The RPS Xbox Indie Outreach Program
Photo by Jeff Kubina
It's seems that early indications for Zeboyd Games, the latest in a series of developers to make the leap from Xbox to PC, are "tremendous success" on the mighty grey tower. This got me thinking: What other upcoming Xbox Indie games could end up coming to PC too? If you're developing an XBLIG, and have intentions to release it on PC, we want to hear from you. This is the RPS Xbox Indie Outreach Program.
For those not in the know, Xbox Live Indie games is Microsoft's service for indie game releases on the Xbox 360. Developers fork out $99 for a xna creators club license, then they are allowed to sell their games to Xbox users, and Microsoft get a cut of every transaction. Don't stop reading, I'm going to stop saying Xbox in a bit.
One problem that has seemed to emerge for the XBLIG market is that more ambitious games that want to charge more than the baseline 80 MS price (about $1) find that it's limiting their market. XBLIGs are also only available in certain regions.
An ideal solution to these problems would be to also sell your game in a different market. Perhaps one with millions of gamers around the globe, who are open minded to all different types of games at all sorts of different prices. Perhaps one without any regional restrictions. How about the PC?
Several canny XBLIG developers have already taken advantage of the fact that it's relatively trivial (I wouldn't know the first thing about it, mind) to port XNA games designed for the Xbox to the PC. There's Flotilla from Blendo Games, Beat Hazard from Cold Beam Games, QuadSmash from Creative Patterns and Defy Gravity from Fish Factory Games. But we want more. Always more.
If you are a developer of an XNA game for Xbox, but have plans to release your game on the PC, please get in touch. Email us here, and please include a description of your game, screenshots and video if possible. We love having a nosy at videos. A playable build of some form is the best thing of all, however. Then we can have an opinion. This is an absolute must: You must include real details of your real plans for a real PC release. Even the best game in the world is useless for our purposes if it's only going to be on the Xbox.
In a couple of week's time I'll put together a roundup of what is on the horizon, and we'll be sure to keep a close watch on the more promising games.