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Marble Blast Ultra rolls right off of XBLA
Marble Blast Ultra, one of the earliest Xbox Live Arcade games, has been removed from the service. The game is no longer listed on the Xbox Live Marketplace, though its DLC packs are still currently available. The delisting, according to XBLA Fans, is the result of developer GarageGames' recent and rocky history. Between the closure of GarageGames' InstantAction service in 2010 and the company's revival earlier this year, it seems the IP rights to Marble Blast Ultra have been lost in the shuffle. GarageGames, now a subsidiary of Graham Software Development, only owns the rights to the Torque game engine, which powers Marble Blast Ultra. Rights to its games are still property of InstantAction Holdings. As such, GarageGames stopped offering its old titles after its transition to new ownership in February. In a February forum post, GarageGames CEO Eric Preisz said that it was "unlikely" that the studio would reacquire the rights to its games.
InstantAction shutting down, company selling Torque tech
InstantAction, an Oregon-based web gaming and digital distribution platform, will cease operations. Gamasutra confirmed the closure, which was announced on the the company's Torque game engine site. Director of InstantAction's Torque game engine operations Eric Preisz posted the company's statement: "Today, InstantAction informed employees that it will be winding down operations. While we are shutting down the InstantAction.com website and Instant Jam game, Torquepowered.com will continue to operate while InstantAction explores opportunities with potential buyers for Torque. We thank all of our past and current customers for their support." The company had made several smaller games, like Instant Jam and Monkey Island, available to play using its browser-based tech. The tech's eventual promise was to make large games playable almost instantly through a browser or full screen as the title was progressively downloaded to the user's PC.
Marble Blast receives Marble Fu expansion
For a moderately hefty 200 Microsoft points, you can download the new "Marble Fu" Marble Blast Ultra downloadable content. The new package-o-content includes five fresh multiplayer maps and brings one new "Map Pack Dominator" achievement worth 20 additional Gamerscore. We're not sure how much value there is in a 200 Microsoft points expansion seeing the game now retails for 400 points, but we're sure hardcore Marble Blasters will download no questions asked.
Taking part in the Great Games Experiment [update 1]
"Great games deserve to be played, regardless of budget or bureaucracy." That particular thought seems to be at the core of the Great Games Experiment, an online community that revolves, or rather, obsessively spins around, our favorite industry and pastime. The urge to call it the "game developer's MySpace" is definitely present, but doing so wouldn't really do the site justice. For one thing, it's shockingly devoid of awful MIDI tunes and pasty individuals who desperately want to cut themselves.The website's creator, GarageGames, envisions a networked utopia of game players and game developers discussing and contributing to various projects. Anyone with an interest in games can join and post reviews or commentary, even based upon the works-in-progress of game developers. Independent studios should be able to keep the community updated on their projects, incorporate external suggestions and, once their games are complete, have access to an informed audience. The Great Games Experiment is currently running a series of contests to encourage gamers to join and try out the site's beta features -- the final version launches this March. If you're interested in a more open form of game distribution and development, be sure to give it a bash.Update: Joystiq readers can use the referral code "joystiqgge" to obtain a Beta account. Thanks Eric!
XNA Creators Club: see your game on XBLA
Announced months ago, the XNA Creators Club officially launched today. Available on Marketplace as a four month subscription for $49 or a yearly subscription at $99, the Creators Club allows programmers of all stripes to share their game ideas over Xbox Live. Subscriptions provide access to game assets, white papers, tech support, and even starter kits for aspiring programmers. Combined with Microsoft's free XNA Game Studio Express, the Creators Club allows almost anyone to create and share their game ideas with the world.In celebration of this ground breaking launch, Microsoft is hosting the "Dream-Build-Play" competition starting this January. Open to all XNA Game Studio Express users and Creators Club members, the winner of the competition will receive a chance to have his or her game published as an Xbox Live Arcade title. We were jazzed about the idea of a community arcade when the Creators Club was first announced, and it seems to be getting closer to fruition. XBLA really is an innovative platform and we hope that lots of people out there (including our readers) will participate in creating some new ideas. Is there anyone out there dabbling in XNA that wants to enter the contest? Send us a link to your game and we'll pimp it to the world. Also, if you'd like to streamline the development process, you might want to sign up for the beta of Garage Games' TorqueX tools.Full press release after the break.
Marble Blast updated, free maps!
Mike from K1lla's Xbox Domain sends us news of his super spiffy interview with Pat Wilson, lead programmer of Marble Blast Ultra from Garage Games. The topic of the interview: the impending update. The update promises to fix lots of little bugs found in Marble Blast, including some kind of fix for people who drop out of games to keep their stats from going down. The really big news is that the update will include 11 (eleven!) new multiplayer maps. Garage Games is planning on releasing themes and gamer pics on Marketplace as well. Unfortunately, there is still no concrete release date for the update. Hit the read link to check out the whole interview.
