Be kind with the marketing

Flammable Games has released its first game: A-Band, hurray! These are some of the things we have learnt about marketing through the development and release of it. This is just our experience, so don’t take this article as a tutorial but more as reference instead, you may well want to do things differently. This post is divided in the different stages of the development process:

1. Prepare yourself in advance: things to do while the game is still in development
2. Playtest/Peer Review: tackle the latest step in the most efficient way
3. First thing to do once your game has been approved: write a press release
4. Sites you want to contact once the game has been released: nicely done your game is out, now what?

A-Band Rocks…Pun Intended

A-Band Rocks…Pun Intended.

A-Band 1.1

We have listened to the dedicated community of A-Band players around the world: we are proud to announce the first A-Band update.

The extensive patch not only adds new game mechanics to the Arcade mode, but also gives the player the option to select between right or left handed configurations as part of the drum kit set up. The reworked game system improves the overall player experience.

The following game trailer has been created as promo video for this release, Noiseaux presents A-Band:

A-Band: languages

Due to an error, different languages (Spanish, Italian, French and German) have been introduced in the game. The translations might not be 100% completely or reviewed, therefore we suggest for the best game experience to set the console language to English. To do this follow these steps:

Turn on the console and, from the Dashboard, go to Configuration (last option at the right). Select System -> Console Settings -> English. Reboot your console and enjoy an A-Band 100% bug free!

Please note that this is only a temporary fix, the issue will be completely resolve with the next update. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.

A-Band 1.0

We are pleased to announce that A-band is finally available in the Xbox Live Indie Market for 240mps. Here is the press release:

A-Band is a music game based on the Xbox drum kit peripheral. The Arcade mode features 12 of the most promising indie rock bands from around the world from places such as U.S., Spain, Germany, Japan, Australia or Brazil in 3 different difficulty levels. Jam Session mode allows the player to use the drum kit as a real electronic kit, 100% configurable. Whereas in the Record Studio the player can save and playback his/her own creations. The most innovative mode is the School of Rock, which presents a way of learning real drumming by memorizing and rehearsing common beats (rock, punk or metal beats, drum fills and more…) all organized by difficulty level. A balanced learning curve makes A-Band enjoyable for both pros and beginners. All this wrapped in a film-noir comic style makes A-Band a competitive game, bringing new and fresh ideas to the music genre.

Unleash your inner drummer with A-Band!

Flammable Games brings Indie Rock into Xbox 360 with A-Band

We are proud to announce that the music magazine Ugly Scene has published an interview with Flammable Games about our first game: A-Band.

A-Band is a new upcoming game for the Xbox360. It features 12 of the most promising indie rock bands from around the world from places such as the U.S., Spain, Germany, Japan, Australia, Brazil and more.

To name a few the bands they include Ten Year Vamp with lead singer Debbie Gabrione, The Rebels, Hella Donna, Noiseaux, Imari Tones, Bedford, Sananda…

> The full interview is available here <

A-Band version 0.3

Added a third version of A-Band. This one has less changes, although it still includes new things from our incomplete to-do list. It can be considered almost the first Release Candidate since at this point no more features will be included (for now at least).

A-Band version 0.1

A-Band has been finally submitted to playtest. Ideally we would like the game available in this phase for around 1 week or 10 days depending on the feedback received. We have been very active in Twitter (@ABand_TheGame) so the indie community knows about it and reach potential reviewers. This has proved to be the most useful way for your game to be tested.

XNA Game engines

  Here is a list of the most used game engines fron XNA Game Studio out there. There are different types of engines, for different needs: 3D – 2D, commercial – open source, particles…

Updates soon

We are working very hard towards the end of our first project: A-Band. More news to come!