XBLA

Bizarre Creations, creators of Geometry Wars, was recently shut down by Activision.  That didn’t stop ex-staffers from forming a brand new company, Lucid Games.  The new company …
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We recently had the opportunity to visit Dallas and talk with the team behind Orcs Must Die. We recorded our own version but after hearing the recording from our …
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Ensemble Studios shutting down was a bittersweet moment for a team that had grown extremely close over the years; however, as cliché as it sounds, the doors closing on Ensemble forced the team to look at open doors full of opportunity and new possibilities. For many this meant the first chance in years to break away from an already established IP in over fifteen years presenting a chance now to take risks and reinvigorate themselves. The tight-knit group showed that it really did believe in fostering community, as when the former Microsoft subsidiary disbanded as company but the majority of its members stuck together in one of four new studios: Robot Entertainment, Bonfire (now Zynga Dallas), Windstorm Studio and New Toy.

Recently we had the opportunity to visit Robot Entertainment in Dallas. While the studio may have a new name, they haven’t forgotten all the old lessons they learned. The team still believes in community both internally and with fans. Upon entering the studio, the open environment is striking: four main quadrants of desks with no cubicles or walls and a biergarten style lunch room comprise the majority of the studio. Outside of the two war rooms, server room and executive offices, it’s an entirely open floor plan mirroring the studios own level of openness with employees. The real decisions as to what games are made don’t come from a guy in a suit with a calculator, but from a collaborative process involving the entire team.

This “organic” process started six months ago. Development on Age of Empires Online was beginning to wind down, and the studio was looking toward what their next project would be. Instead of setting their sights on the traditional three year AAA development cycle, Robot chose to focus on the downloadable segment of the industry. The shorter development time allowed the fifty person team to the ability to not become re-tied down to a singular IP for the foreseeable future. Robot started to brainstorm and create basic prototypes for some of the better ideas, one of which was Orcs Must Die.

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Back in November, Days of Thunder: Arcade was set to release to coincide with the 20-Year Anniversary of the Days of Thunder film. But the game never saw the light of day and was mysteriously absent from the marketplace on its scheduled release date of November 17th, 2010. Today, the mystery of this games fate is solved as Days of Thunder: Arcade has silently made its way onto the marketplace.   Read More

Today the voting for Xbox Live Arcade Awards has officially opened. All you need to do in order to vote is visit the “Spotlight” section of the dashboard and select the advertisement pictured above. You can vote for 8 different awards and apparently you can cast a new set of votes everyday until the polls close. The nominees are: Read More

Team Meat has announced that the two newest chapters of levels have hit “the internets” on Super Meat Boy for XBLA. Contained is the highly anticipated dreaded expert remix …
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A little over 3 years ago, Poker Smash was released on Xbox Live Arcade. At first glance, one might write it off as just another generic match-three game. Sure, the game can be played by simply matching 3-of-a-kind, but the depth that Poker Smash brings to the action/puzzle genre is unlike any other game on the marketplace.  Inspired by the SNES cult hit; Tetris Attack, Poker Smash is truly one of the hardest puzzle games to master.  But the true beauty of the game is that any gamer of any skill level can find an enjoyable experience in Poker Smash. Read More

A trusted industry source has revealed to XBLAFans that Warner Bros is currently working on a Batman game for Xbox Live Arcade. The game, which previously showed …
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Stacking was developed by Double Fine and published by THQ. It was released on XBLA on February 9th for 1200MS points.

Stacking is an adventure/puzzle game that places you in control of Charlie Blackmore, who is the smallest member in a family of Russian stacking dolls. The Blackmore family is being forced to work for a rich industrialists know as “The Baron” and it is up to Charlie to free them. Charlie must stack inside other dolls and use their special abilities in order to make his way through 4 areas and defeat the evil Baron.

Riding high on their October release of Costume Quest, Double Fine has found room for success on the XBLA platform. With that said, expectations for Stacking were extremely high considering it was from the minds of Tim Schafer and the team of hit-makers at Double Fine.  Luckily, Stacking surpassed most expectations and stands out as an early favorite for 2011 XBLA Game of the Year. Read More

Where there’s Treasure, gunfire is never far off, Or in this case: missile fire. Watch as thousands of rockets are launched in this trailer for a madman’s bullet hell dream known as Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury. It looks as if this mind blowing shooter will launch sometime in the spring. Until then watch the trailer below, scope out the new screens, and consider picking up a copy of Bangai-O Spirits on DS.

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