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Microsoft issues apology over late XBLIG payments
Microsoft has addressed late payment concerns raised by developers enrolled in the Xbox Live Indie Games program, and the company is "working hard" to pay affected studios by the end of the month. "Due to a technical issue in our payment system, we recently learned that some payments to select developers in the Xbox Live Indie Games program on Xbox 360 were delayed," Microsoft's statement reads. "Our partners are important to us and we work hard to help make sure they have a great development experience. This was an unfortunate error and we are working hard to fix it. We apologize for this incident and anticipate developers will receive payments within the next two weeks." Bleed developer BootDisk Revolution, Trailer Park King creator Freelance Games, and other studios have previously spoken out regarding the issue. Speaking to Gamasutra, Charlie Murder developer James Silva notes that Microsoft has been "way later in the past" with regard to XBLIG revenue payouts. Launched in 2008, the community-driven Xbox Live Indie Games service presents a lower barrier to entry than traditional Xbox Live Arcade and retail game releases. To date, more than 3,000 games have launched for the program, including standouts like The Impossible Game, CastleMiner Z, and Protect Me Knight. [Image: Microsoft]
Protect Me Knight sequel coming to Japanese 3DS eShop in September
Japanese indie studio Ancient revealed that a sequel to its retro-styled multiplayer party game Protect Me Knight will hit the Nintendo 3DS eShop in Japan in September. Co-founded by noted game music composer Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, ActRaiser), Ancient's previous credits include the 1991 Sega Game Gear version of Sonic the Hedgehog. The studio launched Protect Me Knight for the Xbox Live Indie Games service in 2010, offering a blend of multiplayer-focused action, tower defense, and character-building RPG. The 3DS sequel, Minna de Mamotte Knight, introduces a pair of new playable characters, and translated details via NeoGAF indicate that the game will feature "about ten times" as much content as its XBLIG predecessor. Ancient hopes to release Minna de Mamotte Knight overseas, but a localized version has not yet been announced. [Video: Ancient]
Time Viking is the follow-up to I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES, out now on Xbox 360
Ska Studios' well-known Xbox Live Indie Games success, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT!!!1, has a new baby brother. TIME VIKING!!!!!ANDSPACERAPTOR is the spiritual successor to Z0MB1ES, and it's just as insane. The game revolves around a time-traveling viking with incredible mind powers and ... well ... a space raptor. The trailer speaks volumes, but we'd advise just trying the game whenever you can. The trial is free on Xbox Live right now, and the full game is a dollar.
Episodic XBLIG platformer Oozi: Earth Adventure collected on Steam
2D platformer Oozi: Earth Adventure has made the leap from XBLIG to Steam, available now for PC at a discounted price of $8. The sale runs through December 12, when the game jumps back to $10. Oozi: Earth Adventure was released episodically on XBLIG, but is now gathered in full on Steam. It follows the alien Oozi, who crash lands on Earth, loses his space suit and has to find his way home. Oozi is a straight-up platformer, without any distracting puzzles or punishment, developer Awesome Games says. It features difficulty settings spanning "Kid" to "Hardcore."
Beat Hazard Ultra hauled in over $2.2 million since launch
Beat Hazard Ultra, Cold Beam Games' arcade-style twin stick shooter, has grossed over $2.2 million since it first launched on Steam in June 2011. Steve Hunt, the lone developer of the game, also noted in a recent blog post that the game's 3,000 percent profit came from over 700,000 copies being sold across seven platforms. Hunt said that overall development costs were "in the region of $70,000." Of Beat Hazard Ultra's seven platforms, it just recently launched on Xbox Live's Indie Games channel. Xbox 360 users can see what the fuss is about for 400 MSP ($5).
Dungeon Smash breaks into XBLIG
Dungeon Smash is a monster-fighting twin-stick shooter with local co-op for up to four players. It's available now on Xbox Live Indie Games for 240 MS Points ($3), along with a free trial for those who like to research their dungeons before jumping in. Dungeon Smash comes from Haiku Interactive, a team previously published on XBLIG with games such as Space Police on Super Highway 9, Crate Expectations and AvaGlide. We got a sneak peek at Dungeon Smash on Sunday with Haiku co-founder Jock Findlay, with an Indie Pitch. Findlay discussed publishing on XBLIG and the benefits of going indie. "I worked for nine years for a few established companies and I learned a lot and really enjoyed it," Findlay said. "Developing independently I have the freedom to explore ideas and learn new skills that I wouldn't have in a company. For example, I've done animation, (technical) artwork, sound editing and sound recording on each of the XBLIG games."
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Dungeon Smash
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Dungeon Smash is about being a heroic champion, surviving insurmountable odds, rescuing the princesses, vengeance, love, duty, lust for power, forgiveness and bringing peace to the kingdoms. The story begins with our champions accompanying their wards, the princesses of the war-torn five kingdoms, to the neutral city of Overkalix to sign a peace treaty. On the eve of the signing of the treaty, Overkalix is attacked by demons and the princesses are abducted. The players take on the roles of the princesses' champions and set off toward the Dark Isles to rescue the princesses. Each player is presented with an individual back-story which may influence how they play the game. Why develop for Xbox Live Indie Games, rather than PC or other platforms? It's relatively easy to get published to a potentially massive market and the hardware is fixed so you only really have to cater for two screen resolutions. Dungeon Smash is a twin-stick shooter and you really need a controller for that. However, development has been stopped on XNA and Microsoft is being coy about self-publishing on the Xbox One80, whereas Unity on the PlayStation 4 is sounding pretty attractive.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Jamsouls
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Our game is called Jamsouls. We took inspiration from the famous tale of Pandora's Box to create crazy battles between naughty evil creatures in a vivid and colourful arena! How have sales and visibility been on XBLIG? Is $1 a good price point for Jamsouls? XBLIG has poor visibility compared to other games featured on the Xbox Marketplace. We feel that the platform is dying slowly, and that Microsoft is not really interested in this indie scene anymore, which is a shame. We chose the price of $1 because we wanted the game to have maximum exposure. The price of 80 points is very reasonable for anyone wanting to try the game out.
Xbox One marketplace won't have separate XBLA, XBLIG channels
Xbox One will not have separate sections for indie or download-only games, such as Xbox Live Indie Games and Xbox Live Arcade on the 360 – instead, Microsoft's new console will feature games, and "just games," Microsoft Corporate Vice President Phil Harrison told Eurogamer. "In the past we had retail games which came on disc, we had Xbox Live Arcade and we had Indie Games, and they had their own discrete channels or discrete silos," Harrison said. "With Xbox One and the new marketplace, they're games. We don't make a distinction between whether a game is a 50-hour RPG epic or whether it is a puzzle game or whether it is something that fits halfway between the two." In this new approach, indie games, AAA games and everything in-between will co-exist in the same "Games" marketplace. Harrison said this will solve discoverability problems that indie games face today, and Microsoft will still be able to highlight titles that it thinks players should pay attention to. "We don't give up the ability to put a spotlight on the products that we think are going to be exciting to our user base, but in addition to that, what your friends are playing, what other people think is hot in your area, your country, your continent, will propagate up the most interesting and exciting games," Harrison said. The Xbox One "Games" tab will feature game recommendations and trends, and will have catalog and search functions. The entire system is a blend of curated and popular games, Harrison said. Microsoft will maintain its current strategy with indie developers, meaning indies won't be able to self-publish their games on Xbox One, as they can on PS3, Vita, Wii U, Steam, and eventually, the PS4.
Xbox One won't let indies self-publish
Microsoft didn't have anything to say to smaller independent developers during its Xbox One announcement. Such studios might have been hoping for bigger news from the company's E3 press conference, but it looks like they're out of luck. Unlike the PS3, Vita, Wii U and, soon, the PS4, indie devs will not be able to self-publish their games on Xbox One, reports Shacknews. Matt Booty, general manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms, told the site that Microsoft will "continue to court developers in the ways that we have." He did add that the company will "explore new business models and new ways of surfacing content," but ultimately concluded that "Microsoft Studios is a publisher that works with a wide range of partners, as do a lot of other people, to bring digital content to the box." Currently, the only way self-publish on the Xbox 360 is via Xbox Live Indie Games. While the niche channel has seen a few successful developers, most see greater success on other platforms like Steam and PSN. Furthermore, the XBLIG service is stagnating according to some developers, and its future remains unclear.
Next-gen Microsoft: What the new Xbox can do for indies
The Xbox 360 accrued an arguably bad reputation in terms of indie games publishing over the past few years. Many vocal observers – players, mostly – saw Xbox Live Arcade as a closed, unsupportive platform that asked developers for thousands of dollars to update their own games, and Xbox Live Indie Games was a stagnant hole filled with Minecraft clones and zombie games. Microsoft may have to overcome this public perception with its next-gen Xbox conference today at 10 a.m. PT. But from an indie developer's standpoint, the issues in publishing with Microsoft are different – or nonexistent. "Working with Microsoft is great," writes James Silva, one half of Ska Studios and creator of The Dishwasher series of XBLA games. "I have heard a few stories that contradict my experience, and I know quite a few people who are happier on platforms other than XBLA, and that's fine for them. XBLA is a closed, carefully curated platform with its own set of fairly rigid standards and protocols." Ska Studios works with only Microsoft, publishing The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai after winning the Dream Build Play competition in 2007, and from there developing The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile for XBLA, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMB1ES 1N IT!!!1 on XBLIG and a version on Windows Phone, and now polishing another XBLA game, Charlie Murder. Silva makes enough money developing games for Microsoft platforms to support a life of developing games for Microsoft platforms. He says that with Microsoft as a publisher, he retains full creative control, and Microsoft supports him in terms of bug-squashing, meeting goals, play-testing, and even taking him to dinner when he's in town. "Shortly after The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai launched, I absolutely spent a night at my producer's cabin in Snoqualmie, drinking IPA and playing around with GarageBand," Silva says. "Yes, it was fine, it was fun, and it's unfortunate that 'everything's fine' doesn't really register as newsworthy, because there is currently a 'Microsoft is bad for indies' narrative trending in gaming news."
Steam is king in service wars, Humble Store a sleeping giant, indies say
Twenty-one randomly selected indie developers walk into a digital room and ponder the question, "Which online distribution system has been the most effective for your games?" If this were the set-up to a joke, the punchline would probably be, "Facebook." But for many indie developers, the question of which platform to publish their games on is a very serious one, with potentially dire consequences. Pared down, platform success is all about accessibility, upload and support, and in terms of those factors, there's a clear, unsurprising favorite: Steam. But maybe not for long. I asked 21 indie developers this question, and while the majority mentioned Steam in the same casual manner that begets an unchallenged king, there were consistent whispers of other platforms doing things well, perhaps even better than Steam, from a backend perspective. One of these platforms was the Humble Store, which received the second-highest number of solid votes and a handful of positive shout-outs. "I owe pretty much my entire survival the last few years to iOS, the Humble Store, and to a lesser extent Android and Steam," Adam Saltsman, the creator of Canabalt, said. But iOS ran into some bad censorship issues, Android had discoverability problems and Steam was "obviously" too closed, he said. If Saltsman could choose just one of those platforms to release his next game on, it would be, "Humble Store," hands-down.
Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 teases in first trailer
While we do have some idea of what to expect in Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4, we have yet to catch a glimpse – until now. This teaser trailer from Zeboyd Games' upcoming sequel promises demonic trains and vast underhells; it promises a cadre of monsters to capture and throw into battle.Previously developer Zeboyd Games revealed this latest episode would not grace iOS, Mac or Android – all supported platforms for Rain-Slick 3. The upcoming fourth episode will launch on PC and Xbox Live Indie Games some time this spring for 400 MS Points ($5).
Take control of an 80s arcade with Arcadecraft, out now on XBLIG
Arcadecraft, the 80s arcade management sim from Firebase Industries, is available now on Xbox Live Indie Games for 240 MS Points ($3). In Arcadecraft, players must dig themselves out of debt with the latest craze in entrepreneurship, starting an arcade. As owner and manager, players purchase arcade machines, position them around the space, name their arcade, paint the walls, change the floors, and add graphics and neon wherever they deem necessary.Arcadecraft has almost 80 arcade machines of different design, each with adjustable difficulty and price settings, and some games will jam, break down and need servicing as customers use and abuse them.Firebase Industries, the team behind Orbitron: Revolution, has Arcadecraft on Steam Greenlight and is working on a touch-based Windows 8 version.
Cell: emergence version 1.1 reacts massively on XBLIG, PC
If you're going to play something on Xbox Live Indie Games that doesn't involve mining, it might as well be an organic, massively reactive, cellular strategy game from the principal writer of the original Deus Ex, Sheldon Pacotti. Cell: emergence takes place in the body of a sick child, where players inhabit a nanobot fighting the smart germs of futuristic biowarfare. It's beautiful, for a battlefield.Cell: emergence 1.1 drops on XBLIG today and is out for PC via Desura, both on sale for $1 through February 4. Version 1.1 addresses the weak tutorial and steep difficulty curve by throwing in visual tutorial screens."The difficulty curve remains steep, but for most players it should now be challenging rather than mystifying," Pacotti says. He also wants to see Cell: emergence break out on Steam, and today began a campaign to get it approved through Greenlight.If you're interested but not sold, check out the free demo on Indie DB.
Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 details emerge
Details on the fourth game in Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series were revealed in a recent IGN interview with Zeboyd Games' Robert Boyd and Bill Stiernberg. For starters, Rain-Slick 4 will be less linear compared to the third game, as Boyd said the team has "added more optional areas" and have "tried to add more secrets and secondary routes to the main dungeons." The overworld will be "freely explorable" as well. Zeboyd's involvement as developers grew from its experiences with the third game, as Boyd noted they "had a lot more creative control over how the game and the story turned out with this one." Boyd said the two-man team plans to work on a "sci-fi/spy RPG" that involves a "distant future setting, female protagonist, on-map battles, more animated sprites" and a "cool level-up system" after Rain-Slick 4 is completed. Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 will launch this Spring on PC for $4.99 and the Xbox Indie Game channel for 400 MS points. %Gallery-177329%
Penny Arcade 3 now on Mac, iOS, & Android, free Seamstress DLC live
Penny Arcade's On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 is now raining down on iOS, Android, and Mac. All versions include the free Lair of the Seamstress DLC which trickled concurrently onto Steam and Xbox Live Indie Games, as well as the Fanfiction Pack dropped earlier this year. The Android and iOS versions storm in at $2.99, with the Mac version a spot more at $4.99.The Lair of the Seamstress DLC includes a new dungeon, which Zeboyd says can be entered when all your classes are Level 40 or higher by "going to the top floor of the Class Shrine." There's also a new zombie-themed costume pack, almost as if to tie in to some horror-themed annual holiday.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Brand
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Guillaume Boucher-Vidal, founder and CEO of Nine Dots Studio, talks the craft of customization, XBLIG sales and launching near Diablo 3, with Brand. What's your game called and what's it about?The game is called Brand and it's about building a sword fit for a king. The game is in 3D, but the gameplay is in 2D. It features three large explorable levels, in a somewhat similar fashion to games of the Metroidvania genre, although a little simpler.How do you support yourselves, working full-time at Nine Dots with no salary? Is it worth it?I had saved up about $25,000 before starting the business, and I started doing a few consulting jobs to fill in my pockets a little whenever I can. Some guys work on the side, while others get support from their parents. It's not an ideal situation for anyone, but we try to make the most of it.We're all young and it's the right time to make these sacrifices. I think it's definitely worth it. The experience is unique, and even if Nine Dots was to fail, we'd still have a very strong portfolio piece, a unique background and we'd be of the very few developers who could proudly say: "We made the game we wanted to make, the way we wanted to do it." Some people have been in the industry for 15 years and can't say that.%Gallery-169115%
Snapshot: Gateways
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Gateways for PC. Yes, Gateways is a retro 2D platformer from an independent developer. Go ahead and get out all your grumbling about the saturation of retro platformers on the indie scene. Really, let it all out. There it is. And breathe.Now that our minds are open and clear, let's talk about Gateways.Gateways comes from Smudged Cat Games, the developer behind The Adventures of Shuggy, and it therefore carries a certain level of polish and intricacy expected from a veteran creator. It's truly not just another indie, retro 2D platformer – it's an indie, retro 2D platformer with a multitude of layers in gateway guns, time-shifting abilities, mirror refraction and flashlight technology, all set in an eccentric scientist's overrun laboratory.%Gallery-167608%
Award-winning indie game Gateways on sale for $1 on XBLIG
Gateways, Smudged Cat Games' entry into the Indie Games Summer Uprising, is on sale for 80 Microsoft Points ($1) on XBLIG, for a limited time. Smudged Cat is the developer behind The Adventures of Shuggy, and Gateways is a game we're thoroughly enjoying on Steam, where it is $5.Gateways normally runs 240 MS points via XBLIG, so if you're intrigued by a retro 2D platformer with a series of matter-melting guns that just so happens to be a Dream Build Play 2012 winner, check it out now for cheap.
