In an interview posted at IndieGames.com, six Xbox Indie Game developers were questioned about their commitment to the service, the future, and the improvements they hope to see going forward. The six participants were Camille Guermonprez of Arkedo Studios, Luke Schneider of Radian Games, Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games, Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, Nathan Fouts of Mommy’s Best Games, and Deejay of Binary Tweed. While each had a different opinion, the consensus was that until Microsoft makes the service more of a focus, they’ll be forced to turn toward alternatives.
“The decision to leave, or rather seek out additional platforms, is based solely on XBLIG’s underperforming financial state,” said Matthew Doucette. “It’s great that XBLIG development is essentially free in terms of fees, aside the $120/year membership fee, but developer and game content expenses can be massive to a start-up.”
Radian Games’ Luke Schneider offered an even direr perspective: “My sales hit a plateau after my third game was released, but that plateau is lower than the amount of money I need to make a living. I thought they’d continue to slowly creep up, but even with three new games since then, I’ve never made enough money in a month to cover all my living expenses.”
While some of the six developers plan to continue using the service, none have found it a realistic channel to remain exclusive to. “Frequent dashboard issues which can cripple a game launch and many small but substantial handicaps to the service have forced Mommy’s Best Games to develop for other platforms,” said Nathan Fouts.
Doucette has several of his own ideas for improvements to the service, which he has detailed in an article proposing XBLIG changes. Other improvements suggested by the group include proper leaderboard support, more focus on top-rated games, and Kinect and achievement support.
“If they want to make a commitment to making XBLIG more than a niche product, they’ll need to commit the resources (aka testing and standards) necessary to approve Achievements for some or all,” said Schneider.
Of course, a real issue with achievements in independent games is abuse. Anyone who spends time with XBLIG can see that the market is filled with cheap cash grabs and games that only exist to profit on the latest trend. Throwing achievements into the mix, if not done right, could encourage a lot of people to play simply to pad their gamerscore.
But the biggest issue, it seems, is whether Microsoft would actually make any of these changes. “Microsoft could fix these problems, but it’s very likely that they won’t be able to,” argued Deejay of Binary Tweed. “They have ongoing relationships worth millions of dollars with publishers that far outweigh the needs of the indie development scene.”
While Indie Games began as Community Games and seemed intended for hobbyists above all else, this group proves that bigger indie developers want the marketplace to be a more profitable, sustainable channel. I can’t imagine Microsoft wouldn’t want the same, but I also agree with Deejay’s doubts about whether Microsoft has the resources to address improvements anytime soon. For now, Xbox Indies will continue to be a hopeless search for that diamond in the rough and a time-consuming gamble for the developers that use it.
