Tourist Trap is now available on Xbox Live Indie Games. You can download a free trial through xbox.com.

 Welcome to the Tower of Mystery, the home of the most amazing curiosities in the world. Our museum of oddities and curiosities includes a genuine shrunken head, dragon venom, the first wheel, Excalibur and other mysterious items. But beware of the Jackalope! Discover the mystery in this 3D adventure game.

Here is the official screenshots that will be seen in the final version of Tourist Trap, when it’s released on the Xbox Live marketplace.

Tourist Trap is currently making its way through playtest. I’m getting closer to point of final peer review now.  Here is the Xbox game trailer.

Now that Mind’s Eye of Jupiter is complete, I wanted to take a look back at the series as a whole.

What Worked:

When I first started developing Mind’s Eye of Jupiter I wanted to create an adventure game with strong 3D environments, a complex plot and light puzzle solving. I wanted a game where the story is revealed as the player wanders and explores the game’s world. This type of game is rare on Xbox Indie Games. Overall, I think I accomplished my goals.

What Didn’t Work:

The core problem with the game was the plot was too large for an XBLIG game. The larger story forced me to break the game into episodes. The game required a lot of different scenes and environments. Because of time and file size limits, I had to build scenes that were emptier than I would have liked. The size of the game also affected the price. One of the more common negative pieces of feedback I’ve gotten, is the episodes are too short for the 240 price point. Microsoft has a limit of 50 MB for 80 point games and 240 is the lowest price for games above 50 MB. All Mind’s Eye of Jupiter episodes were well above 50 MB. There is no way to sell the game for 80 points.

What I’ve Learned:

I plan on making more adventure games. I will avoid episodic games, for now. A standalone 80 point 3D adventure game would be perfect for XBLIG. I don’t think there is a game like that currently on the service. The plot should be more of a short story. Most full games try to have an epic movie style plot. Space Marines battling invading space mutant zombie aliens. I should create games closer to the length and style of the old Twilight Zone episodes. Short stories set in a single location that blends sci-fi, fantasy and horror. This kind of format would fit well with the inexpensive mini games that people seem to expect from XBLIG.

Let me know what you think.

Mind’s Eye Jupiter – Episode 03 has now passed peer review and is available on Xbox Live Indie Games. You can download a free trial through the xbox.com page. You can also view the game trailer on YouTube.