Grats to all, esp. Noogy, although no big shocker there. One of the winners had me scratching my head a bit, but overall, I think its a good list.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/698917/Here-Are-2009s-Dream-Build-Play-Finalists--.html

Flowchart Revival LLC:

One of the winners had me really scratching my head a bit

Which one?

One interesting part is that Hurricane 2X Evolution. That game (in one form or another) has now entered all three DBPs, if I'm not mistaken. Hurricane X was in DBP07, Hurricane X2 was in last year, and now another iteration. Except to me they don't really ever seem like sequels; it just seems like the same game but with a little bit more polish each year. Wonder if they've finally gotten the magical "It" right to win this year.

I'm rooting for Kaleidoscope. I think that's such a wonderful looking game and I can't wait to play it at PAX. I think the XNA booth will be one of my first stops. :)

Nick Gravelyn:

Flowchart Revival LLC:

One of the winners had me scratching my head a bit

Which one?

I'm going to keep that to myself. I'm not sure a debate on each game would prove much (other than that we all like different things).

Flowchart Revival LLC:

Nick Gravelyn:

Flowchart Revival LLC:

One of the winners had me scratching my head a bit

Which one?

I'm going to keep that to myself. I'm not sure a debate on each game would prove much (other than that we all like different things).

Fair enough, though I don't think there needed to be a debate; I was just curious to know what your opinion is. :)

One thing that is pretty obvious is that although I don't recall it stated in the rules, they seemed to go out of their way to pick a game from each general type (platformer, puzzle, fighting, war simulation, etc.). I think that's pretty cool since it gives every genre a chance to shine.

There is no 2d flying board game, that genre has been tragically overlooked!!
:)
(speaking as the developer for one, I am possibly a little more sad at its abscence than most).

Congrats to all, feel a bit for the peeps who end up 5th and 6th, I am sure they are all solid bundles of fun.
(but the publicity they get from being finalists will mean they can get a uber-solid release).

Oh well, off to flood the market along with the 200 other entries :)
(and to start plotting next years project)
(maybe a massage game, with a  tasteful screen saver....)

J.

Congratulations to the winners! I'm really exited to play them all..

Also best wishes from me to all of the finalists. To tell the truth: my first impression, when looking only at the screenshots of some of the games, was, that this couldn't be true. But when I saw the videos of them on youtube, I have to say: they all really have hard-earned it. They all look really very promising.

At first, having seen such great entries this year, we coudn't believe we were in the top six list. There were so many great entries we had lost any hope to hit the list, hehehe, but in the end we made it!

vRAGmAZTER:

What I am interessted in, would be a ranking of all games, that the others - non finalists - could see, where they stand.

Such a thing not does exist. Only god could provide.

Seriously:
There were 350 games. The DBP team probably had a hard time to tell which games they consider the best six in only 4 (four!) weeks.

Personally, I am eager to find out how good my game really is. The only way to find out is to finish it (in my case this means implementing the XBOX Live mode) and make it accessible to the community.

I thought as much!

how on earth Masters of Belial is not even on the list?
are you kidding me?

the most tech advanced xna game with good gameplay and is not even finished.
If you just gonna bother with 2d gimmick games then make sure you specify that on the contest description next time
than having people times wasted.

your best games were dust and masters of belial and u canned one of them
great

i guess we all know what kind of games microsoft wants you to make with XNA now.


I am speechless
no i mean seriously? How long this fudged the results to suits our needs mentality is gonna go on?
That was was one the most unique games coming on console and now its dead. I am sitting here in a youth hostel for the past 8 months, waking up at night to plug the xbox on the internet room because only those times i could i can make this work well and i get blocked because the game didnt fit the status quo selling mentality?
you have 4 winners, i am sure you could have taken a shot with a game that is completely new genre and unique.
completely pushing it out helps who and how?

i have yet to see a "good" indie 1 man or more team to make a game that wasnt a mickey mouse game.



as the far as the game goes i am pulling the plug, i dont even have enough money to buy food next month much less find time to work on it.

good luck with your games
there were some good games in the competition this year for sure.

Calm down... There were many other titles,that would have earned to be on the list. Sure, Masters of Belial was one of that, I was thinking, that it is sure, that it is on the list. But there were so many others, I was thinking of.

I have to say that with the incredible competition this year, it's truly an honor to place as a finalist.  Of course, I only have the community here to thank for their wonderful support.  I wouldn't be doing this if the community didn't exist, and of course have to thank Microsoft and the XNA team for letting me create my dream game.  This whole experience has been more wonderful than I can convey.

Well, back to work :)

Argiris Baltzis:

how on earth Masters of Belial is not even on the list?

That's the biggest surprise to me. I thought it to be #1 candidate. The worst thing is that it could attract lots of hardcore gamers to Indie Channel with its great look and high complexity. Now it won't.

Argiris Baltzis:

as the far as the game goes i am pulling the plug, i dont even have enough money to buy food next month much less find time to work on it.

You may still receive XBLA contract and it may pay off much better that top4 prizes. At least I hope you will.

why not? Indie-Game-Channel is independend from Dream Build Play.....

Argiris Baltzis:

the most tech advanced xna game with good gameplay and is not even finished.

I am disappointed, too. But it is presumptuous (unless you played them yourself) to assume that the finalists' gameplay isn't 10 times as good.

why not? Indie-Game-Channel is independend from Dream Build Play.....

Because there'll be lots of websites posting top6/top4 contest finalists. And 5 of the top6 dont really look like hardcore games. Of course, they might hear about the game some other way, but still less people will know about it than if it would be one of the finalists.

yes you are right... then we need to find another way to get publicity ;-)

vRAGmAZTER:

my Video for Magnetic Mind produced a lot of unintentional furor (over 40.000 Views of the youtube-Video within a few days). Unfortunately at the wrong group of persons: the Sony-Fanboys ;-)

Yes, I remember seeing this happen and it was pretty sad, really.  It turned into an unrelated flamewar.  It certainly helps you build up a thick skin though :)

I've had similar issues with releasing footage of my game, but you have to remember, 'sometimes' bad press is still better than no press at all.  Getting the word out about your game is not easy, and sometimes unwanted controversy can make it happen.

Looking at the finalists, it's clear the judges had to make some very delicate decisions, and having watched all the finalists videos, it's going to be a fierce race to the top!  I don't envy the work they had to put into this. 

It was a fantastic Dream Build Play to be a part of.  Both Kaleidoscope and Rotorscope look like absolute must buys for me.

Will there still be a final 10? In the previous years they listed which were the top 10 games.

SpaceDude:

Will there still be a final 10? In the previous years they listed which were the top 10 games.

There was a top20 list in 2008 ( http://www.dreambuildplay.com/main/Top20.aspx ). Hope there will be the same this year.

I also hope so!

vRAGmAZTER:

my Video for Magnetic Mind produced a lot of unintentional furor (over 40.000 Views of the youtube-Video within a few days). Unfortunately at the wrong group of persons: the Sony-Fanboys ;-) If you want something to laugh, have a look at the comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS6TGv8uCjs

I think this showcases that your "innovation" score was probably low.  As it would have been for Duality ZF.  Let's say we only got 5/30 for innovation, then our top score could only be 75%, pretty easy to beat.  However good Magnetic Mind is, what if you only got 5/30 or 10/30 on innovation, too?  75% or 80% is easy to beat.  Innovation can be in terms of technology, too, but everything in your game appears to be like another game (even now including the water! how crazy is that?)  Sorry to hear you didn't place, as I am for everyone who thought they should be there, but this actually wasn't a surprise for me.  I predicted it, only due to the innovation score.  I'm sure you scored high everywhere else.  You just didn't fit the portfolio, that's all.

My opinion/thoughts at the moment.  What do you think?

Matthew Doucette:

Let's say we only got 5/30 for innovation, then our top score could only be 75%, pretty easy to beat.  However good Magnetic Mind is, what if you only got 5/30 or 10/30 on innovation, too?  75% or 80% is easy to beat.

That was my logic before the competition. But with two platformers, a defense tower game, a fighting game, a puzzle game and only Max Blastronaut being hard to classify I think the innovation part was handled rather different than I expected.

My guess is (and only my guess - meaning no offense or accusation) that it might have turned out to be sth. like:
25% accesability
75% gameplay + innovation + technical stuff

Just take into account the hard work to invent a game that doesn't rely on well-established mechanisms of well-known genres.
Then add the risk that your game will turn out to be crap cause you won't get it balanced or even interesting to play and you wasted a lot of time.
Then add the fact that a judge who has to play up to 10 different games a day for 4 weeks is at some point surely pissed if he has to find out how your game works and is just glad if he sees something familiar.

Especially the last point might turn out a little unfair, because I think the whole process of testing game after game makes you much less receptive for new game ideas than the average gamer who downloads one game per week or so...

So I'd say, innovation is rewarded but in details and only there.