Gamasutra article mentions VGChartz...

Former XBLA portfolio manager David Edery Talks XBLA, PSN, WiiWare Advantages, Drawbacks

In a talk at the Digital Distribution Summit in Melbourne, Australia, former XBLA portfolio manager David Edery discussed opportunities for creators on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare, suggesting that though the market is "smaller than a lot of us would like", it's growing quickly.

Starting out, Edery, who now runs consultancy Fuzbi, sketched the size of the market for console digital download. He commented that, according to his sources, Xbox Live Arcade was the top in terms of market right now, PlayStation Network is "still lucrative, but potentially smaller", and WiiWare is the smallest of all.

He particularly suggested this is because the WiiWare service is "buried in the Wii dashboard", with no demos and no user ratings, so you can really only depend on word of mouth and external website reviews for creating buzz.

He pointed out that the inverse is true regarding approval and funding -- it's "reasonably difficult" to get approval, funding or a publishing deal for Xbox Live Arcade platforms, and it's much easier to get approved for WiiWare. So this is important to weigh when looking at systems to target.

Edery did comment: "The market is smaller than a lot of us would like at this time" - but it's growing quickly. He cited the recent 300,000 unit sales for Trials HD, and said: "these [digital distribution] ecosystems are going to be the future" -- if perhaps not dominant in this console generation.

Tackling the pitch to the platform holder or publisher itself, Edery commented: "The longer your pitch, the lower the chances of your success is", since many of those who get pitched a lot "don't really have a lot of patience and time". In fact, he said: "If you can't describe your game in a single sentence, than you have a problem."

Other potential pitfalls were also listed. It's also vital to be able to describe your target audience. Edery noted that many Xbox Live Arcade pitches sent to him either didn't have an audience named, or was incredibly broad. Having a specific age and interest range in mind is quite important.

In addition, incorrect information can wreak havoc with approaches. For example, Edery noted that "we would get pitches from developers for card and board games" by citing Carcassone, which, according to disputed chart creator VGChartz.com, had sold a great deal of copies. But VGChartz bundles in free copies of the game, something that the pitches had misconstrued, and much of that revenue was in fact not there.

How about current development budgets for Xbox Live Arcade games? Edery estimated that when he joined Microsoft soon after Xbox Live Arcade's start, the averange title had a $250,000 budget. The average when he left was $500,000, and perhaps now, he thought, it was $750,000 -- so as sales increase, the budgets are getting larger quite swiftly.

Moving on, Edery noted that "understanding the platform agenda" is important. For example, in the early days of PlayStation Network, Edery believes that games were not greenlit if they didn't show they were pushing the PS3 hardware forward. For XBLA, Microsoft was looking for bite-sized, especially casual and retro titles. For WiiWare, making novel use of the Wiimote was key.

The consultant said that these agendas changed more often that you think. Edery said that there were 7 re-organizations in the 3 years he was at Xbox Live Arcade, and at least 2 major changes of direction, with many more minor ones. So you "really really have to stay in touch" to make sure everything is similar to before.

Edery then warned about 'The Long Tail' concept for digital downloaded games, noting that "hits are still what drive the business". And the importance of marketing is paramount, as he quipped: "Do not make a great game, and presume that because it's great, you're all set."

Finally, apart from announcing your game early and communicating with your community often, Edery commented that get friendly with the platform holders is important. He notably cited NinjaBee's A Kingdom For Keflings, which was the first game to properly integrate Avatars into their Xbox Live Arcade game, and became enormously successful, partly due to this and Microsoft's support of it.

 

The small, inexpensive nature of downloadable games has made them a haven for experimental game design. One of the more original titles on the way is Tecmo's Fret Nice, a platformer that is designed to be played with a Guitar Hero or Rock Band guitar controller. Add in a slick and stylish visual approach and you've got one of the more intriguing titles to look forward to for XBLA and PSN.

It takes a little while to wrap your head around Fret Nice -- playing a platfomer with a guitar controller isn't the most intuitive of setups. The green button on the neck is used for moving to the left while the red goes right. The middle button, colored yellow, is used for jumping. The strum bar is hit to climb up or down ropes. You'll have to play a level or two before this becomes intuitive, but soon enough you'll find your fingers less entangled.

At first glance, it might seem like the guitar controller is a bit unnecessary. That's before you get into the combat portion of Fret Nice. As you work through each level, various goofy looking creatures will get in the way. Some will have one or more eyes, mouths, hair follicles or band-aids. The number and type of facial features is the key to destroying these monsters. One eye means that you should jump in the air, then play a single note of your choice. Two eyes mean that you should play that note twice. Two eyes and a mouth indicates that the enemy can be killed by first playing a note twice, and then playing a different note once. The music you play matches with the background music, so you'll find that each time you jump to attack an enemy, you're adding to the music with a new riff.

If you don't have a guitar controller -- or simply don't want to use one -- Fret Nice can be played with a standard controller. The general platforming is a bit easier with a normal control set up, but some of the novelty is lost and dishing out combo note attacks isn't quite as elegant.

The first being the look on your spouse on his/her dissapointment on how quick that was?

Hydrophobia Hands-On Preview

In its 24 months underground (or should that be underwater?) the biggest change has unquestionably been its shift from full retail release to Live Arcade title. Hydrophobia's story has been split into three episodes of around five hours each to be released within a twelve month window. If it proves to be successful there's potential for more episodes beyond the original three.

Although digital deliveries are normally associated with lesser games nothing has been scaled back to squeeze Hydrophobia's file size down. It's a game comparable to most full-priced titles you'd care to mention (and indeed, offering more than some of them), and is best described as a kind of damp amalgamation of Tomb Raider and Dead Space.

...

The shift from retail release to XBLA resulted in some unexpected knock-on effects. Microsoft rules state that every Live Arcade game must support Leaderboard functionality, and so Dark Energy Digital has had to write scoring systems into Hydrophobia. Episode one is split into three distinct acts, and at each interval players are awarded a score for the previous chapter. Completion time, accuracy, health, environmental takedowns and stealth all play a part, so perfectionists will find plenty of replay value.

New XBLA games this week:

Bust-A-Move Live

Military Madness

Football Genius

superb thread!!!

Zeno Clash was an indie darling when it was released on PC earlier this year. The first-person punching game was built with Valve's Source engine and featured satisfying combat and a bizarre story. Xbox 360 gamers will get a chance to see what all the fuss is about when Atlus publishes Zeno Clash on Xbox Live Arcade next spring. Atlus says the XBLA version will be "vastly improved" over the PC original and is naming it Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition. It will boast new modes, new features, and improvements made based on fan feedback. One new feature will be a survival mode called Tower Challenge, which is a co-op mode outside the single-player campaign.

(PC version)

Another more than deserved bump.

If i post comments and see this thread going near the bottom of my recent posts i will bump this beauty again.

Great work sinha.

This is one of the best threads on this site, amazing how sinha keeps it updated all the time too!

More Indie Games for $1

Junkyard Battle

Pixel Man

Fishing Girl