Sweet Indie Animation Coming to XBLA

By: Derek Yu

On: June 15th, 2010

Wow, there are some really, really nice-looking indie games coming out soon. First off, it was recently announced that Dean Dodrill’s Dust: An Elysian Tail is heading to XBLA in 2011. The music is being done by Hyperduck Studios.

Here’s an E3 trailer for Klei Entertainment’s violent, side-scrolling platformer/beat ’em up Shank. EA Partners is publishing the game and helping to bring it to XBLA, PSN, and the PC. Klei has also been working with God of War writer Marianne Krawczyk to craft Shank’s storyline (which hopefully involves a lot of stabbing). According to Jamie Cheng, the two met at GDC in 2008 and discussed collaborating on an indie game together.

Also at E3, it was announced that multiple IGF award winner (Visual Arts and Technical Excellence) Limbo is going to a part of XBLA’s Summer of Arcade.

Finally, animator/illustrator Michel Gagné’s Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is also coming out on XBLA.

Posted in Previews, PS3, Videos, Windows, Xbox 360 | Tags: KleiEntertainment, PlayDead

guest

wow! stunning animation on all, limbo and insanely twisted shadow planet look especially amazing
phubans

WOW, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet blew my mind.
Guest

in before someone mentioning furries
Antialias

Oh it's that furry game about furries made by people who are no doubt furries
http://www.zez.herobo.com zez

Dust looks pretty friggin amazing, despite being full of furries. Kinda reminds of Muramasa, and thats good in my book.
FourbitFriday

ah, the new Elysian Tale trailer looks rad now that the character isn't spamming the same move like a hundred times. And I lust after Shadow Planet something fierce. Gagné is boss. The others look similarly delicious.
http://shigi.wordpress.com Laura

Oh wow, I didn't realize that Dust was already so near completion! Congratulations you guys, the animation is absolutely beautiful… and of course I'm also very much anticipating more music from the Hyperduck boys :)
Dinsdale

figured they'd given up on Shadow Planet. it looks absolutely gorgeous, i almost wish i had xbox…
rinkuhero

games like these four are what i bought my xbox360 for, i wish the e3 had focused on these more than new call of duty etc. sequels
funny

Hey they fixed the run cycle in Dust!
Dinsdale

this entire furry deal is so fucking past the bearable joke threshold that it is absolutely ridiculous. to get it over with, here's one YIFF IN HELL FURFAGS that was bound to happen sooner or later and let us not speak of it ever again.
alastair_jack

Wow, these all look very nice.
SmallCaveGames

Yay for original IPs.
esq

The new 2D Rayman also boasts some sweet animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOjDQybFGws
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/MHCG2OJVQL2BZACLFNGY765MVY First L

Dust looks gorgeous, but the gameplay concerns me. I wonder if it's going to feel repetitious.

Shank – the same.

Limbo is the one that impressed me the most. The basic yet perfect graphics clash extremely well with the artful puzzle-solving and exploration. It almost reminds me of Braid, in the sense of curious understanding.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, though, surprised me as well. The animation is fantastic, but the gameplay strikes a chord with me… I wonder why… Perhaps Derek Yu could tell me what it is. ;)
http://roachpuppy.com chrisz

Holy crap, Shadow Planet looks awesome in motion. Agree that E3 pressers need more indie but thats like asking a mute to sing.
Medo

While Limbo does look gorgeous, I had the feeling the animation of the character was not as vivid as in the old concept video. Maybe it was just the selection of scenes though. And of course it would be a huge ammount of work to create such a large range of appropriate situational animations as would probably be neccessary to keep up the same level of apparent “awareness” of the character as in the concept video.
bombboy

Dust main character animation looks so good it's painful

The enemies, though, move in the paper-cut-out way that I don't really feel

Still! that main character movement is probably better than .. almost anything in 2D gaming I've ever seen! Haha, I mean, that's not saying nothing, you know.
Quanrian

I knew about all of those except for Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. Really good find there and thanks for the information. I've been compiling a list of XBLA titles to look out for and that is definitely going on the list. This is like if married Heart of Darkness with an exploration shooter, very cool indeed.
Dinsdale

shit that Limbo looks good… there isn't a single thing happening in this trailer that's short of perfect. except for that window breaking part perhaps.
Lebby

Dust looks pretty cool, but due to the fact it's a “furry” game, I dunno if it's going to sell many copies. Too bad they couldn't make a game without furries in it. It is disappointing that the tentacles of the fur fandom are reaching as far as gaming consoles. X(
Dominic White

I think you overestimate how much of the game-buying audience are made up of reactionary angry internet men who would be afraid of their own shadow, if it appeared to be vagely animal-shaped.

One of the flagship launch titles for Nintendos newly announced 3DS handheld is a full remake of Starfox 64. It'll sell like hot-cakes, and y'know why? Because most people don't freak out when they see an animal-character in a videogame, because they're not insane.
MisterX

In games I've been playing as a plumber, unidentifiable fluffy pink ball, humanoid hedgehog, humanoid turtle, humanoid worm, gorilla, amnesiac robot boy, mermaid girl and a tar ball, to name but a few. How is a humanoid fox a big deal, again?

All of these games look very good. Though, does really only Shank come out for the PC?
Sparky

Yeah, me too. The explosion a bit after 2:20 is great :)
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3DSFCRASKKLUJHAC3WPGZTOBNY Nobody Important

except Nintendo isn't a group of furries, the guy who made this is a bonafide furry with his own Wikifur article.
http://twitter.com/jrjellybeans Jr. Jellybeans

I thought half of these games were released already…
They all look beautiful in any case.
I wish I had an XBox 360 :(
Sargon

I have seen shank on E3's videos. It's being published by EA related publishers.
But I am sure it's still got that “indie spirit”.
Guest

because furries. do not give money to support their cause
funny

Is this a backhanded way of saying Battlefield Earth would have been successful if it wasn't the Scientologist Movie?

Don't answer that.
Somebody

The fact that he hast a Wikifur article means something? I just read it and it just says that he was actually the Jazz Jackrabbit animator and a few of other facts. How this is a reason to be concerned?… Just bollocks.
Dominic White

I didn't even know the guy was a furry until now. Or even that a 'wikifur' existed.

This kinda proves my point. You're so obsessed over the issue that you've looked it up in excruciating detail. Most people aren't crazy, and don't give a flying fuck who the guy is, just that the game is fun and looks pretty. We already know it's pretty so the only question is whether it's fun.

Oh yeah, not sure if it's true, but I think I heard someone mention sometime that the creator of Another World (aka Out of This World) was a furry. Welp, now you can't enjoy one of the great classics of PC gaming ever again. Don't you love it?
http://tedmartens.com savethedinosaurs

Jesus! Art style and animation bar has been raised way up!
OpethRockr55

Pleasepleaseplease let these come out for the PC (those other than Shank, anyway). If not, I may seriously consider coughing up for a 360 this summer, especially now they've got fancy-dancy Wi-fi.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3DSFCRASKKLUJHAC3WPGZTOBNY Nobody Important

Excruciating detail? Nonsense. I just Googled it.
Dominic White

Normal people don't do background checks on their game developers.
JWK5

No worse than all the characters that look like JPop/JRock stars or all the ones designed to resemble the square-jawed Superman look. It is just a popular style, that's all. Different strokes for different folks.
JWK5

To be fair, “normal people” probably don't make indie games either lol…. But why wouldn't “normal people” do background checks on their game developers? They do background checks on their favorite musicians, sports stars, artists, etc. so why not their game developers too?

Anyways, I think a lot of people have grown to dislike “furry” type characters because of all the furry porn drawings circulating around the net. It has given people are really negative view of the character style, which to a degree is understandable.

I remember that initially Japanese anime cast a “it's all cutesy big eyed craziness” vibe when it was first really introduced to the US audiences (and I think manga even more so). It took a while for people to get past some of the more extreme examples to really see that there can actually be depth and seriousness to the style.

Hopefully people can get over their skepticism and cynicism long enough to give the game an honest chance. Even if you aren't partial to the character style it is still pretty obvious a lot of hard work went into it.
W3R3W00F

Dust looks the best, imo. It's nice to know Dean Dodrill is more or less carrying on the Jazz Jackrabbit style. I loved JJ as a kid, so it gives me some nostalgic vibes… :) Also, I like the main character/wolf/fox/coyote/blue… canid. Though the walking animation still needs a bit of work; it kind of makes him look like a ninny.

Second favorite would be Limbo; it's pretty gorgeous for a simple black and white game. If I had an Xbox 360 it'd be Day one purchase for me, as well as Dust.
Yeah

Dust got me a boner.
Cypress_dahlia

I see the flOw creature is actually a natural inhabitant of Twisted Shadow Planet.

TSP really saw some huge upgrades since the last trailer. Amazing looking game.
PhasmaFelis

Yeah, the gaming public would NEVER buy a game with furries in it. Like Starfox or Sonic the Hedgehog or Crash Bandicoot or Ratchet and Clank or Lugaru or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or OH WAIT.
Keith

I find it weird that the Xbox is becoming the indie place to be – MS just seem as far from the indie ethos as one can possibly be!
Gastón

I love those previews!! It seems like you were playing on an animated movie. However…¿is it just me or Michel Gagné is a little bit obsessed with pincer-like cannibal plants and creatures with razor-sharp wings?