Editor's note: Last night, I posted how incredibly low sales for the game Oozi are, based on an App Hub forums post by the developer. Outraged, I missed a little detail: the developer was supplying sales data for a single day and not for the entire period since release. The developer was so kind to email me, pointing to my mistake and supplying more accurate numbers and additional information. I therefore apologize for misquoting the developer and misinforming my readers. At least, Oozi's sales are not quite the catastrophe I announced yesterday, but my call for attention is still valid, so please read the revised post below.
Marcin Draszczuk, creator of recently released platformer
Oozi: Earth Adventure Episode 1, is not quite satisfied with his title's sales, which he revealed last week in the
XNA forums.
Until April 8, only 223 people downloaded his game, of which a mere 62 purchased the title. Up until today, Oozi was downloaded about 12000 times, but only about 2500 people also bought the game. Considering its high quality, generally favorable reviews and the low price of 80 MSP, it remains a mystery why this excellent platformer doesn't sell much better. Draszczuk hopes a better trial experience for Episode 2 should result in higher sales numbers: "...the gamer will start with four special abilities, while in Episode 1 trial showcases only jumping on enemies and collecting stars." Also hoping that Oozi fares better when released on PC sometime later this year, Draszczuk is probably "...not going to make any more games for XBLIG that have no avatars, zombies, or hot chicks. It's just a waste of effort."
At first glance, 2D puzzle platformer Along Came A Spider might look a little bland as all of its 20 levels are made up of simple, mostly white lines representing spider's silk. The main character consists of a black circle with white eyes surrounded by dangling, fuzzy legs, only remotely resembling a real spider. But as soon as you start playing, this rather basic presentation will draw you in nevertheless. Complemented by a superb, electronic ambient soundtrack, the constantly swaying gameworld is almost hypnotizing, focusing the player on the obstacles ahead while he is figuring out how to overcome them.
Inertia! is a rather short platformer offering only 9 levels but features some interesting novel gameplay. The player must escape a space station filled with traps like flames and broken power supply lines, and can defy gravity by activating inertia, letting the character float into the direction in which he had been moving before. While floating the character will bounce off walls, reaching locations he couldn't have gotten to otherwise. All levels can be played in time trial or reverse mode, the latter making you start at the end of each level and backtracking to the beginning. This may sound like a cheap way to extend the amount of content, but some levels are actually a little harder and require a different approach in reverse, which makes this mode a nice addition.