Hello D'toiders!

Here are some of the better play-worthy Xbox LIVE Indie Games which I've seen passing through the XNA Creators Club in the recent weeks and which I can recommend to check out.

Note: This is an entirely subjective list according to my own taste and also with no claims of being complete (there're probably other good games I missed). And: I am not affiliated with any of these games - they are not my games! To see my games, check out my profile on the right...

So here they are (in no particular order):

Arkedo Series - 01 JUMP! A hardcore/retro platformer. Well, for me it's hardcore because there are no continues or saves, so you have to go through all 30 levels with the lives you have - which I am far from able to manage. With very cool graphics which somehow manage to be at the same time retro/pixely but als current-gen-HD.

Xcross The first Xbox picross game. I personally am not into picrosses (is that the plural?), but if you are, then I was told that this is a good specimen of that genre.

Avatar Golf Probably no need to mention this one, as you probably already own it (and if not, then you should!). The sequel to "Easy Golf: Course Architect". Play the links with your own avatar and online against other players. And the course editor is of course also still there.

PixelMan An experiment in minimalistic game design. Very retro/simplistic platformer with 30 levels (of which about 4 or 5 are so simple they can't really be called "levels") and - a boon for me and my poor platformer skills - an unlimited number of retries per level.

Avatar Drop Drop your Xbox Avatar from a great height and bounce it off rubber balls and through rings to score. Especially fun in multi-player mode.

Fishing Girl Yes, that one's already available in various versions as a free Flash game, but the XBLIG version is very good too. A totally relaxing experience. Worth to check out!

Hello D'toiders!

I'm proud to be able to tell you that my second game Kuchibi has now been released on Xbox Live Indie Games!



The game is available for just 240 MSP (about 3$ / 3€). Looking forward to seeing all your's gamertags on the online top-score lists!!! Can you beat the creator himself? Look for gamertag "Spyn Doctor" in the online top-scores - but don't be deceived by the current low scores for my gamertag: Just after the game was released, I just played into each mode/difficulty for a short time to generate the first scores to seed the top-score lists. I can do much better scores than that! Honestly! ;-) (and I see that I've already been beaten on Marathon/Easy by someone called "Demeetus" - that was quick, the game is only released since an hour or two ago... :-)

I almost forgot: You can download the free trial to your Xbox right here:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585502df/

Hope you have fun with the game!!!

Oh, something else I almost forgot: I currently have a little Twitter-based give-away going where I give away three free pre-paid codes for Kuchibi. The give-away ends on Sep. 8th, 2009 at 18:00h/6p.m. (Central European Summer Time - so that's about noon at the US east coast and 9a.m. at the US west coast on Sep. 8th). Check out the Kuchibi game page for more details and how to participate:
http://www.spyn-doctor.de/kuchibi/

Game trailer and screenshots follow:




This screenshot shows the Marathon Mode


This screenshot shows the Timer Mode


This screenshot shows the Survival Mode


This screenshot shows the Scramble Mode

Hi!

The winners of the Dream Build Play 2009 contest have been announced.

The winner is a title which was handled as the favorite by many, so no big surprise there:

First place (and $40,000) went to Dust: An Elysian Tail, developed by Dean Dodrill (U.S.) aka "Noogy". Dean is quite active in the XNA Creators Club community and seems to be a very nice guy. His game is great too (I was able to play a playtest version a few weeks ago) and looks very professional. On the art side, that's no wonder, with Dean being a professional animator. But on the programming side it is quite astonishing, as Dean says he only started with learning how to program back in December 2008! Kudos! You've probably all seen the Dust trailer by now, but still, I included it again below.

Second place (and $20,000) went to Max Blastronaut, developed by Panya Inversin and his team (U.S.). I don't know much about this game, other than that from the trailer it looks like a cool multi-player game (see below).

Third place (and $10,000) went to Rotor'scope, developed by Nivel21 Entertainment, led by Mauricio Garcia (Spain). Again, I don't know much about this game, other than that it's a puzzle game embedded into a story and professional art (judging from the trailer) and that it has a Facebook based high-score list (trailer below).

Fourth place (and $5,000) went to HurricaneX2 Evolution, developed by Hu Ling and his team (China). For this game I don't even have a trailer, but I think that this game has now entered Dream Build Play for the third time. If I remember correctly: In 2007 it entered as "Hurricane", in 2008 as "HurricanX2" and now in 2009 as "HurricaneX2 Evolution" and I assume that it was developed further in each iteration, to now finally be able to claim one of the winning spots. The game itself is an asia-styled figther game (screenshot below).

1st Place: Dust: An Elysian Tail:



2nd Place: Max Blastronaut:



3rd Place: Rotor'scope:



4th Place: HurricaneX2 Evolution (screenshot only):

Hi,

my little give-away for free pre-paid codes for Golden Tangram is already underway:

The first code was published yesterday (and has already been redeemed by a lucky finder, I am told). The next code will show up during the coming hours, and another one tomorrow!

Start your hunt for the code here:

http://www.spyn-doctor.de/goldenTangram/giveAway.html

If you find and redeem it first, it means a free game for you!

Doc

Hi D'toiders!

I just wanted to announce that I will be doing a little give-away competition on Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week (that would be Sept. 3rd, 4th and 5th, 2009). On each day, I will give away a FREE pre-paid code for my Xbox Live Indies Game Golden Tangram (so there will be a total of 3 free codes).

You can find more details here:

http://www.spyn-doctor.de/goldenTangram/giveAway.html

So check these three days in your calendar, because if you are quick (and a bit lucky) this might net you a free game!

Look what I found in the playtest area of the XNA Creators Club, bound for release on Xbox Live Indie Games:

Hoyle Texas Hold'em, which, as the name imples, is a Texas Hold'em game. What the name doesn't say is, that this game will use Avatars, so you gonna play with your own Avatar, online against the Avatars of other players (1 player local, or 2-10 players online). What the title also doesn't say is that this game is from TikGames, which are also the creators and publishers of the Texas Hold'em game that is currently available on XBLA. This new version however will apparently come out through XBLIG instead...



The game description currently goes like this:

Hoyle Texas Hold ‘em delivers the very best of Hold ‘em style poker for the Xbox 360. Choose to play with up to 9 friends or against any combination of AI and Live players. Customize your game type by choosing limit, no limit, spread limit and table limit style games. Full support of Microsoft’s Avatars let’s you bring your own style to the game.