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Let Halfbrick's Blast Off soundtrack occupy your hard drive space
Even if you have yet to check out Halfbrick's gravity-based puzzler Blast Off -- and even if you lack the Xbox 360 required to play the Indie Games version or the PSP or PS3 required for the Minis version -- you can enjoy the "ambient and introspective" soundtrack (as Halfbrick describes it) right now, because Halfbrick is nice. Fire up the BitTorrent client of your choice, and you can have the Blast-Off soundtrack in either MP3 or Apple Lossless format. We couldn't be happier with this trend of using free downloadable game soundtracks as promotional tools! As it happens, we often enjoy listening to music.
New Arkedo Series game on XBLM: Pixel
If you spend much time checking out Indie Games on Xbox Live, there's a considerable chance you've stumbled upon the Arkedo Series of games. Fans will be happy to hear that Arkedo and Pastagames have released a third in the series. Entitled Pixel, the game features slick dot matrix graphics and simple platforming action. The game also has a nifty feature that allows players to zoom in on certain parts of the background and explore them at the pixel level. Check the game out in the video above and enjoy some screens in the gallery below. You can snag the trial version through the link below and, should you enjoy it, the full game is 240 ($3) or, as Arkedo puts it, "approximately the asking price for a nice latte." Shortcut: Add Arkedo Series - 03 Pixel to your 360 download queue [Via Xbox.com] %Gallery-81087%
Buyer's Guide: Xbox Live Marketplace
.nounderline a { text-decoration: none; } So, what to spend your Microsoft Points on? The choice can be quite daunting. After all, there's a lot of content on Xbox Live Marketplace. With this handy guide, we give you some solid suggestions to spend your points on based on several categories and include everything from Xbox Live Arcade games to Indie Games to Avatar props. Just select from your favorite genres below. (Joytip: Click on a game title to see its Xbox.com listing; and check out our links to reviews and XBLA in Brief videos to help make crucial purchasing decisions.) Action | Braid | Family & Board Games | Hardcore Party | Puzzle | Retro | Shooters | Spare Change
Eye-popping iPhone hack-n-slash Twin Blades coming to XBL Indie Games
click to enlarge Recently released for iPhone / iPod touch, French indie dev Press Start Studio's side-scrolling homage to classic hack-n-slashers (and really big guns), Twin Blades: The Reaping Vanguard, is making the unlikely leap onto Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Indie Games. It's not the deepest game, though it has been hailed as a technical showpiece for Apple's devices due to its crisp, beautifully animated 2D graphics. Players (controlling an awfully violent nun) hack and shoot their way through advancing waves of the enemy flavor of the decade, zombies. There are skill and weapon upgrades, the latter including flame throwers and mini nukes. A 99¢ download on iPhone, the 360 release of Twin Blades will be priced at 240 ($3) and, so as not to miss a crucial marketing opportunity -- the traditional holiday ritual of decapitating zombies while dressed as a nun -- is slated to land on the Xbox Live Marketplace before December 25. Press Start plans to release DLC for the game down the road, including new levels and bosses. Check out the gameplay trailer after the break. %Gallery-80582%
XBL Indie shooter Leave Home requires that you don't
We suppose you could cart your Xbox, a TV and a generator outdoors, but it's most likely that you'll play Leave Home whilst at home. Regardless of where you play it, you really should. Leave Home is a side-scrolling shooter on Xbox Live Indie Games with sharp visuals and slick music. Developed by hermitgames, Leave Home features dynamic difficulty and challenges players to rack up the highest score during a fixed amount of time. It also allows players to split their field of fire by pulling the right trigger. The further you pull the trigger, the larger the split, Check out the trailer above and some screens in the gallery below. If it strikes your fancy, snag the demo and give it a try. The full version is 240 ($3). Shortcut: Add the trial version of Leave Home to your 360 download queue [Via Xbox.com] %Gallery-80523%
Pixel Whirled XBL Indie Game unites pirate and ninja
The war between pirate and ninja is as fabled as the internet itself. Joystiq is not immune to its allure (especially when it's so damned cute). Even our gaggle of bashful bloggers has thrown down in fisticuffs over the merits of swashbuckling versus ninjutsu. Imagine our surprise then, when we uncovered the Xbox Live Indie Game Pixel Whirled from Holmade Games, which stars both a ninja and a pirate working together. Blasphemous? Definitely. Fun? Could be. With a heavy coat of old-school pixels, some great retro tunes and Space Invaders gameplay with a (literal) twist, Pixel Whirled looks pretty interesting. Check out the trailer above and visit the delightful Pixel Whirled website for more info.
Critter Crunch dev praises Sony's support of indie games
"They support the living sh*t out of it, and they support it really well," Capybara's Nathan Vella told Gamasutra when talking about Sony's free PhyreEngine. "Any of the parts that are inside Phyre that we didn't know how to fix or we had an issue with, they would fix it for us in a day. Overall, I think Sony's doing a lot of right stuff for small independent developers." Vella's praise echoes similar sentiments from other PSN developers, like Shatter's Mario Wynands. In addition to free development tools, Vella noted other benefits by partnering with Sony. Critter Crunch was promoted heavily on the PlayStation Network via the PlayStation.Blog, Pulse and banners on the PlayStation Store. Most importantly, though, Sony "treated us like we weren't a small nobody developer from Toronto." In spite of Sony's best intentions, though, Vella notes that sales aren't quite where they should be on the PSN. "It's still a fraction of what XBLA is doing, and we know that," he admitted. "But that's okay for us because they let us do what we wanted to do." Apparently what they want to do now is work on a zombie game.
Johnny Platform to save Christmas on XBL Indie Games
Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp emerged as one of the more popular Indie Game titles when the service first launched last year (back when it was known as Community Games). Now, developer Ishisoft is back with a sequel, Johnny Platform Saves Christmas. As the title implies -- and the trailer outright declares -- Christmas is in trouble, and only Johnny Platform can save it. According to GamerBytes, the sequel is packing revamped graphics, wide screen support and 100 levels of running, jumping, head-stomping action. See the trailer after the break.
2BeeGames begins voting for its 2nd Indie Game Competition
The second Indie Game Competition from 2BeeGames has finally entered the public voting stage. Ten finalists (listed after the break) are eligible for a $10,000 prize and a publishing contract with Zoo Games. Last year, the first and second place winners (Auditorium and Storm, respectively) received deals to port their games onto XBLA, PSN, Wii and iPhone.All ten finalist games will be playable at the NY Gaming Meetup tonight or online at the 2BeeGames website. It's not often that the general public can control which games get published, so you may want to take advantage of this rare opportunity.
Scare Me makes your Xbox spooky
We know that Xbox Indie Game creators have been programming non-game apps for all sorts of odd purposes, but we thought this one was especially interesting. Scare Me lets you use your console to horrify your loved ones with cheap scares when they least expect it for just 80 points ($1). There are some generically scary sequences filled with screams and spooky imagery (you can even program your own) but we're partial to the "Shock Game" section, which lets you bait friends into playing mocked up games for a few seconds before startling the bejeezus out of them with a screaming death mask. But Joystiq, why would I be interested in doing something this cruel to friends and family after Halloween? A fair question. But we, in turn, ask you: When will they ever be expecting it less?
Indie Game favorite Weapon of Choice gets cheaper
One of the nice things about Xbox 360 Indie Games: They're cheap. Case in point, Weapon of Choice, one of the more popular Indie Games, used to cost just 400, only five American dollars. You may have noticed the past tense employed in the previous sentence. Your senses of deduction may have perceived that to imply that Weapon of Choice doesn't cost 400 anymore, and your senses would be right. As a matter of fact, the game's price has been reduced to a mere 240 Microsoft Points, a paltry pittance of $3. If you find yourself longing for some side-scrolling, multi-directional, alien-blasting action, you might consider giving it a go. [Via XNPlay]
IndieCade 2009: The finalists
IndieCade 2009 was held in Culver City, CA this past weekend, and the local art galleries and restaurants were filled with independent games and their developers from all over the world. The festival billed itself as the "video game Sundance" and lived up to this self-made reputation, putting 29 different indie games on display, both throughout the weekend and during a Thursday night opening ceremony MC'd by Uncharted 2's Richard Lemarchand (shown above with festival founder Stephanie Barish).We've rounded up the festival's finalists in the gallery below. You may be familiar with a few of them, including Twisted Pixel's The Maw and a selection of well-known iPhone titles, but all of these titles deserve your attention -- and a playthrough!%Gallery-74606%
2009 Dream-Build-Play winners announced, Dust takes top honor
It must be nice winning $40,000! We imagine Dust: An Elysian Tail developer Dean Dodrill will be drinking his fair share of shirley temples this weekend with all those extra duckets, after winning first place in this year's XNA Developer Dream-Build-Play competition. As you can see in the gallery below and video after the break, Dust is a beautiful, hand-drawn side-scroller that features action-RPG gameplay in the vein of Castlevania ... but with furries.Second place (and $20,000) went to Panya Inversin from Coin App who created Max Blastronaut, which looks to be a mix between Super Stardust HD and ... Double Dragon? We're just as confused as you are, but see for yourself after the break, below the Dust clip. Third and fourth place went to Mauricio Garcia's Rotor'scope and Hu Ling's HurricaneX2 Evolution, respectively. Congratulations to all of this year's winners!%Gallery-72019%
Ska MAED an Indie game and put Z0MB1ES!!!1 in it
Ska Studios is at it again, with another Xbox Live Indie Game filled to the brim with awesome. On August 16, the Dishwasher: Dead Samurai dev released a new title, sure to light a creative fire under the butts of game makers everywhere. I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 attempts to answer the question that has plagued game designers for decades: What would happen if you made a game and then put zombies in it? The results are astounding. Never in the history of the video game world -- unless you consider the Resident Evil franchise, Left 4 Dead, that mode in World at War ... and about three hundred others -- has a game company attempted to insert zombies into their title, but somehow Ska delivers. I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 is available now for the budget price of 80 ($1.00 in human money). A video of the hilarious shooter in action is after the jump. [Thanks, Jon]
Machinarium has become too gorgeous
You see, Amanita Design? You see what happens? You have a game like Machinarium that looks amazing and you have to keep pushing it, keep making it more beautiful and now ... now, it's so attractive that we're frightened of it. We're like cavemen encountering a time-traveling Swivel Sweeper, desperately swinging at it with our clubs, trying to snuff out the dark magic inside it. We've been driven utterly mad with desire, and it's all your fault: You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn't stop to think if you should. No, but seriously, watch the trailer after the break that SideQuesting brought to our attention. It looks crazy good, right?
Direct2Drive's Best of Indie bundle is a great deal
If you've yet to take that first trepidatious step out of the mainstream and into the world of indie gaming, Direct2Drive's got a great starter kit for you. For just $17.75, you can pick up five indie gems that would have normally run you around $78.Though we're not intimately acquainted with Cogs, Democracy 2 or Defense Grid, we think Zeno Clash is worth $18 on its own, not to mention the singular experience of The Path. Yes, that's the same The Path that we described as like getting punched by a centaur. Are you honestly saying you wouldn't want to try that?
Xbox Indie Games get new pricing structure, improved update system
Microsoft announced plans yesterday to change a variety of XNA Creators Club features in the coming weeks. First and foremost, the recently renamed Xbox Live Indie Games will get a new pricing structure: games will start at 80 ($1) and cap off at 400 ($5). Second, the renaming of the service will take affect on Xbox Live and at the XNA Creators Club website. Additionally, games on the Indie Games Channel can now receive automatic updates (a la Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox 360 games). Perhaps the most interesting piece of this update is the inclusion of 50 "tokens" for each creator per game; meaning that developers can now send out review codes of games to press (wink, wink), as well as giveaway copies of the game to fans. Interestingly, this is the same number of free codes that Apple grants its App Store developers. Well played, Microsoft.[Via Xbox Indies]
Dishwasher dev defends Xbox Community Games
After Clover developer Binary Tweed made its disappointment in the game's sales clear, it laid a portion of the blame at the feet of Microsoft and its Community Games platform (soon to be renamed Indie Games). James Silva -- head of Dishwasher developer Ska Studios -- has posted something of a rebuttal on his company's blog. His comments aren't directed expressly toward Binary Tweed, but rather toward any developer that thinks the service is an instant goldmine.Silva points out that, even with its faults, Community Games has many advantages over a Windows release, namely visibility, easy payment processing and piracy protection. Addressing complaints that Microsoft doesn't do enough to market Community Games, Silva notes that many games simply won't fly on the Xbox 360, as there are already better versions available for the platform. Paraphrasing Silva, putting a tower defense game on Community Games is "a step down" from other strategy titles available. Meanwhile, all the music generators and ridiculous massage applications really have no competition from Xbox 360 retail titles, allowing them to address an untapped market.Of course, none of that matters if a Community Game lacks the most important factor: fun. Silva encourages developers to "make better games," saying, "All of this blaming nonsense just hurts everyone, and tragically generates more blogroll buzz than any yay-XNA articles do."
Clover dev: Indie Games channel has a long way to go
Daniel Jones of Binary Tweed, developer of the Xbox 360 Indie Game Clover, has a few choice things to say about Microsoft's independent games service. Speaking to the UK's X360 Magazine, Jones just doesn't see a big enough audience in Indie Games to justify creating a game for it -- Joystiq readers will recall similar comments after Clover sales failed to set the world on fire."We're seeing even the best-selling Indie Games titles sell in the low five-figure numbers," says Jones, laying the blame on "lack of marketing from us developers, Microsoft, and also on the dirge of massage 'games' that dilute the brand's message." (Don't forget fart games!) He notes that the most popular titles on Indie Games are simple applications like music visualizers and digital aquariums, saying, "The marketing message clearly hasn't gotten to the people that want to play games, and so one has to question if there's any point making games for a service that gamers don't buy from."Jones believes that the upcoming user ratings feature will help "immeasurably," though he adds, "There's still a lot of work to do in educating LIVE users about [what] Indie Games is about."We're inclined to agree that the Indie Games channel needs a lot of work, especially if Microsoft ever expects it to become more than a Kodu delivery service.
Celebrate July 4th with adorable Kodu fireworks
Today is the day of independence for Joystiq readers in the United States, which also means it's a day full of aerial explosions of light. You know, fireworks. For those not lucky enough to be in an area where one can witness this colorful spectacle, we figured we'd bring the explosive excitement to the internet, for all to share, with the help of the recently released Community Game, Kodu.Enjoy the show and have a boom-tastic July 4th!
