Posted 11/08/10 09:04:00 am
Below is a short list of things that I feel Microsoft really needs to do to help the Xbox Live Indie Games developers. Lets face it, they don't need to do anything, but I feel like this is a lost opportunity to let it continue on it's current path into obscurity.
Add a "Picks of the Day/Week" tab to the games lists. This is a great way to awaken a sleeping giant that may have come out in a bad release window. Randomly bubbling games up to some kind of list gives players confidence in those games. Right now, if you fall off of the New Arrivals list and don't make it to the Top Downloads your game is lost in obscurity. The problem with the current Top lists is that they feed on each other. If you are on one Top list, you are likely on all of them. With a fixed number of slots, the top lists are often leeched by the same games every week.Market! Add a slot to the Welcome page. Tell gamers where to find the Indie games. I doubt that most Xbox owners even know where to look. I'd love to see a poll on this statistic.Implement a "gold star" system. There needs to be a second tier of quality, separating the hobby games from the more serious games. A more strict list of requirements might be all this system needs. There is already a collection of debates on the App Hub forums, discussing minor fails vs major fails. I wouldn't mind extending this conversation to include a gold star for overachievers, instilling some faith in a product that may otherwise be lost in an ocean of amateur titles.Deals of the Week / Weekend Deals. Steam got this right. I know that it's tough to mark down a $1 game, but mixing things up might not be a bad idea. What about "5 shooters for 500MSP", bundling a mix of $1, $3, and $5 games.Bring back the "Community" concept. There should be a central hub for gamers; fans of the Indie circuit. This would allow creators to directly market to their audience and get people excited about their next release.Give developers the power to pull the trigger. It is absolutely impossible to raise any kind of buzz for your game when all you can say is "coming soon" or "some time in the month" as a release date. Keep the approval process, but don't publish the game until the creator hits that publish button. This gives the creator one last chance to pull the game or change pricing, and also better time their own releases.Microsoft needs to collect statistics on purchases and suggest similar games. Creators can be asked to enter these search terms, allowing Microsoft to generate a list of suggestions, similar to Netflix. This is fairly common practice when uploading videos to youtube.com or gametrailers.com, so why not video games?Allow Indie creators to participate in giveaways. If Microsoft is planning any big giveaways or contests, creators should be given the option to join in. Giving away 50 copies of your game could result in 1000 new sales based upon the exposure alone, assuming Microsoft promotes their contest on the front pages.Give creators a chance to create themes, icons, and avatar clothes. I am pretty sure that this is not available, but it would be a great advertisement opportunity to distribute something other than the game itself. It would also allow creators to keep their games in the minds of gamers. Since Indie games are now specialty items, why not open up the rest of that market to them?Enable support for other XBLA features like leader boards and achievements. Let's do away with the distributed Highscore system and use the tools that already exist.
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