Give us this day our daily game.

Retrocade: DataStream Y2K600

2011-04-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

So for the past two and a half years I have been scanning the Xbox live indie games new release tab just about daily. I have my own routine: Click A, Move Thumbstick Right to View Gallery, scan images to determine if game is worth playing.

Screenshots aren't my only metric for making the gameplay determination, I play about 90% of the games that are released, the screenshots cull that ten percent with mechanics that can be completely determined from the screenshots, if I can visualize how your game plays in my head, why would I need to play it? What I am really looking for is something that I haven't seen before,

The above screen is obviously depicting a frogger clone reminiscent of the early 1980's. In other words RETRO. Something that we have all seen before by definition. So why did I instantly download DataStream and play it for upwards of an hour non-continuously? Well, for one thing it's fun.

Indeed, RBG Entertainment has this to say about their own game,

"Pure unadulterated game play that the entire industry was built upon. No fancy graphics, no social media BS, and no silly advertising tie ins; Just rock solid retro fun."

Actually, the textual overlays on the screenshots caused me to lol in real life, and whenever a content description causes this reaction, the content is added to my download queue instantly, no questions asked.

Datastream is at its core an implementation of those classic Atari carts that came loaded with multiple variations upon a single gameplay theme. Frogger is the nucleus as previously mentioned, but I always found the linear nature of frogger to be quite limiting. Luckily RBG entertainment has brought Frogger back to its roots and twisted the mechanic beyond all comprehension. Yes, you control a block of pixels and yes, you will be moving up, down, left, and right avoiding other pixel blocks while attempting to collect others but you will be doing so as a pixel block itself.

The frog has become irrelevant, Datastream is what I refer to as a pure game. One stripped down to its essential elements. I quite enjoy these types of games.

Each variation comes with its own set of rules, each slightly different, each slightly similar. I only enjoy playing one variation though, depicted here,

I am one colorless pixel block amongst many, but I have fallen out of the flow. My only purpose is to collect errant yellow blocks while avoiding my colorless brethren who are sliding past at varying speeds and lengths. Quite fun actually. I do suggest you try it.

Click To Download The Trial of DataStream

Snake Man

2011-04-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Ah Snake, That most classical of the classics. Xbox Live Indie games has not been wanting for its lack of snake clones since its inception back in November of 2008.

Snake360 was released 8 days after the service launched. I know this after a few seconds of use of what I think is a very powerful tool for the Xbox Indie Searcher, the Xboxindies.com filter. In the past I used that official game list over at the MS Apphub but its interface was horrid and it did not allow me to filter how I wanted. The funny thing is that xboxindies.com has always been in the vanguard when it comes to sorting and displaying XBLIG.

Coming to the point of this post,

SNAKE MAN

Snake Man is in my opinion the cream of the cream when it comes to snake clones on the Xbox Live Indie Marketplace, the filter mentioned above lists 14 games that can be found by using the keyword Snake. One of these is a Silver Dollar abomination that has nothing to do with Snake but is listed due its title "Murder on Snake Road" And two are quite similar, Snake 360 mentioned above and Snake 360 lite. I have strong opinions when it comes to my Indie Channel, I feel that lite releases have no place.

So according to the filter, 12 Snake games. I feel that this number is a bit low. Undoubtedly there are some snake games that do not list the word Snake in either their title or description. This is no cause for alarm, all that is needed of the filter is the addition of user generated tags, something that I hope will be implemented shortly.

Oh yeah, if you haven't already tried Snake Man I suggest you do, it is surprisingly good. It's retro inspired feel and progression style leads the player towards the do a little better next time mentality, which is the hallmark of the classics.

Cuckoo Crack

2011-02-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

"Is this that angry birds for the Xbox?" She asks.

"No." Although the aesthetic is quite similar.

Cuckoo Crack, recently released through the Xbox Indie Marketplace can probably trace its origins to Defender, although in Cuckoo Crack, we are only given two options for control of our bird, The left trigger, which when pressed translates to a flapping of our bird's wings, giving the Cuckoo an upward thrust. And the right trigger which causes our bird to "lay" an egg. Lay enough eggs in the seemingly infinite number of nests and advance to the next round.

A game such as this is made or broken on the strength of its artistic sensibilities and sound effects. Cuckoo Crack delivers on both fronts. I must admit that pulling off a triple lay in the same tree, results in a most pleasant, "ping, ping, ping" to eminate from my speakers. To me, the most satisfying feedback in the game. The looping background music, although not too grating is easily muted by a simple press of the Left Shoulder Button.(note to devs: If you find yourself with an unused button when your game is nearing completion, consider turning it into a volume control. Your gamers will thank you for the option.)

Once I got the hang of the physics involved, internalizing the rate of egg drop calculated against the speed of horizontal velocity, I found myself completing the game's 5 levels in about 15 minutes. The game then asked me if I would like to play again, I did click yes but did not notice any change in the difficulty or speed for this Challenge round level 2 so I simply quit the game. It's probably a good thing that I did.

Cuckoo Crack makes use of multiple scrolling backgrounds, all scrolling at various speeds. When this scrolling stopped, the room began to scroll. The motion aftereffect from Cuckoo Crack is intense. If you're sensitive to this affect, you might want to give Cuckoo Crack a try just to experience it.

As I mentioned there are 5 levels in Cuckoo crack, but only two types of challenges, a score challenge where you are asked to rack up a score by laying eggs, and an egg laying challenge, which requires a certain number of eggs to be laid in a certain amount of time. Both types of challenges come with a timer of 3 minutes.

In the later levels, the game speeds up about every minute or so, It might actually speed up based on score or by number of eggs laid, either way, the fact that the game scrolling speed does speed up is what's important here. If the developer had an easy to find weblisting, I would have asked why an infinite mode was not added to Cuckoo Crack, where the player can simply play for as long as they would like, as long as their reflexes could keep up with the increases in game speed of course.The after effect might be interesting as well.

And I have now spent quite a bit more time on this review than I actually spent playing the game, so I must stop.

Score Rush

2010-12-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

Pixel Perfect Production Proudly Passes Peers, Presents Players Performance Proudly.

Click To Download the Trial

I must admit to being a little concerned about my ability to play this game. My concerns were unfounded of course, especially once I realized that my ship's collision box wasn't actually the entire ship. No, that tiny pixel there in the lower right of the screenshot above, surrounded by a green energy field is. It's actually a 4x4 pixel grid.

Maneuvering that tiny dot through the stream of rainbow colored bullets required me to sit extremely close to the screen and my speakers. Something I highly recommend that everyone does. Please remember to always go to 11.

Score Rush, developed by Xona Games as a part of the indie games winter uprising is not quite horizontal and not quite vertical. Actually my knowledge of SHMUPS is not extensive. Luckily others have expounded on the matter in great length and detail. The playfield under consideration is similar to Geometry Wars, as in slightly bigger than my television set. It allows for a bit of movement to the game's camera which is nice but I'm still a bit undecided about the style, part of me wants to see everything and part of me likes to imagine the unknown.

The Geometry Wars reference is not without its merits, indeed,

Brittany says, "It looks like Geometry Wars, MAKE SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Stop writing everything I say." She doesn't call herself a gamer but I know better.

I don't mind that Score Rush recalls memories of such a classic game, and the fact that we are only charged a tenth of what we were charged for Geometry Wars is pretty interesting I think. I still play Geometry Wars from time to time, and that game is going on five years old. Will Score Rush hold up to this test of time?? Or is it even supposed to?

Xona Games The developers of Score Rush, call it a spiritual sequel to Duality ZF, their upcoming XBLA release. Score Rush uses the same engine as Duality ZF. I believe that Score Rush is more of a tech demo actually, showcasing to the gamer what their engine can do. But here we begin to blur the lines of what exactly constitutes a game and so we must retreat.

At any rate, Score Rush is probably in the top five percent of enjoyable titles on the indie channel, at least to me. 1500 games on the channel, 75 that I have thoroughly enjoyed. That sounds about right.

When I play SHMUPS, score is not my main concern. In fact I purchased Geometry Wars about the same time I got my first HDTV. I was interested in how the colors would look mostly. Score Rush definitely delivers in this regard. My only problem is that my ship always tends to explode just when the screen is being lit up to its full capacity. But is this problem worth looking into and fixing?

Whenever you start a playthrough you are offered a helpful tip on the loading screen. One said, "Find your path through the stream of bullets." A bit Zen there but I did make some attempts. Perhaps this game does require the player to enter into a sort of trance while they play. To that end,

Auditory stimulation of the senses. Sound is extremely important to any game, perhaps even more so than the Visual aspects.

Copy from the Xona Press Release,
"The 60 fps adrenaline-rush experience is complemented by a hard-rocking Dragon Music Productions soundtrack"

I'm not much of a fan of the game's soundtrack but I just load up whatever I think will get me into the zone and blast it at maximum value. Adult Contemporary usually results in very short games, but I've been having excellent results playing along to Dan Deacon,

One of the game's menu screens encourages the user to Blog about the game and SHMUPS in general. Which I am doing now as you are of course aware. Matthew from Xona Games has also asked bloggers to blog about XNA Connect issues, which affect the future of the XBOX Indie Channel and so are good to vote on. Making and voting on Connect issues is one of my guilty pleasures in this life,

http://giveusthisdayourdailygame.blogspot.com/2010/12/rise-up-gaming.html

Rise Up, Gaming...

2010-12-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I hope you have been enjoying some of these Xbox Indie Uprising Releases as much as I have. We are about halfway through it and I think the best of them are still yet to come. I'm particularly looking forward to Alpha Squad myself.

To me it's not so much the games, but the ideas behind the games, and the process that must have occurred for these games to appear on our 360 Dashboard. A space for independent developers on a consumer games console with limited oversight from the console manufacturer on what shall and shall not appear in that space, That kind of thing just doesn't happen overnight. The Indie Channel spent a good portion of time as a beta on the web and then a beta on the dashboard before it was ready for primetime as they say. And here we are two years later with nearly 1500 games on the service. Some are great, some are not, and some should probably be sent back to the drawing board.

I'd like to draw your attention to Microsoft Connect. It's a website where users of MS products can easily submit feedback and log bugs concerning Microsoft Products. There is a page on this site dedicated to all things indie games and there are a number of suggestions listed currently which you can vote and comment on. Here is just a sample of them,

Create an "Indie Game Winter Uprising" list under the XBLIG dashboard

Optional Free Playtesting Membership

XBLIG Leaderboard/Highscore Access

XBLIG Achievement Access

To access these issues and vote on them just click on the link below,

http://connect.microsoft.com/directory/accepting-bugs/developer-tools/

And scroll down a bit, looking for the XNA Game Studio line, there should be a sign in link on the far right. Sign in with your Windows Live ID and you can start voting on issues that affect XBLIG Development, Distribution, and Our Indie Game presence on the 360 Dashboard among other things. Vote Early, Vote Often and leave lots of comments. Come on now, who doesn't like leaving comments??

UberGridder

2010-12-03T23:06:00.000-08:00

Deep space welding by wire

No, but that robot did cost a few million to manufacture, is it the same?

Click To Download the Trial

UberGridder from BadgerPunch Games continues the Winter Uprising. It's a sort of thinking man's pacman where you don't actually have to think. The protagonist is a nicely rendered three dimensional robot who is displayed on a two dimensional plane. Programmed to build in a vacuum our robot finds company where there was expected to be none. The work continues regardless.

I've often wondered what we will be listening to when we finally reach the stars, and are given eternity to contemplate.The background music to this game sounds like it might be pretty close. I found it very relaxing. There might be a couple tracks that the game loops through so I will have to play again to hear more.

Here's the website of the game's musician, pretty good stuff, http://xerxes-music.com/

I played through the trial a few times on the XBOX, not really anxious to get the level complete, I just knew that it would eventually get done. If it wasn't for those pesky monsters! For some reason I got stuck on level 3. The high score table lists a nine as the highest level so I assume there's that many levels. Unless it is endless.

Interestingly I had a look at the developer's website and noticed there was a windows version available for download.

UberGridder for Windows

The version plays very similar, although I found the arrow keys to be a simpler control method.

Our robot is designed to continue on his path until he reaches a junction or receives input from the user. Input being a direction of movement along the construction grid. What I liked about the game was sending the directional input before the junction, and then releasing the button to watch as the robot processed my command and turned at the appropriate time. I made it to level four on the windows version of the game, and noticed the speed had increased significantly, kickin' it up a notch

How much would you expect to pay for this casual mix of hardcore gameplay? If you said 80 MS Points you are correct. If you're addicted you will probably buy this game, if you're like me you will create a website devoted to XBOX Indie Games in order to obtain copies of the games released there. Either way, as long as everyone plays.

-Benhamish

Epic Dungeon

2010-11-30T19:48:00.000-08:00

The best roguelike on the indiechannel so far.

Click To Download the Trial

I'm a gambler and my favorite stat is luck. It's all about the gold and I was stockpiling it. But my supply of health potions was dwindling. Fortunately I found a store around Depth 3 but the trader's prices were steep. I left everything behind for a few precious potions. What use is gold if you're dead?

At around Depth 6 I picked up this odd looking quarterstaff. It would certainly be better than the simple dagger I was using to fend off those pesky spiders and bats. If nothing else the weapon had some reach.

Once I touched the weapon though a strange weakness passed over my body and I could barely lift the staff off the floor. I tried dropping the cursed thing but my hand refused to obey my mind's command. This didn't bode well. I spent some time on Depth 7, circling the corridors, practicing with my feeble weapon in the hopes I would gain some semblance of skill with it.

It was to prove futile, as a pack of wild dogs finally got the best of me on Depth 10.

Epic Dungeon is the first game to be released as part of the Xbox Indie Games Winter Uprising. A response to treatment the Xbox Indie Channel has received from gamers, developers, and Microsoft themselves. What will this uprising lead to?

But more importantly how does Epic Dungeon play?

Quite good actually. Even though a few seconds into the game, I was about to fly into a rage concerning the lack of diagonal movement. My thumbs felt constrained, attempting to translate my mind into a mode of action that the game did not allow. After a few minutes however my thumbs were properly trained and I understood the game's need for a strict four way movement pattern. (Apparently you can move diagonally, maybe I wasn't pushing hard enough.)

The game is simple to pick up and play. At least for someone familiar with the Roguelike ;) My practice of skipping the instructions screen before the first play did not prove detrimental to my experience of the game. At intervals throughout the game, friendly little popups appeared at the top of my screen telling me what all the buttons on the controller do. After my first playthrough I did check out the help system and found it to be simple but informative, very nice.

Throughout the dungeon you might meet fellow crawlers and perhaps even some locals. They are represented symbolically by a question mark on the map, the standard quest depictor. Press the button and,

Short textual quests, with the possibility of a reward if you answer correctly? But what is correctly? I chose the way of the gambler and it worked out most of the time. These mini quests are a nice break from the action of the dungeon crawl which can get a little frenetic at times, especially when you are surrounded by multiple monsters and the screen starts flashing red, urging you to drink a health potion.

After a few short playthroughs as a gambler I decided to switch to the Shaman. Epic Dungeons Wizard archetype (and the type I usually play). The Shaman has a freezing AOE attack that allowed me to make it out of Depth 50. This was only my third playthrough of the game and it took me about an hour and a half. So I've beaten the game, not something I expect to do with a roguelike on the first day of playing. But Epic Dungeon isn't your typical roguelike.

For one thing it's not quite turnbased, the dungeon's monsters move on their own terms and if you need a few moments to think about your situation you will need to pause the game. Or just open up your inventory and use a teleport scroll to port to the nearest shop, and load up on health potions.

Combat in the game is pretty standard, simply walk in the direction that you wish to attack and if there's an enemy in your way you will swing your weapon. Besides the standard attack, there are four unique special attacks. Each one mapped to a button. As you level you can increase the number of times you can use these attacks in sequence, up to a maximum of ten. I've only used two special attacks in a playthrough, managing to chain all four together would probably be pretty difficult but I'm sure it can be done.

You probably already know that the game's art direction is influenced by the 8-bit. This style influences the modern gamer greatly, its visuals and sounds having been deeply imprinted into our minds at an early age, and connotated by many emotive aspects. It's obvious that Mark, the sole developer behind the game had fun with the art. There are a lot of nice details here, animated traps, and scroll effects among other things. I really enjoyed the detail put into weapon and armor types.

I just wish the game lasted longer, maybe for Epic Dungeon 2?

Epic Dungeon

Click To Download the Trial

Sketchy Tower Defense

2010-11-26T13:33:00.000-08:00

Normally I don't review games based on my impressions with the trial but I haven't made contact with the developer of Sketchy Tower Defense, Pixel Troll Games And as such I have no review token to redeem :(

But I have loaded the game multiple times and played through the first level to extreme satisfaction. The game is currently high on the top downloads list on the XBOX and if the rest of the game is as good as the trial, I think it could climb even further up the list.

Click To Download The Trial To Your XBOX

Above is an image from Homestead, the first level of the game. I've made it to Wave 27 so far and will try later to beat this mark. The game is obviously named for its visual style, there is something pleasing about the handdrawn aesthetic isn't there?

The appearance of paper on an electronic medium makes any game that uses this aesthetic stand out instantly and draw the user in. There are quite a few sketched games currently available on the XBOX Indie Channel, and even another handdrawn? tower defense game. Sketchy Tower Defense is definitely my favorite thus far.

Sketchy Tower Defense allows me to play not against the game but against myself, even now I am considering strategies to allow me to progress past Wave 27 on the first level. It's possible that there is an end to each level that I have yet to reach. This would slightly disappoint me. But given the nature of Tower Defense, limited enemy types, limited weapons. At some point the game would just have to increase enemy speed and toughness ad infinitum until the tower is inevitably destroyed. But this is what leaderboards are for, if you're into that sort of thing and I think we might be.

The limitations listed above are not set in stone however, allowing the user to draw their own enemies and weapons would infinitely expand this game. Allowing the user to share their enemies, weapons, and levels would be nice :)

Indeed there is a game on the XBOX Marketplace that allows for a bit of this sketchy goodness,

Below is an image from Border Wars which allows for user drawn content,

But if handdrawn games are really your thing, perhaps you need to stray a bit from the XBOX and venture into enemy territory, namely the iPhone and SketchNation,

The developers of Sketch Nation are working on allowing users to sell their games created with Sketch Nation as individual games through the Appstore. An impressive feat to accomplish. And one that the gatekeepers of our indie channel could definitely learn from.

Back to the topic at hand,

The game features single player, co-op, and a pvp style. In Co-op each player controls a sketcher and can build whatever they like, provided they have the coin to do so. Coins collected by one sketcher are equally distributed between each sketcher. In the PVP style the game board is divided into two sections, one for each sketcher and the game is played through normally. Last sketcher standing style. Perhaps in an update the PixelTroll could include a Ramparts style PVP game.

I have a few minor quibbles with the game of course. There are no explanations for what the various weapons you buy actually do. Did PixelTroll expect us to use trial and error to discover the game's meaning? I'm still not sure what Air does even after using it, and finding out that the pit traps are one time use was a bit disappointing but I'm sure over time I will figure out the best strategies for all the different objects we can place.

The future definitely looks good for Sketchy Tower Defense and the hand drawn genre.

-Ben

BlurBalls

2010-11-23T16:46:00.000-08:00

In case you've been asleep for the past 50 years, the image above is from Tennis for Two. An early variant of what would later come to be known as Pong. Below is a screen from BlurBalls, Pong circa late 2010 developed by BlazingForge Games and now available for download from the Xbox 360 Marketplace.

There have been a number of Pong variants released to the Indie Channel, most of them first attempts by new and usually solitary gamemakers. BlurBalls is a bit different. According to the developer's website

Blazing Forge Games, seven people had a hand in the game's creation which is definitely a deviation from the norm.

Getting more people involved in a project is definitely a good thing, indeed it is the only thing,

"The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all."

But I digress, did this localization of multiple minds/bodies produce a new and interesting gaming experience? This is what we are after are we not?

BlurBalls is definitely aesthetically pleasing, the visual and auditory components of the game are solid. The bright style of the game reminds me of Geometry Wars, perhaps the devs were trying to capture some of that retro evolved magic that made Geometry Wars so succesful.

In the screenshot above and below you can see the game supports multiple balls on screen at once and multiple paddles, up to 24 paddles actually. Most of those would be controlled by the game's AI as the game only supports up to 4 players each needing a separate controller. Setting up 20 additional AI paddles is a bit time consuming, the game forces you to manually select each AI paddle position and type of which there are many.

It doesn't appear as though the game allows a single controller to control two paddles either. Given the dual nature of the thumbsticks this could definitely be implemented. Although in most dual control games I find myself having trouble splitting my mind to accomodate the style. But I think Blurballs could do with a foosball/table soccer kind of setup. There's a table soccer game on the marketplace that uses this style but again, my thumbs have trouble separating themselves into two unique individuals.

In classic Pong, I enjoy visualizing the angle of return, the vector that the ball will take as it bounces off of my paddle and heads back to my opponents side of the court. This is the sole strategy of Pong. BlurBalls destroys this singular version of the game instead forcing you into a stream of instant decisions and a lock of vision to your home court.

When I first tried the game, I thought that those swaths the balls cut through the court were actually having an impact on the mechanics of the game, or that the walls of the court were transmutable, able to be demolished after obtaining a powerup. Alas, there does not seem to be any powerups in the game and most everything you see in the screens above is simply eyecandy to use the local vernacular.

The game can get quite chaotic and on the larger screens with multiple AI Paddles, you might find yourself not really in the action at all, instead you simply watch the AI play out this futuristic ball game. But I think on a simple court with 4 controllers and 3 friends, you could set up a nice game of doubles.

-Ben

The Once and Future Gamer

2010-11-20T22:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been quite a bit of time since my last posting. This is not to say that I have not been religiously checking the indie games tab on the marketplace, but that perhaps the games released there are not up to my extremely critical standards.

XBLIG are still my games of choice, despite being banned from the club that produces them, and despite the service's catering to the demographic that enjoys senseless violence, gratuitous sex, and mindless button mashing. Why bother taking the time to try every game that appears you might ask? Because you never know.

You never know if that simple 2D shooter produced by one person in two weeks will keep you entertained for months, or if the endless variations of dating simulators will somehow breed a previously unknown genre of game.

Boxart, screenshots, and horrible reviews might dissuade some gamers but there are many of us out there who are willing to try any game in any genre on the slight possibility that it might offer something new to the gamer who now has thirty plus years of gaming experience.

I wouldn't call myself a modern gamer. Most new titles seem derivative and shallow. The indie channel takes us back to the beginning, when games were programmed by one person or a few people in their spare time, with monetary gains only given as an afterthought.

"Fool" you say, "Money has been at the core of all human progress since the beginning."

Perhaps it has, I suppose I could call myself a postmodern gamer. And throw all conceptions away, beginning anew.

Why is there so much shovelware? Is this a rhetorical question?

It is difficult to make a decent game, and it is rare indeed when a gamemaker creates something decent on their first try. But our indie channel is filled with these first attempts from fledgling gamemakers. We were expecting mountains of shovelware from the beginning.

Previously, these early efforts of the makers would never have seen the light of day, banished to a lone computer or some obscure site on the outskirts of the internet. With the games hidden in this way, the makers might never receive feedback on their creations, which is so crucial to all the makers future efforts.

So how do we allow fledgling makers to showcase their initial creations and generate the crucial feedback, and at the same time maintain a decent gaming standard on the indie channel marketplace?

We could create a separate space on the dashboard for beta versions of indie games. A sort of underground, only visible to those who have signed up to use it. In this space early versions of the makers games could be freely sent to other makers and testers, generating the feedback. And when the game is deemed decent enough, sent to the marketplace. This might sound like the CreatorsClub/AppHub to you but there is one major difference.

The determining factor that takes a game from the underground and sends it to the marketplace is that of quality.

"Ludicrous! No game would ever make it past a quality standard, that is too subjective of a metric."

This quality control could be tested by allowing peer reviewers to psuedo review games based on quality. By adding a poll to a games AppHub page, with a simple yes or no box for quality, we might begin to determine if a quality control makes any sense. And if we should consider actually implementing a quality control standard.

It is virtually guaranteed that a quality control would stop the shovelware moments after the control was implemented. But might we also lose out on those games that at first glance appear to be shovelware, and only shine after being experienced? Well, this is the reason for the creation of the underground space, so that many can use the makers creation and determine if they shine enough for public consumption.

In this way the games could be regulated while still maintaining a facade of independence and equality for the channel, anyone who wished could join the underground space, although space might be limited and granted on a temporary basis. This would require major changes to the Xbox Dashboard which is apparently extremely hard to do ;)

Dungeon Smashers, a design document

2010-05-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

A few days ago after playing a few hands of Magic, I loaded up Smash TV and decided to take some actual notes, in the past I have just been observing the gameplay, one mechanic at a time. I needed to know the types of enemies in each arena for each level. I'm starting with Level 1 just to keep things simple. Level 1 is my favorite level of Smash TV. What's interesting is that I like each subsequent level less and less. To be fair the game was designed to eat quarters lol. I can't imagine how many quarters the game required to get past level 3. Perhaps I will record the number of continues on my next few playthroughs.

Level 1 of Smash TV contains these enemy types, my corresponding enemy type is listed to the right.

Clubbers                          Orcs
Fast Clubbers Fast Orcs
Bombers    Goblins
Tanks                               Wizards
Wall Shooters                   Dwarves
Moving Blobs                   Moving Clouds

There is also the boss who shall remain secret.

I drew the layout on a piece of paper, then started to layout my level in TorqueX. I had to try a few different methods for moving the camera and the player around the arenas. I'm also going to create an arena selector component which can be attached to any enemy and the component will tell them how to act depending on the arena they are in.

Every Arena is going to look a little different than the others of course, I just haven't thought about what kind of differences there will be. I'm still seeing if a pixel artist would like to help with the project. Maybe after Level 1 is released onto the web an artist will decide to join. The next step for me is to populate the arenas with their respective enemys, and then send this level to the game's audio designers and see what crazy things come back.

Moonshine

2010-05-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

Travel back in time to the prohibition era and use old timey spreadsheets to manage your liquor empire.

Click To Download

Moonshine is an implementation of the turn based stock simulator, one of the oldest and possibly most satisfying types of games. Who doesn't like to accrue ridiculous amounts of virtual currency, all while reclining comfortably on your couch?

In Moonshine, currently available via the Xbox Live Indie Games Channel, the stocks are replaced with various forms of liquor, the manufacture of which was illegal back in the 1920's. The boxart above depicts a remote shack where a few enterprising individuals would come together and produce Moonshine, or the hard stuff.

Indeed, Moonshine starts you off in a simple shack, represented on the screen by a wrinkled page with scrawlings depicting the rise and fall of liqour prices,

If you buy a storehouse, you can afford decent paper

Buy low and sell high, the trader's mantra. I quite enjoy these types of games, even though in real life I tend to give everything away. Go figure.

Every day you can check the local paper for anything that might affect the day's liqour prices,

I pity the fool that plays this on a SDTV

Then you click over to your spreadsheet and buy and sell. Although I don't know why the developer felt an extra screen was needed to actually purchase the liqour, why not enable this from within the spreadsheet? After that there's another screen where you can upgrade your storage facilites, and a few other things. Then you end your day and do it again. Pretty basic stuff.

The news items are pretty interesting, a mix of the real and the surreal. The game features a collection of music that obviously took some thought to put together, and the game has quite possibly the greatest credits screen on the indie channel so far, but I feel as though there is something lacking here.

Perhaps it is the lack of variation at the game's core, On the first day buy Moonshine for 10, then wait 3 days, and sell. Look for a liqour that is low then buy and wait for it to rise. I bombed past the dev's high score table in Quickplay mode pretty quickly doing this.

Quickplay only lasts 30 days and I don't think it has the police raid option turned on. I'm going to try a longer game soon, you can set the game to last up to 365 days, and adjust the frequencies of raids. Although in Moonshine, a raid is simply a loss of a portion of your liquor stores.

The game is currently on the top downloads list so there is some interest in the game, hopefully it is enough to spur the developer into working on Moonshine V2.0

-Darthy

Sunday Drivers

2010-05-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

Video kart racing has a long lineage with many pretenders to the Mario Kart Throne. I've been playing Mario Kart since version 1 and I really found its latest incarnation on the Wii with the motion sensitive controller to be quite relaxing. A lot of us video drivers are hoping that the Microsoft developed Xbox Avatar Kart Racer Joy Ride is going to be controllable via the much hyped Nataller. Just a few more months!!

While we wait for any Joyride related news, presumably we will get an announcement at this years E3 next month, We bide our time with a few decent Kart Racers Available and Soon To Be Available on the Xbox Indie Channel.

First up, and Available NOW!!

Click To Download

I've been playing RaceDrome for a few days now, it's currently high on the indie channel top downloads list and I've been able to quickly find some decent online matches. Did I mention that we love kart racing? RaceDrome isn't a kart racer in the classical sense though, there's no powerups or speed boosts :(

But, as it's the only Avatar Kart Racing Game currently available on the Xbox Indie Channel, and as Xbox Indie Games are the only games I play, (besides the occasional round of MTG or Smash TV) I must play this one.

The game features a single player mode which I have yet to play, honestly I think the dev could have omitted this mode, Kart Racing is a social experience. Whether its splitscreen in the same room or via the network and up against the world. Luckily the game does have an online mode. Unfortunately collisions are turned off when you play online, I assume its due to network bandwidth issues.

But then again, for 80 points the game is quite fun. And should probably hold us over until we can play,

I like my karts to be cartoony

The screenshot above is from a work in progress game from Gustav Olsson

He's also got a video up, it's from a PC build of the game though and the Avatars aren't rendered. Still, the Game does look promising,

Racing Game Gameplay from Gustav Olsson on Vimeo.

This game is going to feature online multiplayer as well and looks very nice, including collisions. I don't know about powerups though, but maybe if we ask the devs real nicely they'll add them in. The future of kart racing on the indie channel is a short one though, once Joyride is released I can't imagine anyone will be playing either of these games.

There's also a neat looking Stunt Kart Racer which will probably be available on the Indie Channel shortly,

It doesn't look like this one has any racing modes though, just some fun Avatar Stunt Driving.

Have fun on the virtual tracks!

Dungeon Smashers

2010-05-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest video of my work in progress. Dungeon Smashers,

I think the game is coming along nicely :) If you can't tell I'm basically cloning Smash TV. I plan to implement an upgrade system, whereby you use the gold you collect to purchase more health, faster guns, quicker shoes. Although I have been thinking that using the decapitated heads of the enemies for the upgrades might be a better way to go. I thought of this idea after a bugged out particle effect left a bunch of orc heads strewn across the room!

If you're a fan of Smash TV, who isnt? You know that my exploding goblins are similar to those enemies in Smash TV that walk around the edges of the screen and then explode! The goblins have a slightly modified version of the playerchase component which I have called the edgewalker component. An early version of this component had the goblins shooting off gobbo parts in a 360 degree arc, I did this to ensure enough gobbo parts flew across the screen before smashing into the walls.

This sometimes resulted in quite a few gobbo parts and sometimes very few. I loaded up Smash TV to better understand how the game's exploding enemies worked. I noticed that before the enemies exploded they turned to face the center of the arena, and then they exploded. Always shooting off five pieces of shrapnel. I copied this mechanic.

I'm also writing a tutorial series detailing the creation of Dungeon Smashers you can view the tutorials here,
https://sites.google.com/site/soyouwanttomakeanarenashooter/

I plan to release this game onto the Xbox Indie Channel, but that won't be for a year at least.
-Darth

Singularity

2010-05-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Click To Download

Another relativistic space game? Or is this a simple asteroids clone? It is both, and it is neither, and yet I can't stop playing.

I've been trying just about every game to appear on the xbox indie channel as of late, much like the folks over at Xnplay. But where they deem every game worthy of at least an incomplete sentence, I can go months without sparing a word for anything. At any rate, Singularity has affected me enough to make a new post.

A simple splash screen tells us that we are trapped, along with our mothership, in orbit around a black hole. Then the game begins. Asteroids start flying in form the corners of the grid, shoot them! No wait, conserve your ammo and let them drop into the singularity. We should only destroy them if they are a menace. My mothership circles the other side of the blackness unprotected. One impact, then another, and finally she explodes. I take a look at my fuel gauge, pretty good for awhile. But what hope is there, in the emptiness of deep space. A warning klaxon breaks the silence, oxygen levels critical. I wait as long as I can, but the oxygen eventually runs out. A short burst of the thrusters and we drop into the depths.

Docking Maneuvers

Singularity boils down all the complexities of a physics based space maneuvering game into an easily playable experience. No complex HUD, no ridiculous tutorials, just play. And then die, but at least you get to post your time to a scoreboard to keep track of how long you lasted.

One thing I did find odd though, after docking with your mothership for refueling you are soon ejected back into space. I couldn't understand the reasoning behind this. The mothership doesn't have any cannons, so I guess that might be it. But seriously, why would you design a mothership with no offensive capabilities?

If you enjoy the calmness that only deep space can provide, occasionally punctuated by an exploding asteroid or two, then why not,

Click To Download

Now with more loot!!

2010-04-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on my game's progress.

As you can see I've added some loot and powerups!! I know how much we all love the shinys! In the future I will implement a way to actually spend these coins.

I am still in the very early stages of my game, just creating the basic objects. I'm basing my game heavily on Smash T.V. I routinely load that game up and study its mechanics lol! Did you know that a lot of the enemies in that game head towards the center of the screen upon entering the game and then switch to a playerchase method? Well now you do. I assume the Smash devs did this to stop the enemies from walking through the edge walls to get to the player. This can occur frequently if the quickest vector from the enemy to the player goes through the screen edge. I'm working on a system to fix this problem but it's not shown in the video.

I've increased the size of my characters by a few pixels and I think it makes a big difference in the gameplay. I am very conscious of character size in relation to the game world and its effect on immersion. All sizes are still subject to change.

-Darth

War Of Words

2010-03-31T20:40:00.000-07:00

"Is this made by the same guys that did that other one"

I knew which game she was referring to, "Puzzle Quest, no it's not. It does borrow a lot from it though."

"Borrowed? it's exactly the same game just with words, more like stealing." She laughed.

And I started thinking about the line that we drew when deciding how tangible something must be to have copyright protection. Ideas cannot be copyrighted, but why is that? Game mechanics and the code that was used to create the mechanics can be protected, but not the gameplay that results?

She asked for the controller, which only happened occasionally. The quest description popped up and I got halfway through the first sentence, then it disappeared.

"Where you reading that?"

"Yeah but I can read it later." I was assuming I would be able to.

Soon after the game started I told her the right trigger moves the letters up. And then I told her about the right thumbstick and the spells, press Y to cast. I didn't feel any need to go into of the details. The low level spells aren't anything special anyway.

She made a couple good words but was slaughtered, "I killed it" She said and dropped the controller to the floor.

Both players are presented with the same letter sequence.

The battles can be a bit difficult, For a few games I tried to copy what the AI was doing. The AI is a fast speller with a preternatural understanding of the grid, I was able to store a few of its words into my memory and with practice I could probably beat the AI at its own game, or at least tie.

The only way to win is not to play.

But if you're not lost in your own world, playing a game only you can understand, then you won't be noticing the other side that much, except when the AI is destroying you, then you will become paralyzed.

If you happen to be stuck on a particular quest, take heart in the fact that solving tavern puzzles and searching for treasure both offer XP. The former entails an anagram variant and the latter is always a riddle. I've solved them all so far but one, and I find myself wandering around the countryside thinking about the engima. Maybe the dragon knows the answer.

After you gain a few levels, try the quest again. A few levels difference between you and your opponent will slow the game down a lot, and allow you to focus on big words or casting spells. Darthuvius is level 28 at the moment and I have encountered a level 32 ghost in a haunted tower. After solving all the riddles and the easier tavern puzzles, I am forced to try the instant battle mode from the main menu for XP. These non-campaign battles will allow you to level, so you could theoretically play only these and then stomp through the entire game if you wish since the quest enemies in the game don't scale.

Word games need to strike a balance between relaxation and stress. I would side with the relaxists of course. If any game features an endless or timeless mode, that is always the first one I accept. Time limits and the FireLine in War Of Words usually just annoy me. If your letters touch the flames they explode causing serious harm and destruction of many letters, which you may have been just about to use. There's a spell which calls forth a giant boulder to halt the upward progress of your letters, so maybe there's a spell to remove these timelimits altogether. Probably a pretty high level spell I imagine.

Every advance in level comes with the learning of a new spell, their effects can be damaging, transfiguring, thieving, and lifesaving when used at the right time. You might find certain powerful combos as well.

The game has its faults of course, as every game does. On the overhead map, you would think that pulling the thumbstick down would point your character to the town that is on the southerly road. Your direction recognition needs to be a bit more precise to get around Lexica. Maybe even floating point precise. But with a little button mashing you can get around the map.

-Darth

The word is a virus

2010-03-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

I like word games. Do you? Let us begin with the simple things, not one, not two, but THREE hangman simulations are currently available for your wordplay needs.

Click To Download

I enjoyed Hang 'Em High the most, if only for the poorly animated crackshot sequence at the end. The developers of Hang 'Em High and Simply Hangman have each released another game besides hangman. While Hangman Deluxe seems to be that developers only release. This presents us with a problem.

One of the reasons I enjoy the Indie Channel is because of the fact that a good portion of my dollars are funneled into the pockets of the developers. If a developer doesn't sell enough copies to meet the $150 dollar payout minimum, they might never see a check and MS pockets what the gamer was intending to go to the developer. I believe the Indie Channel audience is large enough that most new games released will see a check or two, but we are now over a year into this thing and I am beginning to wonder about the back catalog. And whether or not a significant portion of the eight hundred and thirty six games currently on the service will be generating any monies for their developers after another year, especially when there is sure to be another eight hundred newer games available.

If you are thinking about purchasing a hangman game, you are aren't you? Then I would suggest Hang 'Em High. The developer just released a new game a few days ago. Payout limits are per developer so Hang 'Em High is the best bet that your 80 points will be sent to the developer and not MS.

It's Anagram time!!

Click To Download

What do you know! Three Anagram Games as well :) They all have their faults but I think Words In A Word is the most polished and fun, not to mention actually playable. I reviewed this game awhile back.

Interestingly, Puzzle was created by the same developer as Simply Hangman. I wonder if there is a secret wordgame project in the works? At any rate, the developers of Words In A Word have four games up on the indie channel so again, if you are looking for an anagram game your best bet is this one.

An Oldie But Goodie!

Click To Download

Word Soup was actually a launch title for the channel, and the novelty factor probably helped the game generate some downloads and sales. I enjoy playing the untimed mode, I play word games to relax most of all. What's interesting about this game is that it began its life as an electronic pub game over in Europe. Arkanoid I can understand but a randomized word search? Maybe the game was a test to see how drunk you were, if you could actually play the game that would mean you need to drink some more.

This is the only game the developer has submitted to the indie channel. I checked out their website and sent them an email but haven't heard back from them. I bought this game on day one, I am sure a lot of people did. The audience for the channel has surely grown and you are all word game fans right? and taking the time to look through the entire catalog? Even so I wonder how many sales Word Soup will get this year, it will be interesting to find out, if we ever can.

I forget what to call this one

Click To Download

But I did review it a bit ago. Actually, I think I peer reviewed this game. If I recall correctly one of the only reviewers to actually give the online portion a test. C'est la vie.

WordSearch

Click To Download?

The simplest, but also one of my favorite types of word games. Having said that I had some problems with this game. There is just something about small letters on a big screen that just doesn't seem to work. You should download it and then select the 20x20 grid just for a laugh. Do you see that multicolored thing in the lower right corner? It's supposed to control the media player but guess what? That's right, it doesn't.

WordTris

Click To Download

I appreciate new entrants into the wordgame genre but I thought this game needed some work when it was in playtest and I still think it needs more work today. The dev has posted a flash version of the game here to try, Flash Puzzwords.

Which Brings us to the Genesis of this posting.

War Of Words

War Of Words appears to be a randomized free form anagrammer with some RPG elements borrowed heavily from Puzzle Quest. I am really excited about this one but I am a bit worried about the gameplay, namely if the constant stream of randomized letters is going to allow me to make words in any sort of satisfying fashion. The game is currently in peer review and will hopefully be available on the Xbox Indie Channel shortly. Unless someone uncovers a code 4 crash or something which happens about 100% of the time I think. Go check out the developers page, War of Words Blog.

-Darth

Please sir, may I have a license?

2010-02-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well I have been using the TorqueX engine for the past 30 days. Although for the past few days I was a bit busy and didn't have much time for game development. At the moment all you can do in my game is run around and shoot holes through some wizards. The wizards are from Microsoft's RPG Sample kit, but I created the implosion animation myself!! I'm very happy with how it looks and I plan to spend a lot of time working on death animations.

That's the draw of TorqueX, at least for me. I can spend as much time as I want creating my exquisite implosions and explosions and not have to worry about how to get them into the game, all most things require are a simple drag and drop.

In the video above I'm making use of a component from Henry Schillings' GameKit. There is a blank object just offscreen that I attached the Spawning component too and then I told the object to spawn some wizards. What Fun! I'm still going back and forth about what kind of game I'm going to make, a gauntlet clone perhaps? Or an RPG? Or something completely different? Most people will tell you to write out a design document before you start creating your game, and one day I will probably do so. But for now I like to think of the TorqueX Builder as my easily mutable design document.

And I'm barely scratching the surface of TorqueX, take a look at this lighting demo included with TorqueX

I am not really sure how to use this lighting stuff in my game but I definitely want to figure it out. It looks pretty neat. And from the limited code used to get the lighting to work I don't think it will be that complicated.

But alas, my trial for the TorqueX Builder has run out! So for the moment I must put development of my game on hiatus. I have read on the forums of a few people creating their game with TorqueX but doing it entirely in code without the use of the builder. This is certainly an option but that sort of defeats the purpose of the drag and drop builder. And I have been enjoying the builder immensely. I might have to make some important decisions soon!!

-Ben

Avatar Showdown

2010-02-26T21:16:00.000-08:00

Click To Download The Trial

Jump to Token Contest

I've been a bit of an agnostic when it comes to the Avatar Marketplace. I haven't partaken of the real money for fake clothes debate, which usually boils down to someone being an idiot in every discussion anyway. I am a huge fan of funny hats though and when I saw this gem I just had to have it.

Yeah, that's me!

You might notice I bought some sweet goggles and a tshirt as well. I purchased these items before the release of Avatar Showdown but they have definitely come in handy for the game.

Smackdown!

My hat and goggles combo evokes a sense of silliness in my competitor which in turn leads to a lowering of my foes defenses. Their demise quickly follows. And by quick I mean between 3-7 seconds, which is your window of random opportunity for mashing a button and bringing the pain. May those with the quickest fingers and the fastest connection reign supreme!

I asked some of the devs at Jforce Games, the team behind showdown for more features, for some reason I always want more features, and here is a response, "The goal of Showdown was to have a quick dev time, very simple game that would raise awareness and money for Unstoppable. So right now we don't have any plans to add to it apart from fixing the online mode."

Well, I am definitely more aware of Unstoppable now and with over 1400 sales in two days, I think Jforce games is well on their way to the raising money portion of their goal as well.

So what are you waiting for?

Click To Download

By the way, I've got three tokens for this game to give away, so if you would like one, just send me a link to your avatar in the comments or by email (operativewords@gmail.com). You can look at your avatar here, scroll down to the view images portion on the bottom right. Modifications to the image are fine!

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/avatars/

The three funniest avatars get the tokens!

We have our first entry!! YAY! A happy droog from A Clockwork Orange. Pretty neat, do you have a funnier Avatar? Another Entry!! Sort of an older, happier mario lol. I suppose this contest will end in a few days perhaps Tuesday March 2.

hodsey2008 cagix

Contest is over, congrats to the winners!!

-Darthy

The greatest games are the ones you make yourself

2010-02-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

I am currently on day 13 of my 30 day free trial of the Torque X game engine from GarageGames. One reason for writing about my game development process is to hopefully exchange my words for an engine license code ;) Below is a short video showing where I'm at with my game.

Balls of Fire!

Making the Game

I have a fairly good idea of where I want to go with this game and I hope I make it there!

If you are thinking about getting into game development and distributing your game on the Xbox Indie Channel, TorqueX is definitely the way to go. GarageGames has a list of games created with TorqueX here, List of TorqueX Games A few of those have been released to the Xbox Marketplace.

Most of those games seem pretty simple, but most of them were probably created by developers new to game development, which is what I think the indie games channel on the Xbox is all about.

I mentioned in my previous post about some code from John Kalanakis's website envygames.com. He has some code there with around ten or so sample games, each making use of a different feature of the TorqueX Engine, and with easily reuseable components.

Some of the components I'm using
AiPathFollowingComponent
AiPlayerChaseComponent
AiProximityAttackComponent
AnimatedCharacterComponent
FireProjectileComponent
WeaponComponent

Those do what you probably think they do and I was able to drop them into my game with no modifications in most cases. I don't even have the book from which those samples came from and I am still able to use them. To use components all you do is add them to your characters or game objects in the builder and then set the options. The AiPlayerChase has a target,speed, and chase or avoid option. It's that simple lol. And so much fun. I'm already spending lots of time playing my simple game and it's not really a game yet.

Here is the meat of AiPlayerChase to demonstrate how simple things can be.

private void _UpdateChase(float elapsed)
        {
            // determine angle to point our ship to the player
            float angle = T2DVectorUtil.AngleFromTarget(_sceneObject.Position,
                 _TargetObject.Position);

            PlayMyAnimation(angle);

            // set the ship on its way towards the player
            _sceneObject.Physics.Velocity =
                T2DVectorUtil.VelocityFromTarget(_sceneObject.Position,
                 _TargetObject.Position, _speed);

            return;
        }

sceneObject is the AI and TargetObject is whatever you would like the AI to chase. This component is attached to every Wizard in the first video above, the Large Warrior is using AiPathFollowing which is pretty simple as well.

There is a learning curve to the TorqueBuilder and it will definitely help to have some background knowledge of C#, but you don't need much knowledge to start making games. I tend to learn the most when I don't know how to do something, if that makes any sense lol.

I'm also thinking about buying this Character Pack from the Torque Website, it's only 30 bucks which works out to 2 bucks per character so that's a pretty good deal.

I think these guys will be fun to shoot at :)

-Ben

Making Games is Fun

2010-02-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

So I've been using Torque X for about a week. If you aren't familiar with the product I suggest you familiarize yourself with it immediately. It's a game engine that's fully integrated into XNA and features a drag and drop type game editor that is easily hooked into your C# code. I believe TorqueX is used in a lot of those "create a game in two days or die trying" competitions which can occasionally produce something worth playing but most of the time seem to produce games that look like they were created in two days. Having said that, here is a clip of what I have been working on this week.

Don't mind the music, just what I was listening to at the time.

At the moment I am still in the tutorial phase of my TorqueX education. In fact, what you see above is a mixing of numerous tutorials with slight modifications. Besides the tutorials included with the TorqueX download, I got some sample code from this website, Envy Games TorqueX. The code is from The Complete Guide to Torque X, a book written by John Kanalakis, who has also taken over development of the TorqueX engine and has written a roadmap of where he wants to take TorqueX. RoadMap.

I am probably going to purchase the book, but I am having fun looking at his tutorials and ripping out his components for use in my game.

Components are pieces of code that can be easily shared between different games. For instance, the clip above makes use of an AIChase component and an AnimatedCharacterComponent among others. I combined these into one and got my AI to chase my player and display different animations. It would probably be better for me to keep these two components separate and I will modify my code later to do this.

You probably noticed in the clip that the animations weren't quite correct. I'm basing which animation to display based on rotation and its a bit off so I would like to display this rotation variable on the screen at runtime. I am about to do some research about how to display things onto the screen in TorqueX. Maybe someone wrote a debugging component I can use, or perhaps I will create one?

Figuring out how to display text on the screen using pure XNA is pretty easy, there are a lot of tutorials around concerning XNA, but not so much for TorqueX. I am glad that better documentation is high on the engine's roadmap priorities. Displaying text is a pretty basic problem though so I am sure I will find something I can use.

-Ben

Soul

2010-01-31T13:22:00.000-08:00

Click to Download the Trial

The latest offering from KYDOS Studios: Soul, now available on the Xbox Indie Games Channel is a very artistic and sometimes extremely difficult dexterity game. Categorizing Soul thusly might actually be a little naive but we must place things into their proper genres until such time as they break free into new and unexplored gameplay territory. Let us take heart in the fact of the to be continued message upon completing Soul, and let us hope for an even greater amount of experimentation from KYDOS with the games sequel.

Have you ever wanted to traverse a duodenum?

Upon starting Soul we are presented with very little in the way of options. In fact we are only allowed three customization choices, Wimp, Normal, and Hardcore. As has been my style of late, I firstly chose to experience Soul at the Hardcore setting. It appears that these settings affect a number of variables in the game, including but not limited to the speed of your soul, the veracity of the soul eaters as well as implementing a timer for each level on the hardcore mode and a limited number of lives. If you have mastered The Impossible Game and are looking for a bit more depth, Hardcore Soul might be the game you are looking for. One of the game's developers, Christophe has professed to beating the game on Hardcore, albeit only once.

Needless to say, after a few minutes at this level I switched over to the lowest setting where I was able to take my time and I began to really enjoy the game. Souls gameplay really emerges on one of its early levels, The Elevators. This is also the level that might bring you close to your frustration threshold.

Never Give Up

Just about every level afterwards introduces a new mechanic, one of my favorites is the limited view level called The Cavern. As I made my way through this cave I wondered if it would be possible to create a type of random cavern generator, complete with functional treasure chests and varied obstacles. I could definitely see myself spending quite a bit of time in those caverns.

Soul shows us there are still numerous gameplay mechanics left for us to explore in 2 dimensions and if you are an indie games developer or perhaps aspire to be one, Soul will probably give you a few ideas for your own game project.

-Ben

Hypno Vol. 1

2010-01-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

Click to Download the Trial

Hypno Vol. 1 is dark, but its a good kind of dark. The kind that lets you enjoy traveling around the city forcing complete strangers to strangle themselves. Yes there are missions to be done and objectives to complete in this latest addition to the Xbox Indie Games Channel, but I feel as though the game's strengths lie with a sort of free play that can happen as you venture around, trying to come up with new and improved ways to kill.

The main character in our story is Lydia, a hypno.

She has been gifted with the ability to imprint on people's minds anything that she has previously ripped from the minds of others. In the beginning, Lydia's powers are weak. All she is capable of are simple things like forcing people to strangle others, or themselves. But her powers grow by feeding on the depravity of those around her. And new abilities are unleashed as she reaches milestones of mayhem, such as kill three innocents at once.

Hypno opens with a very disturbing cinematic, which is sadly not shown in the trial version of the game. The developer, Andrew Gaubatz told me that it's absence in the trial was due to the eight minute time limit Microsoft imposes on all trial versions of indie games. The cinematic's inclusion would have meant all you would see of the game in the trial would be the cinematic. But after seeing the cinematic I think anyone with even a modicum of decency would instantly purchase Hypno Vol. 1.

Did I mention that Lydia is blind? To her the city is a perfect grid, free of the colors and distractions that others face as they walk through its streets. All are the same in Lydia's world. All are but thoughts to be changed and manipulated as she sees fit.

Each death is accompanied by a very nice and very graphic depiction

Yes, You are the green dot. Your potential victims are the numerous black dots, each with a personality, each with a trait to be stolen or manipulated.

What are you waiting for?

Purchase the Game.

-Ben

Alien Breed: Evolution Episode 1

2010-01-09T22:02:00.000-08:00

Can we call this one an indie?

Click To Download the Trial

Jump to Xbox Indie Channel Specific News

I just rewatched Alien, Aliens, and got about halfway through Alien 3. These films are best enjoyed by turning off the lights, turning up the sounds and watching those hapless miners get eaten one by one. This is how you should play Alien Breed as well, barring the getting eaten part. Although on Elite difficulty this is sure to happen on numerous occasions.

I normally don't even bother with the hardest difficulty settings, leaving them for that special breed of gamer occasionally called hardcore. But Mark, the Team17 PR guy told me to check out elite and write about my experiences.

I started limping towards the end of level 1, those damn bugs had gotten to me, the screen greyed out, my heart started pumping, but I had already lost so much blood. One more bite and I'm dead. I loaded the last of my shells into the shotty and prayed I would make it to the elevator.

About halfway through level four I got pinned in a small room, out of ammo and healthpacks. Knowing that just around the next corner a swarm of bugs is waiting and all I have is a puny pistol. No chance, lol. I plan to start over on Elite and watch my ammo usage but for the time being I turn the difficulty down a notch and do the old run and gun through the whole game

Alien Breed Evolution Episode 1 was released in December to the Xbox Live Arcade and it has been my main game ever since. The first part of a planned trilogy, with the other two parts to be released sometime in 2010.

The Xbox Arcade has come a long way in its 5 years,

One of the service's first titles. And one of my favorites.

Alien Breed Evolution is one of the latest

The graphics on the Arcade have certainly improved quite a bit, While the pricing has remained curiously similar. Average price per game, ten dollars. I doubt those early ventures into Xbox digital distribution had a development cost of nearly two and a half million dollars American though. Which is how much Alien Breed cost to create. To cover that, Team17 needs to sell roughly two hundred and fifty thousand copies. This is a trilogy though, so we have to divide by three.

83,000 copies of each episode sold to break even, but who wants to break even? Lets hope Team17 sells millions of copies!! If we take a look at the leaderboards, we can see about 10,000 users. Team17 has told me that this is not an accurate representation of their sales figures, but even if we double this number there is quite a few more sales to be made before they hit the 80,000 mark. This feat of sales is certainly possible, take a look at this handy chart showing users for arcade games. A number of games far surpass the one hundred thousand user mark.

Worms, an earlier release from Team17 has nearly five hundred thousand users.

But for every Worms there are hundreds or thousands of Crazy Mice. Games which for some reason or another don't sell nearly as well as the developers wished they would.

I mentioned above how Alien Breed has been my main game for the past two weeks. What else have I been playing?

RogueTouch $2.99
Rogue Free
Nethack   Free
Cavern   $2.99
iNetHack Free
Sword of Fargoal $4.99

Yes, those are all iPhone ports of The original Rogue.

The graphics of these games aren't quite up to the quality in Alien Breed,

Cavern

Rogue Touch

But I have been playing the shit out of them!!

There's just something about the Rogue type of gameplay that has kept it fresh these past 30 years. UberGeekGames is even developing a Roguelike game for the Xbox indie channel which is currently available for 240 Microsoft points. Dungeon Adventure Trial. Uber is taking a retro approach which is commendable.

UberGeeks Dungeon Adventure

But I believe there is a huge untapped market for a game that looks like this,

Alien Breed Evolution

And also has the infinite replayability of the Roguetypes. To test this theory I have been playing Alien Breed in the Rogue style. I start a new game on a random difficulty and choose a random freeplay level. I then zone into the game's core, disregarding all communication from npc's, ignoring the minimap. Actually, the game plays much better this way. Thankfully, the devs made all interactable objects green, so all I have to do is run up to the object and hold A, and the next door opens. At the end of each level the game scores you for things like speed, ammo conservation and avoiding damage. Similar to the scoring systems in Roguelike games.

Yesterday I cranked it up to elite and loaded level 1, with the intention of playing through without using any healthpacks or grenades. There's an achievement for this, probably achieved by most players on rookie difficulty though. There's also an achievement for not taking any damage on Level 5, but it might be bugged. I was doing pretty good and thought I might actually make it, but a couple of brownie swarms ambushed me near the end and I lost some blood, and started limping through the corridors. A pack of facehuggers finally finished me off right in front of the elevator, and I got to watch them chew on my corpse. Maybe tomorrow I thought.

During a recent run and gun, I found the atrium. The amount of details put into some of the ship's interiors is pretty amazing. After quickly dispensing with a few brownies I was able to really look at some of these plants. Exobotany is an area of special interest to me. To be honest the field is pretty theoretical at the moment. It doesn't even have a wikipedia page. But that looks like a pitcher plant on the left there, albeit a huge one.

As I strolled around the atrium, examining the rest of the ships flora, Something kept nagging at the back of my brain, I wondered why would anyone grow such a Nitrogen demanding plant inside of a spaceship, where the Nitrogen is sure to be in high demand. I also noticed the screen starting to dim a bit. And then it hit me, They use this mutated version of Nepenthes truncata to recycle their waste, it makes perfect sense. The shape of the plant is perfect don't you think? The screen suddenly greyed out and I heard "Oxygen levels Critical". Oh yeah, this was the room where you had to turn the gas back on.

Alien Breed Evolution is an episodic game in three chapters. Partly because the game file would be quite large to download all at once, and partly because Team17 thinks that an episodic game will be better able to recoup the costs of the game's production.

Each Alien Breed episode will feature unique selections of weapons, environments and aliens. I am personally hoping for much more of an emphasis on alien plant life, maybe even getting the chance to visit the alien planet that the ship is currently on a collision course with. Vehicle exploration would be cool as well. (Sadly, these two features are not planned for Alien Breed Evolution)

Team17 hasn't released pricing details for Episodes 2 and 3 but I think it's safe to assume they will each be priced similarly to Episode 1, ten dollars. So, thirty dollars for the entire game. Dead Space is currently available to download for twenty, more on that below, and certainly the scope of that game is much larger. Team17 believes that Deadspace is a different game with a different market and that twenty dollars is still a large chunk to pay out for a single digital download. They are interested to see how Deadspace fares in the On-Demand section of Xbox Live however.

There has been some chatter on the tubes concerning the similarities between Alien Breed and Dead Space, a scifi alien survival game which was released for the Xbox in 2008 and won numerous awards. Before writing this review I had never experienced Dead Space, having not played a disc based game in over six months. I logged onto Xbox Live to see if there was a demo available, there is.

Try the Dead Space Demo
Interestingly, you are also able to download the full version of Dead Space for only twenty dollars American.

Something that really grabbed my attention in Dead Space was the way the game displayed information.

Dead Space HUD

That's an image of the holographic display, used for your inventory, maps, and communications. That screenshot alone was enough for me to want to download the trial. The display technology in Dead Space is eerily similar to what they used in that Southpark episode where Cartman travels to the future in search of a Wii.

The screen was brought up with a simple hand swipe

Alien Breed uses a more 2-dimensional method for information display.

Throughout the game you happen upon a series of logbooks that give you some textual information abut the characters as well as the aliens in the game. The logs are placed in such a way that you'll find them either shortly before or shortly after you first encounter a new type of alien.

Imagine this with blue static interference lines running through it

Despite the difficulty of reading blue text on a blue background and the paragraph jumping in lieu of actual text scrolling, I enjoyed reading the logs. They do give some good information about the aliens you'll encounter, including some strategies for dealing with them. The logs are filled with names like maulers, chargers, and breeders oh my. They also give a few physical characteristics to go along with these names.

I tried to tell one of the creatures to hold still while I attempted to determine the length of its mandibles so I could classify it, but it didn't comply with my request. Instead it tried to bite me. Luckily I had my shotgun pointed straight at its head the whole time and quickly fired off a round. The bug's head exploded along with the aforementioned mandibles, destroying any chance at identification. I decided to give them names that would make them easily identifiable at a distance. This would allow me to choose the right weapon for the situation. These bugs come at you fast and switching weapons can be a bit difficult.

Facehugger :)

Brownie

MIA and Conrad

The Alien Breed story is advanced by a few comic book style cutscenes. We are shown one at the beginning of the game and more at the end of each level. They are mostly used to outline Conrad's goals for the next mission, but there is an interesting subtext involving Conrad and MIA, the ships resident cyborg. The comics are fully voiced, which I really liked. Unfortunately the only voice overs in the rest of the game come from the ships computer telling you things like "Evacuate the Area" and "Unknown Lifeform Detected" over and over and over. During the actual gameplay we do make contact with MIA, who helps us find our way throughout the ship. Her communications come in the form of poorly contrasted text across the bottom of the screen. I tended to ignore them.

I am quite interested in Alien Breed's story, especially the relationship between Conrad and MIA. The comic scenes instantly reminded me of 2001 nights by Yukinobu Hoshino. These are some pages from my favorite story in Hoshino's collection,

Night 2: Sea of Fertility

Considering the fact that I still remember the details and emotions of this story ten years after reading it, I think it would greatly enhance the player's experience with Alien Breed if Team17 expanded upon the graphical narrative they have outlined in Episode 1. Perhaps we could be treated to a comic prequel of Episode 1, downloadable for free through the Xbox Marketplace as a sort of advertisement for the future episodes.

I try to examine all aspects of the games I play for my reviews but my significant other isn't really a shooter fan so I had to go online to try out the co-op with some fellow xbox live members. My first attempt was marred by serious lag, which I assumed was emanating from the other end. I decided to host a game. I only had to wait a minute or two for another to join. If you have friends with the game, you can easily invite them through the lobby menus.

There are three levels available to you in co-op play, distinct from the single player missions. I chose hydroponics and loaded it up. We were instantly assaulted by swarms of aliens as soon as we left the elevator. This level equips you with quite an arsenal though, so we cut through them pretty quick. I noticed my partner was standing next to one of those red canisters that make nice explosions when you shoot them, so I did. lol, only way to learn. He got me back with a frag grenade later on though.

I enjoyed the co-op and will definitely try it again. Dying isn't really an issue since you respawn a few seconds later. Just make sure your partner doesn't die while you are lying on the ground or its game over for both of you. There are some problems with inventory though, a lot of the items are found by searching corpses, and there's no trading between players, so you might end up with one person carrying all the healthpacks while the other is limping along on the edge of death. Communication is essential here I think, letting your partner know what you need so they don't accidentally pick things up.

Or you could just say fuck it and run through the entire level blasting anything that moves. That's always fun :)

-Ben

Lets work together!

2010-01-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

Hi! Before I took an academic leave from the XNA Creators Club, I had begun work on an experiment which if successful would determine if Psychic Ablities, specifically Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) is transmittable through the wires and beams of light that make up our connected world.

I have recently decided to take up the project again, and am looking for some help to get it finished and released onto the Xbox Indie Games Channel. My coding skills are not that good but my design aesthetics are out of this world. I am currently calling this piece of software Are You Psychic, but the title and the design are subject to change.

I am looking for someone that can finish coding this software, specifically someone with some experience with online networking using the XNA development kit. You might have to overhaul my entire codebase, which isn't very large and if you are proficient with the XNA toolset, I imagine this project would not take you very long to complete. I cannot offer any compensation at the moment, but if the game is released onto the marketplace for sale, any profits made will be equally split among those involved with the projects creation.

Below is a short video of the project, showcasing Human Vs. Machine Mode, where the user pits his mind against the Central Processing Unit, to determine if there is a connection between man and machine. The project also features a two player local mode, and the two player online component, both of which are still a bit buggy at the moment.

Let me know if you are interested in working on this project with me and your past coding experience if you have any.

Thank you,

-Ben

And It Came To Pass Not To Stay

2010-01-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

I took a scroll through our beloved indie games recently and came back with a few wonderful titles that can be enjoyed with great pleasure and without purchase.

The first is a personal favorite of mine.

Game about a Soup Factory (Click to Download the Trial)

I actually reviewed this game earlier in the year, I later found out that the game is a Zoop clone. After trying Soup Factory again I still enjoyed it. The game ramps up the difficulty pretty quick and if you can actually make it past the 8 minute mark, which is the length of time we are allowed to play indie game trials, then you are quite better at the game than me.

Next up we have,

Crystal Spear Remake (Click to Download the Trial)

This is quite a simple game and right before I decided to toss the game into the trash bin, the gameplay emerged. All required of you is a simple press of the left trigger and slight movements of the thumbstick. Your goal, to maneuver through the boxes while dodging the crystal spears. The trigger is an accelerant, and I have yet to discover the top speed. Dodging the spears at high rates of speed will force a zen like connection to your controller and the screen. There are other buttons, but there is no need to use them. The game saves your fastest times through the spears, and you should be able to get a few runs in before the 8 minute timer appears, forcing you to restart the game.

Another Tetris Clone? Not so!

Pentominon (Click to Download the Trial)

The intro screen tells us that the main goal is not to make lines but to create ignition. I've been playing the game for a good couple of hours and I've created ignition once. Either I am horrible at the game or its ridiculously hard. My one ignition caused me such a joy though. Pentominon, like Crystal Spear above is good for inducing the trance like state of gaming that I so thoroughly enjoy. Music plays an integral part of this game. It is hard to describe in words, but by configuring the blocks on the screen you are able to create music. The trial game allows you to experience a good portion of the game, enough to keep you entertained. Purchasing enables free matrix placement of the music blocks and I have definitely been considering purchasing this one.

And last but not least,

Lines (Click to Download the Trial)

Lines, or pipes in the popular parlance should be familiar to most gamers. But just in case its not, a description of the gameplay. You are given squares in the tetris style, each of which is overlaid with a line segment in various configurations. Simply make a line by connecting squares with adjoining line segments. Making a line segment spanning 5 squares or more scores you points and you are limited to a three minute game in the trial but I played this one over and over. Purchasing enables endless mode but might I suggest creating this type of game yourself?

That's all for now, I am sure there are quite a few more games with an enjoyable replayable trial mode and I might add to this list in the future, If you know of any please let me know and I will add them.

-Ben

Office DisOrders

2009-12-30T21:05:00.000-08:00

Play this Game.

Click to Download the trial.

Once in awhile, something comes along that can't be put into any of the genres we use to classify our games. In fact, Office DisOrders isn't really a game or even an App. I suppose you could call it an Office Simulation, but that would just be silly.

If anything, what we have here is a wonderful piece of slightly interactive fiction. Set mostly in an office and taking place over the course of five working days, Office DisOrders follows the role of Jennifer, a new temp at Incomputech, as she begins her meteoric rise and fall.

Whether or not you enjoy Office DisOrders will most likely depend on how well you enjoy the banter between Jennifer and her co-workers. The conversations are all text based, one of my only complaints. Full voice overs would suit this game very well. Still, I found myself laughing on numerous occasions while reading. The credits list numerous writers involved with the game which really shows in the quality of its prose.

In the picture above we can see that Jennifer hasn't been paying attention to her body and her stress meter on the right is rising. The Incomputech offices are furnished with a fully functioning fridge, microwave, and coffee maker to help Jennifer get through the day. Unfortunately the vending machine is broken. The graphics seem simplistic, even Lego-like. But I love the details, how every employee's only computer skill seems to be solitaire.

OfficeDisOrders is a one button game. But you will be making good use of the left thumbstick as well. I almost cried tears of joy when I discovered there was no need to press A to select a task, all that is needed is a simple push, then release of the thumbstick into the tasks direction on the radial dial. With no button confirmation for selection, some users might have problems, especially if their thumbsticks are a bit twitchy from years of continual use and or abuse. But removing the usually standard button press for confirmation adds something quite unique to the game. Making choices is effortless and quick. This speed of response really drew me into the game's story. There are a few conversations in the game where you are presented with a set of choices on the radial dial.

Simply move the thumbstick in the direction of your choice to advance the story

The game quickly moves from having Jennifer complete the most mundane office tasks such as carry the binder into a much more ludicrous realm and I don't want to spoil anything for you so I won't mention the storyline anymore. I will say that I completed the game in one sitting and it took about an hour and a half.

Ted from Moment Games, the developer behind OfficeDisOrders has worked on a number of mainstream titles over the years, including the Sims and most recently Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Lucasarts. Ted left Lucasarts due in part to the politics around the office. When asked about his motivation for creating OfficeDisorders, Ted had a few choice words, "I wanted to make a game that meant something to me, to make something that I know about." Ted added he would definitely like to create more games in a similar vein if there is interest and he can work with the right people. I am definitely interested, I wonder if I am the right people?

There's an interesting document on Moment Games website, titled "The Things We Think and Do Not Say", a manifesto if you will. The purpose of which is to set out the core tenets that should define the future of the games industry, at least according to Ted. It might be evident from the conversation screenshot above that all the choices in the radial dial are similar. This would be in line with tenet five of the manifesto, "Create the illusion of choice instead of providing actual choice." Ted believes that, "Just like a movie director controls what the audience sees, the game designer must control what the player does."

Tenet five of the manifesto is problematic, its purpose is to ensure the player has an optimal experience with the game, but why should it be up to the developer to decide what is optimal for me? The first thing I did upon entering Office Politics was take a power nap, then try and use my coworker's computers, after that I took another nap. I wanted to play a napping game, I wondered how many naps I could take before the boss would catch on to me. After a few naps with no reprisals I decided to go along with Ted's story, it is pretty good.

There is also mention of replayablity in Tenet five, "Replayability should be provided through the desire to relive a meaningful experience instead of through the creation of more options." Easier said than done, although Ted mentions movies with multiple viewings and books with multiple reads, and I also start to wonder why games have a harder time attracting repeat players.

OfficeDisorders seems to follow the tenets of "The Things We Think and Do Not Say". A sort of real world example of its principles put into practice. I enjoyed the experience and look forward to future Moment Games releases.

-Ben

Pixel Whirled

2009-12-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

A simple yet psychotic shooter.

Click To Download the Trial

At first load Pixel Whirled appears to be a retro remake of that seminal arcade classic, Space Invaders. But wait there's more! This Xbox Indie Game has a subtle trick up its sleeve. By a simple manipulation of the bumper button, the screen is flipped turned upside down, and the gameplay gets real! Utilizing the weapons of our heroes, be it a ninja star or a simple bullet, you must eradicate the pixel menace from the Pixel World.

The game features fantastic 8 bit sounds and music, but I usually prefer to use my own tunes when playing these games. Unfortunately this is one of those odd duck games that doesn't support custom soundtracks. Luckily, I can plug my iPhone into my stereo and pump out some ambient electronica while I play.

The developer told me that I would receive a special reward if I finished the game twice. Naturally I took up the challenge with gusto! Unfortunately, this game is a bit harder than the screenshots and trailer make it out to be.

I have only made it to Level 7, and I have no idea how many levels are in the game. But difficulty can sometimes be a good thing, a trait of our games that has seen a sharp decline in recent years. Perhaps because developers are afraid of frustrating us into such a state that we throw down our controllers in disgust, or even worse at the screen. Or perhaps we have as a whole become better gamers. Whatever the case may be, once in awhile I still like to be challenged by a game and Pixel Whirled is quite challenging.

If you intend to randomly shoot the invading Pixels and flip the screen at any odd time, I don't think you will make it much farther than I have. But if you time your shots, hitting those invaders in the bottom row and also time your flips, you just might have a chance at saving the princess.

The developer Holmfry has a journal here, excellent choice of blog theme by the way. He is also a huge fan of old school apparently.

While playing Pixel Whirled, I wondered what the game would be like if it was playable by two people? It would probably be pretty trippy. Here's to hoping for an updated and enhanced Pixel Whirled 2!

I quite enjoy this game and it more than makes up for Ocean Scenes. Holmfry's other Xbox indie "game".

-Ben

Goblyn Stomp

2009-12-21T22:30:00.000-08:00

Mr. Chap Scaliwag is our protagonist and stomping Goblyns is what he does best.

Click to Download the Trial

There are few things this dapper gamer loves more than to enter my warm abode after a brisk constitutional, obtain a luxurious repose on the settee, turn on the moving picture machine and commence with the destruction of whatever the developer has set before me. In this case it happens to be hordes of Goblyns.

I am a huge fan of old timey so the screenshots were the selling point for me. The game features charming sepia-toned cartoon graphics and delightful ragtime music to accompany the excessive Goblyn dismemberment brought on by Fantastic Stomps and Remote Mynes.

Trevor, the games developer, outlines the process behind the creation of Goblyn Stomp on his blog Mountain Folk Software. There are only a few posts there but you get a small glimpse of how games are developed, from a simple concept to a simple on screen representation, later fleshed out with an aesthetic quality. Trevor said, "It's my first attempt at a complete game, and I tried to balance my efforts between style and substance to create an all-around pleasant experience."

Each stomping session is concluded with an impressive display of the number of Goblyns you’ve vanquished, with a triumphant Chap Scaliwag standing atop an ever-increasing pile of Goblyns. This is definitely one of the game's highlights. The game includes a local high score table to record your most fantastic Goblyn Stomping. Trevor has claimed a score of 8500 so you best get stompin' if you want to try and beat the dev at his own game.

I enjoy Goblyn Stomp, yes I am still playing it! I love watching that pile of Goblyns stack up, although to me it is a huge stack of skulls!!

When asked if the adventures of Mr. Chap Scaliwag would continue in perhaps a Goblyn Stomp 2 or some type of platform escapade, Trevor replied, "Depending on how well Goblyn Stomp is received, I may very well do a spin off or a sequel featuring Mr. Chap Scaliwag."

Let us hope for more as we always do.

-Ben

Gaming the System

2009-12-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

A few months ago Microsoft announced that they were going to make it even easier for advertisers to advertise on the XBOX Dashboard by upgrading the dash's Silverlight functionality. I was concerned that we would soon be subjected to flying doritos chips when we booted up our machines. I was only half right, Its not delivery unfortunately.

Something a bit more interesting than ads for edible cardboard are the addition of minigames to our Dashboards. There have been a few so far. At the moment you can throw snowballs at your friends avatars, and a few months ago you could throw footballs at your friends avatars.

There was a dunktank on the dashboard over the summer where you could choose which friend you wanted to dunk. All of these Dashboard minigames are whack-a-mole clones as far as I'm concerned and are barely a glimpse of what is to come. Streaming AAA games through the dashboard is probably a bit far off into the distance though.

Now for comparison, lets take a look at a few of the Avatar enabled games available through the Xbox Indie Games Channel.

This is a picture from Avatar Avenue. A game which lets you watch Avatars walk around.

The next two are from Home Run Challenge The title is a good description. Interestingly it appears that Developers of Xbox indie games have access to the entire library of avatar models. Shown below is a shot of the pitcher as a character from Assassin's Creed.

And here we have some shots from Rate My Avatar. For the low price of 80 points you can watch a parade of avatars across your screen and rate them!! Creating and rating Mii's was one of my favorite activities on the Nintendo Wii. A free feature of the Wii by the way. Of course, Mii's are capable of far more customization than Xbox Avatars. There are a number of sites that instruct you on how to create a Mii look alike. Barack Obama Mii

And finally a shot from Avatar Golf .

These indie avatar games are slightly more complex than the Dashboard games we are currently offered by Microsoft, but I don't believe there is any technical reason why they could not be featured there as instantly playable games. In fact I believe they should be. You might be saying, "Why should Microsoft create and give these games away for free when there is revenue to be made?"

Listen up, the indie created Avatar rating game suffers from a lack of a userbase. The developer has said they are coming close to 1000 games sold which is impressive but not nearly enough. I hope they sell thousands more though. This would undoubtedly spur Microsoft into developing a more robust version able to be launched instantly through the dashboard and featuring millions of user created Avatars. I don't have to tell you that this would push sales of Avatar clothing into the stratosphere. I would be surprised if someone hasn't patented a system for the display and rating of user created digital representations of themselves.

Update: lol Avatar Patent!

That's all for now, I need to do some work on my other project

Dungeon Crawls

2009-12-10T00:11:00.000-08:00

According to this thread, there are three! Rogue like games currently in development for the Xbox indie games channel. Oh happy day!!

I think the one being developed by UberGeekgames is going to be released first, it is currently in peer review I believe. I am a huge fan of the infinite progressive dungeon crawl. Here are some screen shots from the developers website.

The developer has included an ASCII skin for this game for those who wish to replicate rogues original conditions i.e. the early 1980's when computer graphics didn't really exist, at least not for most people. I doubt many people besides the developer and a handful of others will even bother with the ASCII version of the game. If you do decide to go the ASCII route please feel free to call yourself hardcore. I however like my sprites pixellated.

The Xbox has been lacking a serious attempt at this genre for what, about 6 years? There was Xeno Arena a few months ago, but that game did not have any character customization. What it did have was a nice graphics engine. If only we could somehow merge Xeno Arena and Dungeon Adventure lol!

Leave it to the indie developers and they will create the games that the people want. UberGeekGames is even trying to implement a global high score board to their game. Something that is not really possible for XNA indie games, except through the use of some creative P2P coding. Even so, what this means is we are getting a competitive dungeon crawl.

I think what the indie games channel needs is a game with some staying power, and no I'm not talking about that zomb13 shooter. I'm talking about a game that the community plays together and one that is constantly updated due to feedback. Expansion packs are currently out of the question for most games, due to file size restrictions. But for a game like Uber's Rogue, I think a complete graphical overhaul is not out of the question. It appears to be mostly done, except for the interface, which still appears to be text based and scrolls across the screen? I haven't played it yet but I'm eagerly awaiting a chance. Here's a trailer from UberGeekGames. The trailer says the game is available now but it isn't.

-Ben

Johhny Platform Saves Christmas!

2009-12-09T17:23:00.000-08:00

The sequel we have all been waiting for!!

Click to download the trial

Johnny Platform Saves Christmas is an improvement over the original biscuit romp in just about every department. Its obvious the developer spent more time with this title. I am glad that he did and I think you will be as well.

The graphics are crisp, the controls are tight and the music is nice. Hearing Johnny exclaim "I feel like a Christmas turkey" for the 20th time after being repeatedly torched by a flamethrower was only slightly annoying.

Johnny Platform could be called a puzzle platformer but I think some if its puzzles could have been a bit more puzzling. Still, any puzzle is better than no puzzle at all. I am sure the puzzle levels require a fair amount of time to create. Just making sure that the platforms are the exact right distance for Johnny to succeed in crossing with his new rolling double jump must have taken up a good chunk of the developers time. And be aware, some levels will require a mastery of this maneuver.

The game boasts 100 levels and I'm currently on level 44 but there are quite a few that require nothing more than a few simple jumps to get through, and some that almost had me putting down the controller in frustration after spending five or six minutes trying to figure out the puzzle with no success. Some of the puzzles are of the moving boxes to a certain spot type. Luckily if you move a box to a bad spot you can hold down the B button to restart the level with no loss of life.

You get to checkpoint save every 5 levels. If you are playing the trial this would allow you to get to level 20 by saving every 5 levels and restarting the game. But only to level 20, after that you are asked to purchase the game. Personally I think a checkpoint at every level would of been better.

If you lose all your lives on say level 25, you would have to go back to level 21. Of course since you've already beaten these levels they should be cake. Indeed they are, but I still would have liked the option to continue at my current level. Gaming has evolved a long way since the days of the three lives and that's it style of gameplay.

I quite enjoy the graphical variations in the game. Every few levels we are introduced to a new element that changes the gameplay and keeps us interested. In the screen above, we are shown a christmas pudding and a lava block. Both must be used in a certain way to complete the level and move on.

A trailer is below if you're into that sort of thing.

The Xbox indie games channel experiment is just about one year old. Interestingly, Biscuit Romp was released a year ago as well. If Saves Christmas is the kind of improvements we can expect from the channel in a single year, I wonder what the independent Xbox developers will be presenting to us next year or five years from now. Will we be playing an online editable version of Johnny Platform Fixes the Galaxy? Perhaps, but for the time being I must get back in the game, Christmas needs Saving!

-Ben

Dual Zone

2009-12-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

The first dual stick independent shooter I have been able to enjoy

Click to download the trial

There have been a few of these games to come out over the years. Hell, I even remember trying to use two controllers myself in that old Atari tron bike game. That experiment didn't go so well but flash forward 20 years and we are presented with Dual Zone. A playable and challenging mind bender of a game.

The learning curve for this type of game is steep, but the developers thankfully begin the game with the simplest of challenges. So simple in fact that at around level 9 I began to wonder if the game was broken. The game doesn't even begin until level 10. This is when the spikers appear, invincible enemies that seem to randomly float across the screen and sometimes maybe not so randomly. They must be avoided. I'm currently on level 18. I've died a lot. If you have played the first few levels and quickly put the game down, I would suggest picking it back up, at least until level 10.

The left stick controls the red ship and the right stick controls the blue ship. The red ship can destroy red ships and the blue ship can destroy blue ships. That is about the only documentation this game comes with. Please be aware that ships can refer to ones you control or ones that the computer is flying. If you run into your other ship, or the tail of one of your ships crosses into the other one, you just lost a life. The difficulty of the game just got cranked up a few notches. Even so, I find the game relaxing.

I am quite enjoying this game, it is pure. Mapping of my chemical movements into electronic action with a minimum of interference. This is the kind of game that we will testing the brain machine interface on, if we haven't begun to do so already. There have been a few moments where I lost myself and became the ships onscreen. Zipping back and forth, dodging what I needed to and destroying what I had to. These moments are fleeting but they are memorable. Usually it is best to take it slow and be precise however.

The game also has a cooperative mode. You can play both the campaign and panic modes in coop. Panic is a survival style game. In coop mode each player controls one ship using only one stick. I did try this mode out with my significant other (a gamer as well).

The game is still pretty difficult even when you only control one ship, for you must rely on your partner to protect you, as well as hope they don't kill you by leaving an exhaust trail in your path. Coop is enjoyable but I prefer the single player experience. A watch of the game's trailer has me awaiting the challenges of the higher levels in the campaign.

Dual Zone is one of the best Xbox Indie Games I have played, and I have played most of them. My only gripe is that we are not given audio volume controls. Normally I have a lot of gripes so this is pretty good. I do like the sound effects but the music can be a little grating. Luckily it is a simple matter to load up some of your tunes and chill out for a bit while you attempt to get into the game.

-Ben

Ikaroids

2009-12-05T18:27:00.001-08:00

Ikaroids offers us a glimpse of what can happen if you add in some roleplaying elements to an arcade shooter.

Click to download the trial

Now those RPG elements could simply be a distress call from some unknown planet, placed by an XBOX Avatar. But this simple addition adds a lot to the game in my opinion. I am reviewing the trial version of this game which I believe is limited to the first few levels. There could very be well be more and better interactions with NPC Avatars further into the game. I know the game is a shooter at its core, but I think even a simple yes/no choice given in response to a call for help, would further immerse me into the world that Ikaroids creates. Especially if my Avatar is represented in the game as well. Ikaroids tantalizes us at the beginning during ship selection, displaying a model of our Avatars to go along with the ships. Something to think about for future updates.

At first playthrough Ikaroids seems to be a pale imitation of the standards. Hobbled together by a few students in their spare time. Perhaps it is, but there is something to this game that kept me restarting after my countless deaths. I finally switched to Rookie difficulty in order to pass even the first level. The screenshots offer glimpses of interesting looking bosses and levels.

Ikaroids comes with a somewhat confusing control scheme, but then again all control schemes are confusing until you get used to them. I am a firm believer in controls customization at all levels though. The game asks you to learn that the right bumper is for switching your primary weapons and the right trigger is for switching your secondary weapon. The left stick controls projectile direction of course, but applying a bit more pressure to the thumbstick fires off your secondary weapon. Not exactly the button I would use to make split second decisions with.

I must also state at this point that if I was still a member of the XNA Creators Club I would have failed this game for not having controls to adjust the audio levels. I do enjoy the neoclassical soundtrack to this game but the score is completely overshadowed by the explosion effect, which in this sort of game occurs multiple times a second. Ikaroids has the type of explosion effect that shakes my entire building if I set my stereo to anything above 10. (My stereo goes to 100)

This game features a coop and a survival mode. Since my significant other isn't really a shooter fan I'm not really capable of testing the coop mode. I am sure Survival mode is what it professes to be. The game makes mention of some website you can visit and input your score to. An interesting idea, simpler than the code required to implement the P2P leaderboards currently in use by some games. Perhaps this idea could be taken even further?

I have not broken my vow made 6 months ago. I have placed all my faith in the indie developer. Ikaroids could perhaps be the beginning of a new genre I think. The persistent world shooter. Maybe there already is a persistent world shooter out there? But I am getting ahead of myself again. Sometimes its all I ever do lol.

Go play some games!!

Words in a Word

2009-12-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

This ain't your daddy's anagram game!!

Click to download the trial

As you are probably not aware, I am a huge fan of word games. Does Words in a Word meet my oh so high expectations for what a word game should be? The answer may surprise you!

Simply put, yes it does. I have only played the trial version of this game which is sadly limited to a 45 second practice round of anagrammatic fun! The title screen is shown below, tantalizing me with its online multiplayer menu choices.

The gameplay is simple, you are presented with a Scrabble-esque letter tile holder and then proceed to make words. Unfortunately the game appears to be broken, for the A button does not seem to select a letter as it should. Strange indeed. A glance at the help menu informs me that the directional pad is the input method of choice for this particular game.

Press left and right to highlight a letter, then press down to select. Bizarro world for sure, but it does work. I only wish the devs would have allowed a customizable control scheme.

I played through a few practice rounds and quite enjoyed the game. Half of the screen during practice matches is composed of a grid of empty squares, teasing you with the possibilities of words that are possible. After the timer runs out the grid is filled with all of the words that you missed. The trial mode is limited to 45 seconds as I mentioned earlier, and this is not nearly enough time to make more than 6 or 7 words I think. But it does offer a glimpse of the game's possibilities. Some of the possible words are those rare gems that have been out of the cultures lexicon for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years, so a dictionary would be useful here I think. Perhaps an update could include definitions that popup at the right side of the screen, defining words as you scroll through them?

I enjoyed my short time with the game, and I wonder what the multiplayer options are, unfortunately I am low on monies and cannot afford to purchase every game that appears on the indie games channel :(

Amniotic

2009-10-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

Click To Download the Trial!!

I’ve played Amniotic for a few hours now and I most definitely will be playing it again. I’m not the biggest fan of arena shooters in general but I decided to give Amniotic a try. It might have been the screenshots that drew me in.

In my first play of the game, I got to the first boss which is this snakelike creature pictured here. After killing it, a popup screen told me the demo had ended and asked if I wanted to purchase the game. As the purchase screen loaded a few thoughts ran through my head, “Is this going to be 240 or 400 points”, “Is there any pizza left in the fridge?”

Amniotic is only 80 points! Roughly 1 dollar American. Luckily I had some leftover points from who knows when and I clicked buy and then continued playing. I got 41000 points that first game.

I was interested to know how many people worked on this game, according to the credits, 2 people. Nice work by the way!

Amniotic is simple to pick up and play but can also be quite challenging. There is really only one power up you can acquire, small rings you are occasionally rewarded with after defeating certain enemies. These rings increase the length of your tail, and the length of your tail determines your firepower. You definitely want to have a long tail, but the longer your tail the longer your target.

The screenshots don’t really do the game justice. You really need to play this game to appreciate the amount of work spent making the graphics stand out. You will also need an HD screen. But if you don’t have one of those by now then I truly feel sorry for you.

Amniotic also supports local 2 player Co-Op. I haven't tried this feature out yet, but I plan to soon. There are also two camera modes, classic and dynamic. I play on classic because that's just how I roll, but you might enjoy the dynamic mode, you can even zoom in a bit as well.

I have a few small gripes, you can easily disable the music or play your own but there is no setting for adjusting the sound effects volume. Although it is fun to shake my entire building when I pick up a shockwave! I would still like to be able to disable sound effects.

I’m currently wondering if this game can be beaten or if it just keeps going on forever. I think I made it to stage 5 in my last game before I was overwhelmed but I’m excited about playing it again. I would suggest you download the trial of this game by CLICKING HERE NOW!

Rise from your grave!

2009-10-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

You might have thought that this site was abandoned, never! There just seemed to be a dearth in the quality of games being released to our beloved xbox community/indy games channel. Never fear! I have been checking the channel daily and downloading every game whose screenshots and description evoke any kind of response in my cortex. Sadly, as you may be aware, I was permabanned from XNA Creators Club back in July. No matter, Game on! I just spent some leftover points on two xna games and I will be reviewing them shortly.

Fish Bowl Wars

2009-07-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all, Heyds77 just shared his game with me. Fish bowl wars.

Its a fun arena shooter! The game has neat sounds and light effects which don't come across in the video. But just send Heyds77 or me (Darthuvius) a message to get this game!!

Allright, got to get back to working on my game now :)

Community Games

2009-06-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

Hey all, here is some gameplay footage from Left 4 Kodu. A survival game from El Bishi. It's still early in the games development, I believe El Bishi just started developing it yesterday. I enjoy it though. I haven't been able to try out multiplayer yet but I plan to. I would like to see different colored bullets and maybe a powerup that speeds up your fish. The neat thing is, I can easily make these changes myself and send the game back to El Bishi, or anyone else!!

I was checking out the XNA forums and it looks like someone has rejected Kodu, for framerate issues when a high number of objects are on the screen. If someone else fails it the game will be put in "jail" for a week and then it can be placed into review again. :(

Moving platforms, living the dream

2009-06-28T00:57:00.000-07:00

Hey, someone asked about moving platforms in Kodu. I do not think this is going to be possible in Kodu 1.0. I do however think that soon after release the Kodu forum on xbox.com is going to be flooded with feature requests, and a high number will probably be for moving platforms.

The problem right now is that there just isn't an object that would make a good platform. And that most objects have built in collision code that we dont have any real access to. If you can make out a faint yellow glow in the video, that's the sign of two objects bumping into each other. I expect moving platforms to make it in eventually, everybody loves em!

There needs to be more customization in this game, that is a given. We will just have to give the devs time to implement everything that we want. Do you think people would contribute to an open source package of this nature? Oh, you know that they would. But I digress.

The latest news is that Kodu is expected to go into peer review this Sunday. The devs are really pushing for a Tuesday release it seems, having lined up the press and whatnot. I'll update this post with Kodu's review progress. It's quite possible the game could arrive before Tuesday. Or it could be on the marketplace next month, thats just the way it goes.

Kodu Review Progress: 50%

I passed it, and I can't see review progress anymore, but it probably needs about 6 or 7 more people to pass it.

Kodeman

2009-06-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hi! I was working on a Pacman game for a bit yesterday and today. A video is posted below, don't mind the horrible audio though. I'm the yellowish saucer near the bottom, and there's an AI saucer bot in the middle who wanders along a path until it hears me. Then it starts the chase, unless I just ate a power dot! In which case it better run lol.

I am having lots of fun with Kodu so far. There are some limitations of course. If you notice at the end of the video you can see the thermometer which is still green :) If I had filled the screen up with those yellow dots, which are actually wisp bots, the thermometer would have been filled. But I think the game is pretty good, its Pacman but done in the Kodu style, there are still a lot more things that could be added to this game, I have barely scratched the surface of this software. I can't even imagine what is going to be created when Kodu goes Live!!

Here is a screenshot of the same kodeman level, I just changed the camera to a first person view, and added the ability to launch an apple when I pressed A.

I'm currently debating on whether or not some of the issues that have been coming up in playtest are worthy of a fail in peer review. There has been some contentious debate about this in the past on the forums. I'm currently leaning towards the thought that this game needs to be released so that people can contribute to its further development. I think it will be available soon.

Bring on the Bots!!

2009-06-26T12:01:00.001-07:00

Hi again!

Here are some short videos showcasing some of Kodu's fabulous bots! These are objects that you can place in your world that can also be programmed to do all sorts of things, These videos feature most of the bots in the game that I would generally think of when you are going to use bots for player controlled movement. There are a number of other bots in the game though.

You are able to customize the color of these bots by choosing one of the 11 colors in Kodu's selectable color palette. I was hoping to be able to change the scale of our bots, but that feature is absent. Every time you place you a bot you can press X to access its settings menu. There you can modify its speed, bounciness,friction,how much damage it does with bullets, and a lot of other things.

You can cut and paste bots into your game world, as well as make clones of your bots. I'm not entirely sure what cloning does yet. You can also mark any bot or object as creatable. In Feed the Fishy I placed a creatable apple near each cannon. And then modified the cannon's programming to launch the created apple.

Feed the Fishy Update!

2009-06-26T10:30:00.001-07:00

Hi! To make up for the lousy quality of that terrain editing video I uploaded a video I made of Feed the Fishy. The differences between this version and the one I posted yesterday are that the fish is now controlled by the player and the cannons are set to release apples on a random timer between 1 and 3 seconds. It took about twenty seconds to make this change in the game. It looks like this is going to be a two player game, with one person controlling the fish, and the other player the cannons.

Kodu Terrain Generation

2009-06-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings! I took a short video of me building a bare world from scratch. Sorry about the video quality, I'm using a digital camera with video capture capabilities lol. Also, there are a lot of prominent strobe light effects used when generating terrain, be careful.

I start by loading an empty world and then setting some world parameters. One day I'll get around to saving a world with the parameters I like the best. Then I simply pick the ground brush and choose the material that I want. There are over a hundred different materials currently in Kodu. I chose a circular linear brush and painted a whole swath at once. A possible racetrack?

Now we wait for Kodu to do its work. Then I chose the up/down brush to generate some hills. Next is the flatten brush to smooth the terrain out. At my viewing distance it's hard to see whats happening but, you basically just hold the Left trigger down and move the thumbstick over the terrain you want to smooth out, you can also level terrain out with this brush. Then you let Kodu do its work.

Looks ready for a test flight. I add an object, picking a saucer, the fastest of them all I think. I find myself adding 3 (the max) quickness modifiers to every movement command I use, as well as increasing to maximum my bots speed multiplier.

Pretty neat!! I also use the roughen tool and add some water at the end but I'm still experimenting with those. As you can see by the thermometer I don't think we will be creating ocean worlds with this release of Kodu.

Generating worlds sure is fun but you might ask, does Kodu allow for extremely detailed terrain editing? :) This is a picture from feed the fishy, a work in progress. I scaled the brush size down to modify a small cube. It is a little bit smaller than that saucer in the video. It's possible to modify a single one of those dots.

Kodu dialog

2009-06-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hi! I altered some programming in one of the tutorials to show some of the dialog options in Kodu.

These images are from the NPC kodu programming. The first one shows a technique where a score can be used as a variable. You can have a few different colored scores, about ten I think. This is page 1.

This image is page 2 of the NPC kodu's programming. It gets activated after the PC Kodu presses A to increase the black score by one.

And this is page 3. If you notice in the video, the bullets that the PC shoots are orange, but they do not activate this WHEN bump,orange code. But when the orange kodu bumps into the NPC it is activated.

And this is the dialog entry screen, a bit familiar. The thing after each sentence is for line breaks, which are needed since you can only fit so much text into a dialog box on screen. There are a number of other <> options,instead of cr, you can type trike to display a picture of the trike in the dialog box, and probably a number of other things you can do that I'm not aware of.

After you enter your text you are given the option to display your lines either fullscreen, as a sequence like in my video, or choose one randomly. I plan to mess around with the dialog stuff later. As for skine99's questions about map sizes, they can get pretty big and yes the size of the map can have an effect on the thermometer. I'll post some map size stuff soon.

More Kodu Fun!!

2009-06-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hello! I am having a lot of fun with Kodu. I'm currently working on a game called Feed the Fishy.

The fish wanders around until it sees an apple then it chases it down. After it eats the apple, it spits out a wisp which follows a path. Each cannon shoots out a colored apple when the corresponding colored button is pressed on the gamepad. As you can see there can be a lot of apples and wisps on the screen before the thermometer starts to fill up. Once it gets fully red, you can no longer create any apples by pressing a button, instead you hear an annoying bzzzz! sound.

I chose my favorite music so far, Mood Music lol. There's a number of different music tracks in Kodu, as well as a lot of sound effects. beeps and boops not to mention the blips!

I don't know what inspired me to create this game, I just kind of started with a blank world and started messing around with things. I chose the ground pattern because I thought it might help me place things more symmetrically. There is no snap to grid option in Kodu. I think a lot of the design options for Kodu were probably made with ease of use in mind. That's quite understandable, but I think the developers might be underestimating the determination of their playerbase. At any rate, I hope the dev team continues their fantastic work on Kodu for years to come. Did you know that Kodu was made by a programming team of 4 people!!

Hello Kodu!

2009-06-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

Ah, Kodu has finally hit the creators club playtesting forum. I started using it yesterday. It is a lot different than what I had imagined it to be. It is also far more.

A few people are voicing their concerns that upon loading Kodu, they are overwhelmed with the amount of choices available. The developers have loaded Kodu with quite a few starter worlds for you to mess around with. A few tutorial levels, some racing games, and a number of levels that are basically clones of classic arcade games we all know and love. Games like Space Invaders, Frogger, Pinball, Whack-A-Mole,Break Out, etc..

They aren't exact clones of course, but done in the Kodu style. What is this style you ask? For starters, Most things that you will be directly controlling in this game are called bots. There are a number of different bots. The kodu, two types of fish, a unitrike, a flying saucer and many more.

Each bot has different default settings for speed and friction and various other things.

The first level I tried was tutorial number 3. The terrain is basically a small valley with a river in the middle of it. You take control of a unitrike who at the moment can only be controlled by the left thumbstick. Theres a kodu nearby so I motored up to it. He told me to try and jump across the river to reach the other kodu on the other side. But how do I jump?

Easy! Just press start to go into edit mode, select the trike and press Y to program. Add an instruction for

WHEN Gamepad,A
DO jump

Then just press start to go back into play mode. A now makes the unitrike jump. There are various options you can set to control height, speed, direction, etc.. of the jump as well.

Simple.

Once my unitrike had jumped across the river a few times I wanted to do more.After about an hour or two I had turned this level into a game where you control a flying saucer and when you approach the first kodu he tells you that his friend across the river is hungry and needs some apples. I had placed a tree and some apples nearby. The saucer could pick up apples and deliver them to the other kodu. Once the other kodu got enough apples he started jumping for joy lol! I also had programmed in a factory with a door that would open when the 2nd kodu got enough apples.

I had planned to have the saucer fly into the factory door, and then have Kodu load another level. I don't think this is possible however. Its certainly possible to teleport within a level though, and to have different bots on the screen when different conditions are met or not met. Each bot can have up to six different pages of instructions, I can tell you right now that it's not going to be enough.

One thing I am interested in is the dialogue system in the game, if you are too, I would suggest investing in a wireless keyboard or a chatpad if you prefer. I found myself using multiple pages of instructions for a very simple dialog tree. Perhaps there is a better way though, to be found with some more experimentation.

Anyway, the Kodu devs released a new build today to playtest and after loading it onto my Xbox I found that both of my worlds had been erased. Oh well. Always more to create!
So today I just messed around a bit.

New Beginnings

2009-06-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning I'm going to gamestop to sell the last of my XBOX 360 games. I don't think I'll ever purchase a disc again. For two reasons, the first being that soon games won't be sold on disc anymore, but the other and more important reason is that there are far more interesting things to play on the community games channel (or indie games channel if you prefer).

Yesterday I gave Darthuvius 1000 MS Points. He spent 200 on Miner Dig Deep. Quite an enjoyable game. It could use some more work, just like every game on the channel, or every game for that matter, but you know how it is. So? You might ask, what are you going to do with those other 800 points?

Take a guess.

Yeah that's right, KODU.

The last game you'll ever play.

I think we only have a few more days to wait for this one, it looks like my ban is going to be lifted before it gets released which is good. I'm still hoping it goes into playtest too. And oh yeah, I am going to try and do everything in my powers to get this game to code4 or in some other way be frustrating and confusing so that I can fail it in review.

I only do this because I care so much :)

Some have said KODU doesn't interest them, and some have said that you can't really use KODU to create worlds. I've mentioned before and I'll mention again that my expectations are at extreme levels. I plan to create many worlds in KODU. I want people to feel attached to characters they meet when they play in my worlds. Only time will tell if this is going to be possible. I hope that it is. Oh yeah, I also think it would be neat If I could sell my worlds to other users, but that will come in time.

Well its almost 1 am, so I think I will go rest for a bit. I do have lots of other thoughts about KODU, maybe I'll add to this post later.

Prismatic

2009-06-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

Don't be afraid!! Come towards the light

Prismatic is a wonderfully presented and thought provoking puzzler. Granted those thoughts are always of the "Which way is the light going to flow" variety, but the game is quite enjoyable.

Developed by a team of 5 over the course of 2 years, Prismatic is now available on the XBOX marketplace for 400 points. You can download a trial to your XBOX, or a trial for your PC. Prismatic on the PC costs 10 dollars for the full version.

The game begins with a humorous introduction to the princess who is living happily ever after. We are also introduced to the villian of this tale. Since I now consider story elements to be a required feature of my puzzle games, I am thankful that Prismatic has some. Or at least one, in the beginning of the game. I'm currently on level 40 of a 100 level game and haven't encountered anymore story sequences. The one I did watch at the beginning was very well done however.

The clearing of a floor seemed like a good place to add to the story, sadly all we get for doing this is a faery telling us through one dialogue box that we have unlocked a bonus round. I expect there to be a good story sequence at the end though.

The sound effects and music fit the game perfectly. You might find yourself easily entranced by them, spending hours with this game. The main theme is a delightful rendition of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite". Whenever an orb is smashed we are treated to a delightful sound of breaking glass, with each successive orb break increasing the pitch of the sound emitted.

If you are a fan of Orbyx or Peggle, you know the kind of auditory delight I'm talking about. Unfortunately in Prismatic, the pitch only increases to a certain amount. At which point every orb smashed emits the same sound. To be fair, this only happens on some of the levels, and when a lot of orbs need to be smashed. We begged and pleaded with the developer to increase the number of pitch changes, but alas, we were told it was not possible. Still, the audio is quite pleasant.

The graphics are quite nice too.

On my television, the game downloaded from the marketplace displays a double border around the main game screen. As shown in the screenshot. The version I like to play (review version downloaded from creators club website) only has a single border, with an increased main game screen. I think someone mentioned during the review process that the game looked squished on their television. And then the second border was added.

The game is broken up into 10 floors, each with ten rooms. Every floor has a different background so there's some visual variety to the game. Each room is darkened by the orbs when you first enter them, and your task is to guide the light from the faeries mirror through each orb, smashing them, and lighting up the room in the process. Great Fun!

I had some "issues" with the difficulty of the puzzles. Some were indeed tough, but that's not what I mean. I could find myself halfway through a floor and come across a room that takes me a good twenty minutes to clear. And then the next few rooms would be solved almost instantly. It's not really a problem, I just found it a bit strange. I suppose a rigorous placement of levels based on difficulty would require a lot more playtesters who were dedicated to filling out level difficulty surveys. Maybe for their next game?

If you do find yourself stuck on a certain level, you have the option of playing a bonus round to get some magic faery dust which you can use to reveal the spot in a room where a mirror is supposed to be placed. This dust can come in very handy. Using it affects your score however.

There is a high score table in Prismatic, but it appears to only keep track of your scores on the bonus rounds. There appear to be some timed bonus rounds, so if you're into that type of thing go for it!

The bonus rounds are randomly generated and I found them to be pretty easy. I haven't tried all of them yet though. The main game levels are hand generated. Most of them are able to be solved in multiple ways as well. Occasionally I found myself completing a level with some mirrors to spare. I was just a little annoyed that I didn't get any bonus points for doing this :}

Very few options in this game, a slider for music volume and a checkbox for guide beam. I am a deep fan of simplicity, so this I like.

The guide beam tells you where the light is going to flow before you actually open the curtain on the faeries mirror. I would recommend playing with the guide beam turned off. I found the game much more stimulating and enjoyable after I did so.

The video below can probably explain the gameplay a bit more, if you are still wondering what type of game Prismatic is.

Relax, its good for your health.

-Darthuvius

Gaming in Exile

2009-06-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hi! well I'm about halfway through my one month ban from the xbox and xna forums. I'm going to really have to control myself if I want to avoid the dreaded permaban. I hope I get unbanned in time for KODU playtesting which should be soon. I was told that there are problems with playtesting and xna 3.0. So we have to wait for xna 3.1 to come out before we can playtest.

I've got extremely high expectations for KODU. I expect to spend a lot of time playing and creating worlds with it. This blog post from one of the devs details a pretty advanced looking instruction set. It's good to know that our creativity won't be limited by the code.

I read somewhere that KODU is for anyone ages 7-70. I think we can shave a couple years off the low end of that. maybe starting at around 4 or 5. The big barrier at that age is the controller. But hey maybe project natal can change that. Can you imagine what would happen if a child's first experience with technology is a virtual version of themselves mimicking their movements and interacting with objects in the virtual environment? And what if they could meet other children in this virtual world?

Ah, but that vision is most likely a long way off :( In the meantime I have a few simple ideas that I can't wait to try out with KODU. Also I plan to do a community games review later today, I'm hoping to get back into doing a few reviews a week, but this banning thing has put a crimp in my plans lol.

I like games

2009-05-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

What XBOX Community Games Can Become

When I first heard about Microsoft’s plans to allow anyone to make games for the 360 I was very excited. I, like many others have dreamed about making video games since my first experience with them. Luckily I also have an interest in computing and when XNA 3.0 was released I had a rudimentary understanding of programming, and through copious use of the tutorials on the community site I was able to create my first game and release it onto the XBOX 360 YAY!! :)

Back in November 2008, I think the gaming community was holding their breath, waiting to see what this community games experiment would bring to the world of gaming. Sure, there are plenty of PC based gaming communities that function in a similar manner to the creators club, but none of them have the potential audience of the 360, or can recreate the playing conditions. Which usually involve relaxing on the sofa with friends and family.

I like the creators club, I really like the connect issue system for feedback. I am sorry if I abused it, but when I get an idea into my head, especially one concerning games and how they affect society, it’s all I can think about. I still believe that allowing for more gamers to take part in the playtesting process, and implementing quality controls on the games will have excellent results. I also have a lot of patience, which might not be completely apparent at the moment.

From my perspective, game development with XNA was fairly easy, there are still a lot of things I need to learn about, and 3D games development is a long way off for sure. But for someone who has never taken the time to understand how computers work and has simply just played the games their entire life it’s doubtful that they will be creating a game with XNA anytime soon.

You might be saying that XNA isn’t really meant to be an application that allows every gamer to make a game and then release it to the rest of the community. Perhaps, but every gamer has an idea for a game. It would be nice if there was an application that allowed them to create it. I don’t know what Microsoft’s plans are for the future of XNA, I hope they are for increasing the ease with which we can create games.

I think there definitely needs to be more community involvement in every aspect of the community games channel. I don’t think a small group of programmers can ever understand the whims of the masses. It seems like every day someone brings up an issue with the structure or processes involved with getting a community game onto the channel, and the issue is continuously disregarded. Usually the response is yes we know, that’s not how we do it. And then the thread is locked to further debate. Only to be restarted again the next day by someone else. It appears that this has been going on since November.

Here I will now outline the two simple suggestions that I have been pushing, perhaps too much in the last two months.

Let everyone with an Xbox live account playtest the games.

First the negatives

Most posts tend to describe piracy run amok, or the idea that since everyone can get our games for free, no one will ever buy them. There are millions of potential users of community games and I really doubt that all of them are going to become super playtesters overnight. Perhaps the detractors of this idea fear the currently small buying audience of community games, and the knowledge that its users are generally tech savvy, and would be more likely to join just to download all the games for free? I am a bit saddened by the state of our audience as well.

This will plunge the forums into such chaos that they might never be able to recover. This isn’t really mentioned as a possibility much, but it certainly is one.

I think that’s it for the negatives, please add some if you think there are any.

Now the positives

This would increase the community games userbase by orders of magnitude with future ramifications that are currently unpredictable. But since we want more people playing our games, the general feeling is that the future would be good.

Giving more people insight into what is involved with making a game, by contributing feedback during a games creation will surely get them more interested in making their own. This is what I thought the whole point of this experiment was.

It is sometimes easy to ignore the criticisms of one person, but when a large group of people all have the same issue with a certain feature of your game, you would be more likely to take that criticism into consideration when working on your game.

I am sure there are a lot more positives, please add some if you think of any.

The second suggestion is to put quality control checks into the peer review process.

First the negatives

I can’t think of any ;)

And the positives

Giving more power to the community regarding what games make it onto the channel will breed responsibility in the creators club members.

With an increase in quality, there will surely be an increase in the number of people who decide to check out the community games channel.

These two ideas, by themselves are fairly simple, but together they can drastically change the community games channel. Change it into something that everyone will enjoy and have fun with.

We understand that this article mentions nothing about implementing these two ideas. Implementation will actually be fairly easy, the problem is getting the XNA team to understand that the negatives posted above are not really negatives at all. Nothing that gets more community members involved in something peaceful and fun can ever be negative.

Dice Game Contest $$$

2009-05-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

WE HAVE A WINNER!!
PlayingMantis37
1600 MS points were sent out!!

(amazon doesn't sell 800 point codes :)

Greetings! I am announcing a new contest for Ye Olde Dice Game.

The prize: 800 MS points :)

The rules: Send me a picture of your highest score from a single 1 player game of Ye Olde Dice Game. This contest starts now and ends May 31! So get rolling!

Place to send your photo: After you take a picture of your television screen with a high score, send the photo to dicegamecontest@gmail.com with your total score in the subject line. Good luck.

There are two ways to obtain a copy of Ye Olde Dice Game that you can use to participate in the contest.

Download the free trial from the XBOX marketplace

Complete this short tutorial explaining how to become a trial member of the creators club and then Download Ye Olde Dice Game free of charge.
Tutorial and Link to Game File at bottom of page
(If you do complete that tutorial, please head over to the creators club forums and post if you think trial members should be able to playtest games in development!!)

The current Leader is: PlayingMantis37 with a score of 331

That's a pretty good score, you still have a few more days to beat it though! The prize could be yours!

I won't be entering the contest of course, but after PlayingMantis37 submitted his latest entry I just had to try and beat it of course :)

I will be posting regular updates about the current winning score in this post. So bookmark!!
If you have any questions about this contest please leave a comment below.

Rejoice! Ye Olde Dice Game is Here!

2009-05-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

After much tribulations, my first XBOX community game is available on the marketplace. You can download the trial version, or purchase the full version here Ye Olde Dice Game

This game is a variation on the classic Yacht game that we all know and love. It features 4 way local multiplayer, so gather the family around the big old HDTV and start rolling!

The theme of this game was inspired by the medieval days of yore, from the art which is all out of the Book of Kells, to the excellent music which are acoustic guitar renditions of 14-17th century masterpieces performed by John Sayles. All the way down to the dice, which are from the early roman empire. Images of which were provided by Arjan Verweij.

I hope you enjoy this game! If you would like to play this game right now I have created a silverlight version that is playable in a web browser. Please note that the XBOX version is much better though. Ye Olde Dice on the Web

Also, you can rate my game on this site: XBCG Info
please do rate it if you have played it and liked it, I have a feeling that my game has garnered some votes, not from opinions on the quality of the gameplay, but from personal opinions of my character.

Alea iacta est
-Darthuvius

Orbyx - Mystic Orbs of Chaos

2009-05-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

Orbyx – Mystic Orbs Of Chaos (Click To Purchase)

The Pachinko Game I have been waiting for.
(Disclaimer: I used to own an old style Pachinko Machine)

For fans of Pachinko and Peggle it needs no explanation. But in case you aren’t familiar, Orbyx involves you, a bunch of little balls that you get to shoot out of a cannon, and the rewards you get when your ball hits certain targets (pegs) on the gamescreen. Orbyx adds a breakout style paddle to the bottom of some levels which make the game just so much better.

There are a lot of other good variations in this game, moving pegs being one. Also you get to choose from four unlockable sorceress’s to play with, each with a unique spell. Spells include Multiball, Explosion, and Teleport. To cast the spell you must hit certain pegs shaped like letters to spell out the word MAGIC. Once you hit all the letters the spell is cast. Some levels can be quite difficult and you might be helped by picking the right sorceress for the situation.

There is a nice fantasy theme to this game and it is helped by a voiced introduction to the game from one of the sorceresses. Along the way through the Orbyx realm you might get some more advice from these sorceresses too. The game’s sound effects are very nice as well. I must admit, one of the reasons I play these games is for the audio feedback received when my balls hit the pegs. Orbyx delivers in this regard quite well!

I only had two small gripes with this game but they should not stop anyone from trying the game out. The fantasy theme could have easily lent itself to a more developed storyline. Maybe a future version could have some artistic cut scenes after each level to go along with the nice dialogue from the sorceresses.

I was also a little disappointed in the lack of widescreen support. Even though this game allows you to choose between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios when you first start, the 16:9 choice just displays the main gamescreen in the center of your television with an artistic border on the sides. I would have liked the game to fill up my entire television.

If you can get past these small issues, and you really should, Orbyx will be a very fun and sometimes very challenging game.

So Shiny!
-Darthuvius

How about a nice game of dice?

2009-05-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

A big problem with the community games channel is the lack of playtesters in the testing pool. You currently need to pay the 100 dollar entry fee into the creators club to log on and check out all the neat games being made by the community.

"But Darthy, I don't want to pay Microsoft 100 bucks just so I can test out some games!"

Hey! Guess what? You don't have to!!

By enrolling in a free 12 month trial membership to the creators club, you will gain the ability to play these games on your XBOX 360 :)

Here are a few links you should click on to do just that!
Description of the various membership levels in the creators club

Free 12-month trial membership from dream-build-play
(The easiest method)

Free 12-month trial membership from dreamspark
(requires cooperation from your school)

Technicalities:
There are two pieces of free software that must be installed before you can deploy creators club games onto your XBOX 360. They are, Visual C# 2008 Express Edition, and XNA Game Studio 3.0. Download and install Both of these now, then come back to this posting for further instructions!!
Visual C# 2008 Express Edition (the green button)

XNA Game Studio 3.0 (link at bottom of page)

The next part can be a bit tricky, but have patience It will all be worth it!
These Instructions are taken from XNA Documentation

Step 1: Sign In to Xbox LIVE

Turn on your Xbox 360 console and sign in to Xbox LIVE.

Step 2: Download XNA Game Studio Connect

You must download XNA Game Studio Connect from Xbox LIVE Marketplace and install it on the Xbox 360 console. XNA Game Studio Connect is listed on Xbox LIVE Marketplace next to the XNA Creators Club Subscription, which may be found by selecting Game Marketplace, Community Games, Listed under X, for XNA Connect

Step 3: Connect Your XBOX 360 Console And Windows Based Computer

With your computer and console on the same subnet, follow these steps to set up a connection between your computer and your console.

Step 3A. On Your Xbox 360 Console, Generate a Connection Key:

From the Xbox Dashboard, select the Games tab.
From the item list, select Games Library, and click the A controller button.
From the Games Library list, select My Games, and click A.
Select XNA Game Studio Connect, and click A.
Select Launch, and click A.
The XNA Game Studio Connect screen appears.
If the XNA Game Studio Connect screen displays a connection key, continue to step 3B.
If the connection key does not appear, you can generate a new key by clicking the X controller button.

Step 3B. On Your Windows-Based Computer, Enter the Connection Key and Initiate the Connection

From the Start menu, select Programs, select Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.0, select XNA Game Studio Device Center, and then click the Add Device button.
Enter a name for your Xbox 360 console.
This name serves only to identify your Xbox 360 console to XNA Game Studio. The name does not need to correspond to any other computer or Xbox 360 name.
Click Next.
On the Xbox 360 display, enter the connection key displayed in XNA Game Studio Connect.
The connection key might be somewhat hard to read on a standard television screen. Look at the guide below to help you distinguish between specific letters and numbers:
- The number "1" has a small tick at its top left, whereas the capital letter "I" does not.
- The number "8" does not have a straight side at the left, whereas the capital letter "B" does.
- The number "3" has no straight side at the left, whereas the capital letter "B" does.
- The number "0" and the capital letter "O" are so similar, XNA Game Studio Connect treats those characters as the same character. Therefore, the number "0" and the capital letter "O" are interchangeable.
- If the connection key seems difficult to read, click X to generate a new connection key.
Once you are sure that the two keys match, Click Next on the XNA Game Studio Devices dialog box.
XNA Game Studio Device Center will test the connection with the Xbox 360 console.
If the connection is successful, the XNA Game Studio Device Center on the Windows-based computer will display "Successfully connected to the Xbox 360 console." XNA Game Studio Connect on the Xbox 360 console will display "Waiting for computer connection" followed by the name you have chosen for your Xbox 360 console in the XNA Game Studio Device Center.
If the XNA Game Studio Device Center fails to connect to the Xbox 360 console, click Try again to edit the connection key and try again. If the connection continues to fail, make a careful note of the error message displayed at the bottom of the XNA Game Studio Devices dialog box. This error message can help you or a technician diagnose the cause of the connection failure, if it did not result from mismatched keys. For more information about troubleshooting a failed connection, see Troubleshooting Xbox 360 Game Deployment.
Click Finish.
The name you gave to your Xbox 360 console will be listed in the XNA Game Studio Device Center. From now on, your computer and your console can connect to each other easily.

That wasn't so bad now was it :) The good news you can now easily deploy creators club games to your XBOX!! Just remember that you have to open XNA Game Studio Connect on your XBOX and Launch it before you install any game. Its found in your community games section.

Now, for the last piece of the puzzle. Since trial memberships don't allow access to the playtesting forums on the creators club site, Creators are going to have to make their games available over the web for trial members to play and hopefully provide some constructive feedback!

To get things started I've made my game available on windows skydrive.

Ye Olde Dice Game.ccgame

Just save it to your harddrive, and if you've followed the steps above, doubleclicking it should install it to your XBOX! It's that easy.

If you have a game that you want to make available, just upload it to skydrive or somewhere else and send me the link. We might have to make some more room here for all the feedback I hope!

XBOX #2 R.I.P

2009-04-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

Hi! Sadly, My XBOX is mostly dead. its not all dead though, so I can occasionally get some playtime in. I'm going to be sending it away shortly, I do have a few reviews saved up for just the proper occasion though. But until I receive my "new" machine, reviews will be few and far between. A few weeks at the most I hope.

In the meantime check out a silverlight version of my upcoming Community Game.

Ye Olde Dice Game
Let me know what you think of it!
The XBOX version has more medieval songs, 4 way local multiplayer, a high score list and improved graphics.
I'm also working on Live multiplayer support for version 2.

-Darthuvius

(Update: I was just banned on the XNA forums for a week :) Basically for telling it like it is!! Ye Olde Dice Game should be available around may 12-14 hopefully.

Wordzy

2009-04-23T11:28:00.001-07:00

Hafiz – one who has memorized the Qur’an

Click To Download the trial

It’s rare for a game to be both fun and educational. Luckily Wordzy is both!

Some might tell you that spending five unsuccessful minutes trying to figure out a word by guessing letters is frustrating. I beg to differ and was quite surprised when Hafiz was revealed to me when my timer ran out. To think my first choice was happy! How pedestrian of me. At the time I was playing on expert difficulty, which makes use of the full Wordzy dictionary. Normal mode uses a limited dictionary, but it doesn’t make the game any less fun! Try both levels, you might just learn a new word or two as well!

This game makes full use of Xbox Live Multiplayer, I don’t know about you but I’m getting excited! I was able to play a game against the developer a few days ago, he beat me. But it was pretty close. There are three game modes to choose from, whether you are playing single player, local multiplayer, or online.

Timed Mode
In this game there is a timer that is continually ticking down from ten thousand. The faster you get the word the more points you score. When you play this mode online, you play against the other person, whoever finishes the word first gets more points. Unfortunately you can’t see what the other person is doing in this mode, so I probably won’t play it that much.

Points Mode (the money mode)
This is my favorite style of play, Each player takes a turn at guessing the word. This is where the online play is really going to thrive. Both players play on the same board so you get to see how your opponent is thinking. Did your opponent get 4 of the 5 letters right? Too bad, your turn now. Take all the points!!

Rounds Mode
This is similar to points mode, but the winner of each round gets one point, best 2 out of 3 kind of thing.

Free Play Mode
It is what it is. For those who value chillin above all else

This game keeps track of all your high scores, as well as the scores of those you play against. Did someone totally destroy you in points mode the other day? Now you will always be reminded of this fact. :)

Scrolling through the alphabet to choose your letters is simple. You use the thumbsticks, up starts at A and down starts at Z. If you press a trigger the scroll speed increases, for those looking for more speed. The game also includes support for the chatpad. Will this be the game that finally tips my mind on the issue of purchasing one of these pads? We shall see.

Buy this game.

-Darthuvius

Retro One Part 2

2009-04-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

Still No Big Boss Battles

Click to Download the Trial

But now with multiplayer support! I enjoyed this game, yes it is a little simplistic and “Retro” but that’s part of its charm! I was able to rack up a decent score, and yet it seemed to be meaningless since the game isn’t capable of storing those high scores. Storage is the bane of many an XNA developer but it is definitely needed in a lot of games, especially in a retro-shooter like this one.

Retro One presents you with a number of difficulty options at the main menu, from Easy to Rock Hard. The tag line for Rock Hard simply states: You will not survive! It is indeed tough. Each difficulty choice simply places you on a higher level with a smaller amount of lives.

If you decide to start on Easy, you will probably find the game to be just that. You can rapidly mash the A button or hold it down for a supercharged shot. You will barely be able to see your enemies appear before they are blown to bits! There are a lot of powerups in this game, but sadly all they seem to do is increase the number of little yellow bullets you can shoot at one time. Perhaps a laser or two might have been beneficial?

I was really expecting some type of boss at the end of each level, even if it was just a scaled up version of a regular enemy that could take more damage, but alas. At the end of each level you are presented with some statistics like how many shots fired, and your accuracy. But since there’s no high score list, all those numbers will be lost to the ether each time we end the game.

I thought it was enjoyable for a bit, something to play while you wait for your favorite show to come on? Fans of Retro One Part 1 should enjoy it, and it has made me look forward to Retro One Part 3.

My XBOX is about to DIE!!

-Darthuvius

Game About a Soup Factory

2009-04-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

Huh?

Click to Download the Trial

I'm a sandwich technician by trade, but this game still intrigued me. Especially when the developer stated that "the player will 'guess' the mechanic naturally".

Developed in a modern/minimalist/contemporary style, this game is at its core a single stick shooter, although it could benefit from the addition of another stick. The game begins with a simple white arrow, your in game persona, constrained to a 4x4 black and white grid in the center of the screen. A stylized jalapeno pepper is displayed in the center of the grid.

Suddenly strange objects, things I had never before considered adding to my soup, are coming at me from all directions.

36800
note: probably no need to purchase this to attain good high scores. You will die before 8 minute trial is done! :)
-Darthuvius

Xeno Arena

2009-04-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

Click to Download the Trial

Its dark, my head hurts. I place my fingers where it hurts and it feels like blood. Where am I? A faint scurrying sound is heard in the distance, “Who’s there? Fuck, it’s so dark.” Then I remember the laser sight on Jenny, my rifle. I flick the switch and a small beam of red light cuts through the darkness. Still, I have no idea where I am, or how I got here.

The last thing I remember, having a drink at the dying dwarf, a shithole of a bar on the surface of an even shittier mining colony… Everyone was laughing, then it suddenly got quiet, something hit me in the head obviously, and now here I am.

I swing Jenny around slowly, trying to find anything that would give me a clue. There’s a bunch of metal plates stacked up against a wall. I walk closer, some writing on the side of one, Zera Mining XLC. “Shit” I mutter, I’m in the mine, but why? And how deep? Some of the miners up on top said this pit ran to the core but nobody believed them, they were always drunk. Said it helped em forget the shit they saw down here. Whatever, as long as they didn’t fuck shit up and left when they were told, I let em drink.

That scurrying sound again, but this time its louder. There was some news show on in the bar, something about them shutting down these mines, that’s why everyone laughed, this place was gonna get even worse than it already was.

“Gaava Za”

“What the fuck”

This thing jumps out of the darkness and tears into my leg. I blew it away before I could even get a good look at it. Years spent in the combat prep vats will do that to ya. Just a couple shots and it was a gooey purple mess on the floor. I don’t like things that don’t bleed red. I was on the alert now, and started looking for a way out. I knew their noises now, and blew a couple more away before they had a chance to bite.

Just keep moving, I told myself, there must be a way out. Another tunnel, but it looks like it only goes down. Time to reload.

Xeno Arena

Is this gonna be another bug hunt?

You play the role of an outer space exterminator, it’s a gauntlet clone, if you like your reviews to tell you that sort of thing. Xeno Arena has some interesting features, and some not so interesting features.

I made it to level 7 before the bugs tore my limbs off. I found the controls a bit awkward, using the triggers to cycle weapons and the bumpers to fire led me to wonder if the developers reside in some kind of bizarro universe. At any rate, not having any control configuration in this type of game borders on the unacceptable.

The graphics are nicely done though. I felt like I was in an extraterrestrial mining facility. I was helped along in my search for the exit to the next level by a minimap in the upper left corner. I think the game could stand to lose this feature though, sure you might get lost sometimes, but think of the immersion!

A lot of the screen is actually filled by the spaces between the mining tunnels, these spaces are simply a solid black. Perhaps a space rock texture or two might be inserted? The health and ammo bars are quite good however. Which brings us to the bugs, or rather the bug and its many offspring, each with a slight variation in its coloring pattern, and bodily fluid color. The latter being sprayed across the floor every time you blow one up, nice touch! For an intergalactic bug hunt, this game could definitely use some more bugs. ( note: There could very well be more bugs in this game, but I only found two species, and many varieties.)

As for the gameplay, it has “issues”. The left thumbstick moves your space marine around, so the right stick is for aiming. Unfortunately the right stick moves the camera, as well as rotating the space marine. This unfortunate situation has the possibility of inducing nausea in some people (including myself). But I hope that isn’t what the developers intended. After a bit more time with the game, I tried moving both thumbsticks at the same time. This cut down on the erratic camera a lot, but it was still there.

Your guns also come with a laser sight that traverses the length of the screen. At first it can be a nuisance, but if you can make it to the higher levels, I imagine it becomes a necessity. The bugs scamper out of the shadows so quickly, they usually got to gnaw on me for a bit before I could blast them. Perhaps if the laser’s length were shortened it wouldn’t hinder the immersion factor as much as it does currently.

The developer describes the game’s only goal as “to see how far you can delve into the 'facility' before you succumb to the relentless hoard of the Xenos” That’s a bit disheartening to say the least. Why was I even in an extraterrestrial mining facility in the first place? Am I looking for trapped miners? Or perhaps exotic metals?

In the end, I think this game could use some more development. (But you should still play it!)

-Darthuvius

Terwilliger

2009-04-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

A Colorful Game of Cat and Mouse

Click to Download the Trial

You had me at the thumbnail :). Maybe I’m just partial to black and white kittycats, but I liked this game. The gameplay is simple, you start off in a neighborhood that is mostly empty lots, with a few scattered houses. As Terwilliger, your job is to catch those yummy mice scurrying around the neighborhood. You can pass freely through the vacant lots, but the houses are obstacles you have to navigate around. I can’t believe anyone wouldn’t want to bring Terwilliger into their home!

If you do catch some mice, new people move into the neighborhood and Terwilliger does get to visit those new homes. Sometimes the owners leave Terwilliger a treat, but sometimes they have a mean doggie that starts to chase Terwilliger around the neighborhood.

Once you catch enough mice, the next house you visit will contain a checkmark. That means Terwilliger can now move along to the next neighborhood. Just move into the next sign in the middle of neighborhood to advance.

Terwilliger can sometimes get powerups and skills like swipe and hide, from the houses he visits as well. These will probably come in handy if you can make it to the upper levels, of which there might be 170! You get a bonus screen and a checkpoint every ten levels, so good luck mouse catchers! I’ve only made it to level 11, but I’ll play it some more I’m sure.

The developers themselves have said they’ve only seen people make it into the 30’s, so here’s your chance to beat them at their own game. And since the devs haven’t’ even beaten their game, who knows what could happen if you do.

The graphics are very cartoonish and fit the gameplay perfectly, I really liked the polka music too. I’m looking forward to see what other situations Terwilliger might get himself into in the future.

Cats Rule and Dogs Drool!
-Darthuvius

Little Racers

2009-04-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

A visually appealing little racer

Click to Download the Trial

This game is fun and fast as well. There are a lot of tracks here, and a lot of cars, each with a number of different variables. Including but not limited to handling, speed, etc.. There are about 6 of these values that you can consider when choosing which car you would like to race around the track with. Unfortunately It is quite hard to tell what each of those values are, or do while playing the game. There might be an instructions screen explaining the cars in more detail that I overlooked however. At any rate if you are a fan I am sure you will figure it out.

For the first time player, or someone who just doesn't pay much attention to that minutia, The game places the cars in supercategories as well. Category A being the fast cars, down to Category F, the slow ones. I spent most of my time in the C category. I also liked the fact that you could change your cars colors!

WARNING!! WARNING!!
This game is prone to freezing. Most likely to occur when you are racing alongside your AI brethren. Up to 11 of them if you like.

But if you can get past the freezes, and the fact that racing on those little tracks with 11 other cars can be a bit frenetic, the game can be very relaxing. There is a quick race mode for when you dont want to deal with track or car selelction. I dont think this will get used very often since you might end up with an F car and be putzing around the track all afternoon. A choose your own settings mode, and of course a championship mode.

The Championship mode is where I like to spend most of my time. You get to choose what category of car you want, how many tracks, and how many laps in each track, among other things. Playing against the AI is allright, but this game supports 4-way local multiplayer. So go grab three of your friends and start racing. The developers have stated they are working on Live multiplayer and expect it to be released in a month or two.

I havent yet mastered the controls, and I still find myself slamming into just about every wall on every track, but I like this game. The tips presented while loading tracks can be quite useful too. All it needs is a few oil slicks, some tire spikes, and maybe a roof mounted rocket launcher or two :)

Dont Game Angry!
-Darthuvius

Cave In - Miner Rescue Team

2009-04-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Excellent and difficult puzzle action game.

Click to Download the Trial

Multiple game play modes, including story mode, single player survival, multiplayer survival, and multiplayer battle. The multiplayer is quite fun but is limited to local play only. Battle mode involved both players moving around a caved in mine kicking big colored rocks at each other. If you get hit with a rock you die, simple but fun.

I played through the story mode for about an hour and got midway through level 2. The levels progress in the 1-1, 1-2, style with about ten sublevels per level. I was surprised that each sublevel usually offered a new type of obstacle to navigate past. This made each level new, different, and fun. I did get a little frustrated at some points because on some levels, if you move a rock to a place you aren’t supposed to, your path can become irreversibly blocked, when this happens you have to press start and then restart the level.

The only problem I found with story mode was there wasn’t much of a story. Story mode involved you, the miner making your way through various rooms and freeing any trapped miners in those rooms. It is possible to exit some rooms without freeing the miners. Or you can kick a rock at one, flattening him instead of freeing him. The latter was what I ended up doing most of the time :)

The game does make use of pop up dialog boxes occasionally in the beginning, and to explain any new obstacles, but I would have liked more NPC interaction in story mode. There was only one exit in each of the rooms that I got to, so the story is also quite linear.

I did like the graphics, the lighting is extremely well done. On some of my favorite levels the only light is that from your mining helmet. The rest is a dark maze with unknown dangers around every turn. My only gripe is that after playing a level of multiplayer battle or survival mode, there is a close-up shot of the winning miner. The plainness of the miner’s graphics really stands out at that point. But it’s nothing to not play the game over.

And last but not least, Cave In comes with a built in Level editor, I didn’t use it that much but I’m sure it is everything that a level editor for this type of game should be. The controls on the map editor betray this title as a port from the PC, but there are a number of PC ports making their way onto XBCG these days.

Have fun in the Mines!
-Darthuvius

2009-04-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings fellow Gamers! Here you will find my take on all things relating to the XBOX Community Games Channel.