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Xbox LIVE Indie Games - The June 2011 Thread

Kafel

Banned
I'm glad there were ninja contestants who stealthily submitted their games then. I was worried because with what I've seen so far you could make an Uprising with three titles you'd still have two turds in.



edit : yeaaah, always on top
 

Ronabo

Member
I see there is a new CCG type game that's name escapes me now. I remember it being 240. Anyone have anything to say about it?
 
mujun said:
Anyone try out Solar 2? How is it?

I never played the first game so grain of salt and all that.

While I haven't messed with the missions I have spent about an hour or so fooling around in the galaxy. It's pretty neat I guess.

I don't really agree with the $5 price-tag though. I bought it anyway though because I'm a cash money bazillionaire(I dug the music too). I might try my hand at a full review after I get some more time in.

Also Onpoint posted my latest XBLIG round-up so there goes my other reason for this post.
 
@SmallCaveGames

No. I stopped writing there so that I could do the uprising. I didn't want a conflict of interest. Plus it's a bit awkward writing press releases, only to write them up for a site too :)


Yeaaaaaah Platformance looks awesome. I'm definitely picking up Ben Kane's Lair of the Evildoer tonight (AO's game of the week) http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/06/19/the-best-xblig-new-releases-for-the-week-of-june-11/, and Pixelbit Helicopter Challenge. I love the cel shading in it, and I'm a pilot so I have a bit of a bias :)
 

OnPoint

Member
PepsimanVsJoe said:
I never played the first game so grain of salt and all that.

While I haven't messed with the missions I have spent about an hour or so fooling around in the galaxy. It's pretty neat I guess.

I don't really agree with the $5 price-tag though. I bought it anyway though because I'm a cash money bazillionaire(I dug the music too). I might try my hand at a full review after I get some more time in.

Also Onpoint posted my latest XBLIG round-up so there goes my other reason for this post.

Sorry bud, didn't mean to steal your thunder. Just wasn't sure if you were around or not
 

fernoca

Member
Finally bought Platformance: Temple of Death.
The marketplace just crashed (PC and on the Xbox 360) and didn't let me. Then it said that I had no points to buy anything.

EDIT:
But it doesn't let me download it?! :\

Ah, seems there's a problem:
HpxIE.png
 

fernoca

Member
Also bought bumblepic and Techno Kitten Adventure; couldn't stand having 320 points...
(+ 4,000 for Mortal Kombat-Skarlet/Pass, Black Ops-Annihilation XD)
:p
 
OnPoint said:
Sorry bud, didn't mean to steal your thunder. Just wasn't sure if you were around or not
No worries.
Personally I'd rather see people besides myself posting my reviews/updates. It makes me think I'm going places.
 
I bought Platformance tonight = that game is beautiful, and a blast to play. Frustrating as all hell though but I'm really enjoying the game, I'd highly recommend it.

Lair of the Evildoer is a blast too. I've been playing that all night. If you're a fan of dungeon crawlers then I'd highly recommend it. Beautiful game, simple yet sophisticated.
 
Great idea by Luke Schneider! I spoke with him for a while at GDC and one of the things we went over were price points, and the pros and cons of each. I think this is a great idea for a promotion though, considering he has so many titles out on the service, and it could certainly be a sustainable medium for him in the near future.
 
DaveVoyles said:
I bought Platformance tonight = that game is beautiful, and a blast to play. Frustrating as all hell though but I'm really enjoying the game, I'd highly recommend it.

Lair of the Evildoer is a blast too. I've been playing that all night. If you're a fan of dungeon crawlers then I'd highly recommend it. Beautiful game, simple yet sophisticated.
Platformance is one of my favorite XBLIGs. I'm really, really eager to play the second one.
 
HadesGigas said:
Interesting bit of marketing here by radiangames:



Interesting way to get some quick sales maybe, but I doubt he will sell a single copy of his games for $5, so I foresee him lowering the price back down.
 
LocoMrPollock said:
Interesting way to get some quick sales maybe, but I doubt he will sell a single copy of his games for $5, so I foresee him lowering the price back down.

It'll be locked at $5 for 90 days, thems the rules.

If he's willing to do such a radical price hike, his current sales must be pretty close to non-existent to begin with anyway.
 

bkane

Neo Member
HadesGigas said:
If he's willing to do such a radical price hike, his current sales must be pretty close to non-existent to begin with anyway.

Agreed. I imagine his conversion rate is great but his download numbers are are tiny. If you're confident that those that seek out your game are willing to buy it, the price difference probably won't change their mind and thus the hike could be beneficial. The fact that he can advertise this as a Bizarro Sale up front is neat bonus, but ultimately I think this is just an experiment with no real expectations of increased revenue before or afterward.

I think it's a great idea, if only for science.
 
fernoca said:
Finally bought Platformance: Temple of Death.
The marketplace just crashed (PC and on the Xbox 360) and didn't let me. Then it said that I had no points to buy anything.

EDIT:
But it doesn't let me download it?! :\
I've been charged for Platformance but it's not in my download history and if I try and get the full game it tries to charge me again for it.

It's in my billing history so probably an easy fix, but an easy fix on the PHONE TO MICROSOFT. Ugh
 

atre324

Member
yeah I don't really get it either, aren't most of those games 80 points already? Is he lowering the price on all of them to 80, then raising the price on games that used to be a dollar to 5 bucks afterward?
 

mclem

Member
atre324 said:
yeah I don't really get it either, aren't most of those games 80 points already? Is he lowering the price on all of them to 80, then raising the price on games that used to be a dollar to 5 bucks afterward?

I believe he's just giving ample advance warning about a forthcoming price hike.
 

OnPoint

Member
mclem said:
I believe he's just giving ample advance warning about a forthcoming price hike.

Absolutely. And it's a good tactic to spur sales in the short term, I would think, if someone truly were on the fence.

But what I think it does really well is set up for the potential reduction to normal prices down the line, making it look like an actual sale.
 

fernoca

Member
Ignored about this game, downloding the trial now..since it looks too good and seems to be a platformer which are relatively rare this days.. I guess music will be bad and/or the controls will be a distaer; otherwise I'll buy it.
SO MINE! :O!!

k8SNZ.jpg


TIC: Part 1
Size: 90.78 MB
Price: 240 Microsoft Points ($3)

miKJ4.jpg
 

bryehn

Member
fernoca said:
Ignored about this game, downloding the trial now..since it looks too good and seems to be a platformer which are relatively rare this days.. I guess music will be bad and/or the controls will be a distaer; otherwise I'll buy it.

k8SNZ.jpg


TIC: Part 1
Size: 90.78 MB
Price: 240 Microsoft Points ($3)

miKJ4.jpg

Blind bought this one looks great.

Both the wife and I tried Sum Fighter and couldn't get into it.

A game about my cat looks ok, get sort of a Caabalt/Tiny Wings feeling from it.

Bought Platformance but haven't tried. Bought Solar 2 on Steam (I think it was 10 there), again no time to try it yet. Kung Fu Fight looks pretty good, will pick it up in my next batch.

Really sunk into Lair of the Evildoer. Dual-stick dungeon-crawling rogue-like. Yup.

Poopocalypse is another I bought but haven't checked out yet.

Don't think I've ever bought so many indies in one month. It's turning into a new obsession like when iOS games started getting good.
 

fernoca

Member
Just bought it. (Tic) It does play as great as it looks. :O!!

You control a robot (Tic) collecting acorns, have to time the jumps and runs, can hover for limited time, can drill to look for secrets and play in other areas. Really good and came out of nowhere.

Music reminds me of ilomilo, cutscenes are static with a construction paper/fabric-like look. Red acorns are basically to boost (add energy to) hover/run , silver (and gold?) ones are used as currency /collection purposes and to restore health.

Really nice early on, how you have to hover around collecting red acorns to extend/boost while hovering and collect silver acorns while in the air. Gold ones are really big, guess those are for collecting purposes since seem to be in hidden places.
 

qupe1975

Neo Member
bryehn said:
Poopocalypse is another I bought but haven't checked out yet.

Just did a roundup of a load of games I tested on you know where but this game I think gets dull real quick.

As for that cat game, seriously, get pixel boarder or something else instead.



Have any of you tried that Case o' Games? please tell me I am not missing something. I am seriously starting to lose the plot playing so many Indie games.
 
Poopocalypse was dull before I'd even started it. The main problem though is that trying to look up at your flight and down at your targets is just a bit rubbish. You can't give enough focus to either.
 
Dammit, I wrote up a whole thing explaining Luke's strategy before and I lost my connection. Oh well, here goes again:

The way I look at it, it's a wise decision. Let's say, hypothetically (as I'm pulling this from the sky) that Radian Games' titles currently aren't selling much. That's to be expected, as most of the are nearly a year+ old at this point.

Many of his titles are already going for $1 or $3, correct? So by stating that they are going down in price to only $1, then quickly raising them all to $5, people will think "Well I wanted to try it, or see what the fuss is about, so for $1, why not, I mean it's going to be $5 in 3 months anyway."

Immeditely following that he raises the cost to $5. Who cares if he doesn't make sales at this price point - he wasn't making sales to begin with (hypothetically). So now he will suddenly have a boost in sales at the $1 price point, if only temporarily.


TIC is absolutely beautiful. Probably one of the prettiest games to graces the platform yet, and a great development team. I hear it's going to be episodic as well.
 

Gaspode_T

Member
The radiangames are basically being permanently raised to $5 each, not a temporary thing, so the joke is that you better get them now while they're '-400% off'

I bought Lair of the Evildoer and Platformance: Temple Death last night...the TIC game looks very interesting, but does it do anything new? How are the controls?

The platform games like Akane the Kunoichi and Oozi are great but they are kind of sticking straight to platforming formula so why someone should play that instead of something either super challenging or super creative is kind of a tough call.

The cat game is a Tiny Wings clone right? It's getting pretty predictable to see which games will sell well and why. It still blows my mind to see the Silver Dollar Games consistently on the Top Downloaded list...they must have a ... fan base???
 
If that garbage actually manages to stay on the service I'll rip it and its creator to shreds in my next XBLIG round-up.

Absolutely insulting.
 

Gaspode_T

Member
There are tons of things like that on Apple App Store too, including Wikipedia dumps. It's kind of lame I agree, I almost wish they would at least make a separate section for non-games.

The problem with submitting it to XBLIG is that part of the peer review process involves checking the content, and I have no idea how he will pass without someone flagging for certain types of content (maybe they will just rate everything 3/3 since I'm sure Wikipedia or GameFAQs has plenty of bad words in it)
 
I just don't see the point in downloading GameFAQs onto the 360.
So if I want to look up a code or a strategy I have to quit whatever game I'm playing, switch games, and then switch back? What a nuisance.
 

Gaspode_T

Member
Yeah, I thought the same but I just saw someone tweeting about it that they were going to check it out...(and it didn't seem to be the developer)

Honestly game guides are one area where the US can learn from Japan - in Japan buying the game guide is not frowned upon, it's usually thought of as quite normal especially for a 'casual' gamer (that might still be playing something like Dragon Age: Origins which received a big ass guidebook after it was released). I always feel stupid to print out a big unevenly written guide from GameFAQs or check it on an iPad, usually if a game is so hard that I need a guide I will just stop playing it lately.

The frustrating thing about the mobile game guides are how many of them are related to the same games: Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, etc. For those games...seriously you don't even need a freaking guide, just try over and over and you will eventually get it or figure it out.
 
It is horribly lame to have an un-updating code list as a separate game you need to go in, but I have thought of this sort of "on console" guide/code database before. I've seen Prima has guide videos on the marketplace but that seems like a crappy way to do it too.

It's something that needs to be integrated into the Xbox guide menu, so you can look at it during games. I don't think it'd be realistic for MS to partner up with GameFaqs or sites like that where anyone can add info, but companies that make guides (like Prima) would probably love to be able to sell digital versions on XBL/PSN similar to what they offer on Steam (where they're a lot less useful since you can just go to GameFAQs using the Steam overlay if you're looking for guides)
 

Feep

Banned
HadesGigas said:
Interesting bit of marketing here by radiangames:

Math Fail! Percent change is based on the original price; 400% of $5 is $20, which means the new price would ne negative $15, which he would have to pay...

Never mind.
 
This took about twenty seconds to find based on a search of the screenshot for that GameFAQs game, the FAQ that the Brink text is copied from.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/960407-brink/faqs/62326

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This document is copyright 2011 Jesse Elliott, otherwise known as "GetJesse" on
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The following web sites outside of GameFAQs (and its affiliates) have my
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http://www.supercheats.com/

The latest version of this guide can be found on GameFAQs.

This game is infringing the copyrights of about five hundred people, presumably. I can't believe it got passed.
 

Jucksalbe

Banned
Feep said:
Math Fail! Percent change is based on the original price; 400% of $5 is $20, which means the new price would ne negative $15, which he would have to pay...

I don't think you really get this sale.
It's MINUS 400% you save. So each game now is $1. 400% of that is $4. New price is $5 each. So you have to pay $4 more than before or you save -400%.
 
toythatkills said:
This game is infringing the copyrights of about five hundred people, presumably. I can't believe it got passed.

From the title screen of the game it says that the developer got permission of everyone to post their guides.

Yeah, right.
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
From the title screen of the game it says that the developer got permission of everyone to post their guides.

Yeah, right.
I wonder if he got permission to post them, or permission to sell them. There's a big difference.

He certainly hasn't got permission from Wikimedia or anyone that contributed to that. I've no idea where copyright lies with that, though, maybe that's allowed.

EDIT: Seems he can sell Wikipedia if he wants, as long as he includes URLs for every page he uses, and credits each author individually.
 
toythatkills said:
I wonder if he got permission to post them, or permission to sell them. There's a big difference.

Oh ho whoops!
That part completely slipped my mind.

Yeah that is bad news bears. You'd have to be either shady as hell or insane to do such a project and expect to benefit at all from it.

Can I send in my application to the certification committee? It's obvious they aren't actually looking at the games(apps...whatever) they are approving.
 
I emailed the guy who wrote the Brink FAQ out of my own curiosity, so don't anyone else do that please!

Will let you know if I get a reply.
 

Kafel

Banned
When I first saw this I thought about how useful this tool could be and the only case seemed to be : "I don't have an internet access right now, I'm glad I've downloaded the whole GameFAQs to read some pages now"


... but you have to be online to play a XBLIG


...
 

Trumpets

Member
ASSUMING he has permission / the legal right to sell these FAQs, I think it's a genius idea. It'll be interesting to see how well it does on the marketplace.
 

Gaspode_T

Member
Yeah just an example this one from iTunes is highlighting the offline usage: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/allofwiki-offline/id364878448?mt=8

Example of a game cheats one:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/game-cheats-for-iphone-ipod/id351055688?mt=8

I'm sure there are some for WP7 already released too, we are just talking about this here because it's the XBLIG channel.

It's nothing new for the mobile marketplaces, but the fact that they ever allowed non-games to be approved in XBLIG peer review in my opinion was a mistake. If devs want to be releasing apps on 360 it should be done in a different way with different rules and not in the same top dl lists.
 
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