Xbox Indie Games Recap: To the Victor the Spoils

From hundreds of submissions the Dream Build Play judges reduced it to 6, then finally only one stood above the rest as champion. Who was it? Well it was the game I think everyone knew was going to win, the insanely beautiful Dust: An Elysian Tail. Creator Dean Dodrill can now enjoy a fat cheque for $40,000 and possibly an XBLA publishing contract. Max Blastronaut took $20k for 2nd, Rotorscope grabbed 3rd place and $10,000 and the last $5,000 went to Hurricane 2X Evolution. A massive congratulations to all the winners and indeed to everyone who entered. I look forward to playing your games when they hit the Indie Games channel. This week however we have 13 games to deal with so lets get down to business.

Color Break
Dgamer – 80 Points

Aside from spelling colour wrong there’s nothing I can really complain about with this game. The basic premise of colour matching one-sided Pong is solid to the point of tedium and that’s the sole problem. This is boring. It’s not exciting or fun or even vaguely artsy, it’s just dull.

Kuchibi
Spyn Doctor – 240 Points

The token gods have smiled upon us once again and Spyn Doctor (a developer which hasn’t exactly impressed me in the past) have sent us a token for this impressive looking puzzle game. Look out for a full NG review sometime soon.

Pebble Dash Lite
Lutas – 80 Points

Nothing much really to say here, this is a slimmed down version of Pebble Dash, a game which I’m finishing up the review for. That review will go up later this week so keep an eye on the site for an opinion on this game in general. I would recommend getting the full version of the game over this Lite version however.

I <3 Shift
Fronominal – 80 Points

And here we have an example of what happens when you take a promising idea and completely cock it up. The idea behind Shift is that the game is broken into 2 parts, a puzzle part which has you rhythmically firing off hexagons to form chains not unlike Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move and a shooter part where you get rid of anything you can’t remove by shooting it in the dual-stick style. The idea is sound, but the constant colour shifting of the pieces made me fire off some in completely the wrong direction because I thought they were another colour. Then there’s the other problem whereby once you’ve cleared the boundary pieces around the play area it’s easy to accidentally set off shooty mode and get killed by a million hexes bearing down on you. Bottom line this is a potentially excellent game concept that’s been ruined by poor execution.

Duologue
Funavision – 240 Points

We had a token for this game the day it was released, Funavision have been pretty dedicated to promoting it which is something I love seeing from developers. You know the drill by now, expect a full NG review sometime soon.

Gitigiti
JinCycle – 80 Points

The basic idea behind Gitigiti is to raise an army of slimes to overcome evil slimes that spawn around the screen. To do this you need to cross breed slimes to bring in new, stronger slimes. The problem is that once you’ve produced your first batch of slime kids the screen fills up insanely quickly to the point where breeding adults don’t need your commands, they’ll find partners within seconds just by wandering around. I left the game to run after level 2 and without any input from me it was up to level 8 by the time I next looked up. Once again, decent idea ruined by crappy execution.

Bust A Wall
Kevin Robinson – 80 Points

Breakout/Arkanoid clones are everywhere, I can play Breakout on my phone, my Wii, my PS3 or even in real life by stacking up a load of shoeboxes and getting a tennis racket out. The boxart for this game has ‘OLD’ on it in the corner much like UK retro wankfest magazine Retro “Someone Once Paid £200 for An Issue On Ebay” Gamer so I wouldn’t be surprised if that publication or its readers had a hand in this. The reason I’m being so stally with this is because it’s freaking Breakout. What can I say that hasn’t been said before? You hit a ball with a bat and blocks break until you get to the evil one that you can’t curve the ball to hit. It’s not bad, its actually one of the better Breakout clones on Indie Games, but it’s just there. Like bread or beige it’s impossible to get excited about.

Warfare Soundboard
SFX Dude – 80 Points

OK, I think soundboards are pretty stupid. I didn’t like them in college, I don’t like them now and the idea of paying for one actually makes me slightly ill. So here’s a collection of 50-odd gun and war sounds for NRA members to toss themselves off to. I don’t mind them tossing themselves off to AK-47s, so long as it means they’re not giving their kids guns to shoot up schools with or actually reading the second amendment. Just don’t expect me (or them for that matter) to pay for it though.

Electron Defense
Tafter – 240 Points

Tower Defense! Yes my new favourite genre is getting more and more represented on Indie Games. Where once Nextwar enjoyed an unchallenged reign there are now several fine Tower Defense games around and Electron Defense is the latest. With its maze building and indistinct enemy types it could be mistaken for Horn Swaggle Islands’ hot cousin. The USP of this one is that rather than awarding extra points for cash remaining at the end of a level that cash gets carried over to the next level in campaign mode. This is something I think tower defense games should’ve been doing for years and it shocks me that this is the first time I’ve seen it done. The rest of the game is the usual stuff packaged in a nice inside-the-computer style not unlike the brilliant Darwinia. So another fine tower defense game on Indie Games, unfortunately this one falls just short of brilliance but is still worth the money.

Bailout!
ChefTeslaCoil – 80 Points

Hopefully you know the token drill by now, we have one so a full NG review for this piece of retro styled satire will be incoming soon.

Pulsar
Polychrome – 240 Points

Music time now as yet another music toy tries to prove its worth on the channel. The basic idea is that you light up squares on a grid which then play notes in time, lighting up more squares will then produce a tune or beat. It’s insanely addictive to play around with and the ability to save and load sequences is a good idea. Plus 7 sound sets means there’s plenty of content there. However I really don’t think something that’s available as a flash game is worth 240 points. Give it a go at least I’d say.

Green Island
DK Alpla – 80 Points

Its long been the case that Japanese games run for far less time than the trial lockout. I find it very refreshing therefore to find here not only a game that doesn’t finish before the demo timer but which is also damn good fun. It’s a puzzle platformer where on each level are a number of bubbles to collect. The puzzle comes from firing your own bubbles which then form platforms for you to jump on either in designated free space or up against a wall. Elements such as switches and fans complicate levels as you progress but are introduced gradually enough for you to figure out how to use them alongside what you know. The pixel art style also manages to carry much of the same charm as Jump, one of the earlier Japanese games. I think this is well worth the asking price.

Enemy at the Gate
Big Daddio – 80 Points

Action Defense games, unlike Tower Defense tend to be rather clunky and unfun due to boring enemy AI and bad controls. Enemy at the Gate somehow manages to overturn none of the genre problems instead choosing to make things more difficult by giving you 3 different vehicles, each with its own travel speed and attack range. The problem comes when you realise that each enemy will die immediately after coming into the game becomes both much easier and also far more dull. The mouse-like control scheme doesn’t help much, making it look like a PC game that’s been straight ported to the console pad. Once again this is a genre that’s yet to prove that it can actually be fun.

Filler
SimianLogic – 240 Points

Territory control is a concept I love to see in a game, the problem is that it’s very rare to see a game that does anything different from the classic line drawing of games like Qix. Filler does something different, holding down the A button gradually grows balls which then drop and settle in the game area. Once the balls fill up 2/3rds of the play area the level is complete. Smaller enemy balls flying around can burst bubbles you’re growing which loses lives. Challenge levels give you larger fill requirements and restrictions on how many balls you can use. These add some great extra challenges to an already solid foundation. However I can’t shake the feeling that my enjoyment was largely down to my love of Qix and the like. Others may find it too frustrating and sedate to be any real fun.

This week’s best game goes to Green Island, but only just. Hopefully we’ll see more excellent Japanese games following in its footsteps. Something else I’d like to see is more devs trying that pixel style, it looks excellent which is more than can be said for the bad 3D or stock graphics that seem to be commonplace round here lately.

Dream Build Play is officially over for 2009 but if you want to get started on a game for next year then check out XNA Creator’s Club or Kodu Game Lab. If you’re a developer who wants a bit more exposure for your game then feel free to send us a token, every game we get a token for will get a full NG Review.