XBLIG - Xbox Live Indie Game Thread

2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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Thought I'd start a topic to just see if there's any interest in the Indie Game scene? It's been a feature of the 360 for a while now obviously and we are fast building up an overwhelming number of decent homebrew games! :)

I'll compile a shortlist of the best ones later on, fee free to chip in and say what your favourites are.

The one game I'm enjoying at the moment is The Deep Cave. It's a platformer similar to Super Meat Boy or VVVVVV, it's incredibly tough but so fun trying to get through the screens. It also has an outstanding chiptune soundtrack, some of the best I've ever heard. It's only 80 points too making it a total steal.
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  • Premium-OnionPremium-Onion Posts: 3,818
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    Any of the Indie games I have tried out are crap.

    The one exception is Globe Clicker which I found a good challange until I went through all the questions.
  • tommyd1258tommyd1258 Posts: 6,923
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    Hurdle Turtle is a great little game for 80msp. Great music and very simple. It's the only Indie game I've actually purchased, definitely recommend the trial.
  • FunkmasterTFunkmasterT Posts: 14,369
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    Are there any decent RPGs in the indie games? I wouldn't expect them to be looking any better than a SNES Zelda or Final Fantasy game, but are there any interesting ones? I've had the odd browse through the Indie games, but there seems to be a lot of junk in there and some of the display art puts me off immediately.
  • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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    Capt.Smead wrote: »

    No offence but that thread is over a year old! We've had tons of great games since then.
    Are there any decent RPGs in the indie games? I wouldn't expect them to be looking any better than a SNES Zelda or Final Fantasy game, but are there any interesting ones? I've had the odd browse through the Indie games, but there seems to be a lot of junk in there and some of the display art puts me off immediately.

    Oh absolutely, Cthulhu Saves The World is exactly what you are looking for. I'm not a fan of RPG's and yet even I bought this one after the fantastic demo. Very funny game too.

    Don't be too quick to judge them, though if you're not into retro then you won't enjoy any of it, but there are some great games hidden away that many large publications completely fail to cover in their top 10 lists or whatever features they run. In fact many of the games that I've seen recommended by the likes of IGN etc have been utter crap. There's a lot of very good shooters on XBLIG in particular.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 444
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    No offence taken.

    I haven't looked through the Indie games for sometime now, so hopefully some little gems will get a mention.
  • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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    OK cheers.

    There's a lot of Japanese developers creating shmups on it now and also some well known XBLA developers throwing out some quality titles too. MS done such a good thing allowing homebrew on their console! It's like the Amiga Public Domain days all over again, only much, much better.

    OK so I'll start off with a shortlist of my favourites.

    Score Rush - Insane bullet hell shmup, really acts as a trainer for you to get good at dodging bullets. This has perfect controls and while it's bare bones it's brilliant fun.

    IonBall - The best "bat 'n ball" game I've played in years! In some ways I prefer it to Shatter. It has XP style levelling up and a very cool steampunk theme but it's the controls that's the stand out feature, they are perfect. It looks and sounds gorgeous too, very polished.

    Final Rift - An "Elite" Clone and surprisingly in-depth. This only costs 80 points yet there is a lot of content. Good game.

    Gravitron360 - A "Thrust" clone, but it's more like PS3's Gravity Crash. Very good game where you have to navigate caverns while fighting the force of gravity, shooting enemies and rescuing scientists before the planet blows up (yes it's as hard as it sounds lol). I much prefer to play with the controls set to rotate like "Thrust".

    Apple Jack - A charming and clever little platformer. Quality title.

    Leave Home - Very cool shmup that adapts as you play depending on how good you are. It's a great game but nails hard.

    Explosionade - Mech based platformer, hard to explain but definitely worth a try! I love it.

    Revolver360 - Perfect demonstration of how good XBLIG can be! A superb shmup with a very cool gameplay mechanic where you revolve your ship with the triggers which in turn alters the enemy bullet patterns for you to navigate though. Excellent.

    Other's to check out:

    Epic Dungeon
    Solar
    Kaleidoscope
    The Deep Cave
    Decimation X3
    Biology Battle
    Arkedo Series 03 Pixel
    Ctuhulu Saves The World
    Radiangames Crossfire 2
    Radiangames Fluid
    Radiangames Inferno
  • gavo360gavo360 Posts: 1,608
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    Great list 2Dshmuplover. Wil try and check out a few of those titles sometime this week. Indie games could do with more promotion.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,706
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    thought i'd give this a bump, decimation looks like a fantastic little game, "shoot 1up" also looks great and another similar game that looks quality is "duality zf"
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 67
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    If your into Golf Avatar Golf is the best Golf game around a bit like everybodys golf on ps3 but alot cheaper and all the user designed courses are amazing,great course designer for 240 points if your into golf you love it.
  • He4rtHe4rt Posts: 5,379
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    I bought an Indie game last week 'miner dig deep'. Very addictive litle game and only 80 msp. I highly recommend

    My mine goes to 1100. If any of you are deeper than that, let me know, because it's geting difficult at that depth:o
  • ScrubberScrubber Posts: 4,106
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    Every one i've tried so far has been shite. Not sure i will buy anymore unless a lot of people say it's great.
  • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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    OK so it's been a good while since this thread was active but today see's the beginning of the XBLIG Uprising 2012, which is kinda of the equivalent of Summer of Arcade for Indie games.

    The first game released today is qrth-phyl, it's what prompted me to bump this thread as it's such a great game. It's a modern take on 'Snake', in 2D and 3D with REZ style graphics. The gameplay is fantastic and for 80 MSP you just cannot go wrong. I hope some of you try it and rate it as it all helps. Here's a small trailer

    XBLIG has seen so many great games this past year, too many for me to list right now and there's probably not enough interest on this forum for me to warrant doing it. The service has only gotten better despite what some critics claim. :)

    Here's what to expect form the rest of Indie Uprising 2012: preview
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,784
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    I have a few Indie games. Oozi 1 - 4 and Zombies ruined my Day. not bad at all :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,784
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    I think most gamers avoid the Indie titles because they see them as being pants. I did at first but Oozi changed that for me. My youngest son downloaded it and I gave it a try and liked it. It can be a pain at times but still fun :)
  • gdjman68wasdigigdjman68wasdigi Posts: 21,705
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    tommyd1258 wrote: »
    Hurdle Turtle is a great little game for 80msp. Great music and very simple. It's the only Indie game I've actually purchased, definitely recommend the trial.

    i just downloaded that
  • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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    I think most gamers avoid the Indie titles because they see them as being pants. I did at first but Oozi changed that for me. My youngest son downloaded it and I gave it a try and liked it. It can be a pain at times but still fun :)

    Yeah, well there's lot of gamers out there who aren't into retro, either they are too young to not have any experience with it or don't want to play games with poor graphics. I can certainly see how someone would be put off it they just randomly picked a few titles to play.

    The way I view it is like a return to the old 8-bit days of the bedroom programmers, there's tons of experimental titles, not all of them work and unfortunately there's a lot of games created for the wrong reasons and are a complete shambles. But for every 50 games that are launched there's a gem among them, it's just about digging them out and having the knowledge to know what's good because there's no way you're going to find them by just randomly playing them.

    I find Armless Octopus a valuable resource for Indie game news link and there's plenty of others out there and some good YT channels such as aaronthesplazer

    Here's a great looking game that's coming out later this year, Windhaven. Perfect example of what is possible with talented programmers.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,706
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    deadlight is a great little side scrolling zombie game.

    The way I view it is like a return to the old 8-bit days of the bedroom programmers, there's tons of experimental titles, not all of them work and unfortunately there's a lot of games created for the wrong reasons and are a complete shambles. But for every 50 games that are launched there's a gem among them, it's just about digging them out and having the knowledge to know what's good because there's no way you're going to find them by just randomly playing them.

    yea thats the way i've seen the indie games section. I like the fact that over the last few years its really gained momentum and is having its own spotlight. small development teams are more likely to take risks and try something new which can often result in unique gameplay.
  • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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    I dunno if any of your guys decided to give qrth-phyl a try but I can barely pull myself away from it. It's a wonderful mixture of Pac Man (like the recent CE-DX edition) and Snake with some really solid 3D gameplay. :cool:

    Today is the third day of the Indie Uprising promotion as these games are releasing on a daily basis instead of weekly. The full site is here which will give you a indication of what's coming next along with some info on each game. Today's release is Diehard Dungeon, for only 80 MSP it looks well worth checking out vid :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,706
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    'mark of the ninja' looks like a great stealthy side scrolling adventure.
  • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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    Gonna just resurrect this old thread to highlight a few new releases on XBLIG you may not be aware but are worthy of bringing to any gamers attention. Good news that Indie game prices have now fallen back to their original price point for those of us using the Beta dash, so the majority are priced at 69p.

    First up there's a new game just released called Blood and Bullets, it's effectively a indie version of L4D with pigs, quite a few people are talking about this game, it's exceptionally gory, unfortunately I cannot download it yet as there's a conflict with the beta dashboard so I've read but you might be able to. Here a trailer

    Beat Hazzard Ultra has also finally made it's way to XBLIG. Great little twin stick shmup that uses your music to generate levels, in this sequel there's a lot more to the gameplay including power up's and perks, leveling up and unlocks. It can use your music from a playlist or even from your PC, shame it doesn't work for MP3's on USB. More expensive than most games but it's still a great game though.


    Others:
      Vintage Hero - Great little Megaman 2D platformer
        Chronoblast - High quality vertical shmup, probably one of the best on XBLIG. It's getting an update soon too with tons of extra content.
          Aqua Kitty - I believe this is a PSVita port, fun little defender type game with great music and cute gfx
            Thunder Moon - Kind of similar to Minecraft only in space with more objectives. It's a fun game
              Saturn 9 - A decent FPS survival horror, it;s very short but it's fun for duration and quite scary too
                Dinora - A Terraria clone, it contains most of the things that's in that game with more emphasis on NPC's, huge game considering and only 69p meaning its well worth trying (when Terraria is £10).
                  Tatakai Tank Rush! - A 3D RTS game, it's a bit bare bones but still fun and really smooth gameplay
                    Write your own Music - A blatant copy of the old PS1's Music series. Not a bad thing at all, if you are familiar with Music 2000 then you will instantly recognise it. With lot's of samples and a riff creator, some potential to make some ok choons. Not nearly as powerful as Ezmuze 2.0+ but it's cheaper and easier to learn and doesn't munch Gb's of HDD space
                      Bad Caterpillar - A Centipede clone with extra powerups and different ships. It has near perfect gameplay, very addictive stuff, I highly recommend this one.
                        Rad Raygun - A 2D platformer made in Megaman style, everything (indluding the boxart) is designed to look and sound like a monochrome Gameboy title. It's fun

                        There we go, if you're at all interested in XBLIG but don't have time to check them out, I just saved you the trouble of sifting though a mountain of crap to find the good games. ;)
                      • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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                        Just a heads up on Blood and Bacon (can't believe I called it Blood and Bullets up there), yeah GET THIS GAME. If you like L4D then you will enjoy this, very nice gameplay, blood and guts everywhere :D it's really crazy, it supports online co-op too but I'm playing it single player and having fun. I actually has had the developer chat to me while I was playing, a really nice guy who is open to suggestions for improvements etc. supposedly it's getting some updates soon to make it even better. Try it out! for £1.99 you can't go wrong.

                        Also another nice game is on the way very soon called "power up" a 2D side scroller shmup developed by Psychotic Psoftware. This was started from a Kickstarter campaign a few months back, he words in the industry as a graphic designer but recently was laid off I believe so in his spare time he's creating an indie game. It is also ported it to PC after XBLIG. The game is looking very nice and the dev has been posting regular weeklyprogress updates which you can follow HERE

                        You can see a trailer for Power Up HERE
                      • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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                        Power Up released yesterday on XBLIG. It's an ok little shooter, reminds me of Project X on Amiga. It's only 69p and worth checking out.

                        Trailer
                      • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 182
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                        Only indie game I ever bought was "I made a game with Zombies in it!". Haven't bothered with any others. Which is odd given i had a few hundred points lying on gold for almost forever now that it got turned back into real money which I could easily have tried more.
                      • 2dshmuplover2dshmuplover Posts: 8,271
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                        Well, they're well worth checking out if you have the time and like Indie games. I find XBLIG to be completely underrated and under appreciated in general

                        Another great game came out on the heels of Power Up called Valkryius, another 2D vertical shmup that takes more than a few cues from Strania. It must be a little bit sickening for Power Up dev as it's really good too! footage

                        With Unity support confirmed for next year for both X1 and 360 I think the Indie scene is yet to fully flourish on the console.

                        Microsoft might be a little behind Sony but they are now courting indie devs in preparation for the Indie assault of next gen.
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