Summer Uprising

If you’re headed to GDC in March I’d love to catch up with you. I’m hoping that Microsoft has some sort of XNA meetup again, but if they don’t then I’m sure we can come up with our own. Last year it was at the Microsoft booth at the entrance of the main hall. The time or location for the speech hasn’t been announced yet, but it will be 60 minutes, and discuss the ins-and-outs of the Uprising. Anyway, here’s the blurb from Gamasutra: ...

This article reflects my thoughts, and not necessarily those of the other team members for the Indie Games Summer Uprising. EDIT: I’ve added the section “6. The Dashboard”, an intro, as well as numerous grammatical corrections throughout. Since its inception, the Xbox Live Indie Games have been considered the red-deaded stepchild of Microsoft’s internet based LIVE platform. Hidden beneath layers of menus and triple-A titles, sales and promotions have never been outstanding for developers, unless you manage to earn a spot on the highly coveted “Top Downloads” section. ...

Last week I head the pleasure of being interviewed by Andrew Webster of Ars Technica for his piece “We Band of Brothers: Developer-led Xbox Live Indies promotion returns.” In it he describes how the uprising came to be, our future plans, and lessons learned from the previous uprising.

EDIT: To see a clearer list of the 26 (read below) entries, click here. The Indie Games Summer Uprising list has been narrowed down from 70+ to just 25 this week. Starting Monday July 11th, developers will have the opportunity to select 8 picks to represent the platform in the Uprising. Voting closes on Sunday July 17th. Developers are to vote on a variety of factors including: Marketability, originality, appearance, entertainment, music, and gameplay. A 5 star rating system will be used, just as XBLIG tittles are rated on Live, and the 8 titles with the highest average score are selected in the promotion. A poll will be e-mailed to all XBLIG developers who have submitted candidates. Winners will be announced the following day, Monday July 18th on the IGSU home page. ...

Thus far, the enthusiasm behind the uprising has been great. We have over 45 submissions at this point, with additional ones coming in. The press has been kind to us as well and really helped with spreading the word. I didn’t sent out a press release to any of the outlets, as the one listed below was really just geared toward the developers, but looking back I probably should have. I’ll have an updated one in the next week or so as more news gets solidified. The website should be up within the week, so be sure to check back here for a link for that. Andrew Currie of Evil Robot Logic has been doing an outstanding job of handling that for us. ...