I'm kind of surprised that there's no discussion on this yet. The XNA community games service has tons of shooters (mainly twinstick variety), although the majority of them are kind of crap so I think that having a thread to recommend the good games would be a good idea.
Unrevolutionary recently came out, the box art is kind of blah so I passed by it at first, but people on other sites were saying it was pretty good so I decided to check it out. It's a twinstick shooter, but is somewhat original being that as you progress through the game, you level your ship up and can increase your stats (ship speed, rate of fire, etc.). There's also a basic skill tree system that lets you unlock special abilities and make them stronger, things like slow motion and summoning minions. It's pretty well built into the game and makes for some interesting combinations. There are a variety of levels, including arenas where you just move around and shoot stuff, checkpoint levels which have you go through narrow areas and beating enemies to progress through the level, race levels where you have to get markers within a time limit, and boss levels with some pretty well designed encounters. The game itself is also very professional looking, very slick graphics and nice music.
For 400 Microsoft points, it's a pretty good deal since the game is pretty long and you can customize your ship a different way with each playthrough. I definitely recommend it!
Shooters on Xbox360 Community Games
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Yeah Ive been watching somewhat close and awaiting a good user-created community SHMUP. I see alot of garbage "shmups", nothing true, and nothing interesting. Only good game on there IMO is Weapon of choice. Side scroller shooter that is very innovative.
I think it's just a matter of time before we get a good one on there. Good thread BTW.
I think it's just a matter of time before we get a good one on there. Good thread BTW.
me too... and for what i talked with Jason, we aint seen the good stuff yet.postman wrote:Duality........
can't wait
just beware, you cant play XBL-CG games if you're not online. lets hope the DualityZF guys make it into XBLA instead of XBL-CG (i really dont like to go online just to play my stuff).
Waiting for Duality also.. 
I think, well hope, that the reason for lack of higher-quality indie titles is just time as people develop their games / engines. Although it could also be the fee to get a subscription, but it really would be cool to see more simple games up that have a good sense of style and art direction and play well too.
Maybe the DreamBuildPlay for this year will bring some cool things..
One game I really enjoyed and purchased is Xeno Arena, it has some shortcomings but I like what the developer had in mind with it, I've played it the most so far.. With some extra polish and tweaks it could be much better.
A nicely done dodgeball game for multiple players is Hieronymus Bash, some one I know at work made it with a small group of people.
I think, well hope, that the reason for lack of higher-quality indie titles is just time as people develop their games / engines. Although it could also be the fee to get a subscription, but it really would be cool to see more simple games up that have a good sense of style and art direction and play well too.
Maybe the DreamBuildPlay for this year will bring some cool things..
One game I really enjoyed and purchased is Xeno Arena, it has some shortcomings but I like what the developer had in mind with it, I've played it the most so far.. With some extra polish and tweaks it could be much better.
A nicely done dodgeball game for multiple players is Hieronymus Bash, some one I know at work made it with a small group of people.
It's not a shmup at all, but my game, Snake360, is in large part aimed at hardcore arcade players--the same kind that play shmups.
It has easy stuff and fun multiplayer for casuals too, but the unlockable Expert and Master difficulties are not for the faint of heart, and you'll need excellent focus and reflexes to have a chance. There are 300 levels in total (60 per difficulty).
Here's a video of me playing Course 6 on Expert (Master is harder). I had a good run going until stage 8...if you clear the first 8 stages on 1 life, you can play the last two. But I didn't that time =\
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/ ... e-6/319113
This more general trailer shows all the game's features.
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/ ... r-2/319202
It's not always good to toot your own horn, but I honestly wouldn't recommend this game here if it sucked. The graphics are mediocre but the gameplay is there, and I think players here may really enjoy it.
And yes... I, too, am looking forward to Duality.
It has easy stuff and fun multiplayer for casuals too, but the unlockable Expert and Master difficulties are not for the faint of heart, and you'll need excellent focus and reflexes to have a chance. There are 300 levels in total (60 per difficulty).
Here's a video of me playing Course 6 on Expert (Master is harder). I had a good run going until stage 8...if you clear the first 8 stages on 1 life, you can play the last two. But I didn't that time =\
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/ ... e-6/319113
This more general trailer shows all the game's features.
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/ ... r-2/319202
It's not always good to toot your own horn, but I honestly wouldn't recommend this game here if it sucked. The graphics are mediocre but the gameplay is there, and I think players here may really enjoy it.
And yes... I, too, am looking forward to Duality.
from my experience the community games suck. They continue to come out rapid fire, each dev trying to find the simplest concept they can publish with minimal effort. How many massage games are needed? How many lame apps like calculators, clocks and plasma screen burn in tools.
Anyway, if Microsoft were to hold a competitions like Epic/Nvidia used to for Unreal Tournament Mods I think you would see higher quality releases. Give away game rewards and $$ for top voted titles in certain categories. They could do something like this every quarter, or twice a year to ensure a flow of higher quality products on the community. However, I doubt mircosoft cares much in this area.
I'll keep an eye on this thread in case someone actually creates a community game that can compete with the iphone products.
Anyway, if Microsoft were to hold a competitions like Epic/Nvidia used to for Unreal Tournament Mods I think you would see higher quality releases. Give away game rewards and $$ for top voted titles in certain categories. They could do something like this every quarter, or twice a year to ensure a flow of higher quality products on the community. However, I doubt mircosoft cares much in this area.
I'll keep an eye on this thread in case someone actually creates a community game that can compete with the iphone products.
First of all, there is plenty of garbage on iPhone...don't pretend like there isn't.agustusx wrote:I'll keep an eye on this thread in case someone actually creates a community game that can compete with the iphone products.
Second, there are quite a number of high-quality Community Games. Go to xblcg.info and sort by recommendations. You'll see a list of good ones right off the bat.
Third: there is no quality control on CG. Peer review is for catching game crashes and inappropriate content. Beyond that, there is nothing, and that is by design. There is going to be crap on CG. Integrated user ratings are coming soon, by the way, so you'll be able to figure it out more easily in due time.
The competition you suggest already exists. It's called DreamBuildPlay and it happens every year. The top games get published on XBLA and receive cash prizes. Other finalists that come out as Community Games have been featured on the dashboard.
I'm sorry that you chose some mediocre CG to try out, but please don't base your entire overall opinion of CG on a few bad experiences. Go download trials of Miner Dig Deep, Biology Battle, Blow, Groov and Snake360...I can assure you that none of those represent "minimal effort."
Yeah, there's a lot of garbage on CG, but there's also some great games in there too if you know where to look. Recommendations are really important for these games, if you just try to play everything you'll get burned out and hate the service, haha. That's why Unrevolutionary prompted me to start this thread, that game has the quality of a commercial game and definitely deserves to be looked at by people. I sure haven't played the majority of the games so I also appreciate recommendations by people. Especially in a genre like shooters, where the posters here know a lot more than most reviewers about the genre.
yyr: I tried out your Snake game, I noticed there were two versions of it but I only got the normal one. I guess it's a good snake clone, I'm not sure if I like the voices and the music is kind of generic, but I guess the gameplay is pretty faithful, haha. I'm not the biggest fan of snake games, but I can someone who likes them to get a few solid hours out of the title. Maybe I'll buy it just to support a fellow forumer, heh.
yyr: I tried out your Snake game, I noticed there were two versions of it but I only got the normal one. I guess it's a good snake clone, I'm not sure if I like the voices and the music is kind of generic, but I guess the gameplay is pretty faithful, haha. I'm not the biggest fan of snake games, but I can someone who likes them to get a few solid hours out of the title. Maybe I'll buy it just to support a fellow forumer, heh.
I never stated the iphone didn't have crap... Please don't put words in my mouth. Crap games are irrelevant, they are everywhere. But, in every gaming dev community there are top tier games. We need more of those 
However, I did not mean EVERYONE tried to shovel shit, although I did use the phrase "each dev". My bad if I hit a funny bone.
The CG has no Killer Apps in the line of shooters. For the record I've played tons of CG games, I'm not basing my opinions on one or two releases. I took a look at the XBLACG link and I have already tried the (somewhat highly) recommended games. I am not missing anything.
Hopefully this years competition will bring us golden nuggets! When is that over with?
However, I did not mean EVERYONE tried to shovel shit, although I did use the phrase "each dev". My bad if I hit a funny bone.
The CG has no Killer Apps in the line of shooters. For the record I've played tons of CG games, I'm not basing my opinions on one or two releases. I took a look at the XBLACG link and I have already tried the (somewhat highly) recommended games. I am not missing anything.
Hopefully this years competition will bring us golden nuggets! When is that over with?
Play the trial again on the Difficult level and you'll start to see how it's different from the old versions. =) If you decide to buy it, thanks for your support! Oh, and if you don't like the announcer (me, lol), turn him off in the audio options menu. Custom soundtracks are supported too.originalz wrote:I guess it's a good snake clone
BTW, the other version ("Lite") has less content and is half the price, but strips out the really challenging stuff.
@agustusx
DreamBuildPlay 2009 projects need to be submitted by August 9th. Winners will be announced in early September. Unfortunately, the finished games probably won't be hitting XBLA until sometime next year (last year's winners have showed up only recently).