Check back in the middle of May for our “big” announcement.

Nonetheless, having a mere 300 copies sold in five months is rather disheartening to say the least. We aren’t in this for the money – we wouldn’t be making indie games if we wanted to be rich. But we’re also college students who made huge sacrifices to get this thing started and we at least need to match our budgets. I won’t try to say that the majority of the titles on Community Games are high quality because they aren’t. The fact remains that there are a number of titles with great production value that aren’t getting the proper attention either. This isn’t to say that Audiball had high production values, but rather to make the point that there’s no real pattern as to which kinds of games sold well and which didn’t. Some novelty games that took a week to make outsold games that took thousands of dollars and months to make. It’s not necessarily a bad thing: congrats to everyone who made a profit, but it’s not really what anyone expected out of the service. I’m not going to play the blame game on Microsoft or the media because the ultimate responsibility falls on the developers.

If 13,000 people download our demo, and only 300 actually buy it (a 2.3% conversion rate for those of you counting), it means that the players weren’t impressed enough with the game to buy it. We reached a large enough audience. We just didn’t deliver what they were looking for. As for whether “what they were looking for” is in our control or not remains to be seen.

Not everyone is going to enjoy the trial and therefore shouldn’t buy the game, not everyone actually has the money to buy games on their Live accounts, but there are also a number of people who won’t buy games without achievements – the gamers who purchase multiplatform games on Xbox 360 for that very reason. There’s no way for me to be sure about why each of those 12,000+ people decided to pass up a purchase, but it is still my responsibility as a developer to figure out where we went wrong and fix it: whether that means making changes in the development process or making changes in publishing isn’t completely apparent yet and that’s what we’ll be working out over the next few months.

Microsoft took a bigger risk than we did in starting the Community Games service, and even if it isn’t a financial success, it’s a huge step in democratizing game development. There are things that could have been done better on everyone’s side, but these results are just as bad for us as they are for them.

And oh, before I forget. If we could get back those two cents we gave you at the beginning of the article, that’d be great. We’re announcing a new game at the end of next month and we need all the development resources we can get. Knowing that it’s better than our last will keep us going for now, but the gas money would help move things along.

We aren’t quite ready to share any real details yet, but here is a copy of my preliminary notes on the engine design.  We promise to give you some real details… eventually…

The introduction to this Audiball review is the reason I listened to the sound of my immediate environment at dawn. Usually, I just make my coffee, stumble to my computer and check my e-mail. I never take the time to listen. Audiball is an XNA puzzle game that I assumed would use sound in a meaningful way. I opened my ears this morning just as I did while playing the indie title.

Audiball is an odd game.

Picture playing Rock Band without music. Every time you clack out a note, the game would register it just as it would have with sound. This may seem unsatisfactory — music is a part of the experience — yet, you’re playing the game properly. At its core, a rhythm game like Rock Band is nothing more than a practice in precise timing and muscle memory.

Unlike Rock Band, Audiball doesn’t feature floating notes or complex solos. It’s a puzzle game that suggests the use of a plastic guitar. Weak sound feedback never lulls you into believing that you’re creating music, but the game’s utilization of muscle memory and precise timing may make you think you’re exploring a mute Rock Band with a puzzle twist.

And the game keeps up with the rhythm façade. You’re put in control of multiple fret-colored turrets that work together to propel tiny white orbs to a galaxy-shaped endpoint. Flipping the strum bar (or hitting the correct color-coordinated button) shoots the ball to another turret, at which point you’ll need to propel the ball once again. It’s a relay race (time limit included) that challenges your ability to pick the right buttons in rapid succession.

Before I brewed my cup of coffee this morning, I listened to the sounds of my two cats playing with their toys, my girlfriend grumbling about having to go to work, and rain drops. My cats’ paws thumped on the floor sporadically; however, my woman’s grumbles and the rain’s wet pats had a certain rhythm. When the coffee maker started to make its cacophony, it ruined my moment of auditory enlightenment.

Audiball is a competent puzzle game with a refreshing style. Its uninspired visuals, breakneck speed, and occasionally cluttered levels made me quit playing for lengths of time. Its problems are triumphed by its victories — the large amount of good levels, challenging puzzles, and decent playing time are factors that not every XNA game possesses. For 200 Microsoft Points, it’s hard to find a reason not to buy this game if you’re a puzzle fanatic armed with a plastic peripheral.

Each level takes around 2-4 minutes to complete, thus forcing you to shoot several balls into different turrets simultaneously. A second timer forces you to dump their payload within a matter of seconds. These acts balance each other quite well, and I find it to be a satisfying dynamic, although I question the pacing. Some levels require too much deftness and pattern memorization.

Obstacles (including odd physics-based ones) rotate and slide in the way of the balls’ progress to the endpoint. These barriers aren’t always bad — many of the game’s levels are built upon the interplay between the balls, turrets, and obstacles.

That interplay doesn’t always birth something ingenious. A few levels suffer from being too clotted by turrets and barriers. These levels cause frame rate meltdowns and a fair bit of frustration. But the majority of the game is full of satisfying puzzles that require an intelligent approach. The last level, “Wave Rider,” is perhaps the most striking example of good design coupled with decent puzzle gameplay.

The soundtrack is a clever mixture of tracks with an upbeat swing. Neither repetitive nor distracting, the songs and sounds of the game add to the experience but I was thrown by how they didn’t matter to the game. Audiball is the same game when muted, whereas other rhythm mixtures seem hollow without.

Thanks to Jim Sterling and Brad Nicholson from Destructoid for reviewing our game, along with a ton of other Xbox Live Community Games.