Chiaroscuro
Member
About the weird Australian rating for Outrun: is THQ the exclusive owner of the Ferrari license over there? If so it can explain things a little bit.
Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread
- Thread starter Jesiatha
- Start date
- Status
GarthVaderUK
Banned
Rlan said:+ the 30 new community games. We're not short on content this week
Yeah, I'm so looking forward to giving the trials a go - I don't particularly care if a lot of them turn out to be a bit shit if there's a chance of a gem or two at some point. I find the whole XNA Community Games thing very exciting, can't wait to see how it evolves in the future.
XNA Community Games - What You'll Be Playing On Day 1, Part 1
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/xna_preview_what_youll_be_play.php
XNA Community Games - What You'll Be Playing On Day 1, Part 2
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/_poker_ball_creator_markcusd.php
How To Play Community Games When They're Not In Your Region
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/how_to_play_community_games_wh.php
5 Things You Didn't Know About Community Games
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/things_you_dont_know_about_xna.php
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/xna_preview_what_youll_be_play.php
XNA Community Games - What You'll Be Playing On Day 1, Part 2
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/_poker_ball_creator_markcusd.php
How To Play Community Games When They're Not In Your Region
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/how_to_play_community_games_wh.php
5 Things You Didn't Know About Community Games
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/things_you_dont_know_about_xna.php
bigGIRLSblouse
Member
I really liked "Lines"... I will be happy to put down the $2.50 for that game.
How to upgrade supported games with NXE Avatars.
http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/11/18/562414.aspx
http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/11/18/562414.aspx
Two New A Kingdom for Kelflings interviews:
Gameplay Interview
http://www.xblarcade.com/node/2104
Art Interview
http://www.xblarcade.com/node/2105
Gameplay Interview
http://www.xblarcade.com/node/2104
Art Interview
http://www.xblarcade.com/node/2105
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Achievements Revealed
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/super-puzzle-fighter-2-turbo-hd-remix/achievements/
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/super-puzzle-fighter-2-turbo-hd-remix/achievements/
UltimaPooh
Member
pilonv1 said:
GET A US ACCOUNT?
UltimaPooh
Member
There's a way to do that too.
GREAT DAVE WILL GIVE YOU ANSWERS. Perhaps that way is only for the UKers.
GREAT DAVE WILL GIVE YOU ANSWERS. Perhaps that way is only for the UKers.
Not so easy solution considering you'll also have to buy and play all the games on that account.UltimaPooh said:
By the way, does anyone know how the payment works for community games. How much does Microsoft take of each sale and how much goes to the developer? And does Microsoft give detailed sale info to the developers?
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
Weapon of Choice is pretty fucking sweet.
What other Community games should I be checking out?
What other Community games should I be checking out?
PepsimanVsJoe said:
GamerBytes Top 5 Games Launch XNA Community Games
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/gamerbytes_top_5_games_launch.php
Is anyone playing A Kingdom for Keflings?
-Where can I find sheep shears? I assume it's on the ground like the gem thing, but I have looked all over the map and can't find it.
-how do I get more hearts to produce more villagers?
-I found a few books, what do I do with them?
-Where can I find sheep shears? I assume it's on the ground like the gem thing, but I have looked all over the map and can't find it.
-how do I get more hearts to produce more villagers?
-I found a few books, what do I do with them?
Peronthious
Member
xbhaskarx said:
I picked this one up after greatly enjoying the trial, definitely worth the 800. Yea, the shears are just lying around somewhere on the map, just keep harvesting resources and you'll run into them eventually. I still haven't found the gem thing. The books are used to activate a few of the buildings; I know the guild hall requires 3, and the primary school 1.
Well, I tried all the community game trials for the heck of it, and here's my impressions. Bolded games are games I were impressed by. If anyone else is gonna go try a bunch of different games, I'd stay clear of those game I didn't bold, they aren't interesting one bit.
-Abstacked-
Very plain Puzzle Fighter-esque. Not interested at all.
-Alien Ambush-
Space Invaders with enemy projectiles being very hard to see. Meh.
-Artoon-
Very nice and impressive visual styles (although the main menu will probably give anyone a seizure with all the flashing colours). Light puzzle game where you have to colour tiles. Reminds me a lot of an old puzzle game I played on the C64 where you had to place bombs on tiles and you couldn't move over them again. Too bad the trial was so short, I wouldn't mind playing it some more.
-Bat Atom-
Having a trial end during a tutorial isn't a good sign. Game seemed like a rather plain 3D shooter anyway.
-Beat It-
A frantic game which feels like a ton of QTEs chained together. It's designed for multiplayer but I can't imagine it being very fun with multiple people for more than 5 minutes. Having to quickly pass the controller around seems a big hassle as well.
-Being-
Fun little platformer. Graphics style reminds me a lot of games you'd see on the Amiga or SNES. Seems like it could be a bit too simplistic though, and hard at times to see the difference between foreground and background. Really really great music. Got the impression this is a Braid wannabe or parody. First game so far I'm really tempted to buy.
-Biology Battle-
Noticed the game advertised for achievements and global leaderboards in the full version... aren't both impossible for any community game? Geometry Wars-style dual-stick shooter. Seems like it could be a lot of fun for multiplayer.
-Bloc-
Dual-stick shooter just with, erm, the second stick being controlled with face buttons. Got a rather unique twist since you've got 4 kinds of shots which can only go in specific directions, and specific shots can only be used for specific enemies. But that mechanic just slows the game down and makes it much less exciting. Colour blind people would be left very confused as well. Bleh!
-Blow-
Very charming puzzler. Plays kinda like The Incredible Machine meets Bubble Ghost. Nice graphics style with some really good music. And holy motherfucker why does the trial have to end during the tutorial?
-Brain Party-
A collection of a ton of different light puzzle games. The few I tried were surprisingly simple and fun. If it's implemented correctly, multiplayer could be a lot of fun with this game. Compared to something like the Brain Academy series I actually think this seems a lot more fun than that.
-Colosseum-
Yikes! Considering the presentation, graphics and animation this game would easily kick the ass of most XBLA games. Scrolling beat'em'up in 3D. Didn't play much, but it seemed very interesting. Just add coop, and this would be a much better spiritual successor to Golden Axe than that awful Beast Rider game.
-Cubage-
This is literally just a digital version of rubiks cube. And I'm still getting nightmare of all those cubes I weren't able to solve as a kid.
-Drift-
Screensaver with some bleepy and bloopy ambient music. Would have been a lot more impressive if the graphics were more dynamic. Looks like just random sprites slowly rotating and changing size.
-Duotrix-
If there's one thing I'm super tired of in gaming it's the "falling bricks to match 3" puzzle genre. This is basically that just with a rather clever twist, you have 2 screens which share controls but certain blocks will be different for each screen. But still, not enough for me to get interested in this type of game. Nice simplistic graphical style though.
-Endless Swarm-
Tower defense-style game with a really cool twist. You've got a row of towers at the bottom of the screen, and enemies appearing along the top part of the screen. You move between towers to build new ones, heal them or to adjust their aiming. Gives the game a much more action feel than other tower defense games. Seems to support coop too.
-Fruit Attack-
Generic "falling bricks to match 3" puzzle game argh!
-Fuel Depot 360-
Dull 3D space shooter on a flat plane. Meh!
-Funky Punch XL-
Relatively impressive graphics for a rather dull beat'em'up. Incredibly awful animation.
-Galax-e-mail-
Action email delivery game? Plays like a dual-stick shooter but gameplay is still very very different. Great simplistic graphics. I honestly didn't understand too much, but seemed like a fun game.
-Into the Pit-
Really bizarre game. You control a monster eating people who end up in some dark pit. You move around with the left analog stick to get close to victims, but there's absolutely no visuals so you need to listen to sounds to figure out where victims are. Headphones or a good sound setup is very important. The game has some great dialogue and voicework. I get the impression the game would have a rather short lasting appeal, but definitely worth a try.
-Lines-
"Falling bricks" mixed with pipe mania. Great idea but rather bad execution. It's wayyy too easy to get stuck with tiles you can never remove from the screen.
-Loot, Steal'n Destroy-
Multiplayer-only game, so I can't test it right now. Nice title screen at least!
-Organon-
3D space shooter. Nice graphics but gameplay is rather dull.
-Poker Ball-
Arkanoid clone. Ball kept going up and down, but never side ways. Me became bored.
-Rift-
Dual-stick shooter with the most awful graphics and sound you can imagine. Gameplay doesn't fare much better.
-Smashell-
Roll a ball around on a small arena and jump on stuff. Very nice graphics. Meh gameplay.
-SpaceCombat-
3D space shooter. Interesting graphics style, gameplay is meh meh.
-Tail Gun Charlie-
Space Invaders kinda in 3D. I may be getting a bit tired, but I'm pretty sure I saw flying space hot dogs. Either way, game wasn't that terribly interesting.
-Totem-
Match 2 falling totems! Pretty graphics, gameplay does have a few twists... but still, having to match falling objects is starting to make my brain hurt.
-UAV Wars-
Weird 3D shooter with ugly graphics where UAVs has gone mad and started shooting stuff instead of scouting. For some reason I kept hearing "OUR RECON PLANE WILL FIND THEM!" in my head while playing this.
-Weapon of Choice-
Holy eek! Very impressive presentation and graphics. Contra-esque/Turrican-esque gameplay. Seems like fun.
-Word Soup-
Nice presentation. Go find words all mixed together. I'm fairly sure I saw the words "doze off", "go sleep" and "meh" so I'll take that as a hint.
-Abstacked-
Very plain Puzzle Fighter-esque. Not interested at all.
-Alien Ambush-
Space Invaders with enemy projectiles being very hard to see. Meh.
-Artoon-
Very nice and impressive visual styles (although the main menu will probably give anyone a seizure with all the flashing colours). Light puzzle game where you have to colour tiles. Reminds me a lot of an old puzzle game I played on the C64 where you had to place bombs on tiles and you couldn't move over them again. Too bad the trial was so short, I wouldn't mind playing it some more.
-Bat Atom-
Having a trial end during a tutorial isn't a good sign. Game seemed like a rather plain 3D shooter anyway.
-Beat It-
A frantic game which feels like a ton of QTEs chained together. It's designed for multiplayer but I can't imagine it being very fun with multiple people for more than 5 minutes. Having to quickly pass the controller around seems a big hassle as well.
-Being-
Fun little platformer. Graphics style reminds me a lot of games you'd see on the Amiga or SNES. Seems like it could be a bit too simplistic though, and hard at times to see the difference between foreground and background. Really really great music. Got the impression this is a Braid wannabe or parody. First game so far I'm really tempted to buy.
-Biology Battle-
Noticed the game advertised for achievements and global leaderboards in the full version... aren't both impossible for any community game? Geometry Wars-style dual-stick shooter. Seems like it could be a lot of fun for multiplayer.
-Bloc-
Dual-stick shooter just with, erm, the second stick being controlled with face buttons. Got a rather unique twist since you've got 4 kinds of shots which can only go in specific directions, and specific shots can only be used for specific enemies. But that mechanic just slows the game down and makes it much less exciting. Colour blind people would be left very confused as well. Bleh!
-Blow-
Very charming puzzler. Plays kinda like The Incredible Machine meets Bubble Ghost. Nice graphics style with some really good music. And holy motherfucker why does the trial have to end during the tutorial?
-Brain Party-
A collection of a ton of different light puzzle games. The few I tried were surprisingly simple and fun. If it's implemented correctly, multiplayer could be a lot of fun with this game. Compared to something like the Brain Academy series I actually think this seems a lot more fun than that.
-Colosseum-
Yikes! Considering the presentation, graphics and animation this game would easily kick the ass of most XBLA games. Scrolling beat'em'up in 3D. Didn't play much, but it seemed very interesting. Just add coop, and this would be a much better spiritual successor to Golden Axe than that awful Beast Rider game.
-Cubage-
This is literally just a digital version of rubiks cube. And I'm still getting nightmare of all those cubes I weren't able to solve as a kid.
-Drift-
Screensaver with some bleepy and bloopy ambient music. Would have been a lot more impressive if the graphics were more dynamic. Looks like just random sprites slowly rotating and changing size.
-Duotrix-
If there's one thing I'm super tired of in gaming it's the "falling bricks to match 3" puzzle genre. This is basically that just with a rather clever twist, you have 2 screens which share controls but certain blocks will be different for each screen. But still, not enough for me to get interested in this type of game. Nice simplistic graphical style though.
-Endless Swarm-
Tower defense-style game with a really cool twist. You've got a row of towers at the bottom of the screen, and enemies appearing along the top part of the screen. You move between towers to build new ones, heal them or to adjust their aiming. Gives the game a much more action feel than other tower defense games. Seems to support coop too.
-Fruit Attack-
Generic "falling bricks to match 3" puzzle game argh!
-Fuel Depot 360-
Dull 3D space shooter on a flat plane. Meh!
-Funky Punch XL-
Relatively impressive graphics for a rather dull beat'em'up. Incredibly awful animation.
-Galax-e-mail-
Action email delivery game? Plays like a dual-stick shooter but gameplay is still very very different. Great simplistic graphics. I honestly didn't understand too much, but seemed like a fun game.
-Into the Pit-
Really bizarre game. You control a monster eating people who end up in some dark pit. You move around with the left analog stick to get close to victims, but there's absolutely no visuals so you need to listen to sounds to figure out where victims are. Headphones or a good sound setup is very important. The game has some great dialogue and voicework. I get the impression the game would have a rather short lasting appeal, but definitely worth a try.
-Lines-
"Falling bricks" mixed with pipe mania. Great idea but rather bad execution. It's wayyy too easy to get stuck with tiles you can never remove from the screen.
-Loot, Steal'n Destroy-
Multiplayer-only game, so I can't test it right now. Nice title screen at least!
-Organon-
3D space shooter. Nice graphics but gameplay is rather dull.
-Poker Ball-
Arkanoid clone. Ball kept going up and down, but never side ways. Me became bored.
-Rift-
Dual-stick shooter with the most awful graphics and sound you can imagine. Gameplay doesn't fare much better.
-Smashell-
Roll a ball around on a small arena and jump on stuff. Very nice graphics. Meh gameplay.
-SpaceCombat-
3D space shooter. Interesting graphics style, gameplay is meh meh.
-Tail Gun Charlie-
Space Invaders kinda in 3D. I may be getting a bit tired, but I'm pretty sure I saw flying space hot dogs. Either way, game wasn't that terribly interesting.
-Totem-
Match 2 falling totems! Pretty graphics, gameplay does have a few twists... but still, having to match falling objects is starting to make my brain hurt.
-UAV Wars-
Weird 3D shooter with ugly graphics where UAVs has gone mad and started shooting stuff instead of scouting. For some reason I kept hearing "OUR RECON PLANE WILL FIND THEM!" in my head while playing this.
-Weapon of Choice-
Holy eek! Very impressive presentation and graphics. Contra-esque/Turrican-esque gameplay. Seems like fun.
-Word Soup-
Nice presentation. Go find words all mixed together. I'm fairly sure I saw the words "doze off", "go sleep" and "meh" so I'll take that as a hint.
PhlivoSong
Member
xbhaskarx said:
I'm not going to be able able to answer your question, but I have one for you. What are your impressions of the game? I really enjoyed the trial, but I can't decide whether to buy it or not. Is there a reason to play this game more than once? Most of the people on the leaderboard seem to have beaten it in about 4 hours.
Peronthious
Member
PhlivoSong said:
I suppose if you feel like going back in and trying the town a different way. I have yet to actually try it out, but the co-op sounds really interesting, and could probably extend the replay value a bit depending on what sorts of things are integrated there. Haven't made it too far in the game myself, but I have noticed what appear to be hidden construction trees in the upper right that I assume you have to unlock somehow. In any case, I can't imagine NinjaBee leaving this game dead in the water; it seems rather ripe for DLC.
Tried the trial version of Keflings a week early via the OXM disc and was very interested. Told someone on my friend's list about it and she bought the full version. We played some co-op while in a party with some of our other friends. They got interested by listening to us play and went out and bought points to buy it. 4 of us spent around 4 hours straight while other friends begged us to come play Gears 2 with them. It really is very addictive.
sixteen-bit
Member
Mar_ said:
Noone is forcing you to do it.
bigGIRLSblouse
Member
Chi-Town said:
The party system is going to sell many games. Beyond that as a side note... seeing your friends in parties with people you dont know will do more for expanding peoples friends list than anything they have ever done before. Great feature and it works like a charm.
Crab Milk Mickey
Member
Speaking of Keflings and Avatars, I just noticed this in a recent press release of said game:
I wonder if they mean general accessories (as in: also selectable in the dashboard) or if those'll be exclusive to A Kingdom of Keflings.PR said:
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
MicVlaD said:
General. The introduction channel on the Xbox also mentions the "clothing / accessories update every two weeks" thing.
Crab Milk Mickey
Member
Really? Good that you mentioned that, didn't see it myself yesterday.Stumpokapow said:
Street Fighter II Uno Pack In-Depth
http://www.capcom-unity.com/jimmyre..._fighter_unomore_devious_than_you_can_imagine
http://www.capcom-unity.com/jimmyre..._fighter_unomore_devious_than_you_can_imagine
Banjo Kazooie XBLA General Release Delayed, Bonus Cards Troubles
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/banjo_kazooie_xbla_delayed_bon.php
http://www.gamerbytes.com/2008/11/banjo_kazooie_xbla_delayed_bon.php
New Things on Wheels Screenshots
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/142/14231774/imgs_1.html?RSSwhen2008-11-20_105600&RSSid=932341
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/142/14231774/imgs_1.html?RSSwhen2008-11-20_105600&RSSid=932341
New Kingdom for Kelflings Interview
http://www.xblarcade.com/node/2108
http://www.xblarcade.com/node/2108
A Kingdom for Keflings: NXE, Avatars, And The Future of NinjaBee
Wed, 2008-11-19 22:56 LunarDuality
YoungFemaleAvatar_Concept_XBLArcade This marks the third and final part of our A Kingdom for Keflings interviews. Today, Steve Taylor is back on the hot seat to answer some more questions about how the decision to include Avatars affected Keflings and also what might be next for NinjaBee. And I even snagged a shot of NinjaBee's Valerie Cope standing alongside her Avatar in a world of Keflings and also a shot of the premium theme for A Kingdom for Keflings. Good stuff.
Hit the jump for the full interview and when you're done make sure you go get the AKFK demo (if you haven't already) and see what all the fuss is about.
LunarDuality: It seems as if NinjaBee has conspired with Microsoft to always have a game concept to push some new innovative technological idea on the Xbox platform. Of course, Outpost Kaloki X was a launch title, Band of Bugs brought user generated content to XBLA, and now A Kingdom for Keflings shows up with a surprise of its own: playable Avatars. Is this emphasis on new features a NinjaBee technology-fetish, a push from Microsoft, some combination of the two, or something else entirely?
Steve Taylor: I suppose it's a combination of those things and luck. It was partly luck that put us in the right place at the right time for a launch title, and partly luck that the same thing happened for Avatars. But of course it still wouldn't happen if both NinjaBee and Microsoft weren't pushing for it. We like to play with new technology and try out new game ideas, and Microsoft likes to let us.
AvatarVal2 LD: How development-friendly was the choice to include Avatars? Did it add significant cost and time to the project or was it more plug-and-play?
ST: There are some plug-and-play ways that games can include Avatars, and I'm personally quite impressed with how easy they've made it to pop basic Avatar support into a game. But A Kingdom for Keflings supports Avatars in a deep way, with fully playable Avatars in the game world, interacting with objects, reacting to player control, playing custom animations, etc. That wasn't easy, especially when we were working with pre-release technology. But the team is awesome and worked very hard to pull it off. We also got a lot of support from various groups at Microsoft who wanted to see this happen as much as we did, and who were as excited as we were to see how well it fit! We had great opportunities to talk to some technical and artistic people who were part of the initial creation of the Avatar system, and Avatar support in A Kingdom for Keflings is a lot better as a result.
LD: Did NinjaBee have any impact on or dialog with the people responsible for the platform-wide development of Avatars? Were there lessons learned during your project that will likely affect every Avatar game in the future, or was the Avatar technology totally buttoned up before you even saw it?
ST: Definitely not buttoned up, but close. Weve got an opportunity to give feedback on how the implementation process went, and improve the technical experience for future developers, but I don't think we've had any huge impact over the policies and high-level design of Avatars at this point. On the other hand, a lot of people were looking at the game as it progressed, since we were one of the earliest and farthest-along teams working on Avatar integration, so maybe we helped as a final test case in some ways.
NXE_Friends LD: Now for some more general NinjaBee questions. How do you guys keep it up day after day and year after year amidst the increasingly large and conglomerated gaming corporations? What's the fire that burns inside the mystical NinjaBee?
ST: This question scares me. Thanks a lot. I need to go take a nap now.
I'm not sure if I can point at any thing in particular. We're having fun and doing what we want to do. We try to hire smart people who care about what they're making. One thing I can tell you for sure, we are definitely not dependent on experimental drugs and brain implants from fringe science research labs in Kuala Lumpur. Really. I swear.
LD: What lessons have been learned during previous product launches and applied to AKFK regarding the certification process (and the test cycle in general) that will (fingers crossed) help you avoid a launch marred by technical difficulties?
ST: Well, I think we've learned a few things. For example, we ran into problems with previous titles because we were too dependent on testing with cheats. For this game, we were a lot more careful about testing from scratch all the way through with no cheats. We did a lot more internal testing during development this time, starting earlier and involving more people. And our technology has gotten more solid with each game release. Let's hope these things help...
LD: I think I always ask you guys this but why are you all attracted to the process of "reinventing the wheel", as it were, for each new project? Why no sequels?
ST: I think my answer in the past has been that the new stuff simply appeals to us more. Exploring, inventing, making new stuff - that's what we got into game development for. I still feel that way, but we're absolutely open to doing sequels, and we're exploring more in that direction now than we have in the past. Nothing to announce, yet.
A tease answer for my final question, how appropriate. Well, that wraps up the interviews but I just want to extend a huge thank you to Steve Taylor, Brent Fox, Valerie Cope (for setting all this up), and of course the team at NinjaBee for giving me something fun to talk about.
It was in the HD Remix thread but this is totally worth cross posting given how much stuff there is in it.
Everything you ever wanted to know and every feature included in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix.
Everything you ever wanted to know and every feature included in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix.
- Status