Silent Call 2 will be out… I’m not sure when!

Silent Call 2 is about 60% of the way through it’s peer review process.

I expect it to complete within a week. Unfortunately I know that at least one of the reviews is a fail.

The reason for the fail: My inclusion of the image of the XBox 360 controller’s guide button:

What’s wrong with this? Well, it partially incorporates the XBox 360 logo. And putting any Microsoft logo or trademark in your game is a fail.

I personally think this is fucking ridiculous claim; especially since that image was provided free and under a permissive licence by Microsoft themselves.

But unfortunately legal issues are… well, legal issues. The official forum and support helpdesk cannot give any advice, all they can do is refer back to the licence that came with the image pack that included the image. And that licence contradicts itself: It permits use of  the image but forbids use of any Microsoft logo.

I think it’s ridiculous since when Silent Call 2 reaches the end of review; someone at Microsoft WILL arbitrate the issue. Why not do it now instead of wasting mine and fellow peer reviewers’ time?

If it is Failed, I have a one week “cool off” period before I can submit it again. And then it will start peer review a-new; at the back of the queue with zero reviews.

XBox 360 dashboard update

New XBox dashboard is annoying from the point of view of indie game development. Indie games are hidden away; and the XNA connect app can only be reached by scrolling all the way through your full list of games (and it won’t appear in the “Quickplay” section for recently played titles either). Oh well.

Chester – Uprising

Click here to see the game’s info on XBox.com.

Chester box art

 

Chester is an awesome jump-and-shoot platformer available on XBLIG. It is currently getting an update, and is definitely worthy of (at the very least) a trial download. The full game offers levels split over several worlds, multiple characters to play as, and a shop mode that lets you buy power-ups, abilities and new characters!