The XBLIG Companion App Lets You Browse Indies On the Go


Windows Phone users will soon have a flashy new way to browse and purchase Xbox Live Indie Games on Read more

Snapshot Coming to Steam Shortly, PS3 This Summer


Retro Affect's long-in-development Snapshot will be released on Steam "very soon," according to lead programmer David Carrigg. In a Read more

Warp Review: E.T. Warp Home


With his adorable peanut-shaped body and wacky tube-man appendages, it’s easy to imagine a plushy of Warp’s alien protagonist Read more

How to Market Your Game XBLIG Style Part 3: Writing a Press Release


It’s been some time since I last wrote a feature on marketing, but I figured it was about time Read more

XBLIG Previews

Brand: A sword perhaps best left in the stone (for now)

Posted on by Dave Voyles in Previews, XBLIG Previews | 7 Comments

The waiting game is often a tricky one. Sometimes an extended wait can lead to having some of your wildest expectations fulfilled, and then some. On the other end of that spectrum, however, lies disappointment. That doesn’t necessarily mean that what you had finally received was poor by any means, but it simply didn’t live up to what you were hoping for. Brand is one such title which unfortunately suffers the fate of the latter.

When we first got wind of it in August, Brand was seen as a beautifully textured and modeled platformer, with all signs pointing towards a hit: A rarity on XBLIG. In terms of appearance, it has fulfilled its end of the bargain and carries quite a bit of the weight for the rest of the product. The models are crisp, the textures and color palette are vivid, in addition to being diverse. Each of the three stages has its own distinct feel, despite being inhabited by many of the same enemies.

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Co-Optimus Founder Developing an Indie Game

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, PC News, PC Previews, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | Leave a comment

Whenever someone disagrees with a critic, their first reaction always seems to be “I’d like to see you do it better.” Well, Nick Puleo is going to try and do just that. The founder and managing editor of Co-Optimus has teamed up with longtime friend Dave Paul to form Brian Shape Games, and their first release, SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance, is due out later this year for Xbox Live Indie Games and PC.

As you might imagine, SCHAR is a cooperative experience and looks to spice up the twin-stick shooter experience by adding strategy and RPG features. Set in the year 2997, you play as one of four unique ships in the Blue Shield Alliance, which is humanity’s last hope against the Constituents of Nothing, a bunch of aliens with a penchant for antagonizing human colonies.

“I’ve always been interested in game development, and have been tinkering with it for many years. I’m a programmer by nature and have been doing it since I was 12 or 13,” said Puleo. The pair have been developing games casually together for about 20 years, and have been working on SCHAR at night and on weekends.

The trailer is heavy on story details, but light on actual gameplay. “We’re only about halfway through the development process at this point, and we have a lot of work to do on things like art, sound, and level content,” Puleo wrote on a post on Co-Optimus. We’ll have a better feel for it after we get our mitts on it this spring at PAX East.

New Apple Jack 2 Screenshots Reveal Vampire Eyeballs

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, XBLIG, XBLIG Previews | 3 Comments

http://www.armlessoctopus.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2471&action=edit&message=1#

Our favorite fruit-headed hero might not return until 2012, but My Owl Software just unpacked slew of new pics of Apple Jack’s Great Escape to keep your appetites whetted. The new screens show off one of the new boss fights, a combo system that should look familiar to fans of the first game, and enough pandas to scarf down an entire bamboo forest in an afternoon. We’ll let you know when we learn more details surrounding Jack’s return to XBLIG.

Click through for all the pics.  Read more

Apple Jack sequel ripening on XBLIG this year

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, XBLIG, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | Leave a comment

giant pandas!
It may have been a bit outrageous, but the original Apple Jack (not to be confused with the mouth-scraping cereal of the same name) was one of our favorite indie games last year. What could be crazier than a game with pigs in tutus, laser-shooting owls and a protagonist with a Granny Smith dome? We should find out soon, as My Owl Software is hard at work crafting a new adventure for our apple-headed hero and promises the story will be even stranger this time around.

Tentatively titled Apple Jack’s Great Escape, the sequel will feature a greater variety of level sizes and shapes and a new “Flashback” system that allows players to rewind time. Locations will no longer be named after actual British towns, and this time Apple Jack will journey through preposterous areas such as “The Panda Factory” and “The Bacon Exchange.” The game is still early in development, but My Owl Software is aiming to release Apple Jack’s Great Escape by the end of the year on XBLIG.

Source: My Owl Software

They Bleed Pixels beats up XBLIG later this summer

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | 3 Comments

Lovecraftian lore has already proven to be popular in the indie scene, but Spooky Squid Games is trading in the menus and dialogue screens for platforming and brutal, bloody combat with a new trailer for their upcoming indie, They Bleed Pixels. You take the role of a proper-looking little lady who is haunted by a mysterious book and nightmares, and like all proper ladies, she dispatches her foes with her lobster hands.

Aside from ridiculous combos involving kicking airborne enemies into floating saw blades and ricocheting them around spiked walls, the game also touts an novel checkpoint system and one-button combat. Racking up combos and disposing of enemies in inventive ways builds up a checkpoint meter, which grants you the ability to drop checkpoints where you want them. We’ll be bleeding pixels later this summer.

Latest Fluffy: Operation Overkill trailer is the most gruesome yet

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, XBLIG, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | Leave a comment

If you’re a fan of teddy bears, you probably shouldn’t watch the above video. Too late? Did you see all those precious little cuddly bears being decapitated and blown into bloody bits by the mean ‘ol Fluffy? Did you notice how their intestines rocketed out of their midsections like they swallowed sticks of dynamite?

Don’t worry, the bears were mutated freaks. They were actually zombie bears, so our crazed squirrel was actually doing civilization a favor. At least, that’s the story So So Dev is pitching for their messy upcoming indie, Fluffy: Operation Overkill. The latest and grizzliest trailer depicts the bloodthirsty squirrel brutally slaying bears, bees and other wildlife. It will be available later this month for Xbox Live Indie Games.

TIC: Part 1 takes to the skies in official trailer

Posted on by Dave Voyles in Previews, XBLIG, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | Leave a comment

Last week we brought you the news that TIC took home the Audience Choice award and 1st Prize at the GameFest. Now, developer RedCandy Games has released their official trailer for TIC: Part 1. Why is this hero making such a journey? We’re not quite sure, as we’re too distracted by the vivid backgrounds, not to mention the underground depths that only Tim Burton could dream up (all of which was put together using their proprietary ”2.5D JawBreaker Engine”).

Look for TIC: Part 1 on the XBLIG platform sometime in the very near future.

Animals explode in the new trailer for Fluffy: Operation Overkill

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, XBLIG, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | Leave a comment

Small animals are all cute and cuddly one minute, and then the next they’re eradicating species with lightning guns and orbital satellite strikes. So So Dev’s new trailer for its upcoming blood-soaked indie Fluffy: Operation Overkill showcases the more pugnacious side of our furry friends. A mysterious virus has turned all the animals into bloodthirsty beasts (hate when that happens), but thankfully Fluffy was conveniently protected by his hazard suit, and now he needs to “deal with all infected animals to reveal the cause of the virus.” Apparently “deal with” is equivalent to “cause to explode into sanguinary showers of flying organs.”

Fluffy may be outnumbered, but he can utilize slow motion and has a full arsenal of weapons to reduce the wildlife into piles of bloody goop and brains. So So Dev aims to release Fluffy: Operation Overkill this June for XBLIG. I’ll probably think twice before chasing those squirrels away from my bird feeder from now on.

FLUFFY: OPERATION OVERKILL
Developer: SO SO DEV Games
Release: June 2011
Platform: Xbox Live Indie Games
Genre: Jump’n’Shoot
STORY
The game centers around a psychotic squirrel called Fluffy. A strange virus turned all animals in his surrounding into bloodthirsty beasts. Now it’s Fluffys task to slide into his hazard suit and deal with all infected animals to reveal the cause of the virus. Fluffy is constantly supported by his former chief, Colonel Badger, who helps out with useful tips and weapon/ammo drops. Beyond all the blood and gore on Fluffys way lies the terrifying truth.
FEATURES
- killing enemies rewards the player with points. Stylish kills get higher scores
- high scores unlock Fluffys special abilities: Slow motion or an orbital satellite strike
- Fluffy can kick his enemies away
- powerful weapons: shotgun, machine gun, lightning gun, minigun, …
- varied environments like hollows, a forest, farmlands, swamps, …
- physics powered, over the top violence
- enviromental hazards like spikes, stalactites, water, rolling stones, …
- epic boss fights
- Zombie Mode: Fluffy faces waves of merciless zombie bears
- ironic references to other popular games
- crude humor
- 20+ minutes of soundtrack
For further questions, feel free to contcact us: team@sosodev.com
SO SO DEV Games

http://sosodev.com

Platformance 2: Temple Death trailer reveals that there will be blood

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, XBLIG, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | 1 Comment

Move over Pitfall Harry, there’s a new pixelated archeologist in town, and his name is, well, never mind his name, but he’s out for fame and glory (and perhaps a little kissy-kissy action on the side). Platformace 2: Temple of Death takes place 1000 years after its predecessor in a 1947 Peruvian jungle, where Hollywood starlet Grace Belly has been kidnapped by savages while filming Mysteries of the Cursed Mayan Idols.

Now it’s up to our adventurous archeologist to venture into the ominous Temple Death and rescue the stunning actress before she is sacrificed to the blood lizard god. We’ve contacted Magiko Gaming for more information, but in the meantime, check out the new trailer showcasing the new locale, and of course, lots of decapitating spikes.

Set your eyes on the Take Arms development video

Posted on by Mike Wall in News, XBLIG, XBLIG News, XBLIG Previews | 1 Comment

Discord Games released a new video revealing the evolution of its upcoming indie, Take Arms, from its humble roots as a geometric platformer to its final state as a 2D class-based shooter. The video hastily speeds through the development and even includes some scenes where the Alucard sprite from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was used to test out the engine’s platforming capabilities.

Take Arms initially started out as a Metroidvania-style platformer, but morphed into a 2D online shooter set in the near war-ravished future. It will feature 3 distinct classes: The Striker (light and quick), The Destroyer (slow and heavy), and the Grunt (The Goldilocks compromise of the two). Up to 8 players will be able to duke it out online this summer across Capture the Flag, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch game modes. Now someone just needs to talk to Konami about licensing that Alucard fellow…