Arkedo on the changing landscape of XBL Indie Games

I have an idea Bradwart. Maybe if you change your name and profile picture no one will realize that you are you. You can start a new life. Clean slate. Think about it.

Are we really back to this?

True, inoffensive, and relevant, yet still downvoted. You're all a bunch of hypocrites.

Quick, say some shitty meme that's ages old to get them up votes!

All your base are belong to us?

I'll give you that they don't get the press, but they're hardly inaccessible.

In my perfect world they'd launch a channel to highlight the more memorable games. I don't know if it's a failure of just MS or if IGN should step in but the lack of coverage goes well beyond just XBL. Hell why doesn't Joystiq at least check them out (demo at the least)

The biggest highlight I've seen was for I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1N IT!!!1, leaving the average user to think this was the first (and only) game worthwhile on the indie game scene.

Maybe it's a chicken and the egg scenario but while MS isn't doing enough, neither are any of the major websites.

As a person knee-deep into development on a XBLA Indie game, I truly would like to see a bit more exposure given to the various titles. Roughly 9/10 of the people I know that own 360s never even knew that such a thing existed. It's not as though they are hidden, but they have virtually no representation in terms of being highlighted. On Joystiq, IGN, and Kotaku, I can think of no more than five titles that have ever gotten any coverage, and even then it is typically only in passing mention at best. To be fair, it's not solely the fault of any one party, and as of late the service has been getting a bit more attention from media outlets, (as has Microsoft lack of capitalizing upon it).

It would be nice if some of the more popular sites had some sort of dedicated section or feature to cover them -- one willing to overview them both for what they are, and what they are not. Some are merely stepping-stones for novice developers giving his/her first shot, some are by hobbyists of varying degrees of talent with no interest outside of having their project seen, and others still are young upstarts just trying to get their foot in the water in what is quickly becoming a very crowded sea. Each one of these projects has had a considerable amount of time put into them, and each are deserving of recognition in their own right, with consideration taken into where they came from and what they're intended to be.

I'm not trying to claim that every game on the service is a winner, far from it, but the selection thus far is slim enough that it shouldn't be an unthinkable undertaking to give some level of coverage for the majority of them. Even a weekly spotlight would suffice. This is not the App Store, where there is such an incredible amount of rubbish to sift through that to even acknowledge each project by name alone would be some sort of superhuman accomplishment.

It is there that the real problem presents itself. For all the innovation of the App Store, its popularity has hurt it just as much as it has helped it, (at least in terms of the individual apps). The more popular it gets, the more overcrowded it becomes, and it's becoming increasingly more and more unlikely for an obscure AAA title to gain the attention it needs to rise to the top of the barrel. It's a double-edged sword really.

Maybe Microsoft's lack of promotion is actually giving the Indie games more exposure in the long run than if it were to suddenly become front-page news. Still, wishful thinking prevents me from hoping for anything less than a solid middle-ground between the two services. If such a thing is possible, I can only cross my fingers and wait for the day that such a feat might be attainable.

The whole point of the XNA (in my opinion) is to get back to grass roots. Make your game, promote it yourself. Titles like "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1N IT!!!1" and Pixel, et al are recognized because they're good. Spit and polish on top of code won't get it done though... Just like breaking into the music industry, you have to know somebody. Or, at least know somebody who knows somebody.

There are (not literally) millions of Rocket Fart's on XBL, and a very few gems. It's not Microsoft's fault for not pumping up the community, it should be doing it all on its own.

In The Pit, Armor Valley, Weapon of Choice, Kodu are really good too, and Super Cow is good for little kids.
I personally download a few demos from the indie games channel once every week or so looking for a new gem (and they are there).