Several Prizes Up For Grabs Including An All Expenses Paid Vacation

The Game Creators have teamed up with Intel to offer game developers the chance to win some amazing prizes for developing new games for netbooks. There are several fantastic prizes on offer with the top prize being an all expenses paid vacation worth up to US $5,000!

We’ve all been there, on the road on vacation with the family and our trusty old netbook is ready at the go to Facebook, Twitter and surf the web. But after all the chatty time, aren’t you really just itching to have a death race, zap alien ships, and kill zombies on your netbook too?

Well Intel wants your help, and has partnered with The Game Creators to seek out, recognize and reward excellent game development for netbook devices. So, if you’re on your summer holidays, on a break from work or just simply love to develop games, The Game Creators and Intel want you!

The Game Creators’ Financial Director, Rick Vanner, said “This competition is aimed at empowering the many talented amateur game makers that love to spend their spare time coding games and demos. The Intel AppUp store will give them a direct channel to market and sell their small game apps to millions of users worldwide. By using Dark Basic Professional or Dark GDK they can create games in a very short time scale. We have a very creative community and it will be very exciting to see what they develop.”

For this competition there is a deadline of 3rd October at 12PM GMT so those looking to enter need to get cracking now!

Further information on the Games for Netbooks competition can be found at:

http://www.thegamecreators.com/intelcompo/index.php

Further information on The Game Creators can be found at:

http://www.thegamecreators.com/

FADE is a strategic market research and consulting firm focused on electronic entertainment and the emerging download and mobile game markets. With very little information currently available in these markets, FADE allows smaller developers to investigate these new potential sources of revenue and make informed business decisions moving forward. Currently, FADE produces monthly and annual reports for Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, WiiWare & Virtual Console, and mobile markets including iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. For more information, please visit http://www.fadellc.com.

Xbox Live Arcade Grows During Weak Month, Realizes 30% Growth Over Last May

June 22, 2010 - As per the released report by Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE), the Xbox Live Arcade marketplace saw a reduction of 23% in gross revenue when compared to April, but also realized a favorable 30% increase compared to May 2009.

FADE estimates that gaming revenue on Xbox Live Arcade reached $5.8 million USD in the month of May, compared to $7.6 million USD in April – a drop of 23%. Despite the drop, May has always been Xbox Live Arcade’s worst month, as represented by a paltry, estimated $4.5 million USD gross last year. Year to date estimates stand at $39.7 million USD – up 10% from this point last year.

Microsoft also broke records on the number of titles released during May. 10 new titles were released during the month – which is the most during 2010 by a wide margin (February saw 6 new releases, and every other month has seen 5). May 2010 ranks as the 3rd most prolific month on record for XBLA, with only June and September 2009 seeing more releases.

“Microsoft has continued to work with product strategies, and content lineups for Xbox Live Arcade, which has resulted in strong growth for the platform this year. For the past 3 months, major changes have been made to Xbox Live Arcade which has resulted in 28% year-on-year growth since March.” said Benjamin Schlichter, Director of Research and Analysis at FADE.

New titles did well during the month, with ‘Metal Slug XX’ leading the way with an estimated 21,000 units sold at $15.00 USD. ‘Doom 2′ outsold Metal Slug XX in terms of units, but not revenue, realizing 24,000 units sold at $10.00 USD during the week of tracking available on the market. Shoot-em-up renovation ‘RayStorm HD’ also did well, selling an estimated 14,000 units at $15.00 USD. Despite all the new releases, a familiar favorite ‘Trials HD’ was the top title of the month, selling an estimated 31,000 units at $15.00 USD. FADE estimates that Trials HD is nearing the elite million seller category, and will join exclusive company with ‘Castle Crashers’, ‘Battlefield 1943′ and ‘UNO’.

FADE Top 10 Estimates for May 2010, by Revenue:

1. Trials HD (RedLynx) – 31,000 downloads
2. Toy Soldiers (Signal Studios) – 27,000 downloads
3. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) – 24,000 downloads
4. Metal Slug XX (SNK Playmore) – 21,000 downloads
5. Doom 2 (id Software) – 25,000 downloads
6. Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) – 15,000 downloads
7. Raystorm HD (Taito) – 14,000 downloads
8. Rocket Knight (Konami) – 13,000 downloads
9. Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) – 18,000 downloads
10. Perfect Dark (Rare/4J Games) – 17,000 downloads

About Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC

FADE is a strategic market research and consulting firm focused on electronic entertainment and the emerging download and mobile game markets. With very little information currently available in these markets, FADE allows smaller developers to investigate these new potential sources of revenue and make informed business decisions moving forward. Currently, FADE produces monthly and annual reports for Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, WiiWare & Virtual Console, and mobile markets including iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. For more information, please visit http://www.fadellc.com.

Hey guys

First off, thanks for the feedback I have received – I honestly didn’t realise people found indievision so useful.

Even if it has helped one person, that has made it worth doing. It also means I can’t stop it now – so the closure is cancelled.

But I could really use some help – even just feedback going forward. There are also certain areas that I don’t personally have experience with that we could really use some help on; specifically self-publishing on:

• iPhone
• Android
• Facebook
• XBLA (not indie friendly, but still the place ultimately many want to be)
• XBLIG

And again let me clarify the hope for indievision -

A one stop (always FREE) place for help and information on the basic nuts and bolts of indie business. I’ve often needed to find out various things as I’ve gone along with my own studio, yet it has always been fairly hard to get decent, up-to-date information that goes deeper than a basic overview.

I’d like to collate it all together on iv, while always building upon the quantity of articles – so that no-one comes away from iv without an answer to their question, or at least one of us helping them out if we don’t yet have the info needed.

And further, if someone is getting shat upon, we can kick up a bit of a stink and try and help them. Nothing is worse than being on the receiving end of serious legal hassle with no knowledge of what to do to sort it out, and no-one to turn to (especially if you can’t afford legal fees).

At the end of the day the more we all know, the less likely it is that we are going to get screwed over.

BUT to move forward properly I stress again that I do need other people on this with me – it doesn’t need to take a lot of time, just help as and when – particularly if there is a question you can answer.

And really thanks again for the comments and feedback

Rich

It is with regret I announce that I will be closing down indievision (www.indievision.org) in the near future.

I originally set-up indievision as a site to help and assist indie developers; providing free advice covering all aspects of indie business & development, along with a place to meet up with other indie studio owners and contacts from publishers, lawyers, etc… Essentially developers helping/supporting other developers.

Another aim was for indievision to be an organisation that supported the interests of indie developers – in a similar way to groups like TIGA and the IGDA (only better ) – helping out in cases like the recent EDGE/Mobigame issue.

Unfortunately it hasn’t really worked out as hoped; it has been hard to get anyone to commit to the site and help put together articles and information – so I feel it is wrong to continue to promote indievision as an organisation, or anything like that.

The last thing I want to do is hassle already busy developers with requests for their time, I did this a little and it just felt wrong – that a group set-up to help is actually hassling them.

Perhaps now wasn’t quite the right time, maybe the implementation was off… It has been a difficult decision, but personally I feel it isn’t right to continue with the remit we have when really it is just myself – and I have an ever growing business to run which takes a lot of my time.

I’d like to say a huge big thanks to everyone who supported iv, it has been a blast and I hope we helped out in some way.

I wish all of you Indies out there the very best for the future. It can be a tricky industry, but it is also a great one, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Richard Hill-Whittall

rich@indievision.org

www.indievision.org

We’ve covered this in the past, and indeed I originally set-up the ChaosEdge site to support Mobigame. Unfortunately it seems Apple still isn’t listening; unless of course you happen to be EA!

So our latest letter to Jennifer Adams Draffen at Apple:

Hi Jennifer,

I represent the Independent Developers Association, ‘Indievision’. We last spoke in late December when we discussed the ongoing situation with Dr Tim Langdell and the ‘Edge’ trademark dispute. I mentioned the ongoing dispute between Edge and EA whereupon you said you were going to look into this aspect.

It has now been brought to our attention that although you have allowed ‘Mirror’s Edge’ (by EA) to be available for the iPhone, there is still a ban on the original ‘Edge’ title by Mobigames. Our members have been writing to us asking if there is one rule for the large publishers and a different one for small independents. I realise that there are political issues in play here, but after all this time there still remains some uncertainty over Dr Langdell’s claims to own the word, ‘Edge’ for videogames as there seemed to have been no newly-published titles for a good number of years before this dispute. In fact, Dr Landgell recently placed a game up on Amazon for sale – complete with his self-written review – in anticipation of bolstering his case which he will inevitably have to prove. However, Amazon have now seemingly withdrawn this as their attention had probably been drawn to the ulterior motives why the product was suddenly being offered for sale.

Surely in order to petition Apple for a title to be withdrawn, hasn’t some sort of tangible evidence needed to be produced in order to succeed with such a petition? Therefore, if such evidence is strong enough for Apple to comply then surely the same must hold true for EVERY infringement… including ‘Mirror’s Edge’. It appears there is an element of double-standards being practiced and our members are rightly outraged by this unfair situation. This case has gained a significant notoriety within games development circles and most – if not all – developers are aware of this issue. Dr Langdell has something of a reputation and a brief Google search will reveal many online publications expressing outrage over this case. The fact that Apple has now applied a different ruling to EA really doesn’t help matters and will make developers a little more wary of writing games for the App store in the belief that anyone can object to a game ‘on a whim’ and Apple will comply with its withdrawal.

If there is a statement we can send to our members explaining Apple’s reasoning behind this then we will glad publish it (unedited). However, if nothing else, Mobigame deserves the same consideration as EA and perhaps reassurance that if/when Dr Langdell’s objections are overturned Apple will assist Mobigame with extracting restitution for lost sales as a result of his original petition. Such a gesture would certainly go a long way to restore the goodwill with our members.

Thank you for your time, Jennifer. If you prefer to discuss this by phone I can be reached on (removed).

Kind regards,

Gary

Monday 12 April 18:30 Games, Film and TV: Creative Collaborations David Lean Room, BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN In association with TIGA/NESTA Creative Industry Switch

http://www.bafta.org/public-calendar-event.html?Gday=20100412000000&btype=day

18:30 | Bar open 19:00 | Event starts

The UK’s games, film, TV and book industries are among the most distinctive and original in the world. But as they all adapt to evolving markets and technologies, it’s vital to understand what they can learn from each other.

The Creative Industry Switch project has already been hugely successful resulting in new business for games developers and exciting cross-platform collaborations. Hear about the challenges and lessons learned from the collaborations that have been facilitated so far, and meet new potential partners from the games, film, TV and book publishing worlds.

Creative Industry Switch is a TIGA/NESTA project which brings together the best minds from across the UK ’s top creative industries to share knowledge, exchange ideas and start new commercial projects.

By showcasing the crafts of film, television and video games production, BAFTA provides a unique forum for knowledge to be shared across disciplines, to inspire the next generation of talent and find fresh opportunities amid the ever-changing media landscape.

Speakers: Gareth Edmondson is Managing Director of Ubisoft Reflections, the Newcastle-based game developer. The studio’s credits include Driver, Destruction Derby and Shadow Of The Beast. Gareth will reveal the challenges and outcomes of working with creative talents outside the games industry for Ubisoft titles such as Avatar and the BAFTA-nominated Assassin’s Creed.

Rupert Harris is Series Producer for Bamzooki, the BBC’s BAFTA-nominated ‘mixed reality’ TV game show that combines live game play in a real studio environment with virtual creatures created by contestants. Rupert shares his experiences of how Bamzooki has succeeded where many TV/video game collaborations have failed.

Previously a game designer at Treyarch/Activision and playwright, Jörg Tittel is a producer and director at BreakThru Films, the film and animation company behind the BAFTA-nominated short Peter And the Wolf. The multiplatform science fiction series he’s created for iPhone, next gen consoles and TV will be unveiled in May.

Maxwell Scott-Slade is the co-founder of Johnny Two Shoes, an independent London studio which has developed games for itself, Channel 4, Warner Brothers and is currently collaborating with BreakThru Films on new gameplay/animation projects.

Chair: Charles Cecil, Founder and Managing Director, Revolution Software

Pricing Information Public | £5 (includes a complimentary drink) – Please click here for public tickets: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_london&query=detail&event=380504&interface=bafta

If you are a start-up studio (less that 3 years old), I can heartily recommend the Microsoft BizSpark program. As well as a lot of help & support, and networking opportunities, it gives you free access to pretty much ALL Microsoft software (incredible but true).

Here are a few details, but to get the full picture visit http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/ now - you probably won’t regret it

What is BizSpark?

 Source: http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/

Program Overview

BizSpark is an innovative global program designed to unite Startups and resources to support them into a single community. BizSpark is uniquely designed to help Startups engaged in software development, by offering Software, Support and Visibility:

• Software: BizSpark provides fast and easy access to Microsoft tools and technologies, for their immediate use in design, development, testing, demonstration, and hosted application production and deployment;

• Support: Professional Technical Support from Microsoft, including, for entrepreneurs working with early adopter technologies: access to unlimited email support, online training and invitations to local technical events. Examples of early adopter technologies: Windows® 7, Microsoft® Silverlight, Windows® Azure and Microsoft® SQL Server 2008 as well as a connection to Network Partners, organizations that provide programs, mentoring and other resources to Startups;

• Visibility: The opportunity for global visibility on the MicrosoftStartupZone Website via the BizSparkDB, an online Startup directory, hosted on http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com\bizspark.

Eligibility

1. Startup Eligibility Requirements:

An eligible startup must have the following characteristics at the time of joining:

• Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of its current or intended business1,

• Privately held,

• In business for less than 3 years2, and

• Less than US $1 million in annual revenue3.

To be eligible to use the software for production and deployment of hosted solutions, startups must also be developing a new “software–plus-services” solution (on any platform) to be delivered over the Internet. To meet this requirement your software must:

 • Add significant and primary functionality to the integrated Microsoft software.

 • Be owned, not licensed, by you.

 Dashboards, HTML editors, utilities, and similar technologies are not considered a primary service or applications.

2. Term: Startups can participate in BizSpark for up to 3 years. On the first and second anniversary of initial enrollment, they must update their enrollment (e.g., confirm they haven’t gone public and their ownership hasn’t changed). 

3. Fee: A USD $100 Program Offering Fee is due when the Startup exits the Program. As part of Microsoft’s commitment to Startup success, there are no initial costs for Startups to join BizSpark.

4. Special Offers: BizSpark Startups may also be eligible for additional products or services offerings (from Microsoft or others) from time to time during their tenure in the Program. Startups enrolled in BizSpark will be notified of special offers when they become available as well as the terms and enrollment process to take advantage of them. Special Offers are not part of the BizSpark program benefits and Startup’s participation in Special Offers will be governed by the separate terms and conditions for each Special Offer (including licenses, and fees if any).

Potentially very exciting news, a brand new fund for indie game development:

http://www.indie-fund.com/

What is Indie Fund?

Indie Fund is a brand new funding source for independent developers, created by a group of successful indies looking to encourage the next wave of game developers. It was established as a serious alternative to the traditional publisher funding model. Our aim is to support the growth of games as a medium by helping indie developers get financially independent and stay financially independent.

We will soon be announcing the names of the projects we are already backing. Additional details about the need for Indie Fund and the rationale behind it will be shared at the Game Developers Conference in the talk titled Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System that Never Worked.

Who is Indie Fund?

·       Ron Carmel & Kyle Gabler

, 2D BOY (World of Goo)

·       Jonathan Blow

, Number None (Braid)

·       Kellee Santiago

, thatgamecompany (flOwer)

·       Nathan Vella

, Capy (Critter Crunch)

·       Matthew Wegner

, Flashbang Studios (Off-Road Velociraptor Safari)

·       Aaron Isaksen

, AppAbove Games (Armadillo Gold Rush)

Contact Indie Fund?

For general inquiries, please send an email to contact {at} indie-fund.com.

[UPDATE: We are not currently accepting game submissions. A public process for applying for funding will soon be made available. Also, we're getting a lot more email traffic than we expected and will not be able to respond to everyone, please be patient with us!]

Interview with Ron Carmel: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27446/Independent_Game_Luminaries_Announce_Indie_Fund.php

Thoughts from Jon Blow: http://the-witness.net/news/?p=80

From Gamasutra:

Ska Studios’ Xbox Live Indie Games release, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 surpassed the 200,000 unit sales mark this week, the developer said Tuesday, with each unit selling for $1.

To be exact, the studio said it sold 200,343 units of the top-down zombie-filled action game. With the standard 70/30 revenue split between Microsoft and Xbox Live Indie Game developers, that means I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 generated around $140,000 since its August 2009 release.

Xbox Live Indie Games, originally introduced as Xbox Live Community Games, is a program intended to encourage small and hobbyist game developers to create games using Microsoft XNA, and release them digitally to Xbox Live’s wide online audience. Fellow XBLIG creators test the games, which generally have a lower price tag than the higher-budget titles sold on Xbox Live Arcade.

In a January 2010 analysis, Gamasutra sibling site GamerBytes reported unit sales of 160,000 for I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1, making it the top-selling game on Microsoft’s Indie Games platform by over 40,000 units at the time.

Ska Studios, which is essentially James Silva (a.k.a. Jamezila), is holding a Twitter contest giving away merchandise and download codes to celebrate the milestone. Silva is also behind the Xbox Live Arcade game The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and the upcoming XBLIG release Charlie Murder.

It looks like the Elan Awards are knocking on our door of consciousness and, because I can (and because I have been told to), I will let you all know via an actual post!

It is the 4th Annual Elan Awards and it will take place in San Diego, California, 17-19 of July 2010.

“What is the Elan Awards?” Well you could go and check out the actual website herebut in the words of Holly Carinci, founder and CEO of the event: “Music has the Grammy’s; Television the Emmy’s; Movies the Oscars and the Golden Globes. Video Gaming is the fastest growing sector of the Entertainment Industry and is now bigger than all of them. As the number one industry in entertainment it deserves an awards ceremony on par with these esteemed ceremonies that celebrates this magnificent industry’s growth and position.” She’s referring to the Elans in case you hadn’t noticed.

What is of interest for the indie community is that they have finally added the following category:

13. BEST INDEPENDENT GAME
“Recognizing outstanding achievement in an independent video game, the ELAN in this category will be awarded to a production released for play on any hardware platform.”

That means that any independent indie game developer can submit their game for judgement within the Elan Awards to try and get said award. The doors opened by the latter would be veritably many.

Of course it aint cheap: 200£ per indie entrant. Apparently we are still within Early Bird rates of 150£ -but the website tells me otherwise. I shall e-mail the relevant person to find out the truth.

Not interested? Then pass on the info!! Who knows, you may even be able to put into practice the legal IV learnings and cobble together a contract entitling you to a share of the Elan-related game profits, or some such.

Interested? Then DEFINITELY visit the website, as the requirements are understandable yet stringent and one step wrong will obviously mean disqualification. An important note to keep in mind: every candidate requires a contact. For us indies, such contact is:

Tara Tefertiller, Participant & Guest Relations
2010 ELAN Awards
tara@theelans.com
(618) 580 – 9928

To all that do enter, best of luck!!

The IV Team

Just heard about the Indie Love Bundle – its both a very interesting marketing concept, and an incredibly good deal.

So take a look at those games, and you’ll soon realise $20 is a very small price to pay for such cracking titles…

For the love of all things awesome, please write an article about this bundle. We ♥ you!

And Yet It Moves + Auditorium + Aztaka + Eufloria + Machinarium + Osmos
6 award-winning indie games valued at 85$ for the low cost of $20!

We have crafted our games with a lot of love and passion. This Valentine’s Day we thought we would put all our love in one place. Give this amazing indie bundle to your valentine or treat yourself to some delicious gaming goodness!

Trailer Video:

We’re banding together to give you the best bundle we can. It really has been a group effort and we are trying our absolute best to give you the same well-known price point you’ve come to expect from the big distributors. But this time, we’re throwing the sale ourselves and all your purchases will go directly to the great indie teams who made these games.

This amazing bundle won’t last forever so don’t hesitate. Go grab it now!

Sale ends Friday the 19th at 11:59PM EST.

If you have any further questions or just want to say hello@theindiebundle.com feel free to contact us!

[ Love, Amanita Design, Broken Rules, Cipher Prime, Citeremis, Hemisphere Games and Omni Systems ]

A big congratulations to Introversion for their big day – Darwinia+ launched on XBLA.

We don’t usually post release info (not that we don’t want to – it is just time constraints), but Mark has been such a big help to indievision (and the indie community in general) that we’d like to say – Please Buy this Game

Here is the official trailer – love that music…

So, what of the game – here is a run-down of some of the Key Features:

I’d like to wish Mark and all of the guys at Introversion the very best of luck with the launch, and I am fairly certain they are going to have a big hit on their hands.

Broadcaster’s commercial division Worldwide wants to turn key IPs into DS, Wii, iPhone and online games MCV can reveal

After spending years sat on the fence, the BBC is returning to games in a big way, MCV can exclusively reveal.

Via its commercial arm BBC Worldwide, the broadcaster is courting both publishers and developers to turn Doctor Who, Top Gear, In The Night Garden and many, many more into games for all audiences.

No stone will go unturned: the BBC wants to see its brands on iPhone and Facebook as much as it wants to see them on DS and Wii.

“We are open to conversations with anybody in games about all kinds of business models to see how we can extract more value,” said Neil Ross Russell, MD of children’s and licensing.

“Outside of Disney we have the most well-known line-up of children’s characters around the world.”

It’s a big about-turn for the broadcaster. The BBC closed its Multimedia division in 2005 after sales crashed in its boxed product business, subsequently aborting an attempt to get a PS2 game of spy thriller Spooks
off the ground.

“We’ve been reactive to the market in the last few years,” explained Dave Anderson, head of multimedia development at BBC Worldwide.
“There were a few opportunistic licensing deals, but we were largely aggregating and holding on to our properties to wait and see how the market developed.”

The new effort will push key kids’ IPs towards games for DS and Wii, while more long-running brands find their feet on all sorts of platforms.
But the move goes beyond just licensing out properties.

Said Ross Russell: “What we’re trying to do is build the brands here – this is not about opportunistic licensing. If we wanted to do that we would have done more with these key brands over the last few years.”

As part of the move, BBC Worldwide has hired former EA and Yahoo exec Robert Nashak as EVP of digital entertainment. More details on his appointment will follow tomorrow.

MCV will reveal more on BBC’s new strategy to fund new titles based on its properties and work closer with games publishers and developers next week.

Source: MCV

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