Fishing Girl Did Not Sell a Single Copy!
Well, no single copy on a single day that is. So why this is news? According to a forum post Eric Woroshow promised himself to release the source. “So you can now grab the code for the game and the code for the library from my public Mercurial repositories. It certainly is not the best code I have ever written (far from it!), but nevertheless it does have it moments of clarity and elegance and I hope it proves useful and interesting for the community. Enjoy!
”
Making money in Xbox 360 indie game development: Is it possible?
Via that Clingerman laddie comes the nice write up on making money on XBLIG over on Bitmob by Demian Linn:
Four premier Xbox Live Indie Games developers talk real-world sales figures and the challenges – and rewards – of trying to go it alone.
Weekly XNA Notes from George
George W. Clingerman seems to be able to keep up with his weekly XNA Notes with the third installment (also see One and Two). Endorses The Shawn:
Will he keep doing it? Is this something you should bookmark? I hope so, and definitely!
We here in the barracks have nothing to add to that.
XBLIG.Saved();
Thanks to everyone who voted on the XBLIG placement on the new dash in this post: http://www.sgtconker.com/2010/11/savetehxblig/.
Microsoft listened and Indie Games are now a part of the Games & Demos section again but they are apparently omitted from searches according to this post on the forums: http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/65669.aspx.
Hugs all around fo sho.
SavetehXBLIG!
Hi! Long time no post-text-on-a-website-for-you-to-browse.
I wanted to bring something to your attention. Recently the Xbox has undergone a dashboard change to gear up for Kinect. Personally, I think overall the design is genius (especially after actually using Kinect last night but I digress).
The problem, and the reason people feel XBLIG needs to be 'saved', is that Xbox Live Indie Games are listed under Specialty Shops, not Games & Demos. Most people have reported greatly diminished sales numbers as a result but the stats are still a little too new to make long term projections.
Regardless of how you feel about the 'crappleware', XBLIG has almost always had an uphill battle inside Microsoft and we're seeing the direct affects of it.
</rant>
Please take a few seconds out of your day to login to connect and vote on this important issue. You can do so at this link: https://connect.microsoft.com/site226/feedback/details/618834/xbox-live-indie-games-missing-from-games-category. I'm urmom and I approved this message.
Post Mortem: Abduction Action!
Kris Steele follows the recent release of Abduction Action! with a post mortem for it.
Abduction Action! was intended to be completed in 3 to 4 months, thus releasing in the tale end of 2009. The initial concept would have you just abducting helpless Earthlings while avoiding gunfire from hostile ones. After a few months in development, it became clear that this concept didn't give the player enough to do in order to fill five levels with interesting content (and fun!). At this point the decision was between dropping some levels and making this a very basic game or keeping the levels and adding more to do. I felt the later option would make for a much more enjoyable game and I really hated to waste what I felt was an interesting concept on a very small game that could be quickly dismissed. The scope increase lead to development of Abduction Action! to take double the initial estimate but in doing so it became a far better game.
Continue to read about the good, the bad and the ugly.
XBLA vs. XBLIG: An Indies Point of View
Via the always chatty George W. “Nothing to write here” Clingerman comes the word that Deejay posted his view of the XBLA vs. XBLIG thing. Says the D.:
There's a pervasive preconception that XBLA is the 'place to be' for downloadable games of an indie nature. I think this has a lot to do with the aspirations of indie developers, and isn't necessarily a point of view based in observable fact.
Continued at the source named XBLA vs. XBLIG, surprisingly.
Update: He also posted the full text to the forums, so discussions might happen there…
An "Open Letter" to the XBLIG Developer Community by DrMistry
DrMistry of Mstar Games fame wrote an Open Letter to the XBLIG developer community about how the “race to the bottom” not only hurts you but the whole channel:
Having been through the idea > dev > release cycle two and two thirds times now, and in combination with having learned a lot from my last game and trying to work out what last year's sales figures tell us, I have a few observations I'd like to share about where I think the channel is going in terms of image, quality, quantity and pricing. Some of you I know disagree with my thoughts on this, and I'd welcome an informed debate. But "informed" is the operative word ;0)
Continued reading and comment at An "open letter" to the XBLIG Developer community.
Post Mortem: Nasty
Another great post mortem coming from Kris, the creator of the Xbox Live Indie Games game Nasty.