Xbox Live Indie Games Pick: Platypus (Escapist Games/Anthony Flack)
Escapist Games (AtomHex) announced the release of Claymation shoot'em-up Platypus to Xbox Live Indie Games. Some of you might recognize this from its original edition for PC by Cletus Clay developer Anthony Flack (later ported to iPhone and PSP, with GameSetWatch's impressions on the latter here).
The XLIG release retains the horizontal-scrolling shooter's plasticine graphics but also adds "enhanced high-definition widescreen graphics, improved audio", and full localizations for French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Like Platypus PSP, this release has multiplayer support and was actually "built from the ground up as a co-op game".
I remember that Flack had serious complaints with the PSP version (e.g. janky bonus scoring, his name missing from the credits), primarily due to that porting team, MumboJumbo LA, having only six weeks to complete the adaptation with four people. It sounds like Escapist Games took those issues into consideration and had more time to work on this release.
[Incidentally, this post is a GameSetWatch crosspost, but we'd love IndieGames.com to run more Xbox Live Indie Games coverage. If anyone plays a lot of XBLIG titles and could do round-ups regularly, contact us.]
Comments
Why isn't that game a XBLA title? It seems weird that it got releged to XBLIG. I have nothing against XBLIG, but is Platypus still considered "indie"?
Posted by: Gutter | November 24, 2009 3:51 PM
I'm not familiar with aal the XBs, but why wouldn't Platypus be indie if it's on one XB instead of another?
Posted by: Anonymous | November 24, 2009 5:31 PM
I remember playing the really short PC demo for this game and I want more. Does anybody know where I can buy this?
Posted by: fait | November 24, 2009 5:55 PM
If Critter Crunch was released on XBL would it be in XBLIG? I doubt it...
Posted by: Anonymous | November 24, 2009 6:01 PM
I played this a while ago. The polishing quality is indeed higher than the usual XBLIG.
Posted by: Kapser | November 24, 2009 6:11 PM
waiting a MonoXNA version for playing on Linux! ;)
Posted by: nitrofurano | November 24, 2009 9:35 PM
I'm not saying that it's not indie because it's in the wrong XBL section, I'm saying that it might not all that indie because 1) it hasn't been Flack's work for quite some time and 2) It crossed so many small studio's hands, it's hardly "independent" anymore.
This isn't a remake of an indie game, it's exploitation of a license, probably without even the original (indie) author's feedback.
I mean, it didn't come out on PSN, it came out on a UMD. XBLIG isn't a garbage dump for games refused for XBLA IMHO. If it was the case, it would cease to be "indie" quite fast.
Posted by: Gutter | November 25, 2009 12:11 AM
Hi guys and gals,
I'm San Shepherd, and partner in Escapist Games Limited. We're responsible for porting and uploading Platypus to Indie.
We have a lot of respect for Anthony Flack, and have been in touch with him during development of Platypus for XBLM. One of the reasons we chose to work on Platypus was partly our huge respect for the game and Anthony.
Currently – as you are probably aware – Anthony is hard at work on his next game: Cletus Clay, and although he wasn't involved directly with the Xbox 360 version, we did ask for his feedback. Also, as agreed with Anthony, we included his credits in the game, as you'll see if you download it.
Regarding Indie vs Arcade, we would also have loved to see Platypus reach a broader market, and it's not for lack of trying that it didn't get onto Arcade.
However, the goal for us is to build up our tech fast so that we can launch our own titles asap – so we've been scouting the web for great games that have potential on Xbox 360. For example, we recently worked with Marc Incitti to port his AtomHex to Indie – go check it out. It's a hardcore game, but absolutely great.
Platypus is of course also a great game. Anthony did wonderful work on it. And it really holds up in HD on Xbox 360. It now also works on widescreen – which took significant work to get right – as well as sitting on a living room console where co-op play really works. These are just a few of the things that make us feel glad and proud to have shipped Platypus.
Posted by: San Shepherd | November 25, 2009 10:36 AM