Xbox Indies

An update and a Facebook app

Nick — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:40:10 +0000

Just wanted to post a quick update to the site and let people know what's going on with Xbox Indies.

First, the site is moving to new ownership. I can't say what, if anything, they might have planned for the site beyond simply hosting it, but just wanted people to know. I'm still around to work on technical issues, but the hosting and such is now moving to another person.

Second, we have a Facebook app! It has all the functionality of this site plus the ability to "Favorite" games and compare your favorites with your friends. You can discuss each game, see some recent favorites of all of Facebook, and see the games listed in order of number of favorites. I definitely hope everyone gives it a try; it's really a great new way to browse and share Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

That's pretty much it. Hope everyone is still digging Xbox LIVE Indie Games; there are a lot of good ones out there and even more in the pipeline. Keep on keeping on.

Good luck and good night

Nick — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:00:06 +0000

Due to various personal issues, Matthew and myself are no longer capable of continuing our news posts here on Xbox Indies. It's been nothing but fun doing this, but we are no longer going to be able to continue with the site. We will definitely be leaving up the entire catalog which will continue to update and function just as it has since it's fully automated, but no more news posts will come.

We're planning on leaving the news blog here for about a week at which point we are planning on removing the blog from the site to return the site to just being the catalog so that newcomers will be taken straight to the games, rather than the news blog that will likely remain stagnant from now on. However, if you guys want us to keep these blog posts around for any reason, let us know. If we hear that the community of gamers wants these posts here, then we will keep them here.

Update 9/30/2009: As you can probably see, the blog is still here. I decided that people should be able to read these posts, plus the work to remove the blog meant bunches of work on the design. So here it shall stay for your reading enjoyment.

Again, it's been a blast providing you guys with news on Xbox LIVE Indie Games for the last couple of months and we wish we could keep at it, but as it is we cannot. You can follow @nickgravelyn or @mrmatthew on Twitter if you want to keep up with our personal Twitters and the @XboxIndies Twitter account will also still be active along with the catalog of this site. Thanks for reading!

Random season of Halfbrick game giveaway!

Nick — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:33:12 +0000

THREE GAMES FOR ALL SEASONS AROUND THE WORLD

For those uninitiated with the Halfbrick brand of bodaciousness, three games are currently available for Xbox Live Indie Games, making this the best season ever. Hey, our games are available all over the world, no seasonal discrimination here. Halfbrick Blast Off, Halfbrick Echoes and most recently Halfbrick Rocket Racing have both been released for several weeks to critical acclaim, and each is available for 240 Microsoft Points each.

If you want three Halfbrick games for less than $10, (the grand total being 720 Microsoftland Fun Bucks), you should check them all out right now from the Xbox Live indie Games channel. Mayhem mayhem mayhem!

Random Season of Halfbrick Game Giveaway

To blast through the season with spaceships, rocket racers and crazy translucent hats, Halfbrick will be giving away one free game every day on the official Halfbrick Twitter for 20 days, beginning September 18th. Just follow along, reply to the daily Tweet from @Halfbrick announcing the free game and one response will be randomly selected as the winner, with the download code sent via direct message.

About Halfbrick

Halfbrick is a professional game development studio based in Brisbane, Australia. Founded in 2001, it has developed popular titles for the Game Boy Advance, PSP, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS, with expansion into Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and PlayStation Network development.

Pick out a medal and win a copy of ‘Duologue’

Nick — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:00:56 +0000

What's better than a two stick shooter featuring crazy aliens, a 60 level campaign, support for up to four players, and a bunch of in-game medals to collect? All of that for free. If that sounds good to you, then today is your lucky day as we will be giving four lucky people a token to grab 'Duologue' absolutely free.

The rules of the game are simple. First download the demo and give it a play. Then take a look at the set of awesome medals you can unlock in the full game. Then head over to Twitter and tell us which medal you most want to get and why. We'll pick out four lucky entrants on Tuesday night and out the codes via Direct Message on Twitter, which means you have to be following us to win.

Help pick new box art for ‘Weapon of Choice’

Nick — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:47:54 +0000

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Nathan over at Mommy's Best Games is in the process of updating their award winning 'Weapon of Choice' and they want your feedback. They currently have four possible choices for box art and they just can't decide which one to go with. Think you can help? Just use the poll here and let them know which of these box arts makes you most excited.

(click for larger view)

You guys are ‘Nasty’… for free!

Matthew — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:50:34 +0000

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winners of our latest giveaway folks. PAX 2009 has been a blast and I can't wait to go back for more. Remember, check out my own or Nick's Twitter for our whereabouts and send us a tweet if you want to meet up.

Anyway, enough of that nonsense, let's get to the haikus already! We picked our four favorite 'Nasty'-related poems and each of the authors will be receiving a free download token to get their very own copy of the game! Here they are, in no particular order.

hodsey77 Nasty? Moi? Indeed / For only 400 points / Let's all get Nasty!!

9572AD Who put their Contra / into my Bubble Bobble? / Tastes great together!

Cuervo77 The Ghosts and Monsters / Try to take over the world / Time to get "Nasty"

Grukk Evil forces - yikes! / Won't you save humanity? / Just 400 points!

Congratulations to all the winners, especially hodsey77. This is her SECOND Xbox Indies giveaway win. All it takes to get those games for free is to follow us on Twitter and be a master haikuist, and that last one is flexible.

Those codes will be sent out shortly, so look forward to those later today! Thanks for playing all and look forward to even more giveaways next week!

Happy PAX 09!

Matthew — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:45:24 +0000

It's the beginning of PAX 2009 today and the Xbox Indies crew will be there! We'll be stopping by the XNA booth later today, of course. We are anxious to check out the DBP09 finalists and get a hands on with them. We'll also be meeting and greeting some of our friends while we're there.

We look forward to seeing you guys there. Keep yourself tuned to our Twitter feed for updates throughout the day. You can also follow myself or Nick on Twitter to see our more personal take on the show.

If anyone has any indie-game-related photos of the expo, feel free to leave a comment with a link. If we get some good ones, we may feature them in a PAX09 recap post. Happy PAX everyone!

DBP09 finalists announced

Matthew — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:32:40 +0000

G4tv.com just announced this morning the six finalists of Dream.Build.Play 2009. These finalists will be shown at PAX09 tomorrow and all of them will be playable! The winner of this year's contest will be announced later in the weekend, and some hefty prize monies will be awarded.

Xbox Indies has covered a few of these titles in the past. We did an interview with the developer behind 'Dust: And Elysian Tail' and recently posted some awesome audio and wallpapers from 'Kaleidoscope'. It's great to see some of the games we really liked make it to the final six.

There is a full list of the finalists along with screen shots below the cut. Please view the full post to see them all.

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Hurricane 2X Evolution

Kaleidoscope

Max Blastronaut

Rotorscope: The Secret of the Endless Energy

Sol Survivor

Halfbrick brings the speed with ‘Halfbrick Rocket Racing’

Nick — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:05:33 +0000

Halfbrick has released their third, and in their opinion best, Indie Game named 'Halfbrick Rocket Racing'. This game was one of the first that we mentioned on the site, so it's great to see it come to be released. The game features an interesting analog control system using just the triggers to race, over 40 tracks, global scoreboards, and up to four player local multiplayer.

Halfbrick have also let us know they have two new YouTube videos, both embedded below. The first is the new trailer for the game and the second is a bit of a walkthrough of the game from Phil and Luke of Halfbrick.

Take a look, download the trial, and let us know what you think. Have Halfbrick one-upped their old games? Is 'Rocket Racing' the next big game for Indie Games? Let us know in the comments. Full press release after the break.

HALFBRICK RELEASES THIRD XBOX LIVE INDIE GAME, BEST EVER

September 3rd, 2009 – Halfbrick Rocket Racing has been released on Xbox Live Indie Games, available for purchase for 240 Microsoft Points. This is now the third game to be released under the Halfbrick Fridays range of casual games, and features a massive amount of content in one small download.

Halfbrick Rocket Racing uses a brand new analogue control system using just the left and right triggers. Press each one to power the rockets on each side of the racing craft, and alternate power between the two to turn and drift around over 40 tracks. The rockets will also serve to boost the craft off nearby walls, so the key to achieving the best times is to grind and slide around the perimeters of each track with speed and finesse.

Players can try over 40 unlockable tracks each with four medals to win, with race times uploaded to the Global Leaderboards to see where they rank against the rest of the world. Of course, the true value lies in multiplayer, with up to four players locally on one screen. With such intense speed, precise control and milliseconds between first and second place, multiplayer on Halfbrick Rocket Racing is an experience best served on the couch with likeminded speed freaks!

To keep track of all the Halfbrick updates, visit www.halfbrick.com and subscribe via Twitter, Youtube and Facebook!

About Halfbrick

Halfbrick is a professional game development studio based in Brisbane, Australia. Founded in 2001, it has developed popular titles for the Game Boy Advance, PSP, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS, with expansion into Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and PlayStation Network development.

Our ‘Nasty’-est giveaway yet

Matthew — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:33:11 +0000

Last week, our own Kris Steele released 'Nasty', his first indie game. To celebrate, he has honored us with not two, not three, but SIX tokens to download his game. We're going to have a contest to give four of them away. Stay tuned to our Twitter for info on the other two!

Since this is a momentous occasion for us, we need a giveaway in the same style. So what should we do?

We want to have some fun with this one. Isn't that what indie games are all about? Here's what you need to do: get out your poet-pens (figuratively speaking, of course) and write us up a 'Nasty'-themed haiku. This will be another Twitter post, so just include the #XboxIndiesHaiku hashtag so we can find it. Here's an example:

'Nasty' is a game / An indie game on Xbox / Won't you play this game #XboxIndiesHaiku

Get the idea? If you need inspiration, don't hesitate to download the free demo from the game page. There are all sorts of ghosts and one-eyed monsters in there, so let your inner-poet come out and write us a masterpiece!

You must write a valid haiku to enter (ie. 5 / 7 / 5 syllable count). We'll be judging the haikus and the best four will each get a code DMed to them on Twitter. Make sure you are following us to get the code!