Calling on Xbox Live Indie Game Developers: Preserve Our Community’s Legacy

We are less than two months away from the Xbox Live Indie Game marketplace on Xbox 360 closing forever. If you’re a fan of indie gaming, you can still purchase many of the best indies you’ve never heard of for as little as $1 off the Xbox Live Marketplace on your Xbox 360 Dashboard or by going here. My understanding is that once you purchase a game, you’ll always have access to it and the ability to download it whenever you want, long after the market is gone. And even if that wasn’t true, come on. Do you really expect $1 to $5 to be a permanent investment every time? Do you still have every delicious Mega Fruit Gum you spent $1 for at the vending machine? (Well, okay fine, I do. I’m planning on turning them into the world’s first functional real-life Katamari ball. Watch for me on a future episode of Fail Army)

Having said all that, there are many Xbox Live Indie Games that will disappear forever in just a few weeks. They have no PC port, no other console ports, and I’m fairly sure nobody has ever actually owned an Ouya.

IndieGamerChick.com was founded as an Xbox Live Indie Games review site. My mascot, Sweetie, was originally just XBLIG’s generic ghost/octosquid-thingy mascot with a bow added to it (I figured “hey, nobody would ever think to take an established yellow gaming mascot, add a bow to it and call it something new and hope nobody notices”) that eventually evolved into my Seal of Approval.

When I hit the scene on July 1, 2011, I never expected that I would not only still be doing this six years later, but that I would have become such a central part of the Xbox Live Indie Game community. Even today, I’m still known as “that girl who reviews XBLIGs”, even though I’ve reviewed exactly one over the last three years. But, like many people associated with indie gaming today, I got my start with XBLIG, and I’ll never forget that. And I’ll especially never forget the developers and leaders who welcomed me and embraced what I was trying to do with my reviews of their games, which weren’t always so nice. I will always treasure what they did for me. And I will always be an XBLIG Chick.

I always have said I’m not a cheerleader. That a game critic is not a salesperson. Our job is to evaluate, not convince. But that’s bullshit of course. There was no person on this planet who wanted XBLIG to succeed more. Who wanted its developers to thrive more. Nobody screamed louder for your victories or cried harder for those hidden gems that went criminally unnoticed. When the opportunity presented itself, I teamed with Desura and Indie Royale to curate a bundle that consisted entirely of ports of some of the best games XBLIG had to offer. I did everything I could to include as many developers as I could. Ultimately, the Indie Gamer Chick Bundle had eight primary games and two bonus games from ten different developers, making it the most diverse bundle Indie Royal ever did in its existence. One of the greatest joys of my life is that the sales for that bundle exceeded expectations and gave a second wind to a platform that always struggled to find its audience.

Xbox Live Indie Games will always be special to me. And the thought that any of the games of it, good or bad, disappearing forever has me completely heartbroken. So, I put out this call, to all Xbox Live Indie Game developers: this is our legacy. We need to preserve it. So please, I beg you, put a PC port of your game(s) somewhere, anywhere, where gamers can access it. Put it up for free on Itch.io for free or pay-what-you-want. Tinker with it. Enhance it. Go all George Lucas on it. Just don’t let it disappear. To show where you were as a developer, to show how far you’ve come along, to remind you that you’re always getting better and how bright your futures can be. Please, help preserve our legacy. I can help you find people to help you with the porting process. Just don’t let our history fade into the Aether. We were here. We changed gaming forever. We were, and always will be, XBLIG.

Effective October 1, 2017, all Xbox Live Indie Games on the IndieGamerChick.com Leaderboard that do not have availability outside of XBLIG will be removed from ranking on the board and instead placed in a special “Gone But Not Forgotten” list under the board. If you want to know where to start with the best Xbox Live Indie Games before the market closes, check out the Leaderboard. Remember, to the best of my knowledge you will retain access to all XBLIGs you purchase on your Xbox 360 after the market shuts down in September.