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Indie Gaming on the XBox 360
cyrus_zuo writes "Game Tunnel took a look at some of the indie games that will be available when the Xbox 360 launches (through Xbox live). They've posted a summary that breaks down what people can expect from the oft ignored indie side of gaming, in addition to taking a quick shot at HD, calling it a 'marketing term that people have sold out to.'"
He also mentioned that most computer monitors have higher def than HD.
I didn't really see anything about what to expect from indie developers on the 360, except ports of successful indie PC games. Even so, there's potential for indie games to make a bigger splash than I would have thought in the console market.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
"Mr. Jobs?" the small, tinny voice said through the intercom speaker. "It's Fed-Ex, we got a package for ya."
"Sure, sure, come on through," Steve said into the little box, his finger depressing a small, shiny brown button. "Let it off next to the gazebo half-way up the drive."
Steve Jobs smiled so wide his face hurt. The Fed-Ex truck was passing through his gate and would be at the gazebo in his front yard any second now. He stepped through his front door, hopped down his porch steps, and strode down a brick path shaded by willows. Even now he heard a roaring diesel engine and chirping brakes as the dusty delivery truck wandered along his drive. He jumped all three brick steps up to his gazebo and seated himself on a small park bench.
Steve sighed as he crossed his legs, put his hands behind his head, and waited. The sounds of the Fed-Ex truck were getting closer now among his veritable forest of spruces, pines, and firs that dotted his impossibly large lawn. He'd been waiting for almost a month for this delivery, the culmination of painstaking secret meetings with IBM over the course of 2005. And now Steve was just moments from enjoying the unique fruits of his labors and deal-making.
Steve's smile grew even larger.
With a final cacophony of squealing brakes, clinking chains, and grinding gear-shifts, the Fed-Ex truck stopped several yards away from the gazebo, next to another small walk that led from his drive. Steve stood up and waved to them.
"Hey guys, right here!" he shouted as he descended the steps to the walk.
Two men emerged from the truck's cab, one looking over a clipboard. The driver was a short, squat man with an orange handlebar mustache that crept down his neck. His name tag was covered in oil and grease and read Grunt. The man with the clipboard was tall and lanky and had a shock of white hair exploding from the back of his dirty, crumpled baseball cap. He had Stretch stitched above his uniform's right breast pocket.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen!" Steve said, approaching them. He pulled a pen from his pants pocket. "Where do I sign?"
Stretch looked up from his clipboard at the overenthusiastic middle-aged weirdo standing in front of him.
"Ah, just sign here, bottom copy's yers," Stretch said, extending the clipboard to Steve.
Steve barely bothered signing, trailing his pen along the page just hard enough to leave a wavy line, ripped the bottom copy out from the clipboard and stuffed it into his pocket, and shoved the paperwork back at Stretch.
"Can you and you guys dolly it up to the gazebo and leave it there?" Steve asked.
"Sure thing, mister," Stretch said as he turned towards the back of the truck.
"And if you and your friend do it quickly and quietly," Steve began, stopping Stretch where he was, "there might be something extra in it for you."
Steve rubbed his fingers together, implying money.
Stretch looked at this partner and then back to Steve.
"We'll gitcha taken care of real quick," he said to Steve, attempting to smile. It didn't look like something he practiced often.
Minutes later, a large box about the size of a refrigerator stood in the middle of Steve's gazebo. It was plain and unmarked save for some stickers that read THIS SIDE UP and CAUTION: FRAGILE. Steve waved at Grunt as he slowly backed down the drive. Stretch never looked up but was busy counting a small wad of crisp green bills as they edged away.
Steve walked over to one of the columns of his gazebo and opened what looked like a fuse box. Inside were two black buttons, labeled with two arrows, one pointing up and the other pointing down. He hit the button next to the down-pointing arrow, and the gazebo shook lightly.
"Finally," Steve said aloud to himself.
The gazebo dropped completely out of sight and was replaced by a plain concrete court that emerged seconds later from jus
Does anybody else here think the picture of Wik from the article looks like a cross between Gollum and those old trolls?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I finally came to understand that High Definition is really a marketing term and that anyone believing it is amazing has sold themselves out to big business. The truth is that HD resolution is lower than that of what you'll find on many computer screens.
Um, yeah, and how exactly is this "selling yourself out to big business"? HD isn't used to describe computer monitors. It's used to describe TELEVISIONS. He can't seriously be suggesting that HD is all marketing fluff, and there's no difference in resolution between a regular SD TV and a HDTV.
It's like saying "high-speed" internet is just a marketing term, because some people have OC3's to their office. Entirely different markets.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
But Slashdot and whatever 'marketing arrangement' or 'moneyhat' or who cares what exactly it is from Microsoft to advertise the 360 EVERY FUCKING DAY has made me sick of even hearing or seeing about the thing.
I will continue to play the better versions of games on my pc than on the 360.
I might even buy a PS3 or Nintendo just from spite after a year's worth of idiotic 'viral marketing' from Microsoft.
Enough!
Game Tunnel took a look at some of the indie games that will be available when the Xbox 360 launches...
...and proceeded to tell readers virtually nothing about them.
...Great! This might ruin it for those of you who haven't RTFA, but the basic details of gameplay are never revealed! No, not even a one-sentence summary!
"I have to admit I've never been able to get into the Marble Blast games and I spent the least amount of time playing this game out of the 360 titles I tried out (6 in all). With that said, I'm sure to miss a few of the improvements due to my own ignorance."
It seems you also missed the part where you tell me what this game is in the first place.
"I did like the original Marble Blast and the gold version got a pretty decent review here, but I couldn't help but wish I was playing Orbz instead."
"The graphics in Wik are pretty much identical to what is on the PC with the only visual change being that the boards are wider."
So is this a snowboarding game? The goggles the little troll dude is wearing suggest that it may be, but his naked chest seems to declare otherwise.
"The thing I did get to try out for a bit was the new control scheme. On the PC Wik is played using the mouse and it works splendidly. On the 360 there clearly isn't a mouse, which led to some challenges for development. The new scheme uses the analog stick to move a targeter that you use to target where you will fire out your tongue.
A targeter to target. Brilliant. Clearly, there isn't a functional vocabulary.
"So there you have it, 4 titles --
-- that we still know nothing about --
-- that await the world come November 22nd."
I can't leave out this gem of a sentence: "Getting to them to where they can download the games might be hard, and once people get there, some of them might mistake Geometry Wars by a better known developer as a better game than Mutant Storm due to the pretty graphics despite the game play being hurt severely by those same graphics."
Someone's gotta give prizes for prose like that.
That may have been a pun.
Your brain is not a computer.
I'm still waiting for a Nethack port to a major console/portable!
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
How does one go about becoming an indie developer for xbox 360? I did a cursory check of various microsoft sites, but couldn't find any info on acquiring an sdk or that jazz. Also, my understanding is that the 360 devkit is quite expensive.
I think this is probably the most under-reported story on the 360. Developers have traditionally not been able to break into the console space because the cost of entry is so high that you need sign (your life away) with a publisher.
XBox live arcade has the potential to turn that around, but I haven't heard the details. Is there an avenue in place for indies to approach Microsoft? Or is Microsoft simply seeking out the standout indie developers and paying them to port to xbox live?
Supposedly Nintendo's Revolution will have an even more robust pay-for-download model... I'm just hoping that will be an indie scene.