(I originally posted these on another blog back in December of 2010 and early 2011. Really though it didn't make much sense to have another blog, and was very short lived anyway. So I plan on posting the four entries about Xbox Indie Games here starting with this introduction. I also may, or may not, finish the last review of another indie game I was planning way back then, but maybe not. This might lead to more Xbox indie games getting covered, or is a cheap ploy to post more. You decide!)
Microsoft’s Indie game channel is such a mixed bag. As a general idea, it’s beautiful. Let pretty much anyone develop games, let them go through the process of making them, then put them up and sell them online for some small time Microsoft points. Sure it’s like 100 or so dollars to get the development tools, but if you make a good enough game you could quickly make all of that back pretty quickly.
The Indie channel has always intrigued me. At first I just scoffed at it, until I heard about a game called Breath of Death VII: The Beginning. Apparently a really awesome game, but it was on the Indie channel, for a dollar. I had a hard time believing it at first, but after picking it up I realized there are quite a few gems buried in that particular heap. Don’t get me wrong, that heap is sadly made up of mostly utter garbage; however, it’s worth diving in to find the gold.
This is just meant to act as an intro to a lot of me talking about Indie games, but there isn’t really too much to introduce. Basically, anyone who paid Microsoft can make any sort of game, and after getting peer reviewed it gets uploaded and then they get a cut of the profit. Like I said, that’s a really cool idea. Especially since the games never cost more than five dollars.
Herein lays the problem though. Pretty much anything short of pornographic material is allowed. Most games are either, total garbage for whatever reason (graphics, game play, the whole idea behind the game, etc.) or they’re just a crappy rehash of other games. Space Invaders is an especially popular one to copy, as well as Geometry Wars. So it makes it really hard to trust most things. Microsoft doesn’t technically approve any of the games, so quality is really all over the place, content is really all over the place, and like I’ve said a few times now, a lot of these games just flat out suck.
I’ve bought a few of them, especially when I first started buying more Indie games. I never thought to download the demos, which is actually a really good idea. There’s a demo for every Indie game, and it’s the first eight minutes of the game. It’s actually a pretty cool system. You just download the game with a time limit (and sometime a few restrictions) and you during those eight minutes you can usually figure out if the game is a stinker or not.
I don’t have much else to say aside from this advice: if you want to try out some of these really cheap games I highly suggest searching for reviews online, downloading the demo, and after that deciding if you’re willing to throw down on it. I’ve wasted about five or so dollars that could have gone to much better games because I bought something based off the paltry description, or the cool name, and once due to mistaken identity. Just because a game is in the section “Top Downloaded” or “Top rated” doesn’t actually make it worth it. Trust me. People are morons. The only other bit of advice I have to give is that I personally stay away from games that are more than two bucks. There are a few out there that are definitely worth three to five dollars, but I’m extra wary of them. I can forgive a dollar mistake, but when I’m wasting three to five at a time? Ehh, not digging that so much.
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