GameMarx Multi-Pass Feed

GameMarx EP77 - Heads Up Displays And In Game UI

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:57:11 GMT

This week we talk about what makes a good HUD and how to communicate game status to the player. We also talk about the effects of the Double Fine Adventure kickstarter, and what Gatekeeper from Apple might become.

Kickstarter of the Week: Code Hero: A Game That Teaches You To Make Games

Show Notes:

AppHub Forums: Recent Dashboard Update
Official Xbox Magazine: Dev: Indie Games channel won't survive the death of the Xbox 360
Destructiod: A countdown for MechWarrior Tactics appears
Official Xbox Magazine: Next Xbox will reportedly have HD touchscreen-traditional controller hybrid
Zeboyd Games: So You Want to Be an Indie Game Developer?
Ars Technica: Mac developers: Gatekeeper is a concern, but still gives power users control
Develop: Zynga MyFarm source code row heading to courts
Destructiod: Ubisoft's PS Vita bullsh*t is truly incredible
Official Xbox Magazine: Epic: There are too many platforms
Destructiod: 'Double Fine Adventure' going DRM-free for PC, Mac, Linux
Develop: Tim Schafer: Console patches cost $40k
The Escapist: JIMQUISITION Welcoming A Digital Future
Develop: Obsidian considers Kickstarter game
Destructiod: Brian Fargo may attempt kickstarting a Wasteland sequel
Develop: Unity CEO backs Kickstarter for gamified dev tool
CodePlex: Windows Phone 7 Ad Rotator

GameMarx Special - Developer's Look at EvilQuest

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:00:17 GMT

Mike, Dylan, and Cicelie take a look at EvilQuest from a game developer's perspective. EvilQuest is an RPS available on Xbox Live Indie Games.

GameMarx Special - Indieview - Chaosoft Games

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:12:21 GMT

Interview with Chaosoft Games at the release party for EvilQuest

GameMarx EP76 - Decoding Feedback

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:39:57 GMT

This week we discuss Double Fine's crazy successful kickstarter, some other news, and how to handle feedback during game development.

Show Notes:

Develop: XBLIG isn't growing, developer claims
GiantBomb: Blizzard Disputing Valve’s Trademarking of DOTA
D'Arcy from Winnipeg: NES Fanboi’s Dream–Ryu in Super Mario Bros?!
FastCompany: "Words With Friends" Board Game Coming From The Makers Of Scrabble
Develop: Apple ban on counterfeit and clone apps
Develop: VIDEO: Stand-up comedy on Zynga cloning
Kickstarter: Double Fine Adventure
Twitter: @TimJustRaised
The Bottom Feeder: Now You (Yes, You!) Can Design Dungeons and Dragons!!!!!!!
Amazon: A Theory of Fun for Game Design

GameMarx EP75 - Developer Tools

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:02:25 GMT

This week we cover current news, tools every game developer should be using, and what project scope should be for small development team.

Show Notes:

Official Xbox Magazine: Harmonix's CEO top contributor to Stephen Colbert's Super PAC
GiantBomb: Mass Effect 3 Demo Provides Temp XBL Gold Access
Destructoid: Humble Bundle comes to Android (plus PC, Mac, and Linux)
Tested: Windows Phone 8 "Apollo" Features Revealed in Insider Video
Window's Azure Blog: Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games Updates
Gamasutra: Talking Copycats with Zynga's Design Chief
Develop: Triple Town dev sues over 'blatant plagiarism'
Ars Technica: Parcel Gamer wants to share used game profits with publishers
Ars Technica: My life as a cat: an hour with Terry Cavanagh's ChatChat MMO
DIY Gamer: IGN’s Indie Dev Reality Series Returns; Go Lazy 8!

Forum Question: Project scope when you have one developer

Tools Mentioned:

Source Control / Mercurial (Hg): Bitbucket | TortoiseHg | VisualHg
Asset Backup: Dropbox
Project Management / Kanban Board: AgileZen | Trello
Measurement Tools: XNA Timeruler | DirectX PIX | Visual Studio Performance Profiling | XNA Framework Remote Performance Monitor

GameMarx EP74 - Making Your Game Socially Acceptable

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:11:55 GMT

This week we discuss several Microsoft rumors, how Words with Friends beat Scrabulous and what game developers can learn from it.

Show Notes:

GiantBomb: Tiny Tower Devs Suggest Zynga Really, Really Loves Tiny Tower
Develop: Quarrel vs the games industry: Who was right?
Windows Store for developers: Designing the Windows Store user experience
Develop: Rumour: Microsoft to open new Kinect studios
Extra Guy: RUMOR: Microsoft dropping Microsoft points
Develop: Next-gen Xbox chips 'enter production for devs'
The Daily What: Xbox 720 Rumors of the Day
Official Xbox Magazine: Indieverse: How to Add Achievements to Xbox Live Indie Games
XNA Forums: an idea so crazy.....it just might work
Develop: XBLA hits 'record $144 million in revenue for 2011'
Develop: App Store dev payout soars past $4 billion
Fast Company: How Words With Friends Beat Scrabble At Its Own Game

GameMarx EP73 - Level Up Your Game

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:53:18 GMT

This week we discuss current news and using RPG mechanics in your game design.

Show Notes:

Develop: Zynga 'losing $150 on every new paying customer'
Develop: PopCap axes game played by 750,000 people
Destructiod: ESA spent $190,000 to support PIPA lobbyists
Destructiod: Microsoft denies security problems with Xbox Live
MSDN: Visual Studio Achievements
Ben Kane: The Great Porting Adventure: Day 8
Destructiod: AMY dev claims its game is just 'hard' instead of 'crap'
Tested: Compact Alienware X51 Gaming PC Disguises Itself as Console

GameMarx EP72 - Podcast Unlocked

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:05:50 GMT

This week we discuss using achievements in your game, and catch up on a bunch of news missed in recent weeks.

Show Notes:

Destructoid - Xbox Live hacking is a very real problem
Trendy Gamers - Xbox Live Indie Games Now Max Out At 500 MB, Minimum Price Reduced
Armless Octopus - Prices Plummeting for Cthulhu Saves the World, Soulcaster 2, and Other XBLIGs
Trendy Gamers - The Problems With The New Xbox Live Dashboard From The Point Of View Of An Indie Developer
PC gamer - Kinect on PC: more expensive, less useful, still exciting
Develop - iOS and Android 'set to host Xbox Live games'
Moacube - Professional developer’s look at GameMaker
DIY Gamer - Yahtzee Announces Poacher Platformer, Releases Trailer

GameMarx Special - GameMarx 2011 Xbox Indie Game Awards

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:00:14 GMT

GameMarx 2011 Xbox Indie Game Awards

GameMarx 2011 XBLIG Game Awards Recap

contact@gamemarx.com (Dylan) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Here is the recap of our personal Top 10 games of 2011 lists and our GameMarx 2011 Xbox Indie Awards. To hear the discussions behind each category, check out podcast EP71 - 2011 Game Award Show.

Videos

GameMarx 2011 Xbox Indie Game Awards

Dylan's Top 10 Games of 2011
Cicelie's Top 10 Games of 2011
Mike's Top 10 Games of 2011

Most Blatant Ripoff

Nominees: FortressCraft Chapter 1, CastleMiner, Total Miner: Forge, Fishcraft / Angry Fish, Avatar Farm

Fishcraft / Angry Fish

Most Misleading Box Art

Nominees: Akane the Kunoichi, Bunker Buster, Temple of Dogolrak, Off Balance, The Charge

Temple of Dogolrak

Weirdest Ironic Hipster Humor

Nominees: The Skyfish series, the GHXYK2 series

The GHXYK2 Series

Most Squandered Potential

Nominees: Crazy Hobo, President John America Saves America, A Pimp RPG

Crazy Hobo

Creepiest Attempt at "Sex-Sells"

Nominees: Spermatozoon, Can You Handle 2 At Once?, Moe Mekuri 2.5

Can You Handle 2 At Once?

Uncanniest Valley

Nominees: Incident of Dreamy Vale Church, Blackstone - Part One, Bureau - Agent Kendall, Colonies: Neociv

Bureau - Agent Kendall

Best Use of FMV

Nominees: Bloody Mary, Sword and Hammer, Hell's House

Hell's House

Best "With Avatars" Sellout

Nominees: Wacky Waving I. A. F. Avatars; Avatar's Rock Paper Scissors; Avatar Workout; Avatar Snake; Dude, Where's My Avatar?; Avatar Gold Grab X-mas Version

Wacky Waving I. A. F. Avatars

Best Finger To "The Man"

Nominees: Game Type, DLC Quest, Why Did I Buy This?

Game Type

Best 2011 Game Released in 2010

Nominees: Cthulhu Saves the World, Cursed Loot

Cthulhu Saves the World

Best Retro Throwback

Nominees: Ionball, Wizorb, Battle High: San Bruno, Insanity X

Battle High: San Bruno

Most Ambitious Design

Nominees: Avatar Adventurers Online, Alpha Squad, Raventhorne, Battle for Venga Islands

Avatar Adventurers Online

Best Use of Zombies

Nominees: Attack of the Zombie Horde; Dead Pixels; Undead Empire; Zombie Death Zone; I, Zombie; Zombies Ruined My Day

Dead Pixels

Best Looking Graphics

Nominees: Orbitron: Revolution, radiangames Ballistic, Lil' Demons: Splatter, Infinity Danger, Shifters, T.E.C. 3001, TIC: Part 1

Dylan's Top 10 for 2011

Cicelie's Top 10 for 2011

Mike's Top 10 for 2011

Game of the Year 2011 Runner-Up

Battle High: San Bruno

GameMarx Game of the Year 2011

radiangames Ballistic

GameMarx Special - Mike's Top 10 Games of 2011

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:00:14 GMT

Mike counts down his top games released on Xbox Live Indie Games for 2011

GameMarx Special - Cicelie's Top 10 Games of 2011

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:00:16 GMT

Cicelie counts down her top games released on Xbox Live Indie Games for 2011

GameMarx Special - Dylan's Top 10 Games of 2011

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:00:15 GMT

Dylan counts down his top games released on Xbox Live Indie Games for 2011

GameMarx EP71 - 2011 Game Award Show

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:43:53 GMT

This week we honor our favorite (and not so favorite) XBLIG of 2011

GameMarx Trials - Takedown!

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:00:14 GMT

Mike, Dylan, and Cicelie check out Takedown! on Xbox Live Indie Games.

GameMarx's 2011 Xbox Indie Award Show Tonight (and some charts)!

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:20:00 GMT

Tonight's podcast will be the live broadcast of the first ever Xbox Live Indie Games award show! We promise it will include more game related content than some other game award shows! Tune in to the live show at 10 PM EST at GameMarx.com/live, or catch it Saturday via the podcast or youtube. We will also be releasing special video recaps next week.

In the mean time, here are some charts from the data at XboxIndies.com. The first charts are the breakdown of the 743 games by price, genre, and month released:

This next chart shows the top 10 games by "world rating" - the weighted (by vote count) average of the game's rating across all regions, for games released in 2011, and then again broken down by genre. Some genres have more than 10 listed because of ties, and Microsoft Excel is a dick.

This next chart required a bit of explanation. For each region, Xbox.com shows a Best Selling Today list. Each day, the positions of all games are recorded at XboxIndies.com. I took this data and created a top 25 games list by sorting the games by average position on the best selling list for the days the game was available. I also weighted each region's list by the number of votes from that region. The purpose here, is if you take a large grain of salt, this list is the top grossing games by daily sales average (instead of all time total, which would heavily favor games released early in the year). I would love to compare this to the real revenue data for the games released in 2011 to see just how accurate this crazy method is!

GameMarx Trials - Lexiv

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:19:59 GMT

Mike, Dylan, and Cicelie check out Lexiv on Xbox Live Indie Games.

GameMarx Trials - AvatarBall弾き

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:00:07 GMT

Mike, Dylan, and Cicelie check out Homeless on Xbox Live Indie Games.

GameMarx Trials - Rainbow Rapture

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:00:15 GMT

Mike, Dylan, and Cicelie check out Rainbow Rapture on Xbox Live Indie Games.

GameMarx Trials - Ramen Ninja

contact@gamemarx.com (Mike) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:00:19 GMT

Mike, Dylan, and Cicelie check out Ramen Ninja on Xbox Live Indie Games.