I still think Weapon of Choice is pretty awesome. The rest not so much.

My box tells me that I'm not authorised to play user-generated content. I'm kind of glad now...

i've been trying the games as they come out. most are garbage or are just ripoffs of other, better games.

'in the pit' was a nice concept, but the hiliariously bad voice 'acting' killed it.

'sin(surfing)' is fun and i'll probably end up buying it when i get some more points. wish it would incorporate the currently playing music into the wave though.

'weapon of choice' is just pure badass. the control mappings are a little weird (jumping is hard to get used to), but the action and the music are awesomesauce.

'swords and monsters', well... it was a mildly funny joke, but not one i'll blow 2.50 on.

harsh

That's pretty much to be expected. It takes quite a while to make a really good game (or lucking onto an awesome concept that WORKS), and these are essentially launch titles that come from ANYONE.

The problem is, if nobody goes to Community Games, there's no point in making any good, time intensive games for it. And people are likely to give up on it pretty quick if it's seen as "the place for crap."

I uploaded a "test" game on there - a family multiplayer game that is simply a pure early 80's throwback with graphical updates, just to essentially test the waters and get some data to see if it's worthwhile to put 'An Awesome Game' on there. I have decided to finish up one quality title I've been working on, see how it does, and base any future development on there on that.

Of course, if everyone is scared away by the A Kitchen Sink Wars of the world, then it won't be cost feasible to spend 6 months to a year making a game that nobody will play.

Weapon of Choice is the only passable game. The rest is garbage.

Not all is rubbish, digging a bit into the trash you can discover some gems. I loved Crystal Crush and Totem two pretty good casual games, Biology Battle is a nice game to say a few. Ok there are very weird things looking bad and playing worst but I'm really curious: if Swords and Monsters is in the top ten seller and I can't imagine more than a couple of friends buying it... the 11th game how much is selling, two copies/week?

In the pit is fun, but its not a videogame. its an.... audio game?

Being was pretty much fun. A bit sadistic. But I'd been hoping for a slew of little 2d platformers, and we've had exactly one? WTF?

Anyone who thinks there's no quality on Community Games has one of two problems:
1) They only tried the crappy games (and yes, many of them are crappy)
2) The annoying four-minute trial period ended before the game really got going. This is a big problem for developers, because four minutes is not a long time at all. We have to sell you the game in four minutes. Cut us some slack, okay?

Anyway, I really like Galax-e-mail, Smashell and Biology Battle. The latter two have really good presentation, too, and look as good as most XBLA titles.

I'm starting to think that there's a media bias against Community Games. Of the major gaming blogs and Web sites, I have yet to see one that really goes in-depth on them, even when there is some real quality on there.

My game, Snake360, is the product of 11 months of development, has been on both released top 10 sales lists but doesn't seem to be getting much attention press-wise. It's probably at least partially because the graphics are pretty bad compared to, well, anything modern. But gameplay-wise, I guarantee that it's as good as any classic arcade game on XBLA, and across its 300 levels, it easily has 5+ hours of replay value WITHOUT counting the multiplayer battle modes. It's really challenging at the unlockable levels, too. And the Internet Ranking boards are really starting to populate.

We even have contests running (they just started). We're offering $450 in Microsoft Points and LIVE Gold subscriptions as prizes. They are not random-chance drawings, and are entirely based on skill or judging, so anyone who's good at games will have a shot. I haven't seen any XBLA games offer contests like this, nor can I remember any recent retail games doing the same.

And yet, after submitting information about the contests to no fewer than eight major gaming blogs/sites (this one included), it was mentioned on exactly zero of them. What, does a gaming site's staff think that nobody cares about a shot at $450 worth of prizes? And I promise that the game isn't bad, either. Heck, if you buy the game, compete on it in the contests for a month, and then can honestly tell me you didn't have any fun, I'll PayPal you your $5 back if you insist.

If anyone here wants more info on the game or the contests, you can go to www.snake360.com. But since all Community Games are obviously awful... I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up, heh.

@yyr - You're sorta/kinda preaching to the choir in a way, (at least to me, I'm indie-4-life, and D-Toid is indie).. While I don't have an XBLA title (yet) a few months ago, I made an indie game (Longcat the Mini-Game) - which, IMO, is a fine quality minigame that loosely resembles 'snake'.

I wasn't aware there was any contests around community games, which is a shame. A deep, deep shame. How anyone could pass up posting that or informing the public given the opportunity is beyond me. However, my suggestion is unless you (usually) offer a review copy out to someone, (like the big boys do - but don't quote me as I don't know exactly if this is 100% true) ..my suggestion is here, since the c-blogs are free to use, try using that and you should get the attention you and your fine work deserve. The community here should generally respond well.

As far as to why noone posted that on the front page, there's no reason why it shouldn't/wouldn't be AFAIK. But then again, I don't know anyone here very personally to answer something like that. It's not like I know Rev. Anthony (indie Reviewer) or Nick Chester personally or anything...

Bottom line: If an indie developer (like Jeff Minter, or someone else that makes something near and dear to my heart) wants me to cut them some slack, then I shall cuttith' da' slacketh'. :o)