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Xbox LIVE Indie Games - The December 2010 Thread

P

Princess Skittles

Prince's's 'Skittle's
SapientWolf said:
Is that even allowed?

Even if it is, it kind of stings that this passed peer review but we still have to wait for ZP2KX.
Click to expand...
It's more of an annoyance than anything malignant.. since it should still pop up the "Purchase Game" blade and the default selection is "Cancel."
 
C

Cerebral Assassin

Member
Princess Skittles said:
It's more of an annoyance than anything malignant.. since it should still pop up the "Purchase Game" blade and the default selection is "Cancel."
Click to expand...

Yeah, it does this, but if you have the habit of tapping "A" when waiting for a game to load it could catch you out.
 
P

PepsimanVsJoe

Member
SapientWolf said:
Is that even allowed?

Even if it is, it kind of stings that this passed peer review but we still have to wait for ZP2KX.
Click to expand...

There's gotta be at least one douchebag in peer review who sat around failing the Winter Uprising games because his buddy is trying to sell bullshit like Shoot Models.
 
P

Princess Skittles

Prince's's 'Skittle's
Cerebral Assassin said:
Yeah, it does this, but if you have the habit of tapping "A" when waiting for a game to load it could catch you out.
Click to expand...
You'd have to be tapping "A" while also press "up" at the exact right moment in between taps of "A" to change the selection from "Cancel" to "Download."

It's still lame to the max, but there's no way in hell this would ever "trick" or "trap" anybody into buying a game.
 
C

Cerebral Assassin

Member
Princess Skittles said:
You'd have to be tapping "A" while also press "up" at the exact right moment in between taps of "A" to change the selection from "Cancel" to "Download."

It's still lame to the max, but there's no way in hell this would ever "trick" or "trap" anybody into buying a game.
Click to expand...

I didn't think of that, true.
 
V

Ventron

Member
(A shameless plug for me...)
Bonded Realities trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts8UyUWX9ew
(EDIT: Or GameTrailers: http://www.gametrailers.com/game/bonded-realities/14260 )

It's a turn-based RPG. I made it because I don't think there are enough on XBLIG, and because I love them when they have silly stories.

While I originally intended it for a retro graphic style, I decided to drop that and use my own drawing style. I'd be interested in what you think. It should be released January 2011.

2nlhe0g.png


(It's not part of the Uprising, I had to turn down the invitation because I didn't think I'd have the game done in time for that week. So much for that :lol )
 
B

Bebpo

Banned
I bought Score Rush because it's pretty rad but the sound is BROKE. Whenever things blow up the sound overloads and just drops out. It happens every other second and just kills the audio. I have to play the game on mute with my own music playing and that's disappointing because the music in the game really gets you pumped up to shoot stuff.

Is this happening to anyone else and has there been any word on a fix? I'm going optical out and this is the first game that's done this. Every other game whether disc based, xbla, or xbox indie has sounded fine.

hmmm, found this on their forum
Hi there. Thanks for the feedback. We are aware of the sound issue, although you are the first to report reducing volume of sound effects fixes the problem. The cause of the issue is a bunch of things: 1. your digital sound processor using Dolby Digital 5.1 or WMA Pro is not handling the sounds properly (since the majority of hardware does). 2. the XACT sound system in Indie Games isn't doing what it is told. If I choose to not play so many sounds at the same time, or in a different way, the sound issue disappears. So even though Score Rush and Decimation X3 appear to be the culprits, they really are not. Most sound glitches are fixed just by getting better cords / cables and checking connections. As crazy as it sounds, Score Rush was the only game with sound glitches on my home entertainment system, and when I plugged in the sound cord connections all the way (they were foolishly slightly unplugged), the issue disappeared -- so it appears that our games are merely more demanding, and expose low quality cords, connections, hardware, and this is slightly the fault of XACT not producing a crisp and clear sound for the hardware to deal with. Nonetheless, we need to fix this on OUR end, and we are doing this. And we will provide an update ASAP (1 week) to both games. :) -- Jason Doucette
Click to expand...

So the only games on the entire xbox system that cause sound problems are their games, but it's not the fault of their games, and their games are just more audio demanding then every other X360 retail, XBLA, Indie game and expose the problems with your connections....yeahhhhhhhh, I dunno how much I buy that. But glad they are working on a fix!
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Ventron said:
(A shameless plug for me...)
Bonded Realities trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts8UyUWX9ew

It's a turn-based RPG. I made it because I don't think there are enough on XBLIG, and because I love them when they have silly stories.

While I originally intended it for a retro graphic style, I decided to drop that and use my own drawing style. I'd be interested in what you think. It should be released January 2011.

(It's not part of the Uprising, I had to turn down the invitation because I didn't think I'd have the game done in time for that week. So much for that :lol )
Click to expand...

That's looking pretty solid, Ventron. Glad to see that you're still doing stuff past "Trip to Bluey's Island". I'll definitely give this a shot when this comes out.
 
B

Beezy

Member
Bebpo said:
Is this happening to anyone else and has there been any word on a fix?
Click to expand...
Never happened to me.

Btw, my highest score in Score Rush so far is 76mil+. That was without using any bombs because I didn't react quickly enough on my last life to use one. :(

Definitely my favorite indie shooter so far.
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
Ventron said:
(A shameless plug for me...)
Bonded Realities trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts8UyUWX9ew

It's a turn-based RPG. I made it because I don't think there are enough on XBLIG, and because I love them when they have silly stories.

While I originally intended it for a retro graphic style, I decided to drop that and use my own drawing style. I'd be interested in what you think. It should be released January 2011.

2nl


(It's not part of the Uprising, I had to turn down the invitation because I didn't think I'd have the game done in time for that week. So much for that :lol )
Click to expand...
Looks really good.

I'll definitely be looking forward to this.
 
V

Ventron

Member
...And I made it to GameTrailers too!

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/bonded-realities/14260

Glorious 720p for everyone!

Enk said:
That's looking pretty solid, Ventron. Glad to see that you're still doing stuff past "Trip to Bluey's Island".
Click to expand...

I enjoyed making that, but I did have prior experience in the tools involved. I was once a member of a forum who was dedicated to tearing the Mario World engine to shreds with hex editors :lol
I however love writing engine code, so this has been a great challenge to set myself. And if I can get my foot in the game industry door in doing so, that's another upside!
 
G

GodfatherX

Member
really wish Decimation X3 had online leader boards, just smashed my record

level 61 4,645,453 pts

actually kind of hopping that Radian Games would make a version of this, with various visual options and remixed gameplay

edit, just found this from Matthew Doucette producer of Decimation X3
With the rumors of XBLIG getting leaderboards, and the problems of p2p online boards on XBLIG, we decided to wait for the real thing.
Click to expand...
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
There's some really fantastic design work in Soulcaster II. About 10 levels in the size and complexity of the levels starts growing significantly, and some twists get introduced regularly. A few levels had me stumped big time until I started thinking outside of the box (and reading the sign at the start of the "rat level.

Two more levels to go on normal difficulty until I'm though it. Wonderful game, much better than the first. Can't recommend it enough.
 
E

EagleEyes

Member
GhaleonEB said:
There's some really fantastic design work in Soulcaster II. About 10 levels in the size and complexity of the levels starts growing significantly, and some twists get introduced regularly. A few levels had me stumped big time until I started thinking outside of the box (and reading the sign at the start of the "rat level.

Two more levels to go on normal difficulty until I'm though it. Wonderful game, much better than the first. Can't recommend it enough.
Click to expand...
How many levels are there?
 
A

AzBat

Member
GodfatherX said:
really wish Decimation X3 had online leader boards, just smashed my record

level 61 4,645,453 pts

actually kind of hopping that Radian Games would make a version of this, with various visual options and remixed gameplay

edit, just found this from Matthew Doucette producer of Decimation X3
Click to expand...

I was discussing this with Matt & Jason over in the Duality ZF thread on Xbox.com and here's the latest...

HugeJuge aka Jason Doucette said:
NONETHELESS, it was a mistake to not implement the same scoreboard system as everyone else, and I AM DOING THIS NOW, and I will fulfill this promise. Personally, it's been bugging the heck out of me.

...

In any case, MISTAKE NOTED. Mistake being fixed. ;) Onward! :)
Click to expand...

http://forums.xbox.com/8/35281491/ShowPost.aspx#35279756

Looks like we'll be getting online scoreboards after all. Yippee! Which is great because I think waiting on proper Leaderboard support in XNA/XBLIG was foolish as it could take forever if at all.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
EagleEyes said:
How many levels are there?
Click to expand...
The developer said "30 new levels" as part of an update a while back, so I'm assuming that's it. The story seems headed to a conclusion as well.

Edit: and done. It's over 30 levels, sort of. And clearly sets up another sequel. I hope like hell the game does well enough to get it.

There's a lot of flexibility in how to structure the souls you cast. Each gets leveled up in three categories, and maxing them out unlocks a unique capability. But doing so costs a ton, so it comes at the expense of other others. So it's a specialization vs. balance equation. And saving up to afford a fifth soul slot also means not maxing someone out, or skimping on the others. So there's also a quantity versus quality balance. I've got three more configurations I want to try right now, so there's at least three more play throughs. And I'll do them on Hard mode, which will take much longer.

Overall this first romp took just over two hours, and 19 deaths.

Soulcaster II is now my favorite Indie game of the year, and might be my favorite 360 downloaded game of the year. I just love the game design so much.
 
I

InfectedZero

Member
Bebpo said:
I bought Score Rush because it's pretty rad but the sound is BROKE. Whenever things blow up the sound overloads and just drops out. It happens every other second and just kills the audio. I have to play the game on mute with my own music playing and that's disappointing because the music in the game really gets you pumped up to shoot stuff.

Is this happening to anyone else and has there been any word on a fix? I'm going optical out and this is the first game that's done this. Every other game whether disc based, xbla, or xbox indie has sounded fine.

hmmm, found this on their forum


So the only games on the entire xbox system that cause sound problems are their games, but it's not the fault of their games, and their games are just more audio demanding then every other X360 retail, XBLA, Indie game and expose the problems with your connections....yeahhhhhhhh, I dunno how much I buy that. But glad they are working on a fix!
Click to expand...
Hey just so you know thats bullshit! I just got my Astro Headset in on tuesday and tested it out on Score Rush and get that crackling as well through optical, but on my tv audio its fine. I dont know wtf is going on.
 
B

BlazeHedgehog

Member
Kafel said:
From The TEMPURA of the DEAD creator, Aban Hawkins & the 1000 SPIKES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N1erM9Sv0o
Click to expand...

It's a bit troubling that he gives you 1000 lives but the death sequence is so laboriously long. With the "One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand" method, I counted about 8 seconds between death and finally getting back in to the game. Assuming a player burns through all 1000 lives, that's 2 hours and 21 minutes just spent watching the death sequence.
 
Dr. Zoidberg

Dr. Zoidberg

Member
Sega1991 said:
Toy Stunt Bike is a decent, but not incredible Trials HD clone for 80msp.
Click to expand...

I actually bought this as I was having fun with the trial and it was only 80 MSP. First indie game I've bought in a while, though I'm sure Cthulu will be day 1. There have been some other recent releases like SoulCaster 2 that were obviously good games but they aren't my cup of tea.
 
C

Cerebral Assassin

Member
ZP2KX is out(on EU Marketplace, at least)

As I said I would do the Indie thread next month(as Toythatkills has no real 'net access) I've been playing my way through the Dec releases:

Alpha Blasters A zoomed-in GeoWars clone with a Yen sign for your ship, & enemys such as £, $, etc. Too slow to be worth it although it has an Alpha Roids mode available if you buy it(a new take on a old classic, I assume that means a revamp of Asteroids), nice 80’s action movie-esque synth soundtrack though & it says it has leaderboards.

Asteroids Do Concern me A nice (cheesy voiced) Star Wars style scroll explains that beyond an Asteroid void lies great power.... Well I never got to the “great power” but I discovered a simple side-scroller, press “A” to get a vertical boost, use the inertia to avoid hitting Asteroids & the “walls” collect the blobs & thats about it, a few different “skins” for the game & it is a multiplayer game, not bad but not really worth too much time.

Avatar Boogie 2 Now I must have been living under a rock because I don’t recall Avatar Boogie 1, strangely after “playing” this I don’t think I missed much. You can pick a style of dance to watch a set of random Avatars do some preset dance or you can “freestyle” with your own Avatar with about 20 different dance moves(8 for the demo) & have the backing dancers follow your every move. If you unlock the full game you can access the music you have on the HDD, but the 360 has a visualizer, use that if you want to listen to some music.

Boogeyman A Siver Dollar Game.... An actual game in this one though. A top down view of a childs bedroom avoid the flashlight beam(& eventually other hazards) make your way to said bed & wait 2 seconds to scare child, repeat for all the children in the room & then move on to the next level & repeat.

Zombie Accountant Duck your co-workers & jump the filing cabinets while collecting tax returns in an Impossible Game kinda way, nice chiptune tune though.
 
S

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Have to give another shout to Chu's Dynasty; it's a pretty solid game all around. Watching people on Shoryuken's Chu's Thread disecting such a game is pretty impressive; and the Dev's are right there, noting and correcting the issues as time goes on.

It's one of the most high-class indies on the service, so I'm kinda suprised at the lack of attention it's getting.

------

I wanted to get into Soulcaster 2 so much, that I finally broke down, and got the first one, so I could get the "full effect" of the sequel. Glad I did; it really helps one appreciate how improved the second game is, which is impressive, given how get the first manages to be. The improved enemy types of number 2 are very welcome, and are well paced. The graphic upgrade is great, really feels like going from late NES to Early SNES, with music that reminds me of classic Redbook audio (Love how 80's the things sound) It's really like the game took it's own formula, learned to run with it, and then, knows exactly how to speed up even faster, while still feeling really well formed.

It just feels so good on so many levels!

-------

When I played the first ZP2K game, it felt kinda... meh. I don't remember exactly what it was... but I'm glad ZP2KX seems to feel much more polished. I'm a bit bummed the game doesn't seem to have any form of same-system multiplayer, though? Bleh. With the points I currently have, I really wanna keep the number I have for when Alpha Squad comes out (want some 2 player Co-Op gaming that's not a trippy-lookin space shooter, please), but it's on my list, surely. Like a little multiplayer Dishwasher frag-a-thon...
 
D

Ding

Member
GhaleonEB said:
There's some really fantastic design work in Soulcaster II. About 10 levels in the size and complexity of the levels starts growing significantly, and some twists get introduced regularly. A few levels had me stumped big time until I started thinking outside of the box (and reading the sign at the start of the "rat level.
Click to expand...
I bought and played Soulcaster II a bit on Thursday. Sadly, I seem to be stuck about 10 levels in. I played that "last" level at least 30 times before giving up. Any advice? Otherwise, it appears that I'm done with this game. or at least that playthrough.

I'm in the "Stronghold", I think. "Oh, gosh. This isn't safe at all. We need to get out of here and go to some desert." The magic dude explains how he can't kill the gold zombies, some other character needs to fight them. The room has at least two parts. After you kill everything in the southern, dungeon-like room, you go north into a lava-y, cave-like room. Assuming I survive the first room, I'm quickly surrounded and destroyed up in the second.

My main problem is that I'm weak. Only one scroll; only one health potion. No upgrades on any of my fighters. I was saving my money for a new orb, but I haven't seen a store in forever. I guess I'll have to start over and spend my money sooner.
 
S

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Ding said:
I bought and played Soulcaster II a bit on Thursday. Sadly, I seem to be stuck about 10 levels in. I played that "last" level at least 30 times before giving up. Any advice? Otherwise, it appears that I'm done with this game. or at least that playthrough.

I'm in the "Stronghold", I think. "Oh, gosh. This isn't safe at all. We need to get out of here and go to some desert." The magic dude explains how he can't kill the gold zombies, some other character needs to fight them. The room has at least two parts. After you kill everything in the southern, dungeon-like room, you go north into a lava-y, cave-like room. Assuming I survive the first room, I'm quickly surrounded and destroyed up in the second.

My main problem is that I'm weak. Only one scroll; only one health potion. No upgrades on any of my fighters. I was saving my money for a new orb, but I haven't seen a store in forever. I guess I'll have to start over and spend my money sooner.
Click to expand...

The Lava-y Cave spot is the room with the 4 levers in the center, that's absoutely HUGE? For me, I just pressed 1 lever the entire time. and then just let eveything come to room center, and divided and conquerd there. Keeping Shadeau on the lower section, sniping with the extended range I had on her, using Aeox in front of the 2 or so doors I would lure them to... without upgraded range, I'd probably just put 2 Aeox on the side of the doors Furthest from my caster, like this:

| |, _ = Doorways, S = Shadeau, A = Aeox
Code: 
--------|   |---
|S            A
|
_
_
|A

This way, Aeox stops any monsters that enter, and Shad still gets a clear line of sight, rather than being blocked by their bodies.

If you're really quick about it, you could also go for this formation, when single doors are open:

Code: 
---|   |---
   A   A
     A

Using Triple of the same characters, when in advantageous positions (Bloodstone (is it stone?) when they're walking past walls, Aeox at doorways, Shadeau while leading enemies around pits and gaps) can really help combat low levels. For me, I'm trying to Max out Shad, so my other 2 were pretty underleveled...

Hope some of that helps!
 
M

Mr. B Natural

Member
Tried SoulCaster II considering the first one is my fav indy game.

What happened? It's the exact same game but 3 times more expensive. Why? Does it change up? Do you get new souls to cast?
 
N

N4Us

Member
I hate to be "that guy" but there's a couple thing that bug me about ZP2KX:

- Rolling is limited and delays for a couple seconds before you can do it again. Guess it's a needed nerf because everyone rolled around like a spazz in ZP2K9, but it feels like I'm going more at a snail's pace.

- Jumping seems a bit glitched. If you jump to a new platform and try to jump again, your character will do a stumpy jump instead of a regular one. It's also straight out locked on me a few times where I just can't jump.

- Spawning with the pterodactyls seems like a bad idea, honestly. It takes too long and everyone sees you coming in. One Zombie Hunt match I just played was pretty much "everyone bumrush the respawn point". Respawning in 2K9 was pretty broken but this doesn't really fix it.

All my veteran whining aside, I love the extra weapons (the cat bazooka is great), good to see you can choose maps, jetpack can save you (instead of falling to your death from some kick in 2K9), and the jokes about XBIG throughout the game are funny. I could rant about some more miniscule changes, but this is a different monster from 2K9 and I'll have to learn to play it differently. Hope to see you all online.
 
S

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Mr. B Natural said:
Tried SoulCaster II considering the first one is my fav indy game.

What happened? It's the exact same game but 3 times more expensive. Why? Does it change up? Do you get new souls to cast?
Click to expand...

The first and second games both cost 240 pts. I just bought them both without the past 4 days ^_^

You have the same souls, but they have a new "maxed out" ability for you to get, and the stage and enemy designs are vastly improved. I just finished speaking about as much a few post up, so won't repeat those points here.

The Music and Graphics are also improved in quality; backgrounds have animation (Like twinking water and lava), layers, and better variety and colors, and even a few interactive elements to help you in combat. The music also sounds like it steped up a rung in production quality, less 8bit, and more 16bit in nature, with compositions that (I think) loop better than the originals.
 
N

nli10

Member
GOt my 11 year old cousin on to Indie games to download ZP2K and his first question?


Is there a section for just avatar games?


Face_Sad

Still, at least I got him to check out the channel (and I told him that the top rated section was the best place to pick games from). I blame Crash Course...
 
N

nextgeneration

Member
AzBat said:
I was discussing this with Matt & Jason over in the Duality ZF thread on Xbox.com and here's the latest...



http://forums.xbox.com/8/35281491/ShowPost.aspx#35279756

Looks like we'll be getting online scoreboards after all. Yippee! Which is great because I think waiting on proper Leaderboard support in XNA/XBLIG was foolish as it could take forever if at all.
Click to expand...

Not only do these guys make awesome shooters, but they're very talented game players, too. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxLJ4df--zw&feature=feedlik
 
A

AzBat

Member
nextgeneration said:
Not only do these guys make awesome shooters, but they're very talented game players, too. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxLJ4df--zw&feature=feedlik
Click to expand...

Yeah, they're insane. More game skill than I have in my big toe. LOL

BTW, for those wondering what the Ribaux brothers(developers of Miner Dig Deep) have been up to the wait for their next game isn't that far off. They are now know as Substance Games and their new game is called Wizard's Keep. It's an action RPG and it's just been released to Peer Review. If doesn't fail, we could see it on the Marketplace Monday.

Their site has some old screenshots...

scr_3.jpg


scr_1.jpg


They also just release the box cover art...

final_cover.jpg
 
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