"XBLIG basically has the low price expectations and flood of product that the Apple App Store has, combined with the low visibility of Nintendo's digital stores - it's no wonder most titles sell poorly. Greater visibility for the high-quality titles on the service would be a great help." - Robert Boyd, Zeboyd Games
We are considering starting Duality ZF as a Kickstarter project for funding, but for now we are only a backer. Our first project backed? Indie Game: The Movie! This means you'll see us, as "Xona Games", in the credits.
We are not sure if the list is ordered, but we appear #3 on the list!
The writeup:
We chatted with the top Xbox Live Indie Games developers yesterday to kick off Indie Independence Weekend, and we're continuing the indie love by cataloguing our favorite Xbox Live Indie Games. If you've never visited the Indie section of the Xbox Live Dashboard, these 16 sweet games are the first you should try.
Decimation X3
With Decimation X3, Xona Games has refined the Space Invader-style shooter to near perfection. By adding multiplayer, colorful graphics, uniquely designed enemies, and a constant stream of power ups, Decimation X3 keeps the excitement level persistent for as long as you've got your hands on the controller.
Decimation X3's results of two rating manipulation attacks.
The first attack starts off-screen, as data was collected only after the first attack started.
I hate writing articles like this. :(
But, I have to document it for reference purposes.
It is now twice that our games have had their ratings abused on Microsoft's Xbox LIVE Indie Games platform. The first occurred in March 2011, detailed in Michael Neel's "The Real March Madness - XBLIG Rating Manipulation Continues" article. The second occurred in June 2011, as brought to light by my APP HUB posts (1,2,3), all three quoted here:
APP HUB Posts:
Charles,
There is now more rating abuse taking place.
Our ratings are dropping in Japan as well as beginning to drop in the U.S. again (and presumably in other countries). Only for Decimation X3 and Score Rush, but not Decimation X (our lowest rated game before the abuse):
So now our worse game is #3 in Japan and the others are #21 and #35... they used to be #3, #4, and #5.
And now our worse game is also the highest in US, where it was left after the first rating abuse, and the others are #220 and #221... they used to be in the top 30. They were approximately #170..#180 after the first rating abuse.
It's hard not to view this as a lack of respect for your developers. Can you please fix this, for the sake of doing what is right for your developers? What do we have to do to inspire you to fix what rightfully should be fixed without needlessly challenging our relationship? I have not gone public with this which has been my overwhelming feedback on what to do, to essentially force Microsoft in a position to do the right thing. I don't even want to do such a thing. I support Microsoft, this is clear. Please support me back.
The math fits that every vote after 158 (after June 6th, 2011 and the end of our #3 spot in Japan) could have been a 1 star vote. It only takes 36 such votes to do this damage. 1 star votes cause incredible damage to top rated lists.
"Murudai" posted:
...the position on the Top Rated list does actually make a big difference.
This is information Robert Boyd has already clearly demonstrated to us, and I appreciate you coming forward, Murudai, to silence any doubt.
The most scarring issue is the indirect value of discrediting the developer. In our talks with publishers and media we mention our #3/4/5 ranks of 1,800 games in Japan all the time. It doesn't help that http://marketplace.xbox.com/ja-JP/Games/XboxIndieGames?SortBy=TopRated shows Decimation X3 and Score Rush at #20 and #39 (at the time of this writing). Our ratings is one of our standout accomplishments, beyond our $100,000 contest win, as it's a measure of our success on the field. Damaging to Microsoft is where the conversation leads to next, which is talks of rating manipulations and the lack of support. I wish I could avoid this all.
What about the value of simply doing what is right, respecting (top) developers, and showcasing truthful lists to the Xbox LIVE gaming community?
Michael Neel of GameMarx and Xbox Indies, both great sites, helped shed light on the both issues with stat tracking. Here you can see the stats of all our games and how they were targeted and abused via rating manipulation:
Decimation X stats, showing rating manipulation.
Look at the "Top Rated Position" graph for United States (potentially targeted) and Japan (not targeted). Source:xboxindies.com/game/decimation-x/stats.
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Please note, these stats do not cover the beginning of the first rating abuse. They were collected only after it started.
Ranks Before and After:
After both rating abuse manipulations, as of today (July 6, 2011), we had two top 30 games in the U.S. kicked down to 200, off the charts essentially. And in Japan, we had the #3, #4, and #5 games, two of them kicked down to #20 (Decimation X3) and #39 (Score Rush ). The untargeted and worse of our games jumped from #5 to #3 with the absence of our other two games (Decimation X). This is out of 1,800 games These changes are signifcant.
Conclusion:
And Microsoft's official response to all of this: "We have also investigated rolling back suspect votes, however, we determined it will not be possible to do this." - Charles Cox, Microsoft. Of course it is possible to do this, and I wish they would.
There are so many issues. One is the lost ability to rate games in the Games Library on the Xbox 360 Dashboard, which has lowered the amount of XBLIG voting that takes place which makes rating manipulations easier to perform. I created a connect issue on it which currently has an incredible 105 up votes and 0 down votes, but no response from Microsoft. Please vote and comment on it, it requires a free signup to Microsoft Connect:
It's not like Microsoft never moves. So don't read this the wrong way. They reacted to the most up voted connect issue on XBLIG ever, when XBLIG devs fought to move Indie Games back under "Games and Demos:
There's a lot of dreams I have for XBLIG, including the "Xona Proposal", that may never see the light of day. It's a truly amazing platform with even more amazing potential. It's sad to see it only get half way there, because the second half could truly be magnificent for indie game developers and gamers alike.
We are pleased to present the new 2011 Duality ZF trailer, featuring ghost continues, improved graphics, g-mode, option-mode, new fighters, new weaspons, new graphic effects, dual sountracks with the first feature of Dragon Music Productions (known for the amazing Score Rush soundtrack), new pixel shaders, and more:
Duality ZF is currently destined for XBLA and Steam, although this is not official yet. Many things can change during the development of a game, and its platform destination is one of them. As true gamers we ultimately wish to bring the Duality ZF experience to all gamers on all platforms, but as an indie studio we are restricted with resource and will do what we can!
This is a pretty cool compliment: In Retro Gamer's Homebrew Hereos feature, which we were once featured in, they highlight the developer's top five picks. Indie team Red Wolf, creator of indie shump Vorpal, picked Score Rush as one of their top five! To gain the respect of your peers, who are in compeititon with you, is a great honor! Here's the pics:
Decimation X3 and Score Rush tie as our top game. They are nearly identical in ratings, sales, awards, and released only two days apart. They are 4-player nostalgic shoot 'em ups with modern-day gameplay and intensity. Decimation X3 was chosen for Indie Game Winter Uprising. Score Rush is developed on the award winning Duality ZF engine (our next game). Both were developed by our "empower the player" philosophy. They were #10 and #11 on Major Nelson's best selling XBLIG worldwide. Both were #1 best sellers in multiple countries. In Japan, they are rated #3 and #4 out of 1,800 XBLIG games, with Decimation X3's prequel at #5.
WHY XBOX LIVE INDIE GAMES?
Dream Build Play 2008, and the power to create games on a console (our favorite console at that), pulled us into XBLIG. We thought we could win Dream Build Play 2008, but did not even place in the top 20. Next year we came back strong with a #7 overall win and #2 in Canada. The next year we maintained that momentum and scored a #5 overall win and #1 in Canada. This year we just entered it again. All four years we entered Duality ZF, the engine that Score Rush is built on.
WHAT HAS XBOX LIVE INDIE GAMES MEANT TO YOU?
Xbox LIVE Indie Games has meant the world to us. It is what finally got us into making games officially after a lifetime. We have been making games since we were seven years old, always with aspirations of doing it for a living, but life and school always got in the way. It's no surprise that we made a full circle return back to game development. We have XBLIG and Dream Build Play to thank for that opportunity and motivation.
We have not been financially successful, but the majority of our time is spent on Duality ZF, a game destined for Xbox LIVE Arcade. All of our XBLIG work is side projects. It is difficult in any industry to self-fund with side projects alone.
We have won our share of awards. $100,000 technology contest award, featured in five major gaming magazines (this being our second feature in OXM), #1 in Canada and Japan for various reasons. Every game we have made has won prestigious awards, and even our company and its technology itself has. It has brought us to MIGS and GDC to meet publishers and big dogs of the gaming industry all around the world. It's truly been amazing. We had a booth at GDC 2011. How cool is that?
The strong point of XBLIG is its lack of restrictions. It's common to hammer XBLIG for its bad games, and even in the community forums developers blame developers for outputting bad content. But, prepare for a paradigm shift: We want the bad games, because we want all the games. It's an experimental games platform that will produce gems that would otherwise be regulated away. The true solution is the platform should sort the content, the way search engines sort websites.
WHAT'S XBOX LIVE INDIE GAMES' GREATEST WEAKNESS?
Xbox LIVE Indie Games does not put it's best (and quite beautiful) face forward. Its "front page" or first tab is the last 50 XBLIG games produced, which in any unregulated system will be dominated by low quality titles. This tarnishes XBLIG's reputation. And this is not the fault of the developers producing those titles, as one of those developers may be the next John Carmack learning the ropes, but the fault of the platform's unwillingness to sort and filter the content. Look at XBLA and what do you see first? High quality recent content. Likewise, I believe XBLIG should showcase high quality recent content. The rewarding of quality work would have inspired more quality work, instead of the random get-rich-quick schemes that dominate the virtual shelves of XBLIG. It's the negativity that happens when you leave the platform in chaos.
I have outlined what has become to be known as the "Xona Proposal" on fixing XBLIG here. It has been put in front of the founders of the XBLIG initiative and supported by a large majority of the XBLIG community.
Real leaderboards and achievements with Gamerscore are also necessary. I believe if the above changes happened, XBLIG would be the place to be for indie gaming, both for developers and gamers.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR XBOX LIVE INDIE GAMES?
I do not see it evolving, but I would take a job at Microsoft today if I could be enact the changes I feel XBLIG needs. I anticipate that XBLIG would grow 10 to 100 times in size with these changes. Someone is going to make a platform like this, and it's sitting in Microsoft's lap. It's so hard for me to ignore this potential. I absolutely love indie games and I believe Microsoft has come halfway to creating the best platform ever for indie game developers and gamers. I want it see it play out until the end.
WHAT'S THE BEST XBOX LIVE INDIE GAME (BESIDES YOUR OWN)?
Playing with the Big Boys
It’s game on for digital business
by Kayla MacDonald and Cindy Allen
Photo: John Sherlock
Matthew and Jason Doucette of Xona Games in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia:
Quality products trump business location in the gaming world.
If you’ve watched YouTube, played a game on your Nintendo DS, or downloaded the latest app for your handheld device lately, then you know how pervasive digital media has become in our entertainment and information worlds.
With parts of Canada dubbed the “Silicon Valley of the North”, the country has become a hotbed of technology innovation involving some 14,000 skilled digital media workers, and 260+ digital media companies.
Within the sector, the multibillion-dollar video game industry is experiencing tremendous growth, with Canadian companies poised as global leaders across the entire gaming value chain – from tools development to casual games and serious games, to mobile game and gameware development.
It’s an industry on the move. Literally.
More and more companies are choosing to set up shop outside of the traditional hubs of gaming creativity -Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Nova Scotia, for example, is home to internationally-recognized studios such as HB Studios, Longtail Studios, the Red Space, Twisted Oak and Xona Games, with more expected to arrive.
Attractive tax incentives, a highly-skilled workforce, low employee turnaround and a good quality of life are all cited as draws to the province.
Twin brothers Matthew and Jason Doucette well know the benefits of doing business here and have happily never had to leave home to reach their level of business success.
“Video game development is part of a highly competitive global market,” the Xona Games creators explain, but the physical location of a digital business barely matters in a wired world.
The world’s top publishers such as Nintendo, Electronic Arts, and Activision, have their pick of games developed around the globe, yet Xona Games, located in small-town Nova Scotia is firmly on the global radar with its award-winning games, and enjoying recognition in notable gaming publications.
How? The Doucettes started their independent business young, and with a unique recipe for success.
“Many people think that my brother and I are gifted or that our expertise is a product of the classroom, but it is our continuous crafting of new games and dedication that has taught us everything we know.”
Matthew also advocates that if you’re interested in the development business, first jump in and give it a try. “If you don’t enjoy the process and can’t challenge yourself, then maybe the industry isn’t right for you.”
Both Acadia University graduates realize that a university education can only get you so far. “Like most things, it boils down to the fundamental principle that practice makes perfect,” reinforces Jason.
Practice, plus the evolution of new concepts and credos. The brothers compiled their own philosophies into something they call “Game Code” – a list of do’s and don’ts collected from video games they played in their youth. Jason adds that while the Game Code doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, it does guarantee high quality: an element publishers want.
It’s also important to get out there and attend events like the annual Game Developers Conference, the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event, held in San Francisco, California. This year, Matthew and Jason’s small business display was set up near industry giants like Nintendo and Google.
But don’t expect “business quite as usual” at a trade show like this.
The brothers laugh as they highlight the unique cultural differences these events tend to reveal about the digital business world, where media and video game developers are beyond the formality of wearing a suit and tie:
“Some of the biggest industry leaders walk around wearing ripped jeans and an old t-shirt.” In the gaming industry, appearances are irrelevant: A developer’s work speaks for itself, say the brothers, and is an art form that entails creative and quality work.
As digital media evolves and new forms emerge, so do opportunities for developers. Mobile gaming systems and family-friendly video games are just a few niches now spurring industry growth. The Doucette brothers plan on taking full advantage of the expanding industry.
“Games for social media platforms such as Farm Ville on Facebook, and games geared towards women are a few changes that have already taken storm,” says Doucette. “The industry is here to stay and can only be expected to continue to grow.”
Above: A Xona Games display looks completely at home just
steps from that of global giant, Nintendo.
It is impossible to write a post that delivers the amount of appreciation I have for our fans, especially our true fans. Nothing I am about to say quantifies it.
I want to highlight SQR@^^^ (twitter, Xbox LIVE), one of our biggest fans of which his article, "How I come to be Xona-Infected?", clearly indicates. This is the first article written about us that concentrates on the people behind Xona Games rather than our recognition. It's about where we came from, the history of our skills, our projects, and our games. It's about us. Truly outstanding.
What amazes me about this article is the knowledge of our history. He details where the Decimation X series came from, including a screen shot of an early PC prototype which he downloaded from Jason's personal website and compared to Decimation X and X3 on the Xbox 360. That is truly deep appreciation of our work.
Let me not ruin the article with a list of quotes, as I want you to read it yourself, but I'll close with the articles' insanely complimentary closing:
Looking back on the last year 2010, I seldom buy games generally, but I will spend time to play them if I found the game like Decimation X by chance. Personally speaking, my only purchase of packaged software last year, "Super Mario Galaxy 2" was a slap-up game, and I'd played it for more than 40 hours without obsession with criticism.Yet, the impact of Decimation X was more remarkable, which was found as a gem of games. I'm very glad if any of you readers have an interest in this game, and thank you for reading so much.
For previous blog posts, visit our full articles listing.
Also check out our games and our story for insight into our work and accomplishments. Enjoy our website!
