2019-03-01_Xbox_The_Official_Magazine

development we had no experience

with, because none of us had any

experience,” says Chad.

Smooth sailing

“We’d never gone through certification

before so having the ability to throw

them an email or double-check

something earlier so that we knew we

were all on the right path, made that

whole process quite smooth,” adds

Jared. “The idea of certification failing

would be devastating so they helped

smooth out processe

been a part of before

“Primarily for us th

game as a small deve

publisher and so the

really helpful every s

in terms of supportin

creatively but also th

gritty of publishing fo

first time,” explains K

“As an independent y

need those partners

and you need those

people you can trust

help guide you throu

that process. The tea

that curates that gam

catalogue, they do th

every day. They see t

having to sign with a publisher.”
“Having a platform like this for
indie games to design what they
want allows a lot more freedom
of expression in the game, or the
game creation in itself,” adds Jared
Moldenhauer. “It’s quite wonderful
that this has finally happened. It’s
nice to think that finally independent
games have become, maybe not
forefront, but have emerged and
are now maybe side by side, like big
brother, little brother with triple-A
studios.” And that’s exactly the way
things should be. “It wouldn’t really be
an independent games group if they
were controlling what was going into
the games,” says Wilson. “They will
sometimes have recommendations
on how to present the game or how
to position yourself from a marketing
perspective, but in terms of what goes
into the game, they want that to be
what your vision is.”
But it’s not like the ID team is
completely hands-off. Part of what
they do is offer advice and may point
out things that you might be missing
or that you may not be thinking about,
especially if you’re not an experienced
developer. “ID gave us awesome
feedback and guidance for areas of

“We have a lot of freedom.

It’s not like they decide on

the game’s content”

Check out some of the

impressive stats that

independent developers have

generated on ID@ Xbox

ABOVE Double

Fine’s Broken

Age.

BELOW Yooka-

Laylee is an

indie from

ex-N64 era Rare

devs Playtonic.

ID@XBOX

That’s the equivalent of just over

456,621 years, just enough time to get

through our back catalogue of games.

Not every indie game is a hit, but

there’s a huge amount of potential for

the one you make to change your life.

Each with their own development kits

supplied by Microsoft free of charge.

ames were released within the

hree years of the program, with

er 500 almost two years later.

like popping six achievements

second for five consecutive

Totally do-able.

ID@XBOX

IN NUMBERS

More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 057

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