Is there a way to "rate" community games? If not, there needs to be. It would be free advertising for the good games and also make it easier to sort through the crap.
... iphone $$$ ...
Not yet unfortunately, however a number of times microsoft reps have indicated it is being worked on. It's taking it's sweet time, although it is sortof understandable, given there isn't any ability to rate other xbl items, so it probably requires a good deal of behind the scenes work (eg changes to the dashboard and such).
I think that's very true. The iPhone is a new, blank market. Like eCommerce. Or a gold rush. Or any of a zillion historical precedents. You'll have a few get-rich-quick stories of people in the right place at the right time, followed by a million avid 'entrepreneurs' who think 'that little game made that much money?! Hell, I can do better than that!' who'll flood the market, and then the buyers' attention will be completely diluted. This'll be followed by an advertising system created to communicate products, which'll cost big bucks and need investment which the small guy won't be able to afford. Eventually there'll be a few big players who made a name for themselves in the early days, a couple of big upstarts who muscle in on the success just with massive financial backing, and a whole lot of fringe wannabes all hoping for a lucky break. Quality will be irrelevant, and all the golden opportunities for independent creators to get noticed will be buried under an avalanche of financial pressures from a stiffling but unavoidable economic structure, such that luck, or industry contacts, are the most important commodities in becoming financially successful in creating iPhone games.I think it's a fair call that a large percentage of the iphone mega-sellers live and die by their first minute.
Does anyone think XNA makes it easy enough, so that anyone with a modicum of programming knowledge (and a great idea) can make a decent game?
Is it easier than making an equivalent Flash game for instance?
And say you make a game, it passes peer review and gets listed on XBLM, does it only stay listed until your premium Creators Club membership runs out? Or could you just get a four month subscription, get your game listed on XBLM and rake in the profits (assuming it sells) for only $49?
01 JUMP! was released yesterday. We did it in 35 days.
02 SWAP! will be out in approx 10-15 days + peer approval
03 ZOOM! is in preprod already
04 and 05 are in concept stage.
So if everything goes fine, you'll have 5 Arkedo Series in the next 4 months
Pretty neat looking. But um... what do you do?
I'd add Pixel to that list, this game:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585503c9/
Cute and fun!