Prince Of Persia creator Jordan Mechner is remaking his breakout hit, 1984 Apple II game Karateka, for Xbox Live Arcade and SEN. Speaking to VentureBeat, Mechner confirmed that the remake will be his first day-to-day development job since Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. He has spent the interim writing for graphic novels, and wrote and directed 2003 documentary Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story. More >
Double Fine head Tim Schafer has said that independent developers are drifting away from the "closed" console download services because of prohibitive costs, claiming that patches alone cost $40,000. Speaking to Hookshot Inc, Schafer said that while Xbox Live Arcade and PSN were genuine options for indies when their host platforms launched, the likes of Steam and the App Store, as well as the Minecraft model, are now much better routes to market. More >
Finnish developer RedLynx has denied that it is behind the appearance on file-sharing websites of its upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game Trials Evolution. The studio once uploaded an incomplete PC build of Trials 2 SE to The Pirate Bay in a bid to stimulate demand for the game. Speaking to Develop, however, managing director Tero Virtala insisted his company had nothing to do with the leak of Evolution, which is due to be released on XBLA this year. More >
'Help' and 'train' among words forbidden in online sessions of Denki's multiplayer word game.
3Dundee-based Denki has revealed that Quarrel was "rejected by almost every game publisher in the world" and called on gamers to prove them wrong on the day its multiplayer word game launches on Xbox Live Arcade. In a post on the company blog, managing director Colin Anderson admits that Quarrel was actually rejected twice, and even three times, by some publishers. The struggle to strike a publishing deal caused Denki to restructure and lay off a number of staff in April 2010. Quarrel was eventually released for iPhone last August. More >
3
"I think we might be the first to do constant updates," says 4J Studios' Paddy Burns.
Indie action-RPG Bastion has passed half a million sales, developer Supergiant Games has announced. "Recent holiday sales on Steam and Xbox Live Arcade put us over the top," Bastion writer Greg Kasavin posted on the studio's blog. "We're happy to have this many people playing and to be in a position to make more games on our own terms." More >
Zynga's success and Team Fortress 2's switch prompted an industry-wide shift to freemium in 2011, but has it paid off?
Finnish developer Remedy has revealed Alan Wake's American Nightmare, set for release on Xbox Live Arcade in the first quarter of 2012. More >
Joe Danger: Special Edition will be released on Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday, December 14, developer Hello Games has announced. The game is an updated version of that released on PlayStation 3 last year, with an extra ten to 15 hours of content. The bulk of that lies in The Laboratory, a set of developer missions, but the studio has also tweaked aspects of the PS3 release with which it wasn't satisfied. More >
1The organisers of the Independent Games Festival (IGF), the celebration of indie games which runs as part of the Game Developers Conference, has announced a multi-year partnership that will see Microsoft sponsor an award for games on the Xbox Live Arcade service. More >
Robomodo, developer of Tony Hawk: Ride, is seeking funding for development of its new project on crowdsourcing website Kickstarter. The developer's mobile wing, Robomite, is seeking $35,000 in funding for Bodoink, a Kinect game using Xbox Avatars for release on Xbox Live Arcade. Writing on Kickstarter, the team explains that its primary goal is to finish development of the game before finding a publisher, a necessary evil for the game to stand out on XBLA, enabling it to retain full control of the IP. More >
Iron Brigade, known outside Europe as Trenched, will be released on Xbox Live Arcade on November 30. The European release of Double Fine's mech tower defence game was held up due to a trademark dispute, with a Portuguese designer claiming that, under the name Trenched, the game would violate his trademark for a war-themed board game called Trench. More >
Double Fine has blamed the ongoing delay for the European release of Iron Brigade on Microsoft's famously arduous certification process, which has been further complicated by the change from its original name, Trenched, amid fears of a protracted trademark battle. Trenched - released in the US in June - was delayed in Europe due to a potential violation of a trademark held by a Portuguese designer for his board game Trench. The name was changed in August and was due for release the following month, but it is yet to appear on the Xbox Live Marketplace. More >
1
Platform holder gave blessing to XBLA release despite backing original through Pub Fund; Microsoft bent its own rules, too.
Guildford studio Hello Games' 2010 PlayStation Network title Joe Danger is headed to XBLA. The game, a PSN exclusive that was one of the first games to receive backing from Sony's Pub Fund, will be released under the name Joe Danger Special Edition, as a Korean ratings board listing recently revealed. More >
1The Xbox Live Arcade port of indie success story Minecraft has slipped to next spring. The delay was revealed by Microsoft producer Stuart Platt on Twitter yesterday. Announced at E3 in June, the XBLA port of Minecraft is being handled by Dundee developer 4J Studios and was originally set for release in 2011 More >
1Upcoming Xbox Live Arcade platformer Fez was last night named Best In Show at the IndieCade 2011 festival in California. Polytron's game also won the award for story/world design, Joystiq reports. PlayStation Move music title Johann Sebastian Joust also took home two gongs, for best technology and impact on the community. More >
World Of Goo dev's survey finds that developers are drifting away from Xbox Live Arcade in favour of other, more open platforms.
5
Ubisoft's troubled survival adventure reborn as a download title, due this winter.