I think I'm gonna buy this right now, maybe play a little then be all like, Hey Joust, wanna play?
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I think I'm gonna buy this right now, maybe play a little then be all like, Hey Joust, wanna play?
I might be on later. Honestly I have to play Pure for a while though
Someone needs to make a Liero clone...with online multiplayer.
:portalhug:
Joust, have you had a chance to download the update and check out the new physics?
Sorry, no...I was indeed playing Pure with all my Xbox time
Here is another CG that looks cool (I have not played it): http://xnaroundup.blogspot.com/2009/...zoomaroom.html
200pts? I'm there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Joust Williams
EDIT: It's been purchased and it's enjoyable as well as challenging. I've never played Little Big Planet, but apparently Zoomaroom is a very acceptable poor man's substitute.
Sorry for the super late response to this thread. I was not receiving email notifications, which I depend on.
Thanks for posting the video!Quote:
Originally Posted by K3V
The music is by Imphenzia. I love it. I think it fits our game well, while breaking outside of the typical 2D shooter music (which I also love).
As for DUAL PLAY, it's actually me playing the game. And it's a very early build. I should have clipped the video at the end, but we had planned on releasing more videos in the meantime and not have this be our only showcase piece 5 months later.
As for the skill, it wasn't to showcase my skills. We even attempted to contact VTF-INO to help showcase our game, the person who played that Ikaruga video you watched. Not to brag, but I purposely recorded a video with death in it, not that it wasn't extremely hard not to die! If you have ever recorded yourself play a video game, you find your expectations raise quite a bit (perfection?!) for the one game play! :)
Thanks. Actually, our game is not a bullet hell shooter, although there are rumors it will have an additional "bullet hell" game mode! ;) I was just playing this in a ridiculously hard level of difficulty, to make the video stand out more. It is now too hard for me to pretend to not know the game, so it's very easy for me to make the default difficulty look rather easy (although it is not, and even I cannot beat the game every time).Quote:
Originally Posted by Bacon McShig
Good call on the indication and feedback of enemy death. We have fixed that. It was merely placeholder effects you were watching in this demo. They now explode better and crash faster. We hope it works. And now they only flash red when hit or close to death, but do not turn red upon dying, to help distinguish the two.
I also hear you about the fonts. I hope Pericles is not overly used. I think that's the font in our logos. Usually font work is done by programmers, not designers, as it's an easy way to do design work (using fonts is easy in XNA). So that explains the abundance of bad font work, even if that applies to our game. Thanks for bringing it up to my attention.
Indeed they are. They were merely the best thing we had at the time!Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowutopia
If you guys and girls are interested in our game, please subscribe to our youtube channel, as it will be impossible to miss our trailers that will be forthcoming on there upon release:
http://www.youtube.com/XonaGames
I don't want to hijack this thread to be about my game, but I appreciate the feedback and thought you'd be interested in this channel.
The rumor mill has it that they are considering giving us leaderboards sometime, but not sometime soon. That will be so sweet, you do not even realize! Final our games (especially OUR game) can have that score running mentality taken to the extreme. Those are the arcade games I love. I think they are starting to feel bad for us having to hack a p2p system across xbox live (which only works for gold members) to share scores...Quote:
Originally Posted by Bacon McShig
I just picked up something off the Community Games service last night, and here's this thread conveniently bumped. I liked the idea behind Solar and it was only $2.50, so worth an impulse purchase. Too bad it turned out to be a great idea without enough detailing to really make it shine, but it wasn't a bad way to blow off a night's gaming.
You get to play as a sun in Solar, zipping around the 2D universe and attracting planets into orbit. The planets can snag asteroids into their orbit, and once in orbit eat them to grow a bit larger. Once a planet is big enough it supports life, and then produces green helper ships that fight off red enemy ships and some asteroids. If an asteroid or planet crashes, rather than entering orbit, whatever it hits gets a bit smaller. The sun can eat its planets to grow larger, going from a small blue star to red giant to, if you really overdo it, a black hole.
There are 15 challenges and a sandbox mode, but it runs out of steam too fast. Too bad, I love the idea but there's no reason to play this again other than to wish there was more to it. The real universe is huge with all sorts of neat stuff, I'd love an excuse to really go nuts exploring it.
James
You guys should try Battle Havoc. It's a very competent Death Tank clone with more content and 1/3 the price (400 points). Nice hand-drawn visual style to it, looks sort of like a slightly more serious Behemoth game. Supports 8-player online deathmatches. Controls take a bit of getting used to, though.
I also enjoyed the trial for Freaky Creatures: Penga's Peril. It's one of those box-pushing puzzle games, like Kwirk. Competent level design. Only 200 points.
Sales figures = Ow!
Duotrix-
Total units 7595
Full units 157
Demo units 7438
That's some pretty disappointing numbers there. Solar, on the other hand-
"Solar has been up for 6 days and has got 1466 purchases, or $2,565 USD."
Another thread talking about it here, although no specific numbers given. Looks like some people are fine, others are disappointed, and nobody is thrilled. The whole thread makes for some fascinating reading, if you're interested in the business end of this kind of thing.
-edit- And one more Ow! for the developers of Weapon of Choice.
James
I'm not shocked. It's a badly advertised service with a large field of non-advertised content, and no rating system to help seperate the wheat from the chaff.
Don't know if this has been posted but its a good resource showcasing some XNA games even though the host has no charisma:
XNA Roundup (http://www.youtube.com/user/nicktheduderino) is the best XBLCG review I have found. He does a great job.Quote:
Originally Posted by soundwave
I bought zoom-a-room because of this guy. I almost bought Miner Dig Deep because of him too.
I am heavily involved in XBLCG, to say the least, so XNA Roundup reallly shows me how games need video reviews. The problem with selling a game, is (I think) the majority of a gamer's experience with your game BEFORE he or she buys it, is via the trial. Anyone posting on a gaming boards (that makes all of us), or checking video clips of upcoming games, are not the gamers where the majority of sales come from. So the average gamer does not get to see all the cool stuff the game has to offer. If you offer the cool stuff in the trial, why buy it? You just removed the reason to buy the game. These video reviews really help out. They show that extra content without giving it to you. It's too bad that we didn't have a video trailer spot on Xbox LIVE for everyone to see our trailers (we are going to make a good one) that may help sell the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by OGcritic
And I forgot to mention, that after watching some games in XNA Roundup, the games were much better than I had expected from only playing the trial. So, good job to XNA Roundup. It will be nice when XBLCG games, the good ones, get more coverage.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew Doucette
I didn't much like Zoom-A-Room at all. Miner Dig Deep, despite being more of an activity than a game, was much more fun. I only stopped playing because it kept crashing on me while using the drill.Quote:
Originally Posted by OGcritic
Solar is pretty crash-tastic as well.
James
Angry Barry looks pretty bad-ass.
I played the demo and while a bit repetative it makes up for it in humor and style. I might get it.
That was weird. I downloaded the Nebulon demo, a Geometry Wars-looking thing that tried to be too cool for twin stick shooting and ended up sucking, and during my second play-through all limits were turned off. First game the time limit came up and it booted me, the second game I played for an hour just to see if maybe there was something redeemable in there. Sadly, the control scheme completely sucks, but for a short while I had the full game available. Weird.
James
James, can you go into detail on why it sucked? How did the controls suck? (Having the full game is a bug that I have heard about a few times now.)Quote:
Originally Posted by James
The same thing happened to me in another community game (Moron's Chellenge). Where the demo usually ends, it continued to the next level. I tried to replicate it, but I couldn't.
Sure, seeing as the controls were the only thing I didn't like that's not a problem.
Basically, Nebulon looks like a twin-stick shooter, plays like a twin-stick shooter, controls like a cow. The problem is that the reticle aiming is far better suited to a mouse than a controller. While I saw that there's a PC version of this in the works, for the Community Games (and when is the name changing to Indie Games, anyway?) version its implementation is a hindrance to aiming.
The reticle in Nebulon doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but the way it's set up makes it very hard to control. The reticle keeps moving forever when pushed in one direction, and it moves at a constant pace, making adjustments in aiming very tough unless the player lets go of the right stick and sends it out from the center of the ship again. I was constantly stopping the ship and flicking the right stick at enemies to fire, rather than moving the stick in smooth arcs like I wanted to. It always felt like an argument. I'd like to see what would happen to the control if the reticle was limited in its movement to a set distance from the ship, giving the player a better idea of where the shot will go rather than having it off the screen somewhere and also meaning constant streams of fire would change direction quicker and more easily.
I can understand wanting to differentiate the game from the billions of twin-stick shooters out there, but one of the reasons they're so numerous is because it's a simple, intuitive control method that lets the player just play.
Loved the look, although the explosions can cover up enemies sometimes, and the way you could leave the dot enemies alone to generate more powerful enemies to milk them for powerups. There's some good stuff in there. I just can't stand the limitations of the control scheme.
Work post, so if there's any muddy thoughts in here it's because I don't have time to put them together right. :)
James
Thanks James. It sounds like they ruined a potentially great game. I wonder what it would be like if they just put in typical dual-stick shooter controls and re-released. Too many developers make mistakes like this. The controls are not the game. "The controller does not exist." It's a code we work by. Look at what Microsoft is doing with Natal. They are removing the controller. But here are developers putting the controller in the way (edit: effectively disconnecting you from the game experience). In a game there should be you, in the game, and you can do what to do easily. That's it. The puzzle aspect of the game should never been figuring out how to just play, it should be in the playing.
Hey guys. I'm the other guy developing Duality ZF. I'll take this opportunity to introduce myself and post a more recent video (April 2009), since the other one is a very, very old beta.
P.S. I'm trying to subscribe to this thread, but the forum will not allow me. I couldn't subscribe to the thread directly, and even after posting, I cannot. In fact, I cannot even access the 'subscribe threads' part of the website! :\ I've turned on the subscribe to threads when posting (which by default is off :wtf:), and immediate email notification for subscribed threads, so I am hoping this re-post will get me into the loop. This is kind of annoying guys... I am just trying to be a part of this community without the hassles. :)
You can say that again. Just give me the source code to that game, let me implement normal dual-stick controls, and the game would immediately become 10 times better. Who wants to move a mouse cursor around without a mouse, when you have a thumbstick that allows instant aiming? And the mouse cursor disappears when moving, forcing you to shoot in the direction of movement, which means you run into enemies. Then the game forces you to move to replenish your firing energy, so you can't use multi-directional aiming anyway. Ouch, ouch, and more ouch. The graphics are cool, but the control scheme just has to go. :bang:Quote:
Originally Posted by James
Most people tend to want to contribute to more than one or two threads when they register for a forum, is probably the reasoning there.Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonD
So what's the ETA on Duality? I swear the last time I visited your site it said it was coming in June.
The ETA for Duality ZF is end of summer. We're entering it into Dream Build Play 2009, for August 6th. So the game has to be done by then. :eep: At which point we'll enter it into play test, fix any issues, and then enter it into peer review, and fix any issues. After which it'll be available in the newly renamed Indie Games section. (We may time it for release when the name changes at end of summer.)
P.S. Posting after setting the notification properties worked! Although I still don't have access to my subscribed threads page. :lol:
Smiley's are a privilege, not a right.
Apologies for the delays, but so far every delay has been the right choice. It is hard to release a game with known issues that you know will receive negative feedback. How could we handle such criticism when we agree with it? Handling criticism on missed release dates is much easier. Duality ZF's time just has not come, yet. It's our first game. One good side to all of this is, at least there's someone out there that cares.
I think my smileys help convey points better, so they aren't taken as seriously as the words may otherwise suggest. And they aren't nearly as distracting as most people's avatars and signatures; they're a mess. (Incidentally, I can't put a image in my signature, so that must also be locked on this forum until x number of posts.)
Regarding Miner Dig Deep, they have fixed the bug with the drill. It was a sound issue. It sounds like it was a hacked effort though, fixed by making it execute less often, when the real fix would solve the problem completely. But regardless, the latest version I've tried hasn't crashed once. Re-download it and give it a shot!
JasonD- you just gave a serious response about smileys to someone who can't use an apostrophe.
Matthew- take your time. If you don't have budgetary constraints requiring release during a certain financial quarter then there's really no reason to release now as opposed to a month from now. We'll wait. Or at least I will.
James
And you shouldn't take the advice of a man who feels it's necessary to add his name at the bottom of every post he makes.Quote:
Originally Posted by James
Or anyone who voluntary lives in Japan.
James
I almost forgot who was saying this...Quote:
Originally Posted by James
and then BAM, there it was. Conformation.Quote:
Originally Posted by James
:bang::link::fail::tu::tu::tu::tu:
I suppo'se you may have a poin't.
I didn't know you spoke Klingon, James James James.
http://www.xnplay.co.uk/2009/07/19/nebulon/#comments
Cool. Nebulon's developer heard people's complaints and is adding twin-stick support.
James
Very cool. It's not often that this happens! They have also listened and responded to comments, including my own, in XNA Roundup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9BMqv2cyw8Quote:
Originally Posted by James
I guess when everyone's saying the same thing, you have to listen. I can't wait to try the re-release.
This will be GOTY:
I'm thinking this one, actually.
James
The PC original of that was pretty good! But there's no way it can top DIGITIZED BEAT EM UP AWESOMENESS.
Streets of Fury looks awesome in a super-cheesy 90's sort of way.
I guess it would probably be a good idea to mention here that MS is rebranding this service as Indie Games and is changing the pricing structure. Games will now be 80, 240, and 400 points ($1, $3, & $5), rather than the previous 200, 400, and 800. Lots of games previously on the service have already adjusted their prices down to the new structure.
There's also some much-needed new features that will be available in games from the service, such as automatic updating when a newer version of the game is available, avatar support, and user ratings.
Additionally, devs from Germany and Japan can now add games to the service. Hopefully this means some decent dojin shmups and fighters will show up.
Echoes is amazing. I didn't know there was a new one coming.
Are there any good 80 point games?
The new rating system is huge, and probably where the whole system is best put to use. Makes sorting good games out a hell of a lot easier.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bacon McShig
There's already a handful of Japanese games on the service; mainly shooters and visual novels. There's probably going to be a language filter at some point, as I can see too many heads exploding due to foreign-language games in the Indie Channel.
bricks4ever is a solid breakout clone.Quote:
Originally Posted by OGcritic
I second that. Damn good Indie Game.
Anyone try out the full version of Veks and Silence? I played the demo and the game seems to have some promise...might pick it up later today.
And Magnetic Minds looks pretty nice. Check this out-
Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp just got reduced to that price.Quote:
Originally Posted by OGcritic
If you're still looking for a guy to get you a superplay on your own game, I do have a résumé.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew Doucette
PM me on shmups.com if you wish discuss things.
Echoes looks exactly like Geometry Wars.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
Geometry Wars + ASTEROIDS, ag. There's an important distinction.Quote:
Originally Posted by animegirl
Jamezila of Ska Studios, responsible for Dead Samurai, did a little Community Game called I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1NIT!!!1 As should be obvious from the title, it's unassumingly awesome. Plus he posted the MP3 of the song that plays in the background- http://ska-studios.com/files/epicopus.mp3
And the press release- http://skasoftware.wordpress.com/
James
And another $1 surprise- Atomhex just showed up on Indie Games. It's being a good weak for ultra-cheap stuff.
James
ANOTHER twin stick shooter? For the love of god...
I was kind of lost in Atomhex, with what to do, what to shoot, what was bad, what was good... etc. How did you all like it?
It's $1, who cares? I'd buy Superman 64 for a dollar.
Was that directed at me? I want to know what works and what sucks about games, especially shooters, so I don't make the same mistakes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
I know, it was a joke.
It's a game of colors. Hexes can only be destroyed by shots of the same color, and you change your color by shooting the protective shell off a hex (any color shot will do) and collecting it. You also get a nice score bonus for collecting the chains of the same color hex.
Hexes gather neutral-colored circles that change to their color once they attach, and each one attached lets out a new creature into the play field. Get six circles attached to a hex and you get a boss fight. You're constantly tending the field, trying to preserve one hex for the high-scoring boss fight while keeping the chaos to a minimum. It's quite good, and requires a nice balance between planning and reflex.
James
Picked this up last night - love the song and the "It's cheap but fun" quality it has. Also, Ansi Snakes!!Quote:
Originally Posted by James
I bought it too just to finish the game I as in the middle of. It was piss easy until I got to the diamonds thta move really fast.
I lost my first two lives of the game there and then just quit. It'd be a much better game with some tweaking I think.
Can't argue the need for tweaking. Zombies is far too easy, and even the end isn't all that tough. That bit in the middle with the slowly-spinning nebula and the green blobs is boring as hell. I primarily liked it for being mental-crazy and a great use of $1 rather than a tuned gaming classic.
Also, I feel the need to say "Ha-ha, you complain it's too easy and then quit when you die!" Just 'cause.
James
Streets of Fury is out. It's surprisingly good. Plays like a dumber Guardian Heroes, only infused with 90S BADITUDE! IT'S TOTALLY RAD! Well worth the 240 points imo.
Oh shits, I've got the trial queued up. I see it has online co-op! This could be stupidly fun.
I don't think it has online co-op. Or at least I didn't see any option besides local. I'd like to be wrong though.
so hey
this game
http://download.xbox.com.edgesuite.n...xboxboxart.jpg
http://download.xbox.com.edgesuite.n...creen1_Web.jpg
http://download.xbox.com.edgesuite.n...creen3_Web.jpg
is pretty awesome. It's made by the devs of the DS games Nervous Brickdown and Big Bang Mini, easily the best production quality of any game on Indie Games. 60 stages, $3.
They have 4 more games planned in the "series" set to hit about once a month.
Looks very Pitfall-ish. Must be the hat.
Neat.
I've been playing Xcross on Indie Games[Link!], which is basically Picross with a "boss" stage where you solve multiple picross puzzles to make a 3D object. Pretty rad for $3.
The Jump demo is fucking amazing! I love the style!
The game was stupid easy until the second to last level, and since I was just zoning through it, I got tripped up and lost my lives. Won't try it again.
Great call, thanks for the heads up. The game is really good. I love the level names and the things that pop up when you die. The "don't you wish Retro games had continue" was a nice touch too. :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bacon McShig
I just got my ass kicked on the "Quick timers revenge" level. I think it was 25. Very,very cool game.
"Protip: Press A to Jump!"
Jump is pretty freaking brilliant.
Loved the demo. Wanna get it!
Finished Jump last night, now moving through the challenge levels. I loved every level.
Echoes + is out, and it's great. I'd say more but I'm running late due to losing 50 minutes to playing it when I thought I'd been playing 20. Oops.
James
Also worth checking out- Beat Hazard. Yeah, another twin-stick shooter, but the enemy waves, background effects, and bullet power are all determined by music either on the 360 or your PC. I played a level to Johnny Cash's version of Hurt. Totally worth it just for that.
James
I think I'm talking to myself here, but-
Pleasebegood, pleasebegood, pleasebegood...
James
I've been listening, James. :-P Pixel Borders looks interesting - I'm kind of getting a Trails HD vibe off of it.
The second Arkedo game came out at least over a week ago. It's a puzzle game that reminds me a lot of Panel de Pon, but you can also move the blocks vertically as well. Not bad, but not as good as Jump.
Here's a trailer:
I tried Swap. Being able to flip the pieces both vertically and horizontally seems kind of game-breaking or at least game-borifying. Having the option to move pieces along the X or Y axis in Panel de Pon is like having the option to discard Tetris pieces you don't feel like placing. It's filling in a crossword puzzle with whatever words you want. It's too much freedom. The game doesn't seem to give you a handicap, inconvenience or obstacle you have to work around which is, you know, kind of what makes a game a game.
I did like Jump, though.
I like Swap a lot, but I don't feel compelled to play it after finishing the campaign. The presentation is really nice, and I like that it has sound library elements in common with Jump! Using the twin sticks is a novel method of controlling a puzzle game.
It is like $3. It doesn't take up much HD space. It supports more from these guys. Get it!
These were pretty much the reasons that I bought Swap, but I do agree with A Robot Bit Me, the game feels too easy. I guess having to connect four sames in order to clear them doesn't make it too easy, but it almost has more of a sudoku kind of feel rather than a Panel de Pon feel (Which isn't what I would want from something like this).Quote:
Originally Posted by YellerDog
So it sounds like it's ok - too easy for its own good but at least they tried something different (it didn't work) and put effort into the presentation.
Given that and how awesome JUMP is, I'm all for buying Arkedo games even if they aren't as stellar as their first game. Better that than another lousy game using massage/stock photos/MS Paint graphics with no real gameplay...
:tu:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero
Get Poker Smash. It did "Tetris Attack using twin sticks" first, and better.Quote:
Originally Posted by YellerDog
I know nothing of this "Poker Smash".
I don't get this They Made A Game I Liked Once, So I'll Buy Their Crap Until They Make Another One Like It thing that you guys selectively subscribe to. It really is a special kind of retarded.
Buying Swap says "We want more games like Swap." Buying Swap does not say "We don't like Swap, we want more games like Jump." Not buying Swap says "We don't like Swap, we want more games like Jump."
I'm kind of torn on Swap right now. I like how "simple" it is, because that makes it so that the game can really be focused on doing a lot of combos instead of just clearing things out line by line. At the same time, it does feel like it's missing something, like it's just a bit too simplistic. But, then again, I haven't spent all that much time with it yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Geen
Either way, I don't regret my purchase at all. It sure as hell is worth $3, if for no other reason than to support a group that puts a lot of care and effort into their projects. I've paid far more for far less interesting puzzle games before.
Plus, it's visual beauty helps me forget the visual raping I received from trying that 0D Beat Drop demo.
No it doesn't, it says "we like your efforts, please keep them up." Unless the sales for Swap are way, way higher than Jump.Quote:
Originally Posted by A Robot Bit Me
I can think of a good way to make sure the sales for Swap are not higher than Jump's!
This.Quote:
Originally Posted by shidoshi
It's an XBLA game.Quote:
Originally Posted by YellerDog
Turns out a lot of shit came out before I had a system!
You guys are adorable. Hang on to that.~ Don't ever lose it! ~
No, what I'm saying is: having not played the game and reading what you guys think of it, SWAP is an ok game at best. $3 for an ok game made by a dev that also made a great game (also $3!) is a steal in my books and yes, buying SWAP in that sense is encouraging Arkedo to keep it up.Quote:
Originally Posted by A Robot Bit Me
I mean shit, we pay $60 for bullshit games like Brutal Legend, and "experiences" we play for all of a week and sell back out. $3 for an ok game would be great. Unless you're saying that SWAP is a) not ok or b) not worth $3 or c) both.
I don't.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero
Jump! sucks! There's not much gameplay at all.
But so did Brutal Legend, which I also bought. SHould have wiped my ass with 63 dollars instead.