HemiGames.com – Developer Blog

I thought it would be interesting to see how Orbyx fared in each of the different territories available on the XBox LIVE Indie Games, so I put together a couple of charts.

This first chart shows how many relative downloads and sales Orbyx received in each country.

As you can see, the USA is by far the most successful market, with the UK in 2nd place with about 11% of the downloads.

The next image shows the conversion ratio for each of the countries, i.e. the number of people who bought the game versus the number of people who downloaded the trial (note that the numbers are percentages).

Not surprisingly, the game has sold better in the English-speaking countries (Canada, UK, USA, and Sweden(?)), with the lowest conversion ratio in Japan. Given the potential size of the Japanese market I would be interested to know how the Japanese language games on the service have fared there and whether it would be worth localizing.

I released Orbyx on the XBox Live Indie Games channel in May 2009, and this is just a list of all the game reviews and articles I could find on the web (listed in no particular order)…

IGN.com – Top Pick of the Week

http://uk.xboxlive.ign.com/articles/980/980769p1.html

The addition of some insane end-level bonus sequences, multiple power-ups linked to different characters and a solid presentation, plus a perfect asking price make this our top pick this week. Good job, ChrisH.

SFX-360.com – 10th best Indie game of 2009 (out of 700+ games)

http://blogs.sfx-360.com/buzzkiller/?p=1560

Will have you playing for hours and hours

SFX-360.com – 8.4/10

http://sfx-360.com/index.php?idReview=99

Orbyx: Mystic Orbs of Chaos has alot of similarities to Peggle, but let me assure you that Orbyx can stand on it’s own merit. It’s a really good game that will have you playing each stage over and over again.

WorthThePoints.com – Score 8.1/10

http://www.worththepoints.com/savamizz/posts/65-Kick-back-Relax-and-Ricochet

Orbyx is an engaging adventure that will captivate you will thrilling sights and sounds while challenging you to aim carefully and plan meticulously. This Plinko-inspired mayhem would make Bob Barker proud. If chaotic trajectories are your cup of tea, the price is definitely right.

WouldYouKindly.com

http://www.wouldyoukindly.com/xna-community-spotlight-orbyx-mystic-orbs-of-chaos/

It plays very similar to Peggle and almost does it better, don’t get me wrong though, its not an exact Peggle clone, there are plenty of extra features to set it apart from Peggle … The gameplay is extremely addictive and fun, while playing Orbyx, I really had a hard time believing I was actually playing an XNA game and not an XBLA premium title.

GayGamer.net

http://gaygamer.net/2009/05/xbox_live_community_watch_5809.html

An awesome Peggle/Breakout hybrid.

IndieFlux.com

http://indieflux.com/2009/05/28/orbyx-the-orbyxal-mystery-tour-is-here-to-take-you-away/

Even though this is a clone, this is a high quality clone.

GiveUsThisDayOurDailyGame

http://giveusthisdayourdailygame.blogspot.com/2009/05/orbyx-mystic-orbs-of-chaos.html

The Pachinko Game I have been waiting for.

Xblig.co.uk

http://www.xblig.co.uk/index.php/2009/05/06/orbyx-mystic-orbs-of-chaos-pre-release-r

Being a sucker for pinball and breakout, I really enjoyed Orbyx – Mystic Orbs of Chaos and would highly recommend that if they are your sort of games too, that you at least download the trial.

SmallCaveGames – Graded ‘B’

http://smallcavegames.blogspot.com/2009/05/orbyx-review.html

You should snatch this up faster than you can say “Elven robot techno cannonballs.”

Homebrew Welt – 4 Stars (out of 5)

I don’t speak German so have no idea what the review says, but 4 stars is a pretty good score.

http://www.homebrewwelt.com/2009/10/21/orbyx-mystic-orbs-of-chaos/

LeeAndZ.com – Overlooked Budget Games – Audio

http://www.leeandz.com/podcast/006.mp3

The review starts at 9 mins 30 secs.

Developer Interview

Finally, I also did an interview for Xblig.co.uk which you can read here:

http://www.xblig.co.uk/index.php/2009/05/08/orbyx-mystic-orbs-of-chaos-developer-int

This made my day when I first saw it. It’s a great little video review of my XBox Indie game, Orbyx – Mystic Orbs of Chaos. The overall impression was that it didn’t quite live-up to Peggle’s benchmark standards, but was well worth the $5 purchase price thanks to the additions to the classic Peggle formula.

They also compiled a list of the top 21 XBox Indie games and ranked Orbyx as number 4. Not bad!

Skip to 6 mins 20 secs to see the Orbyx entry.