I have only created some games for windows but not xbox360 before. I am planning to develop a xbox game using XNA but in order to release game to sell in the Xbox Live Indie Games, I need to subscribe to the Creator Club for $99/year. Usually an indie game is sell for 200 ms points, which is $2.50. I think it is kinda hard to earn much profit unless your game really sell well. Although I am doing it for hobby and not for making big money, it will be great to at least make up some profit to cover my invested money (the $99/year subscription fee!) and time. I will have to sell 40 copies of my game to make up for the 1 year subscription fee. Anyone xbox indie game developer out there want to share his/her experience? Also, do I need to renew the subscription after 1 year in order to keep the game hosting in the game marketplace? Any advice will be helpful. Thanks. [Edited by - dannielum on July 27, 2009 3:18:44 PM]

Using the Creator's Club and releasing an Indie title it a great way to get a game out there and played. It is also a great way to potentially show that you're a competent game developer. It is not, however, a great way to make money. Even the very best selling titles are only selling a few thousand copies. This is just something you'll need to come to terms with.

Quote: Original post by zer0wolf
Using the Creator's Club and releasing an Indie title it a great way to get a game out there and played. It is also a great way to potentially show that you're a competent game developer. It is not, however, a great way to make money. Even the very best selling titles are only selling a few thousand copies. This is just something you'll need to come to terms with.

I guess you are right about it. Making money is the secondary goal for most indie developers, but proving your ability to make good games is the first goal. It is exciting just to see your created game hosted on xbox live game marketplace for sale.

I am not interested in making lots of money, just enough to get by without having to survive on noodles. This is not possible as a sole or duo indie developer team?

Quote: Original post by DarkZoulz
I am not interested in making lots of money, just enough to get by without having to survive on noodles. This is not possible as a sole or duo indie developer team?

If you make enough money to sustain yourself by indie game development you are making lots of money already.

On the other hand, $99/year (+ one time costs of Xbox and dev PC) is quite cheap for a hobby.

My primary goal is just to create a good quality game that people will like. It's a joy if I could achieve that. But making money with it will be a bonus. Anyone know if I can use any free sprites and graphics from the web to use in my game if I want to sell it on xbox live indies game marketplace? Thanks.

Quote: Original post by dannielum
Anyone know if I can use any free sprites and graphics from the web to use in my game if I want to sell it on xbox live indies game marketplace? Thanks.

It depends. What does the EULA say? Read the EULA that comes with those free graphics.

Quote: Original post by Tom Sloper

Quote: Original post by dannielum
Anyone know if I can use any free sprites and graphics from the web to use in my game if I want to sell it on xbox live indies game marketplace? Thanks.

It depends. What does the EULA say? Read the EULA that comes with those free graphics.

I see. So if the readme file says it is free to use then I can just take it for commercial use. To be safe, maybe I should contact the owner if possible. Thanks.

Maybe I should ask this so that both the OP and everyone else who want to know this can learn. What would it take to get your game on Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade? What would it take to convince Microsoft to let you put your game on it?

XBLA games have to be professional quality, basically. They're mainly just smaller and simpler. Solo efforts are a challenge, but small-team is very doable. Take a look at Dishwasher (winner of the first Dream-Build-Play competition) to get a solid idea of what you're expected to turn out. If you can put out something on that level (programming, art, music, all of it), you're good to go. That guy is the most successful of the XNA crowd, I'm fairly certain, and he's probably pulled in somewhere in the vicinity of 10K.

Plan on a day job.