So Xbox Live Community Games went live a few days ago, though I was away at MIGS when it launched, so I missed it. However, already there's a lot of stuff up there and a lot of it looks fairly cool (although, certainly, there's a ton of stuff that's just terrible). However, there's one thing that I want to say to people that are thinking about making community games: really THINK about your trial time. Since you have a set amount of time to play with (unlike non-community games which can kind of decide on their own), you need to use that time wisely. Remember: people are not going to buy your game if your trial isn't good, and so far, I've yet to download a game with a good trial. Some tips:
- Your tutorial should take less time than the trial allowance. Let me actually play your game and I might be more interested in buying it. If you have more rules than you can express in a limited amount of time, think about pushing more advanced tips to farther into the game.
- If your beginning isn't that interesting, don't start me at the beginning of the game. Get me to the most interesting part quickly. Of course, that may be difficult, so, instead, just make your beginning really interesting.
- Honestly, just try to sell me on *something* that makes your game unique.
I'm still excited about the possibilities of Community Arcade, but I'm really not as interested in weeding though all of the crap.
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