Walaber, the developer behind Jello Car and numerous other physics-ey games, has released Gymnast for the PC (the Xbox version will appear on Xbox Live Community Games). Playing the game requires a joystick with twin analog sticks, as well as Microsoft’s .NET 2.0 Framework. The analog sticks are used to separately control the arms and legs of your gymnast.
It takes quite a bit of time to get used to moving your character with the sticks, but thankfully, even failing is quite entertaining! The awkward spills and deadpan expressions of the characters definitely gave me a few chuckles. After some perseverance the controls start to feel pretty natural.
The game comes with two modes (Challenge and Gymnast), a replay feature, and a level editor. Hit the jump for a fun video of someone playing a custom level they made.
I guess metanet and Nick Waander’s “Beyond the Postmortem” interview (which was incidentally conducted by insert credit’s Brandon Sheffield) sparked some controversy, because they were so candid about some of the failings of the service. One of the biggest being that the ratio of good games (like N+) to bad (like Toyota Yaris Racing) is totally out of whack.
metanet has since clarified their position a bit by saying that the people they worked with at Microsoft were good, and that they weren’t complaining about their sales (N+ was released after the interview).
But overall, what they said was much less controversial than I thought it would be (natch). It’s obvious to anyone who follows XBLA that there are way too many crappy games on the system. I’m sure part of the reason is that legitimately good developers are put off by the service’s notoriously difficult certification process (Minter rant alert), and prohibitive cost (possibly upwards of $125,000). And, of course, there was the bomb dropped around GDC 2008 that royalty rates have since slipped from 70% to 35-45% (depending on your sales).
The obvious fallout from all this is that Sony and Nintendo can probably look forward to an exodus of developers to their systems in the coming months.
Here is the final trailer for N+, which is out now on Xbox LIVE Arcade (as Raigan would not let us forget). In the words of Jon Mak, “If you don’t buy N+... you’re not indie.”
But indie cred aside, it looks to be great and chock full of wonderful content. Check it out at the very least!
Castle Crashers, by The Behemoth, is slated for a Summer release.
This information was revealed in a Microsoft press release following their keynote. It’s really more of an excuse to post more screenshots. I want to play all of these games very badly.
Chris Satchell, Microsoft’s developer group general manager, announced during his keynote (Kotaku) this morning that Microsoft will soon allow users to create games using XNA and then distribute them on XBLA using a “democratized distribution system:”
Using a peer review system to filter out copyright infringement and objectionable content, Microsoft plans to put game development and initial approval into the hands of its Xbox Live community, not to mention money into the hands of homebrew developers.
The company expects it can double the number of games on Xbox Live Arcade by the end of year with the addition of community developed software.
After what seems like forever, N+ will finally be arriving to the XBLA Marketplace this Wednesday, February 20th, at 9am PST. This update to N will cost you a mere 800 points and features new levels (450 in total!), new graphics, and a built-in level editor.
At this point we’re completely anxious, worried that it’s too hard and no one will buy it because the graphics are so minimal and stylized (though stylish), and after struggling with the demo for the hypothetical 3 minutes you have before people get bored, they’ll give up instead of pushing on and finding their inner ninja. All we can do is hope people will see/play past all that and get incurably addicted.
But of course! If you love challenging, well-made platformers, this is a must-buy. And it’d be a great way to show Microsoft what kinds of games we want to see on their console.
Hearty congratulations to raigan and mare for getting their baby out the door!
Simon Carless has written a really good article on GameSetWatch where he argues that downloadable games on XBLA and PSN are too cheap to sustain themselves as a viable business model.
The problem, as I see it, is that setting a $10 precedent for what are often complex, multi-mode, multi-level games presumes that you can pretty easily get to 100,000 units sold – given that you only get 70% of revenues and that most games probably cost in the low to mid hundreds of thousands of dollars if you’re actually using hired staff that you pay and take a year to a year and half to make it including (lengthy!) approval processes. Given the amount of games flooding onto the service, I’m not sure that’s quite so easy now. And it’s just going to get harder.
Also, keep in mind that in 2006, Garage Games’ Jeff Tunnell revealed that “The publicly available information on this is that the distribution fees for bringing a game to XBLA is 35 to 70 percent, depending upon participation by [Microsoft]” (via Gamespot). In other words, Tunnell implied that the “70% of revenues” is actually a ceiling… and one that you get only when you are doing the most work.
But yes, good analysis, and a must-read for anyone who’s interested in developing for consoles.
A little more drama unfolded over this week, with Jeff Minter’s disheartened rant on the lack of sales for Space Giraffe followed up by the announcement that he will no longer be keeping up his development blog, which will henceforth be solely an area for discussions of Sheep, Plushies and other workless topics.
Earlier in the week, Jeff posted up on his blog his feelings on the subject of Space Giraffe selling only 1/10th of the amount that the re-re-re-re-re-re-re-rerelease of Frogger achieved on the Xbox Live Arcade. To quote The Yak on the subject, his reaction to the news was this;
OK, we get the message. All you want on that channel is remakes of old, shite arcade games and crap you vaguely remember playing on your Amiga.
I know a few TIGers would argue against the 1989 TMNT Arcade game being considered shite (especially if you happen to own a vintage cabinet), but it does pose some worries about the future of XBLA as a platform for indie developers. However, Space Giraffe wasn’t just controversial within the console crowd, as there were greatly divided opinions across the indie community as well as the mainstream press.
So perhaps the usefulness to the indie community remains to be seen, but at least in this case it’s left Jeff Minter with some serious doubts, even as Grid Runner ++ continues development (now silently) on the 360. Here’s hoping for at least some better luck in the future, as successes regardless, I’d just hate to see the indie spirit crushed by a 26 year old highway crossing frog.
Update: This week’s XBLA releases are Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe. “The ironing is delicious…”
( Source: Eurogamer, because they still have the greatest review ever of Earth Defence Force 2017 )
The internet sighs in blissful nostalgia today as Mutant Storm Empire hits Xbox Live Arcade! Only $10 / £6.80 / 800pts, it’s pretty much the same pricing of PomPom Games’ other two main shooter releases, the original Mutant Storm and Space Tripper on the PC, and Mutant Storm Reloaded which is also on the XBLA.
So far, it’s been a damn blast to play, and the best way to describe it is a Space Tripper/Mutant Storm Smoothie. There are 4 worlds and 4 levels in each, but each level contains a different variety of battle situation. The first level, for instance, is a progression through rooms, whereas another later on is an arena-based affair like the previous Mutant Storms. And another will encompass you in a square field as it moves horizontally across the playing field. Regardless of setting, it controls simply, with the left stick for movement and the right stick for shooting. The triggers can also be used to fire a super-charged version of the regular shot, but ammo is limited and only replenishes at the end of each level so use it wisely!
The style of the game is fantastic, and encompasses a lot of themes from PomPom’s past and other shoot ‘em ups. The second world in particular has a much more organic feel to it than the rest of the levels, and the swarms of fish-attackers especially are pretty damn swish. Nods to Space Tripper are also prevalent, including a spider boss and shielded spawn-cores. It’s basically good old-fashioned PomPom fun. It’s simple, affordable and plays wonderfully.
It’s also a lot closer to Space Tripper in terms of length, so don’t expect to pour Touhou levels of time into this one, but with 5 difficulties to plough through (Black Belt currently handing my ass to me on a silver platter), there’s certainly your money’s worth in there. If you’ve got a 360, there’s no reason not to check it out, at least for the three-level trial!
Further reading: Derek interviewed the PomPom duo a couple of years back, and it still makes for an entertaining read, in case you need a break from smashing your joypad against a difficulty spike.
(Image courtesy of Destructoid because robots are awesome…)
