Indie Games Uprising III begins today - 9 Xbox Live Indie Games for $11

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The Indie Games Uprising is being advertised on the Xbox Dash starting today and if my website traffic is any indication, there is a lot of interest. Below is a list of titles, reviews and so forth for everyone!

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Today marks the beginning of the third Uprising showcase for Xbox Live Indie Games, otherwise known as the Indie Games Uprising III. Starting today and continuing on to the 20th, a new Xbox Live Indie Game will be released. Most of these games were top 20 finalists for Microsoft's Dream. Build. Play contest. Check out the official website HERE.

Launch Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmxuOSQfHDw

Sept. 10 - qrth-phyl - $1 (80 MSP) - Reviews: Clearance Bin Review, Indie Ocean, Indie Gamer Chick, Indie Theory
Sept. 11- Sententia - $1 (80 MSP) - Reviews: Indie Gamer Chick, Indie Theory, Clearance Bin Review
Sept. 12 - Diehard Dungeon - $1 (80 MSP) - Reviews: Clearance Bin Review, The/./XBLIG, Indie Gamer Chick
Sept. 13 - Gateways - Now only $1 (80 MSP)! - Reviews: Clearance Bin Review, Indie Gamer Chick, The/./XBLIG
Sept. 14 - Smooth Operators - $1 (80 MSP) - Reviews: Clearance Bin Review, The/./XBLIG, Indie Gamer Chick
Sept. 17 - Entropy - $1 (80 MSP) - Reviews: Clearance Bin Review, Indie Gamer Chick, The/./XBLIG
Sept. 18 - City Tuesday - $1 (80 MSP) - Reviews: Clearance Bin Review, Indie Ocean, Indie Gamer Chick, The Indie Mine
Sept. 19 - XenoMiner - $1 (80 MSP) - Reviews: Clearance Bin Review, Indie Gamer Chick, The/./XBLIG
Sept. 20 - Pixel - $1 (80 MSP) - Reviews: Clearance Bin Review, Indie Gamer Chick, The/./XBLIG

You can also download the soundtrack for the Indie Game Uprising III HERE (Sorry for linking the album indirectly through CBR, but I only have a Tinyurl for the album and I can't link that on CAG)
 
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Thanks for posting, OP. I did some research on qrth-phyl, and it looks like it's a futuristic, 3D, eye candy version of Snake. Definitely not a bad deal for $1. I just wanna know what the developer was thinking naming it that, haha.
 
[quote name='Jackie Chandler']Thanks for posting, OP. I did some research on qrth-phyl, and it looks like it's a futuristic, 3D, eye candy version of Snake. Definitely not a bad deal for $1. I just wanna know what the developer was thinking naming it that, haha.[/QUOTE]

“[The game's title] does mean something to me, yeah, but I’m going to keep it to myself,” he said. “The name represents the game; it’s a manifesto. And it’s my game, I can call it whatever I like.” - http://clearancebinreview.com/2012/08/29/hermit-games-makes-interesting-games-in-interesting-places/
:roll:
He also makes games in a bathroom.
 
I was just about to post this. Thanks Wrong, and thanks for linking CBR's previews. I updated the main post a bit with some more info/flash it up a bit. This year's collection is really something else. We've also been doing developer interviews and profiles on CBR as well (the bit about the game being what he wants is from our profile of hermitgames).

I hope to have a review of qrth-phyl up tonight. Indie Ocean just posted their review, haven't read it though because I don't want it to influence mine.
 
Indie games...

Also not really a deal but XBLIG has had some nice stuff so I'm not that mad at seeing developer attempts to expose themselves on that horrible ass-end ghetto service at least before jumping to PC for that sweet sweet indie royale money. That said, not a one of these really draws my eye
 
[quote name='RollingSkull']Indie games...

Also not really a deal but XBLIG has had some nice stuff so I'm not that mad at seeing developer attempts to expose themselves on that horrible ass-end ghetto service at least before jumping to PC for that sweet sweet indie royale money. That said, not a one of these really draws my eye[/QUOTE]

PC is by no means a gravy train, and at least two of these games are also releasing for PC, couple more are planned (Gateways for example is by Adventures of Shuggy Developer Smudge Cat Games and will release on both Steam and XBLIG). There are also a LOT of good games on XBLIG, a lot of crap too, but there's a lot of crap on XBLA too.

I really don't know how you can't have even a mild interest in any of these 9 games.
 
Just finished my review for QRTH-PHYL (and for the first time I didn't have to double check how to spell it) and updated the OP with CBR and Indie Ocean's reviews instead of the preview link. I would definitely recommend it. Yeah, it's really just Snake 3D but it feels like a lot more when playing it and it is kind of fun. My high score currently is 2358, so I'm not very good at it, but still. Fun game.
 
However it is pronounced, trying to launch the game with Kinect voice activation was a trying experience.

Sententia is now available for $1 from the Xbox Live Marketplace! Sententia is developed by Michael Hicks/MichaelArts who developed the Honor in Vengeance series which is also worth taking a look at. One of the youngest developers on the XBLIG service! I'll add reviews to the OP soon as I'm able to play/write mine and others do the same.
 
I wish Wombat would have brought up the indie game uprising in this weeks CAGCast. He tried a few weeks adding an indie review a week.
 
I bought Diehard Dungeon after five minutes of demo'ing... no way it isn't worth the dollar.

I haven't touched Sententia yet but it's getting slayed by the reviews I've read thus far. Is it really that bad?
 
Sadly Sententia is... lacking. I feel like I went fairly easy on it, but still feel bad for my review as I like Michael (the developer). He's done a lot of work to make the Uprising happen. Puzzles were backwards enough that it actually set back most of us who were reviewing the game (Indie Gamer Chick got fed up enough to quit early which is why she beat everyone else).

Sorry I couldn't update this morning with review links and the Diehard Dungeon marketplace link, I wasn't actually able to finish Sententia until this afternoon (after work) because it took the developer giving me a hint on the last puzzle late last night to even get me there. Really looking forward to starting up Diehard Dungeon in a couple of minutes.
 
Also want to mention that Diehard Dungeon has a patch incoming in the next couple of days: From their site:

The first patch for Diehard Dungeon is finished and will be uploaded to peer review shortly (will hopefully be available within 2-3 days).
This is quite a substantial update that improves many of the visuals as well as fixing a few bugs.
List of changes:

  • All wall sprites have either been completely remade or improved
  • Companion chest sprites remade
  • Wall holes remade
  • Rage and Lucky bonuses now stack
  • Hand Cannon is removed on restart
  • Poison walk with key speed fixed
  • Fireproof ability collision with enemies fixed
  • Wall spike pressure pads centralised
  • Gold key scarcity fixed
  • Restart disabled if killed before companion chest acquired
  • Champion mode no longer requires a Xbox Live Gold account to unlock
  • A few more tweaks here and there!
The next patch will include a major update to the Mayhem minigame as well as more enemies/traps/abilities.
 
[quote name='BudzMcGee']It is. Review coming probably in the early afternoon tomorrow. The mayhem mini game is a blast too.[/QUOTE]

Yep. Diehard Dungeon is awesome!

That mayhem minigame is quite fun too, although I have no idea where I rank on the leaderboard. I keep getting in the 114k range, if anyone wants to let me know how low I am.
 
I was in first for a while on Mayhem with around 554,000 if that gives you an idea.

Added links to Gateways and Smooth Operators which are now available on Xbox Live. I'll post review links later. The developers are unable to access their download tokens, so they aren't able to send out review codes right now which is slowing down the whole process for the press writing said reviews. Couldn't happen at a worse time.
 
Yeah, Diehard Dungeon is pretty awesome. I still prefer Cursed Loot but DD comes close enough.

Too bad about Sententia. While I haven't had the chance to play it (and probably never will), I do agree with a point IGC made; you can't call your game "art" and expect a free pass. I mean, I can take a crap on a paper plate and call it art these days, but doesn't mean people are going to want to look at it.
 
[quote name='Turbojugend']Yeah, Diehard Dungeon is pretty awesome. I still prefer Cursed Loot but DD comes close enough.

Too bad about Sententia. While I haven't had the chance to play it (and probably never will), I do agree with a point IGC made; you can't call your game "art" and expect a free pass. I mean, I can take a crap on a paper plate and call it art these days, but doesn't mean people are going to want to look at it.[/QUOTE]

It was unfortunate. IGC really tore into it, I saw some merit in it, but IGC seems to really hates art games and really really hates art games that call themselves art games so it never stood a chance. :lol:

Gateways is a lot of fun by the way; though insanely hard towards the end... like I'm trying to beat the last puzzle using a video guide and still can't do it level of hard.
 
[quote name='BudzMcGee']
Gateways is a lot of fun by the way; though insanely hard towards the end... like I'm trying to beat the last puzzle using a video guide and still can't do it level of hard.[/QUOTE]

There are video guides for that game already?
 
The developer actually uploaded a video for the final puzzle. If you watch it, you'll understand why. It's insanely difficult. I've tried for well over 2 hours, with the video, and still can't get it.
 
No more releases today, starts up again on Monday. I'll continue to update with reviews as they roll in. Should be publishing CBR's review for Gateways sometime this evening. Going to take one last shot at the damn last puzzle first.
 
[quote name='BudzMcGee']Sadly Sententia is... lacking. I feel like I went fairly easy on it, but still feel bad for my review as I like Michael (the developer). He's done a lot of work to make the Uprising happen. Puzzles were backwards enough that it actually set back most of us who were reviewing the game (Indie Gamer Chick got fed up enough to quit early which is why she beat everyone else).[/QUOTE]
Agreed that it just doesn't seem like "Sententia" brought their A-game to the table. If you know your product has fallacies, you either rebrand it as "budget", or you just don't bring it to market ... it's that simple ... and it's a lesson that should've been learned long ago if you want to make it in the commercial game industry. Crap doesn't sell, it merely spawns crap reviews.

With the 80pt games that have come up so far ... qrth-phyl (the game with the copy-paste name!), Diehard Dungeon, and Smooth Operators ... I'll typically insta-buy when they make their games so affordable that I want to reward them for making the game decent enough at 1st glance that I know I'll get 15 minutes of fun out of it, and that equals my "fun for a price" threshold of $4/hr. As for "Gateways", I sadly probably won't pick it up if the final price is intended to be 240pts, since I simply now have too many other indie games that were more compelling to my wallet. Even if the game earns stellar reviews, there's still so many other games out there at the same price that simply being part of the "Indie Games 3 Uprising" promo doesn't cut the mustard either. You have to be willing to put your pride & comfort level out on a limb in order to be noticed.

Can't wait to see the other games coming up! Just about everything in the trailer, with the exception of "Sententia" (obviously), look great, and all the authors deserve a round of applause. My only regret is that I have but 1 life to spend playing so many quality contenders. :)
 
[quote name='Cornelius']Agreed that it just doesn't seem like "Sententia" brought their A-game to the table. If you know your product has fallacies, you either rebrand it as "budget", or you just don't bring it to market ... it's that simple ... and it's a lesson that should've been learned long ago if you want to make it in the commercial game industry. Crap doesn't sell, it merely spawns crap reviews.

With the 80pt games that have come up so far ... qrth-phyl (the game with the copy-paste name!), Diehard Dungeon, and Smooth Operators ... I'll typically insta-buy when they make their games so affordable that I want to reward them for making the game decent enough at 1st glance that I know I'll get 15 minutes of fun out of it, and that equals my "fun for a price" threshold of $4/hr. As for "Gateways", I sadly probably won't pick it up if the final price is intended to be 240pts, since I simply now have too many other indie games that were more compelling to my wallet. Even if the game earns stellar reviews, there's still so many other games out there at the same price that simply being part of the "Indie Games 3 Uprising" promo doesn't cut the mustard either. You have to be willing to put your pride & comfort level out on a limb in order to be noticed.

Can't wait to see the other games coming up! Just about everything in the trailer, with the exception of "Sententia" (obviously), look great, and all the authors deserve a round of applause. My only regret is that I have but 1 life to spend playing so many quality contenders. :)[/QUOTE]

Just updated the OP with some Gateways reviews, including my own. It is a stellar game, though insanely difficult. It will most likely wind up being the stand-out game from the Uprising (though I'd love to be proven wrong).

The 240 price point comes mostly from the fact that game also released on Steam where it is being sold for more. Keep in mind too, this is an established developer who even has an XBLA game (The Adventures of Shuggy). It may seem "pricey" compared to the others, but it is still an awesome game for a whopping $3. It came very close to getting CBR's first ever 10/10 score.
 
Just came to post that and add the link to the OP. Haven't touched it yet but it looks fantastic. Hope it lives up to the visuals.

I imagine there will be more Smooth Operators reviews come tomorrow.
 
Is die hard dungeon more suited for a console with the controls? For $1, I'll most likely pick it up on the xbox, but just wondering if it's worth adding to steam using a keyboard.
 
[quote name='shivan128']Is die hard dungeon more suited for a console with the controls? For $1, I'll most likely pick it up on the xbox, but just wondering if it's worth adding to steam using a keyboard.[/QUOTE]

Are you getting diehard dungeon and gateways confused? I could double check but I don't recall dungeon being on steam. Either way, dungeon only has like three buttons and you aren't going to see an improvement on a keyboard. Gateways however is on steam for $1 more ($4 till 9/20) but does play slightly better with a keyboard.
 
[quote name='BudzMcGee']Are you getting diehard dungeon and gateways confused? I could double check but I don't recall dungeon being on steam. Either way, dungeon only has like three buttons and you aren't going to see an improvement on a keyboard. Gateways however is on steam for $1 more ($4 till 9/20) but does play slightly better with a keyboard.[/QUOTE]

Whoops, you're right, I meant Gateways. I already bought die-hard dungeon. Apologies for the typo, when you're running on 2-hour sleep days with the daughter just being born... :lol:
 
[quote name='shivan128']Whoops, you're right, I meant Gateways. I already bought die-hard dungeon. Apologies for the typo, when you're running on 2-hour sleep days with the daughter just being born... :lol:[/QUOTE]

Haha, well then I'd warn you that you might forgo your daughter's welfare to play Gateways a little bit more (you will not want to stop mid-puzzle for anything).
 
Forgot to bump the thread when I added Pixel's link to the OP yesterday. I'll add some more review links for the games today as well. Working on my review of Entropy at the moment.
 
I appreciate you keeping up with this thread, OP. Per recommendations here, I bought Diehard Dungeon and I'm loving it. I'll probably nab Gateways (on Steam) sometime soon, too. The reviews you've posted have been especially helpful. Thanks!
 
Updated the OP with more reviews, specifically a few more for Smooth Operators and City Tuesday as well as some reviews for Entropy including CBR's. From what I've seen so far, Clearance Bin Review's review is the only review written by someone who has actually completed the game. For whatever that is wroth.
 
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