to expand...

Just in case people didn't know this game is still a WIP and the developer is definitely looking for feedback from people like you.

So if you're a registered AppHub members, you should definitely go get the build that's currently in play test. Several people already give some good feedback and the developers seems to be receptive, so this is your chance to shape up that game to be a good game.

If you'rent an AppHub members I can forward your feedback to the developers as I am also currently play testing this game and I am going to also send my own feedback.

Hopefully the feedback we're going to send will be listen and will help to make this a great game.
 
K

Kafel

Banned
The characters have charisma and everything is very well-drawn, I'm sure he can do a nice story to link all the episodes. Some slides packed with humor between levels and people will keep buying the episodes if the gameplay follows.

Less generic music would be a plus. The trailer almost gave me a headache already.
 
B

barkers crest

Member
Feep said:
Yeah, I found this helper function last night, and it fixed everything, after around 157 Find/Replaces.

That said, I really hate Premultiplied. The use of RGB with the alpha component is NOT IN ANY WAY intuitive. And I certainly don't see any visual enhancement...in fact, due to all the extra math in the Color.FromNonPremultiplied helper function, my code is probably now significantly slower. = (
Click to expand...

It is only 3 multiplication instructions more than what you were doing already...which is peanuts. I highly doubt you'll see the framerate drop at all.

Premultiplied is not intuitive at first but this helper function lets you retain your previous logic so you really don't even have to think about it as using a different technique.

Eventually you'll learn to embrace premultiplied for the problems it solves...that you haven't came across yet.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2009/11/06/premultiplied-alpha.aspx
 
S

SmallCaveGames

Neo Member
Oozi has great potential, and the dev is definitely considering feedback (he posted saying that some of the "boring" issues have planned fixes too, so that's good).
 
D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Hmm, do you guys think there'd be any interest in a first-person inventory/adventure game (kinda like Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom) for XBL Indies? I've been toiling away at one, as my first Indie release... making decent progress (should have screenshots in a few weeks) but wanted to gauge if that genre is even popular anymore.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Ventron said:
Bonded Realities has passed peer review.
Now I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Click to expand...

Played some of this earlier (made it to the part where I found my friend and have to find the Old Man). Your game definitely has a lot of charm to it. The enemies are far more memorable than the ones in BoDVII and CStW and I'm glad you took a note from the more recent Dragon Quest games where your descriptions to the attacks add to the enjoyment of the battles. I'm not sure how I feel about the turning on and off the random battles a whim so early in the game. As soon as I got it I ran through the cave with it on and beat the dragon without having to grind. I may go back with it off so I can see what enemy types you've made for that section.

Battles themselves feel better than the ones in CStW. All the unique effects really helps out (as does the use of controller vibrations). If I were to make one small quibble it's that I think there could be a bit more sound to the game (like in the menus or leveling up or skimming through text). Speaking of sound the music is really good too! Doesn't sound out of place like the tunes in BoDVII. Props to you or whoever composed the tunes.

Also I noticed one slight problem which I also had in my game that I fixed recently. I'll send you the solution that I found and see if you want to incorporate that in the future.

So far it's pretty good and will easily sit next to 1000 Spikes as one of the better games to be released this month.
 
V

Ventron

Member
Enk said:
Played some of this earlier (made it to the part where I found my friend and have to find the Old Man). Your game definitely has a lot of charm to it. The enemies are far more memorable than the ones in BoDVII and CStW and I'm glad you took a note from the more recent Dragon Quest games where your descriptions to the attacks add to the enjoyment of the battles. I'm not sure how I feel about the turning on and off the random battles a whim so early in the game. As soon as I got it I ran through the cave with it on and beat the dragon without having to grind. I may go back with it off so I can see what enemy types you've made for that section.

Battles themselves feel better than the ones in CStW. All the unique effects really helps out (as does the use of controller vibrations). If I were to make one small quibble it's that I think there could be a bit more sound to the game (like in the menus or leveling up or skimming through text). Speaking of sound the music is really good too! Doesn't sound out of place like the tunes in BoDVII. Props to you or whoever composed the tunes.

Also I noticed one slight problem which I also had in my game that I fixed recently. I'll send you the solution that I found and see if you want to incorporate that in the future.

So far it's pretty good and will easily sit next to 1000 Spikes as one of the better games to be released this month.
Click to expand...

Hm, now I'm worried that I made the game too easy. You didn't battle any enemies in Dragon Cave and still beat the boss?
I did have to tone down difficulty several times in the game because it was so hard for people during playtest.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Ventron said:
Hm, now I'm worried that I made the game too easy. You didn't battle any enemies in Dragon Cave and still beat the boss? I did have to tone down difficulty several times in the game because it was so hard for people during playtest.
Click to expand...

Maybe you could incorporate a multiple difficulty option in an update? I find that traditional turn based RPGs with fairly difficult battles tend to be more fun for me. It's there where I feel the need to grind and use all my abilities at my disposal.
 
V

Ventron

Member
Enk said:
Maybe you could incorporate a multiple difficulty option in an update? I find that traditional turn based RPGs with fairly difficult battles tend to be more fun for me. It's there where I feel the need to grind and use all my abilities at my disposal.
Click to expand...

I'll keep that in mind. I think I have a good way of implementing it.

Anyway, to everyone who liked the game, could you go here and rate it highly? A high rating helps a game on XBLIG more than you think.
http://marketplace.xbox.com/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550791
 
K

Kid Marin

Member
Ventron said:
Bonded Realities has passed peer review.
Now I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Click to expand...
Loving the monster design, very crisp. The naïve art style works great.
One thing that bothers me: the portrait of Liam in the text box is kinda blurry.
 
V

Ventron

Member
Kid Marin said:
Loving the monster design, very crisp. The naïve art style works great.
One thing that bothers me: the portrait of Liam in the text box is kinda blurry.
Click to expand...

It's blurry because it's in the background. All textbox portraits are like that. If it was sharper, it would've been more attention-grabbing and thus make it harder to focus on the text.
 
A

alanias

Member
Ventron said:
Bonded Realities has passed peer review.
Now I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Click to expand...
Love the game. I am on game-buying hiatus cause of my backlog, but I may have to break it to grab this. Difficulty levels would be a sweet patch, since I had no trouble with the parts I did play in the trial.
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Kafel said:
Nice story at gamasutra about the creators of B.U.T.T.O.N, abusive game design explained :

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...table_With_The_Copenhagen_Game_Collective.php

By the way I've heard that the game was planned to release at a higher price. It's 80 points so you should grab it now if you want to (the price point can't be changed that often on the Indie Service).
Click to expand...
That's an interesting interview and read. I really thought highly of this part:

One of my favorite examples of this "back-and-forth" comes from one of the aforementioned Asshole Mario videos -- Stage 6, the underwater level. Right after the halfway mark, the player, R. Kiba, starts walking down a long tunnel. Then he suddenly halts; something feels wrong. We can almost hear his thoughts: This passageway is too narrow, too quiet. Takemoto [the designer] has ambushed me way too many times for me to fall for this again.

Kiba turns around, realizing that he has a second option. Taking advantage of a quirk in the Super Mario World game system, he swims underneath the passageway, below the bottom edge of the screen. Lo and behold, his instincts are proven correct! As Kiba safely swims below the screen, a bullet shoots down the suspicious passageway. Had he continued down the tunnel, he would have fallen for another one of Takemoto's traps.

Viewed in terms of the game itself, this small victory is rather inconsequential. Even if Kiba had fallen for the trap, he would have restarted at the halfway mark, right before the passageway. Having learned his lesson, he could have conquered the obstacle the second or third time around, without even having lost much time. But Kiba's victory here is not just over the level -- it is also the moral victory of predicting and outsmarting the designer. In this view, the game system and levels are ultimately just instruments employed by Takemoto, who himself looms as the "true" adversary.

Thus, counter-intuitively, I think abusive game design can help humanize gameplay. It confronts the conventional and reminds us that play is something deeply personal.
Click to expand...

It's definitely something that cannot (easily) be done with the modern approach to most games...something that used to be quite common in games before the mid to late 90s because it was just one or two people responsible for the level to level, screen to screen challenges with a lot less of the design bible methodology seen in virtually all games released today.
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Dr Zhivago said:
I love the level of polish on Radiangames' stuff, but... another twin-stick arena shooter?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's definitely nearing the limits of endurance for such a specific type of action, but no one does particles as satisfyingly on XBLIG (or anywhere else, pretty much). Love the loadout element.
 
F

Feep

Banned
I played B.U.T.T.O.N. with some friends at...(E3? Comic-Con? PAX? Good God I can't remember), but it was really awesome. We had a good time fighting each other for those controllers. = D
 
Dr. Zoidberg

Dr. Zoidberg

Member
So, "Death n' Failure" releases on XBLIG the other day. The interesting thing here is that the creator has "bundled" his previous "Avatar Dash" game in the package for a low 80MSP.

Now, I have no interest in Death n Failure per se, but I think the possibilities of some of these creators "bundling" older games with new ones to up the value ante to be pretty interesting. If RadianGames or Arkedo (etc.) come out with a new game and one of their older games are not selling any longer, why not throw it in as a bonus to the new game. It's bound to push some people over the edge to purchase, and it probably isn't that much work to do, I would imagine.

Would it be possible to simply release a bundle without a new game at all? Would that pass review? Could we get a "Arkedo Trilogy" or a "BoD/Cthulu/Molly the Were-Zompire" bundle? If possible, it would allow older games to get in the release list again, but I'm sure there would also be a lot of abuse.
 
H

HadesGigas

Member
Can't imagine the peer reviewers allowing "bundles" that don't have a new game in them. Since that's basically gaming the system to get back into new releases. Pretty sure there's already rules against resubmitting the same game over and over so they'd probably be able to block that sort of thing from happening.

More devs really do need to plug their other games in their new games though. Seems like it's mostly devs of crappy games that do that (Silver Dollar).
 
T

toythatkills

Member
My schedule:

Internet turns on at midday on Feb 1st.
I can't turn my Xbox on until midnight, because I'm on a 10GB a month cap, and I've got that much stuff queued up already from the last few months. Between midnight and 8am, the usage is free, so I can download all I want then.
I spend all night downloading and playing stuff and the rest of the day playing what's left, then make the thread.

So, it'll be up sometime around February 3rd or very late on the 2nd, UK time.

Y'all want a placeholder thread on the 1st to talk in, or shall I just wait to do it all at once?

I hope I've got plenty of good stuff to play this month :D
 
K

Kafel

Banned
Dr. Zoidberg said:
Would it be possible to simply release a bundle without a new game at all? Would that pass review? Could we get a "Arkedo Trilogy" or a "BoD/Cthulu/Molly the Were-Zompire" bundle? If possible, it would allow older games to get in the release list again, but I'm sure there would also be a lot of abuse.
Click to expand...

There has to be something completely new or it will be failed in peer-review.


toythatkills >> we'll keep talking in this thread until you're ready
 
I

Intruder_qc

Neo Member
Concerning bundle...

Indeed if someone try to submit a games that is just a slight modification of a game that was already release in the past (like now someone was asking about creating a "legendary" edition you know like a Special/Collector edition) and everyone though this will be like trying to gain the system.

If a totally new game include a previous game, I think it should be ok (but of course this is a topics that I am sure people will have different opinion). They are even game that would have been good candidate for this, like episodic game like Aphelion, Decay. For example for each new episode you bundle up the previous one (the only problem is that of course the file will be larger, but also due to some limitation of XBLIG you will need to charge 240 MS if it's above a certain size).

Also I've seen promotion for other game by devs, like Kohei did that in their Maid san Caving Adventure, where when you lunch the game you will be shown an information screen about his other game. What would be great if the XNA framework would allow us to have clickable link that send you back to the marketplace.

Ohhh and I think it would be great to have devs forms some kind of alliance to do cross promotion, a bit like the Indie Game Winter Uprising but inside the game. This is something that a few iOS devs I know are doing, they have a screen usually called "more games" where they link to their other games and games from other devs that they like.
 
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