Xbox Live Community Games Being Renamed

[modeps]

Xbox LIVE Community Games, those little morsels from garage developers using the XNA Creators Studio, is undergoing a name change. Instead of Community Games, come July it'll be called "Xbox LIVE Indie Games."

The launch of XNA Game Studio 3.1 begins the process of renaming Xbox LIVE Community Games to Xbox LIVE Indie Games. We're starting the communication about this transition with you – our incredible Creators. With your help hopefully this name change (along with other new features such as User Ratings!) will increase understanding and discoverability of your games! Late July, when we update Creators Club Online, we will begin revealing the name change to the Consumer side of our business. We believe this name better represents the independent spirit of XNA Game Studio gaming and creations!

[thanks Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5287078/xbox-live-community-games-renamed)]

I really haven't touched the Community/Indie Games at all... Should I?

[Trickyicky]

I've only purchased one.. Machiavelli's Ascent or something. You're a jellyfish trying to escape from the bottom of the ocean by collecting strange bubbles that propel you upwards. It's impossible.

[bean19]

I've played a few and was not impressed. Machiavelli's Ascent was not one of them.

[Demo_Boy]

90% of the XNACG is horrible eye scraping drivel. Like really, painfully bad.

7% are a decent looking, small scope game with a nice idea. About as good as an average game on Kongregate.
3% are really nice production values, well designed UI, again simple idea game at the core, but lavishly done UI/Art - like these guys should not be in XNACG they should just be in XBLA @ 600 points. Definitely better than a lot of XNA games.

So academically it is important for a XBLA developer to keep an eye on things in there, but in terms of fun per hour of time spent it is a complete washout.

[Greeble]

Yeah its hard to find to find the good stuff mixed in with the crap. (Worse than little big planet)

[modeps]

Yeah its hard to find to find the good stuff mixed in with the crap. (Worse than little big planet)

Luckily BOTH LBP and Xbox Live are receiving updates at some point that should help with that.

[Speedbag]

I've found some "interesting" games that remind me of the 5 dollar games that came on a 5 1/4 disc at the cash at Radio Shack. I gotta say though, it is a great idea and every so often I have fun for 10-15 minutes with one. Also, I did find an app that helped you set up your TV and get all the colours and settings right. Useful but I didn't drop the cash.

[TalkingOctopus]

I like a few:

Super Cow - A nice looking platformer. Fun for a while.

Pocoro - A puzzle game where you try to navigate a board covering each square. Relaxing and fun.

Groov - Like Geometry Wars, except your actions make music. Everything occurs on beat. Each explosion makes a noise, each shot makes a noise.

[Meusli]

Johan had a thread for a while where he was reviewing most of the games, I do not know if he continued with it though.

[bulldozer.sweden]

In a few month there will be a lot more and better community games. It takes a while to get use to XNA and to make more quality games. I know a couple of games that's coming out that will be really good :) (not talking baout Exhaust or Penalty of Heroes :))

[bulldozer.sweden]

I like the name "community games". Maybe MS wants to differentiate CG to Arcade even more. It might worked since CG haven't had so much exposure, thou I think that will change when better titles will be released. I liked Colosseum, Little Racers, Johnny Crush. Anyway it shows that MS trying to do something about CG :)

[lost]

I think 'Indie Games' is more fitting. XNA hasn't quite materialised as the 'YouTube' of games but that was always a lofty ambition. This new title better reflects the amount of work involved in one of these titles.

[gzsfrk]

"In the Pit" is the one XBLCG that I ponied up the $5 for. It's short and nothing fancy, but the gameplay mechanic was completely fresh to me. If you haven't played it and have a good surround sound system, give it a shot--you may be pleasantly surprised.

[Mr.Green]

I think 'Indie Games' is more fitting.

Agreed. "Community" is the most abused word of the English language since the birth of the Internet.

[lost]

We're all a COMMUNITY. Be in our COMMUNITY. HIVE MIND. HIVE MIND. HIVE MIND.

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Welcome to the Evil Avatar Community

[Chimpbot]

Wasn't Dishwasher Samurai a Community Game? That one wasn't too bad at all.

[bean19]

I agree that Indie Games is a better title as far as that goes. Community games implies that they are games created FOR the community when the idea was to say they were made BY the community. This obviously isn't the case. I'm a college graduate who knows how to code, and I'd be taxed making even one of the bad games that have come out on XNA.

[drakkarim]

I really haven't touched the Community/Indie Games at all... Should I?

i always run through that section to see what's been added, several times a week.

there are definitely some gems in there, but there's also a ton of crap to wade through.

XNA and Community games is quite an amazing thing, quite a lot of 'power' being given to joe schmoe to make a game by him/herself. Its purely C# based, and quite easy to get a handle on if you're familiar with C#/.NET

i'm working on my own little gem :)

[drakkarim]

...to add, much more important than the ease here, is the lack of roadblocks to make your works available on the 360 for everyone to try.

the openness is quite ironic coming from someone like microsoft. i believe this indie thing is going to develop into something truly great once they create more tools in the 360 to be able to filter/browse through all the available games that are on there.

their implementation is a work in progress, but the potential is huge.

[LilAbner]

For God's sake why don't they just put in a Netflix-style rating system for these and any other DLC on XBLM???

[BabyJesus]

I have a few of them, most is garbage, some are OK. I think its a mistake that they didn't include achievements.

[Pluvious]

Ok.. I know of one that is REALLY good. Called BLOW. Check it out.

[larsolino]

finally our game colosseum is available for purchase in our home country!!!
we have waited for the indie games section for 8+ months here now....
check out shortfuse.se if youre interested in more of this stuff:)

[Johan]

The MOST significant change is the ratings that will be provided by those who play the game. FINALLY, we'll have an opportunity to let others weed through the overwhelming pile of garbage in there. I tried to keep up with every title, and made it for the first hundred before realizing the impossibility of it all and bailing.

Here are my recommendations:

Arriba! (200): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550126/) A number of simple games to practice Spanish. For $2.50, I got it for my kids to brush up on the language. This is my least favorite, however, on this list of games I enjoy.

Biology Battle (800): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550115/) The only thing that initially put me off of this title was the price. It's actually a pretty neat little "space" shooter within a cell or organism...with the body's defenses attacking the ship. Pretty fun. I went for it. A bit of an Asteroids clone. Good stuff.

Bloc (200): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585500ff/) It's a shooter with a mechanic somewhat like Ikaruga (and by somewhat, I mean in ONLY this one small way. Ikaruga is an amazing game visually. Bloc? Is not) in that the different colored "enemies" are destroyed by using the corresponding color on the controller to shoot bullets the color of the "enemy." I bought it. It struck me as an amusing "cup of coffee" kind of game.

Blow (400): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855010e/) A puzzler with the object being to place fans of varying "strengths" and temperatures strategically around the map to blow bubbles toward the exit. I bought it for the very nice and relaxing soundtrack, and I've enjoyed the added elements as you progress through the levels (different environmental 'interferences' that you have to combat against to get your bubble to the exit).

Galax-e-mail (200): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550112/) A silly Asteroids-style space shooter. I got a kick out of it, but only at 200 points. More would have been a big "no."

Little Racers (400): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585501d1/) A fun little top-down matchbox-car racer.

Miner Dig Deep (200): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550182/) Go underground, digging for...stuff! More fun than it sounds!

Trino (400): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550207/) I don't know how to describe this game, but it's a hoot. TRY IT!

Word Soup (400): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585500fc/) Boggle clone, with all the letters already laid out and the object to create as many words with connecting letters as possible, hoping in the end to clear the board. I bought it because I liked it myself, but mostly for my kids to fiddle with educationally.

World Revolution (200): (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550165/) 3D Missile Command. Fun stuff!