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Xbox LIVE Indie Games - The July 2011 Thread

T

the_dannobot

Member
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Considering what has been releasing lately for $3+ on XBLIG a game like Twin Blades deserves at least a bit of respect.

Hopefully somebody comes in here and comments as to why more devs are avoiding the $1 tag. I'd really like to know because I can't make sense of it myself.
Click to expand...
A lot of devs feel like their work is being undervalued at $1. Like what else can you buy for one dollar? A taco or a single mp3? I suppose you could go to a casino and play penny slots for ten minutes. If I had a game that potentially provided several hours of entertainment, I think it would be worth more than the 80 point price tag.

For the record, Pajamorama is only going to be 80 points and I feel like I'm giving players a fantastic value.

Cheers!
 
H

HadesGigas

Member
the_dannobot said:
A lot of devs feel like their work is being undervalued at $1. Like what else can you buy for one dollar? A taco or a single mp3? I suppose you could go to a casino and play penny slots for ten minutes. If I had a game that potentially provided several hours of entertainment, I think it would be worth more than the 80 point price tag.
Click to expand...

But have you looked at the junk on the new release list right now for $3? A Wikipedia app is among them...
 
T

the_dannobot

Member
HadesGigas said:
But have you looked at the junk on the new release list right now for $3? A Wikipedia app is among them...
Click to expand...
Maybe, but on the other hand there are some awesome games that are only $1 that I would gladly pay more for. That japanese armored-core game Foot Steel is only 80 points, and I've been playing it everyday for a week. That's a weeks worth of entertainment for only one dollar. SCORE

My point is, that for every "overpriced junk app" in the 240p list, there are prolly like 10 underpriced gems in the 80p list.

Is even $3 really THAT MUCH to pay for a videogame? You probably have that much in your couch cushions right now. If you would've told me when I was a kid that I could have a whole entire video game for $3, I would've laughed in your face and gone and begged mom for $60 to buy Megaman 3.

Cheer!
 
H

HadesGigas

Member
the_dannobot said:
Maybe, but on the other hand there are some awesome games that are only $1 that I would gladly pay more for. That japanese armored-core game Foot Steel is only 80 points, and I've been playing it everyday for a week. That's a weeks worth of entertainment for only one dollar. SCORE

My point is, that for every "overpriced junk app" in the 240p list, there are prolly like 10 underpriced gems in the 80p list.
Click to expand...

Overall, perhaps. But right now there seems to be an odd number of just awful games coming out priced at $3. As if the totally wrong segment of developers got the memo that "their games are worth more than $1".
 
G

Gaspode_T

Member
They Bleed Pixels is hitting Japan websites too - I think these masochistic games have a fine line to walk between frustration and fun...I really wish that Aban Hawkins & The 1000 Spikes would get more attention because I think it's perfectly balanced (if you die there's usually something obvious to fix and move forward)
 
K

Kafel

Banned
Gaspode_T said:
They Bleed Pixels is hitting Japan websites too - I think these masochistic games have a fine line to walk between frustration and fun...I really wish that Aban Hawkins & The 1000 Spikes would get more attention because I think it's perfectly balanced (if you die there's usually something obvious to fix and move forward)
Click to expand...

Yeah well, this French VG website keeps calling the Indie Service "the XNA" but it's already something I guess.

*

Blackstone - Part One is out :

http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-U...d=a1f9adfb-45bf-4a78-82f1-7dbc76442d3b&type=2

I don't think it's creepy on purpose.
 
N

nbraun80

Member
I just started checking out Indie games, curse of the crescent isle is pretty awesome. Are there any games that are like mega man or have a similar feel?
 
T

the_dannobot

Member
omg... was up late playtesting for summer uprising. ttk you gonna need a whole stack of gold medals for the August thread. The games are all really good, and the ones that make it into the "official promotion" are probably gonna be some of the best titles on the whole xblig service. I'm not just talking about the games that were put in the top 25 either, there are some gems in the list that didn't "make the cut" that would get a gold medal any other month

Playtesters aren't allowed to talk about individual titles without permission :( its killing me, I've been playing so many good games and cant say anything

Cheers!
 
J

j00ce

Neo Member
qupe1975 said:
That was before they added the new modes though. I think it's a nice game to dip in and out of, the nature of these games generally is repetition.

I so wish something could be done about the speed my games menu loads after I have played a game, it's quicker to turn my machine off and on.
Click to expand...

Trust me, it gets a lot more annoying when you're working through a few dozen games so you can put some reviews together!

For some reason, Microsoft feels the need to revalidate your entire game collection after you quit out of a game, which means you have to wait while your game details make the round trip from your machine to Microsoft and back.

There's three ways to short-circuit this: reboot the Xbox, sign out of XBL (which then cancels the validation) or simply yank the network cable from the back of the machine ;)

Deleting games also helps (thereby reducing the number of titles needing validation) and while it may be purely psychological, deleting the left-over save files also seemed to help...
 
O

OnPoint

Member
natedog4000 said:
I just started checking out Indie games, curse of the crescent isle is pretty awesome. Are there any games that are like mega man or have a similar feel?
Click to expand...

ARES is due out at some point in the future, but I can't think of any off the top of my head that are like Mega Man other than that one.

I'd recommend The Deep Cave if you'd like another platformer, though. The soundtrack alone makes it worthwhile.
 
B

bede-x

Member
Actually it's taken from a lot of Zelda games:

Go to 0:55 in the uprising trailer. Now go to 1:11 in this from Link's Awakening(or maybe 2:07 is better). And SPOÍLER btw. It's from the ending:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0bgQ0nzhvA

At 1:12 in uprising you get a snippet from the classic Zelda theme. No further proof needed I assume.

At 2:32 in the uprising trailer is the dark world theme from Zelda 3. Compare it by going to 0:07:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sslj06K-Nlw

Maybe the hen/rewind effect in the beginning is also from other games but those effects are pretty much everywhere. And I will need time to place the stuff around 1:30...
 
Q

qupe1975

Neo Member
j00ce said:
Trust me, it gets a lot more annoying when you're working through a few dozen games so you can put some reviews together!

For some reason, Microsoft feels the need to revalidate your entire game collection after you quit out of a game, which means you have to wait while your game details make the round trip from your machine to Microsoft and back.

There's three ways to short-circuit this: reboot the Xbox, sign out of XBL (which then cancels the validation) or simply yank the network cable from the back of the machine ;)

Deleting games also helps (thereby reducing the number of titles needing validation) and while it may be purely psychological, deleting the left-over save files also seemed to help...
Click to expand...

I do it, I run the Grcade Xbox Indie recommended topic and Xbox Indie facebook page so know your pain.
 
T

toythatkills

Member
j00ce said:
Trust me, it gets a lot more annoying when you're working through a few dozen games so you can put some reviews together!

For some reason, Microsoft feels the need to revalidate your entire game collection after you quit out of a game, which means you have to wait while your game details make the round trip from your machine to Microsoft and back.

There's three ways to short-circuit this: reboot the Xbox, sign out of XBL (which then cancels the validation) or simply yank the network cable from the back of the machine ;)

Deleting games also helps (thereby reducing the number of titles needing validation) and while it may be purely psychological, deleting the left-over save files also seemed to help...
Click to expand...
I play Tiny Tower on the iPhone while I'm waiting for this process to go on. I've not found deleting games or saves to help, but I do it anyway.

It's incredibly annoying when devs call their saves things like "SAVE FILE" and the icon is just the default XNA one.

the_dannobot said:
Playtesters aren't allowed to talk about individual titles without permission :( its killing me, I've been playing so many good games and cant say anything
Click to expand...
By playtesters, do you just mean people voting for the 25?
 
T

the_dannobot

Member
toythatkills said:
By playtesters, do you just mean people voting for the 25?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in the TOS or something that playtesters aren't supposed to talk about other people's games they are playtesting without permission. As I recall, it had something to do with people talking about bugs outside the apphub forums, or features changing. I could be wrong though, I can't find any mention in any of the FAQs on apphub, or maybe it was just informal rule. I only want to talk about how GOOD the games are but idunno, I don't want to step on any toes...

...but have you seen the trailer for for Train Frontier Express?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TyF5oyZ6w
wow based on that trailer looks like could be XBLIG killer app ;)
 
G

Gaspode_T

Member
natedog4000 said:
I just started checking out Indie games, curse of the crescent isle is pretty awesome. Are there any games that are like mega man or have a similar feel?
Click to expand...

Tempura of the Dead and Aban Hawkins are made by a single Japanese dude and they are both freaking awesome:

Aban Hawkins and the 1000 Spikes: http://8bits.nukimi.com/1000s/
Tempura of the Dead (more Ninja Gaiden-ish??): http://8bits.nukimi.com/tod/

Not exactly like Mega Man but they are both 8-bit style, pretty much must buys if you like NES style games.
 
J

j00ce

Neo Member
toythatkills said:
I play Tiny Tower on the iPhone while I'm waiting for this process to go on. I've not found deleting games or saves to help, but I do it anyway.

It's incredibly annoying when devs call their saves things like "SAVE FILE" and the icon is just the default XNA one.
Click to expand...
Deleting games definitely makes a difference - but there's a law of diminishing returns in effect: going from 200 - 50 makes an obvious difference, whereas going from 200-190 doesn't.

A while ago, I'd had enough, so I slapped in a USB stick and transferred all the games I'd like to keep but don't frequently play (ie games I've paid for and/or which have since been deleted from the platform) onto it. It's a PITA process, as you can only do one game at a time, but it made a nice difference to the refresh time and freed up a nice chunk of space on the HDD :)
 
O

OnPoint

Member
Gaspode_T said:
Tempura of the Dead and Aban Hawkins are made by a single Japanese dude and they are both freaking awesome:

Aban Hawkins and the 1000 Spikes: http://8bits.nukimi.com/1000s/
Tempura of the Dead (more Ninja Gaiden-ish??): http://8bits.nukimi.com/tod/

Not exactly like Mega Man but they are both 8-bit style, pretty much must buys if you like NES style games.
Click to expand...

They're not much like Mega Man at all, though they're both good at what they do. Aban Hawkins is a frustration platformer, emphasis heavily on frustration.

Tempura is more of a self-contained level style action game with two characters -- one with a gun and one with a sword. The object is to eliminate all of the big enemies before you can move on. It's also pretty difficult in the later stages.
 
G

Gaspode_T

Member
Yeah I know I only said those two because they are kind of lumped into a "NES style platforming action" category within me, I can't even think of that many games that can be called true Mega Man clones :)

Aban Hawkins where you jump across stones that crumble etc feels a little bit like Mega Man in terms of disappearing platforms that make some people want to throw controllers, that's probably not the part of Mega Man that's being asked for though :)
 
P

PepsimanVsJoe

Member
Anyone else give Grand Theft Froot a look?

It's pretty repetitive and a bunch of other things but at least it feels complete, so it looks to be IMO the best game so far this week.
 
G

Gaspode_T

Member
I watched the trailer, looks like they put a lot of love into it...I like that it has boss fights which gives motivation to complete it. I never got through Astroman because I kind of lost interest and didn't receive much reward besides checkpoint posts (maybe there are boss fights in Astroman and I didn't play long enough??)

Here is the Grand Theft Froot DBP trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj_0eKXcpFc

Here is Astroman just so people know what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZlD6J5LQaY Astroman has great graphics, but controls are a little bit heavy and it's pretty challenging game so like I said I would have liked to see some sort of reward for hard work of completing sections (I guess you get powerups but maybe not enough epicness) Blocks that Matter does a good job of rewarding you with cut scenes etc
 
Q

qupe1975

Neo Member
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Anyone else give Grand Theft Froot a look?

It's pretty repetitive and a bunch of other things but at least it feels complete, so it looks to be IMO the best game so far this week.
Click to expand...

It's not the best looking and those damn pop-ups were getting on my nerves, doesn't seem like you get much variety in the trial which is a shame as the trailer shows so much more. Definitely see a fair bit of effort has gone into making the game.
 
B

besiktas1

Member
While taking a dump I just thought of an idea, thought I'd get your opinion on it. Way to make Indie games more money? Make them free! No, no, hear me out. It's free but eevery time you load the game a 30second advert plays. Want to stop that? Buy it. Works in other marketplaces, silver light allows for ads and they are already on the dashboard. So why not?

An 80pt game = $1 right. I'm pretty sure if 1000 people trialled the game and didn't buy now have to watch the ad, I'm guessing you'd make more than a buck. People love free shit. Therefore you audience just blows up. They try the thing.... Ad revenue. They like it? They play it again. More moneys. For free. Win, Win.

Should this idea have stayed in the loo?
 
N

nofi

Member
besiktas1 said:
While taking a dump I just thought of an idea, thought I'd get your opinion on it. Way to make Indie games more money? Make them free! No, no, hear me out. It's free but eevery time you load the game a 30second advert plays. Want to stop that? Buy it. Works in other marketplaces, silver light allows for ads and they are already on the dashboard. So why not?

An 80pt game = $1 right. I'm pretty sure if 1000 people trialled the game and didn't buy now have to watch the ad, I'm guessing you'd make more than a buck. People love free shit. Therefore you audience just blows up. They try the thing.... Ad revenue. They like it? They play it again. More moneys. For free. Win, Win.

Should this idea have stayed in the loo?
Click to expand...

Possibly. I don't know how many downloads most of the Indie games get, but I doubt it's a lot. They're as cheap as they can be (in most cases) and some proper promotion from Microsoft would be much more effective than (IMO) your suggestion.

=)
 
T

toythatkills

Member
That model is available on WP7 but I dunno how revenue compares to XBLIG.

Steam's the real way to go. I've a feeling that CStW has probably outsold the XBLIG version by some distance already.
 
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