So apparently Fortress Craft sold over 30K already, at $2 a pop to the dev that's a lot of money to make in one or two days.
It's probably never going to sell as much as Minecraft did, but it proves my theory about supply/demand being the key to making money on XBLIG...find the huge gaping gaps on XBLIG and plug them and you will make decent money. I wish he would have been a little bit less obvious about being a Minecraft clone and then I could support it a little bit more, but technically the game has advantages over Minecraft: less learning curve, you can build immediately and quickly, you can use a bunch of different materials immediately, essentially, it's way more suited for a console audience. I think kids would like it a lot, and I don't think many kids would have the patience for Minecraft.
It is in itself a graphical throwdown, I tried using a Metroid style build + jump sequence to build a tower into sky, seemed to handle itself pretty well for a garbage collected game (technically Minecraft is too, so both of these games have some technial ingenuity behind them)
For what it's worth, it's clear the dev has true skills and IMO XBLIG devs should be happy to see the channel get any sort of attention
Yeah, smart from biz standpoint. As it stands, it's basically just virtual legos, but still a nice technical accomplishment.
There is some speculation around some shadowy marketing techniques and this influx of players for whatever reason seems to be down-rating all other top rated games (aka the competition) - hard to explain but right now this traffic hasn't helped other developers at all. It's actually hurting them. We'll see if that changes it all in the coming weeks.
Armless Octopus and some others are covering the story well...
Yeah I saw that ordeal but I think ratings list is only like 10% of the puzzle when it comes to sales on a flooded market that has thousands of cheap games available (XBLIG, iOS App Store, Amazon Android store, WP7 Games, wherever)...on phones, most of the games are free, think of how much harder that makes everything
Even if worst case scenario and ratings are totally jumbled up, the dev should prepare to deal with that and have enough secondary marketing to have gamers find the link to try out the game.
IMO the dev has to take accountability for at least half of the puzzle, I mean, look at how many YouTube videos were uploaded and how consistently that guy tweeted, it's clearly a bit trying to generate viral hype on purpose. It's sad that games don't generate hype by themselves just by being awesome, it took Cave Story years and years to build up hype and it was basically one of the miracle, lucky cases. There are many many PC indie games that are easily just as good as Cave Story or Minecraft but have flown under the radar and never generated more than a blip, and mostly because the dev thought success would generated by how awesome the game is.
Unfortunately there are too many gaming options in the world, the majority of gamers these days are fragging people in Blops, killing orcs in WoW, clicking cows in FB or throwing birds at pigs on their phone. So games need a hook and also need marketing for ensured success.
I really think many indie devs should take some sort of online marketing classes, or maybe take breaks from developing to browse the app stores themselves and see how frustrating or hard it can be to find good games.
Just as another example: I'm surprised there are not more Trials HD clones on XBLIG...Toy Stunt Bike obviously sold very well, Trials was a huge hit, it seems like a relatively easy game to make (on rails, throw Box2D in and make environments interesting...)
Well said, well said. Just remember there are a good number of devs who are making games they love and want to share those games with like-minded people. Money is a secondary goal.
So it then becomes pointless to clone a game and not enjoy the process at all, or be proud of the work - when you could have made substantially more money at a regular day job.
If there is a trickle down to more sales on XBLIG because of FortressCraft, I'm not seeing it with my games. Two days ago was one of my low sales days ever in fact.
It's kinda crazy that game has sold so many copies. I guess I just don't get it... I didn't find a ton to do and the camera glitches were pretty annoying. I guess though if you only want Minecraft and only have a console, this is your option.
Server Browser - It's nice to be able to join random servers and see what they have built. When you start your own game, make sure to set it so guests can't make/destroy blocks (lots of greifers)
Trampoline Block - The best block idea ever. Use it instead of ladders or create a jump puzzle to cross a gap
Relics - These are hidden items that you can turn on/off in the main menu. They give you different boosts (walk speed, jump height, jetpack, block destroy distance), utilities (night vision, headlamp), or are just for fun (one turns your character model into black smoke, freeze tag gun). The best part is trying to find these items. They have a sound that gets louder the closer you get to them. It actually gives you a reason to explore and dig around.
Options - There are a ton of graphical options to mess with (cool stuff like custom light colors for lamps)
The Bad:
It's basically Minecraft's creative mode. It's hard to go back to creative mode after having to dig for supplies, fight monsters, etc.
Block selection - Fortresscraft has a lot of blocks to use, but it's missing some big ones like stairs, half blocks, doors, fences
Bugs - It has quite a few bugs. Some are minor like a thin blue bar that flashes at the top of the screen on occasion (some 4:3 ratio bug) or the camera clips through objects at times. Some are major, including losing your single player save (there are ways to back it up), losing your relics when you start a new world, and finding friends servers (have to be in the same gamerzone for some reason).
The good news is those major bugs are going to be fixed in a patch (new release) due Sunday. Even better, they are working on a (free) 1.5 patch that is going to have more bug fixes and some major content (better map, new blocks, splitscreen, new relics, etc). They even hinted at some pvp like feature for 1.5. It's nice to see that they are supporting this game, I kind of expected any content to be pushed back to (not free) chapter 2.
Also, I just noticed how many parenthesis I used, give me a break, it's late. :P
For those that enjoyed our XBLIG release Hypership, I just wanted to mention that it is available now on Windows Phone 7. 10 new waves and real online high scores.
Sequence is really good, the dev seems like an honestly great guy too, he is passionate about the game and worked hard to make sure it works with guitar/dance pad, now that he found out someone can't use it with lefty mode controller he's working feverishly on a patch to enable lefty mode. You really can't get more indie than this folks, support good indie games! It was way too low on the Top Downloaded list last time I checked I wouldn't say it's bombing but it's not doing as well as I thought it would.
The Volchaos game looks pretty fun, actually I keep trying to remember to check out your other platformer Nasty but always forget to ... I wish there was a way to see "See other games by..." from the dash.
I play a lot of Breath of Death VII lately, but that,s not the only one I've played.
I'll vouch for Bonded Realities. It's really solid- about the only grief I have with it is you can only name the first male character. Why can't we name any of the others? But that's just a minor gripe. The game itself is worth the price.
Another game I can vouch for is Avatar Online Adventures. It's an indie MMORPG that costs only 80 funbucks and is surprisingly well made. The only gripe I have is that the game is too equipment-based; two players at the same level will have identical stats, but the one with more current gear will have the edge. Also, the boss AI could use a little polishing- I've taken the first two quest bosses down simply by leading them around by the nose with a partner imstead of fighting toe-to-toe with them as part of a group.
XBLIG- more effort went into these than the first Two Worlds.
I'm not sure about the Sequence w/ guitar, I think it is frets + d-pad on base??
I recommend Blocks that Matter, it's 240 points but super polished and has references to modern games hidden away.
There are some big games coming out soon apparently, including the RPG from the Avatar Golf guy (the Avatar Golf game is like the best golf game on 360, even including retail games :P)
I'm not sure about the Sequence w/ guitar, I think it is frets + d-pad on base??
I recommend Blocks that Matter, it's 240 points but super polished and has references to modern games hidden away.
There are some big games coming out soon apparently, including the RPG from the Avatar Golf guy (the Avatar Golf game is like the best golf game on 360, even including retail games :P)
I've heard about that golf game but not played it, might have to check it out now.
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Zilla36021st Century. |She/Her|Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered Userregular
Finished this game last night. Lots of fun. Stylistic very similar to VVVVVV, but gameplay wise more of a standard platformer (no up/down mechanic) with an open map. Very charming game.
I've just lost an entire weekend playing SFG Soccer. it's a horribly mangled 5-a-side version of soccer, with no fouls, offsides, corner kicks or throw ins, with clunky character models and hilarious physics. it's also unbelievably good fun, especially with a couple of buddies.
it also has a dedicated bicycle kick button holy shitballs
i've also had a crack at the demo of Revolver360. it's a bullet hell type shooter with this great little gimmick wherein you can rotate the entire screen on a horizontal axis. it's pretty cool, might have to drop those 80 MS on it.
XBLIG thread, Apple Jack 2 finally launched yesterday, and since this is the thread for discussing games and not their development, I figured it was appropriate to bump this so we could continue the discussing of games.
Two reasons, one of them I should say as a kind of 'full disclosure' bit: firstly I played the first one to death when it came out, because it has this really great rural charm about it (all the levels are named after towns and counties in the UK), and it has this lovely warm-summer-day -in-the-middle-of-some-field vibe to it which I just love. So because of that I've been really looknig forward to AJ2. The second reason I'm shouting about this one is that, due to my love of the first, I volunteered the band I'm in to do some music for this one, and My Owl/Trumpets (as he's known here) agreed. So loading it up last night and hearing stuff that we'd (well, my brother had to do all the work since we're scattered round the country at the moment) written was a really surreal but proud moment. So, while I do have a bit of a stake in it, that's come about because I just think it's a really great platformer.
Two reasons, one of them I should say as a kind of 'full disclosure' bit: firstly I played the first one to death when it came out, because it has this really great rural charm about it (all the levels are named after towns and counties in the UK), and it has this lovely warm-summer-day -in-the-middle-of-some-field vibe to it which I just love. So because of that I've been really looknig forward to AJ2. The second reason I'm shouting about this one is that, due to my love of the first, I volunteered the band I'm in to do some music for this one, and My Owl/Trumpets (as he's known here) agreed. So loading it up last night and hearing stuff that we'd (well, my brother had to do all the work since we're scattered round the country at the moment) written was a really surreal but proud moment. So, while I do have a bit of a stake in it, that's come about because I just think it's a really great platformer.
I was making a (bad) joke about Apple Jacks. :P
I do plan on picking the game up, though Probably when I pick up PA ep 3. Knowing that your band supplied some music for the game solidifies my decision :^:
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
You know, I figured it was some kind of joke I wasn't aware of, and just went right ahead with that post, regardless. You Americans with your 'culture'. But cheers man! The other stuff's by the quite brilliant Josh Woodward, whose music was used for all of the first game. I've not got any room/time for new releases at the moment, but after seeing the terrible likes of Cherry Poke Prison and whole bunch of other Boobs On The Box Art games going up yesterday, I've decided that I really should seek out some XBLIG quality. I think I own a grand total of 3 games from it, which just isn't enough.
I follow a few other forums and twitter groups about XBLIG and the common concensus seems to be that the past month or so has been pretty bad for XBLIG releases. I think Apple Jack 2 might be the first really good game to come up recently.
edit: A lot of the better looking games are from devs who are gearing up for Dream Build Play submissions though.
There's also my game, Cute Things Dying Violently, but I'd hold off until the PC version (new art and features) is done and released, sometime in the next month or so. The Xbox version will get a free update, but that'll come a bit later.
I follow a few other forums and twitter groups about XBLIG and the common concensus seems to be that the past month or so has been pretty bad for XBLIG releases. I think Apple Jack 2 might be the first really good game to come up recently.
edit: A lot of the better looking games are from devs who are gearing up for Dream Build Play submissions though.
It does seem to be rating pretty well, both in terms of volume and score, at least relative to the other games around it.
Aqualibrium looks kind of cool, the screenshots are reminding me a lot of the kind of games I played on the Amstrad as a kid.
Also everyone who likes the Apple Jack 2 music should go to Josh Woodward's page and buy his stuff, because he's an incredibly generous and awesome dude who's letting us include his tracks on the soundtrack for free, and not even asking for any money at all. I'm staggered by that generosity. Soundtrack's up, by the way: http://thiseden.bandcamp.com/album/apple-jack-2-ost
I playtested Aqualibrium. It's a pretty cool puzzle game. I mean it looks like a puzzle-platformer, but really it's about directing your little guy to solve the puzzle of each level. The water physics are pretty cool, it acts very fluid but looks totally pixelated. The game kinda reminds me of the old 90's DOS games.
Posts
EDIT: Anyone enjoying their marketing strategy?
Ophidian Wars: Opac's Journey
It's probably never going to sell as much as Minecraft did, but it proves my theory about supply/demand being the key to making money on XBLIG...find the huge gaping gaps on XBLIG and plug them and you will make decent money. I wish he would have been a little bit less obvious about being a Minecraft clone and then I could support it a little bit more, but technically the game has advantages over Minecraft: less learning curve, you can build immediately and quickly, you can use a bunch of different materials immediately, essentially, it's way more suited for a console audience. I think kids would like it a lot, and I don't think many kids would have the patience for Minecraft.
It is in itself a graphical throwdown, I tried using a Metroid style build + jump sequence to build a tower into sky, seemed to handle itself pretty well for a garbage collected game (technically Minecraft is too, so both of these games have some technial ingenuity behind them)
For what it's worth, it's clear the dev has true skills and IMO XBLIG devs should be happy to see the channel get any sort of attention
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gaspode_t TwitPic: http://twitpic.com/photos/gaspode_t
There is some speculation around some shadowy marketing techniques and this influx of players for whatever reason seems to be down-rating all other top rated games (aka the competition) - hard to explain but right now this traffic hasn't helped other developers at all. It's actually hurting them. We'll see if that changes it all in the coming weeks.
Armless Octopus and some others are covering the story well...
Ophidian Wars: Opac's Journey
Even if worst case scenario and ratings are totally jumbled up, the dev should prepare to deal with that and have enough secondary marketing to have gamers find the link to try out the game.
IMO the dev has to take accountability for at least half of the puzzle, I mean, look at how many YouTube videos were uploaded and how consistently that guy tweeted, it's clearly a bit trying to generate viral hype on purpose. It's sad that games don't generate hype by themselves just by being awesome, it took Cave Story years and years to build up hype and it was basically one of the miracle, lucky cases. There are many many PC indie games that are easily just as good as Cave Story or Minecraft but have flown under the radar and never generated more than a blip, and mostly because the dev thought success would generated by how awesome the game is.
Unfortunately there are too many gaming options in the world, the majority of gamers these days are fragging people in Blops, killing orcs in WoW, clicking cows in FB or throwing birds at pigs on their phone. So games need a hook and also need marketing for ensured success.
I really think many indie devs should take some sort of online marketing classes, or maybe take breaks from developing to browse the app stores themselves and see how frustrating or hard it can be to find good games.
Just as another example: I'm surprised there are not more Trials HD clones on XBLIG...Toy Stunt Bike obviously sold very well, Trials was a huge hit, it seems like a relatively easy game to make (on rails, throw Box2D in and make environments interesting...)
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gaspode_t TwitPic: http://twitpic.com/photos/gaspode_t
So it then becomes pointless to clone a game and not enjoy the process at all, or be proud of the work - when you could have made substantially more money at a regular day job.
Ophidian Wars: Opac's Journey
It's kinda crazy that game has sold so many copies. I guess I just don't get it... I didn't find a ton to do and the camera glitches were pretty annoying. I guess though if you only want Minecraft and only have a console, this is your option.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
The Good:
Server Browser - It's nice to be able to join random servers and see what they have built. When you start your own game, make sure to set it so guests can't make/destroy blocks (lots of greifers)
Trampoline Block - The best block idea ever. Use it instead of ladders or create a jump puzzle to cross a gap
Relics - These are hidden items that you can turn on/off in the main menu. They give you different boosts (walk speed, jump height, jetpack, block destroy distance), utilities (night vision, headlamp), or are just for fun (one turns your character model into black smoke, freeze tag gun). The best part is trying to find these items. They have a sound that gets louder the closer you get to them. It actually gives you a reason to explore and dig around.
Options - There are a ton of graphical options to mess with (cool stuff like custom light colors for lamps)
The Bad:
It's basically Minecraft's creative mode. It's hard to go back to creative mode after having to dig for supplies, fight monsters, etc.
Block selection - Fortresscraft has a lot of blocks to use, but it's missing some big ones like stairs, half blocks, doors, fences
Bugs - It has quite a few bugs. Some are minor like a thin blue bar that flashes at the top of the screen on occasion (some 4:3 ratio bug) or the camera clips through objects at times. Some are major, including losing your single player save (there are ways to back it up), losing your relics when you start a new world, and finding friends servers (have to be in the same gamerzone for some reason).
The good news is those major bugs are going to be fixed in a patch (new release) due Sunday. Even better, they are working on a (free) 1.5 patch that is going to have more bug fixes and some major content (better map, new blocks, splitscreen, new relics, etc). They even hinted at some pvp like feature for 1.5. It's nice to see that they are supporting this game, I kind of expected any content to be pushed back to (not free) chapter 2.
Also, I just noticed how many parenthesis I used, give me a break, it's late. :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZTyR5LLlSY
The Volchaos game looks pretty fun, actually I keep trying to remember to check out your other platformer Nasty but always forget to ... I wish there was a way to see "See other games by..." from the dash.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gaspode_t TwitPic: http://twitpic.com/photos/gaspode_t
Anyone know how it works?
I play a lot of Breath of Death VII lately, but that,s not the only one I've played.
I'll vouch for Bonded Realities. It's really solid- about the only grief I have with it is you can only name the first male character. Why can't we name any of the others? But that's just a minor gripe. The game itself is worth the price.
Another game I can vouch for is Avatar Online Adventures. It's an indie MMORPG that costs only 80 funbucks and is surprisingly well made. The only gripe I have is that the game is too equipment-based; two players at the same level will have identical stats, but the one with more current gear will have the edge. Also, the boss AI could use a little polishing- I've taken the first two quest bosses down simply by leading them around by the nose with a partner imstead of fighting toe-to-toe with them as part of a group.
XBLIG- more effort went into these than the first Two Worlds.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
I recommend Blocks that Matter, it's 240 points but super polished and has references to modern games hidden away.
There are some big games coming out soon apparently, including the RPG from the Avatar Golf guy (the Avatar Golf game is like the best golf game on 360, even including retail games :P)
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gaspode_t TwitPic: http://twitpic.com/photos/gaspode_t
I've heard about that golf game but not played it, might have to check it out now.
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/LaserCat/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550843
Finished this game last night. Lots of fun. Stylistic very similar to VVVVVV, but gameplay wise more of a standard platformer (no up/down mechanic) with an open map. Very charming game.
xbox GT: Big Will C H
it also has a dedicated bicycle kick button holy shitballs
i've also had a crack at the demo of Revolver360. it's a bullet hell type shooter with this great little gimmick wherein you can rotate the entire screen on a horizontal axis. it's pretty cool, might have to drop those 80 MS on it.
also i write about videogames ok?
Xbox Live Tag: Letuckbox
In fact, I've not got any FIFAs or Pro Evos on 360 either. Or Sensi for that matter.
Holy shit no wonder I enjoy Kinect Sports football so much!
Also Skull's comment was actually a pop culture reference / joke.
Man it's been a while since this thread was alive.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Platformance Temple Death
Sequence
Blocks that Matter
Wizorb
Volchaos
Escape Goat
Orbitron Revolution
That's all I got off the top of my head.
edit: Sequence, BtM, Wizorb are all on Steam now, and Escape goat is on the IndieRoyale indie bundle right now.
edit: Cute Things Dying Violently is good but a much improved PC version is coming out soon. See Alejandro's post a few posts down.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
I was making a (bad) joke about Apple Jacks. :P
I do plan on picking the game up, though
edit: A lot of the better looking games are from devs who are gearing up for Dream Build Play submissions though.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
It does seem to be rating pretty well, both in terms of volume and score, at least relative to the other games around it.
Also everyone who likes the Apple Jack 2 music should go to Josh Woodward's page and buy his stuff, because he's an incredibly generous and awesome dude who's letting us include his tracks on the soundtrack for free, and not even asking for any money at all. I'm staggered by that generosity. Soundtrack's up, by the way: http://thiseden.bandcamp.com/album/apple-jack-2-ost
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games