Be Excellent To Each Other

IMPORTANT FACTOID: COMMUNITY GAME'S ONLY WORK WHEN CONNECTED TO INTERNET. EVEN PURCHASED ONES

Wooo! 21st century PD is here! There are 29 title at launch I think, and I'm sure they'll be a steady stream of them as time goes by.

There is very little barrier to entry, and games go up 3 days after submission for peer review.

Live is hammered too much at the moment for me to properly peruse the list. But I suspect it will be a random process not unlike choosing PD disks of one of those big adverts in Amiga Power magazine.

So maybe we can use this thread for us all to pool our resources and find the gems. Full games will cost 200, 400 and 800 points dependent on their file size (expect more 1200 point XBLA games to distant themselves from these 'pretenders' But with a lack of promotion the trials seem to be longer than you would get in XBLA titles.

STYLE GUIDE
If I may be so bold as to recommend a way to allow us to pick out the mini-reviews from any banter in the thread (assuming it doesn't die) how about we use:

Use red text to thumbs down a game.
Use normal to be none committal.
And use green text to promote a game.
And bolding the title would be good too.

Which (just in case) is achieved like so:

Shamelessly stolen from the lovely RainbowDespair over on Penny Arcade.

The Games So Far....


==200 point games==

Rift - Robotron-esque with a time stopping mechanism. Graphics look very amateurish in the screenshots, but might still be fun.
Galax-E-mail - Shmup.
Alien Ambush - Retro shmup.
UAV War - 3D Flying/shooter game.
Cubage - It's a Rubix Cube.
Abstacked - Puzzle game.
Bad Atom Episode 1 - Space shooter.
Organon - 3D Space Shooter. Pretty graphics.
Beat It - Party game.
Poker Ball - Poker crossed with Arkanoid.
Lines - Puzzle game. Looks like Gunpey with Lumines graphics.
Bloc - 2D Shmup/Puzzle game. Could be fun.
Fuel Depot - shmup.
Being - 2D platformer. Supposedly decent.
Space Combat - shmup.

==400 point games==

Funky Punch XL - a colorful 2D (w/3D graphics) one on one fighter.
Brain Party - Brain Age-esque minigames.
Smashell - 3D platformer. Decent graphics.
In the Pit - An audio only game. Control a monster who lives in a pit and eat the people who fall in.
Artoon - Q-Bert crossed with JSRF. Very stylish graphics.
Totem - Puzzle game involving indian totem poles.
Blow - Blow bubbles through levels. Nice earthy art.
Loot, Steal, and Destroy - Party/Board game.
Tail Gun Charlie - 3D shmup?
Fruit Attack - Falling puzzle game.
Endless Swarm - Looks like a cross between a tower defense game & Missile Command. I love Missile Command so I need to try this out.
Duotrix - Falling puzzle game with two boards simultaneous.
Weapon of Choice - Action/Adventure game. 3rd place winner in this year's Dream-Build-Play competition so it's probably worth checking out.
Drift - Not a game. More like a screensaver.
Word Soup - Puzzle game.

==800 point games==

Biology Battle - Geometry Wars style game. Demo was fun on the PC. Looks pretty well done.
Colosseum - 3D brawler.

I have purchased Word Soup and have been playing it for most of the day...If only you could turn the bloody music off!

My mum bought Word Soup too. Looks pretty solid if you like word puzzles.

is that the game on pub quiz machines?

Oooh great. I totally ignored those two. To the downloadatron!

This could work nicely.

I've played Rift and Artoon and have yet to find a restriction in the demo at all.

Rift is... interesting, if a touch unatmospheric for a twin stick shooter with a gimmick.
Artoon is gorgeous... Just not sure about how the gameplay hangs off it, it's a touch awkward and a little thin.

Colouring Artoon more because you really should see it.

Live still won't let me download games.

But ooooooh.

So I played a bunch. Quick comments follow. Overall I'm impressed. However the trial mode works by just limiting you to 5 minutes or something. Which is quite frustrating. Overall if you've only chance to play two get Weapon of Choice and In the Pit.

==200 point games==
Alien Ambush - Retro shmup. Not very good from the minute or so I played it. Still might get better at later levels.

Organon - 3D Space Shooter. Pretty graphics. Shooting cubes basically. Meh.

Being - 2D platformer. This is almost exactly the definition of 'Amiga Platformer' Take that as you will....

==400 point games==
In the Pit - An audio only game. Control a monster who lives in a pit and eat the people who fall in. A must play this. Slight concept (I suspect) but it had a genuine smile on my face throughout the trial, and few games manage that. I'll be replaying this and may even buy...

Artoon - What Dudley said basically. Very spiffy looking. Not sure my cup of tea though.

Weapon of Choice - Really liked this. A lot. Bit floaty. Clearly will be unbalanced and a bit unproffesional. But great stuff. The lives system is great (there are 3 characters, when one dies in a level the next zooms in in a rocket (which you can aim at whatever killed you) then you can try and carry the downed character to the exit to keep him alive. Likely purchase at ~£3.50

==800 point games==
Biology Battle - Geometry Wars style game. To the extent that it almost is GeoWars. Very polished and impressive. But it's the same price as GW2... Greening because it's worth a trial to show the polish that these games are capable off. But won't be getting this on a first play of the demo.

Colosseum - 3D brawler. Once you realise that run is a shoulder button this is actually damn impressive.

Can you get demos of them? I might have to splurge a bunch of money over the weekend and do a review roundup.

it amazes me that what is classed as 'pd' these days (or the modern equivalent) would've been pushed out at £25.99 on the Amiga in 1993, and probably would've got good scores too. That 'Weapon of Choice' reminds me of 'Ruff (and - Ed) Tumble'.

Got this via LewieP, and it's well worth a read:

5 things you don't know about Community Games.

I'm extremely pissed of about the fact you HAVE to be on live to have access to Community games. Even ones you've purchased apparently.

If any one has purchased a game, could they check?

In summary:

1. Community Games require you to be online in order to play them.
2. Outside of online play, XNA creators cannot send or receive any information.
3. Community Games do not show up in "quick launch" menu.
4. There is no current way to directly update your game.
5. No Avatar Support.

LIVE support needed confirmed, my mum's copy of Word Soup went wonky when her wireless bridge crashed. There's also no online scoreboards/achievements etc.

could they solve number 4 by hosting the latest updated version on the marketplace, so you hear theyve updated it on the net or some thing and then redownload it.

In that case, there's no way I'll be paying 400+ points for any of these.

Word Soup

(it's brown - neutral)

The game is good in theory, but:

[*]The music makes me borderline homicidal, and you cn't turn it off, but I don't want to play in total silence via having to mute the TV.

[*]The game (letter) tiles come righ to the left and bottom edges of the screen meaning:
a) if you screen is not properly aligned or is old you can see the tiles on the left, so meaning you can't see 10% of the letters you can work with
b) messages informing you of your friends signing into live/someone has left you a message etc obscure loads of tiles too. Not bad if you are playing a relaxed game, but on a timed round? Abolutely ruins it.

[*]Achievement inclusions would have been nice - after all, you buy it just like any other Arcade game, and it gives you another 'element' of play.

It's a real shame they couldn't release some of these for free if they wanted to.

When I looked into the trial mode, the default (as in what it'll do if you put no trial code in) is to put a time limit on it. Theoretically, you could make the trial be the whole game (but you'd still have the option to 'buy' it, even through that provided nothing extra, which is still a bit of an issue if you havea >1 man team)

As for ach.s, avatar support (not allowed in XNA, due to strict avatar usage guidelines which couldn't be enforced on XNA), scoreboards, it's not at all surprising they're not allowed. The first two due to abuse issues, the third due to infrastructure. They're quite limited by everything dashboard facing (acheievements, status etc etc) needs to be E rated, but that there's no content checking, therefore access to such things is strictly limited.

As I recall from Space Giraffe development, writing the game was half the battle, seamless integration with XBLA was the other. Doubtful that XNA devs would have the time/stamina to get all the live stuff integrated. Better that they make another game sooner instead. Hopefully someone will get a good bit of cash from their efforts here, though.

I will happily pay for Community games as long as the game is worth buying. Although I'd REALLY prefer to see them make the DRM system work the same as the Arcade stuff at the very least.

Well, part of the argument is that XNA has most of the dash integration as the framework, and entirely inflexible, so the devs don't need to worry about that kind of stuff. The only real problem I've encountered is that some dashboard stuff needs to be multithreaded, and it's very easy to cause a system hang due to this if you're not aware. The only other thing I've had to do is code to pause the game when you go into the dashboard. Aside from that, it just works. But you do pay for that in flexibility.

2 to 5 on that list I've no problem with, they seem understandable. 1 however I do.

So much so I didn't believe, and as I didn't hear anything here, and was thinking to purchase Weapon of Choice (which is excellent) I thought I would check the 'usage restrictions' and... ah hell, here is the letter I ended up sending to complain.



Grumble, grumble. More news as it happens!

Do let us know how that goes. I'd be way more interested in picking up a few of these if they take away that rather odd restriction.

Will do.

To be honest I expect at minimum a refund. it's not sold as advertised.

You'll be lucky. They always hide behind their little "no refunds" sign, despite them being illegal in this country.

Tried the demo of this yesterday and really enjoyed it, so will be getting the full version very soon.

I found the music strangely appealing, but yes, agree that you should be able to switch it off.

Make a blank MP3 and play it over your network or off a USB stick. Or play a normal MP3 and turn the volume down.

Aye I'm sure thats the case, and in a way I hope they take that tact, because then I can get all insistent that they provide the product as advertised. But yeah, I expect nothing will happen from it, but I thought I wouldn't let it slide.

Or do what I do to get music onto my 360 - use a CD-RW, and fight with my iBook for 20 minutes as soon as I cram the disc in, iTunes starts and declares it has the drive, which prevents my using Toast to erase it. And then burn a playlist onto the disc. And then rip it into the 360.

And yet in spite of this, I've got 200 songs on my 360.

Trying all that gubbins with memory sticks and blank CDs and such, sounds a bit fiddly. I think I'll just turn the TV volume down, and stick the radio on.

I enjoy playing it while streaming an audio book...it's made for a rather pleasent Sunday afternoon (helped by approximately two gallons of lovely tea).

I played that Riff (I think) last night, was pretty good. Bit basic, though!

Rift? the twin stick shooter where you stop time? I liked that too. Surprisingly good.

Indeed, but a very fair 200 points.

Lines

It's Lumines... except without the pace. And it's not as pretty. It's like Puzzle League! Except again without the pace. And it's not as pretty. And the music is rubbish.

Rift

It's... not a whole much of anything. Gah.

Like the guys say above, it's a twin stick shooter with a time stop power. That's all it is. It's merely an illustration that matches that description.



People are paying money for the privilege of being able to show other people that they made these things. What were they thinking?

If I was going to pay £70 a year to do that (and I'm not), I'd have a long term plan. My long term plan would be make the game FIRST. Make it ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT. THEN pay the £70 and port it.

(Play Blast Arena: Origins™ today!)

One of the tricks* to becoming a megafamous rich guy is to make a gem in a sea of mediocrity.** Here's a -wide open sea-.

I wish 'em all the best of luck.

*The other tricks are 'Be the only one. If you can't do that, make people think you're the only one. If you can't pretend to be the only one, be the best one. If you can't do that, pretend to be the best one and make people believe you.'

**He says after playing two puzzle games for two minutes each. No doubt (okay, some doubt. Significant doubt.) there's some good games released in this bag here. I'd wager the smart folks are charging up AWESOME LASERS, while trying to maintain a pace that'll let them release their finished, shiny, excellent games before everything goes cold. (Or waiting until everything HAS gone cold.)

It's worth pointing out probably the vast majority, including me, got a free year's subscription when they were giving them away a month or few back.

And nobody rang me? ;-;

I'm fairly certain I posted it on here.

You haven't mentioned it in any of your posts here that include 'xna' or 'microsoft'.

Are you certain it was the same tier of license as this 'premium' license required for submission to the big CG shop? I already have a years 'student' license which I can activate at any time through MSDNAA, but it's just to let me run code, I can't peer review or anything.

Indeed, That's why I reduced it to "fairly"

Biology Battle is quite technically impressive, but it just seems like a Mutant Storm Reloaded rip-off, if you ask me.

And it's massively overpriced.

Well yes. It's doubtful I'll buy any of these even at 400 points, unless I fall in love with it. Some of them seem really shonky.

Yeah that's why I've got a soft spot for Rift. 200 is a fair ask. (I suspect he didn't want to charge at all, I've not found a demo restriction yet)

It might be me just being slow, but you can play the trial modes without having to download them now. I just played Weapon of Choice, and I thought it was really good. The music's a bit repetitive, but it's got some excellent game mechanics and the graphics aren't bad, either.

How is that going to work? Unless they were all shipped as part of NXE, you did indeed download them!

Hmm, maybe I already had it downloaded then.

Well, I finally got around to properly downloading Word Soup, and I think it's bloomin' ace, and very relaxing to play. For me, well worth the four quid or whatever it was.