One great thing about Xbox Live is allowing people to make their own games. Assuming you have the money, time, and skills, you can make and release a game that people can download and play on their console. They might even pay for it. But lets face it, most Indie games fall somewhere between “meh” and “so-so.”

Little risk with Indie games

Fortunately, most Indie games are priced less than $5, which makes buying the full version not such a gamble. But being the cheap ass that I am, I’m careful about which games I pay full price for. In many cases the demo is plenty for Indie games…mostly because the full game isn’t much more than the demo. I downloaded a short list of Indie games that sounded interesting and all but two ended up in the trash.

The one that got me hooked was called MotorHEAT. It’s an arcade racing games that lives along the lines of Pole Position, Rad Racer, and Out Run - and it’s only $3. It’s simple to play but hard to give up on - the sign of a wonderful title. MotorHEAT could also be called Traffic Weaver and you’d understand the game immediately. The goal is simple, get a high score but don’t run out of time. Easy enough, but just like Rad Racer and the others, pesky Sunday drivers get in your way.

MotorHEAT: Making Rad Racer even easier...but harder

If you thought Rad Racer and Out Run were simple games, then MotorHEAT succeeds by making it even simpler. All you have to worry about is dodging cars. There’s no accelerator, no brakes, no reverse, no gears…your car just goes. You don’t even have to really steer, your car will move with the road. So where’s the fun?

The fun is in dodging and passing through traffic as narrowly as you can. When passing cars you want to get as close to them as possible without crashing to gain turbo boost. The faster and farther you go, the more points and multipliers you get. You have 30 seconds to get to each checkpoint, so you’ll need your boost and whatever other bonuses come your way in the form of star boxes. But crash and you loose 10 seconds off the clock.

I’ll buy the game for you

You have to keep in mind the goal is score, not just surviving. If you just try to avoid other cars, the game is pretty boring. Despite it being fun to play, nothing about the game really stands out. The graphics look “indie” and the music/sounds are as a Garage Band as you get. But hey, it’s fun. And hey, it’s $3.

And YOUR challenge: Whichever of my XBL friends has the highest score greater than mine by April 1, will get $3 from me. That means the game is free!

So there you go. Your chance at a free game. And if you don’t beat me, it’s only $3 and the joy in the fact that you just made some Indie game maker’s day.

Channel your inner Canadian

Another game that made my Indie radar comes after being hot on the Winter Olympics, Curling 2010. I haven’t actually purchased this full version yet, although it’s also only $3, but the demo is enough to wet your whistle if you have a curling itch to scratch. And honestly, it’s curling. If you don’t like curling, then you won’t like the game. The controls for Curling 2010 are a little awkward at first and I wish there was some Enya-like background music or something, but it delivers on its promise for curling. You can play on-line with friends so if anyone wants some curling challenge, I’m all for it.

Support the little guy

I’ve thought about making an Xbox Indie game but I just don’t have the resources, namely money and graphics skill. But it’s safe to say that if I made one and tried to sell it for $2, that I would be ecstatic (and amazed) every time someone bought one. Just because a lot of Indie games are $1 and involve your Xbox Mii’s doesn’t mean there aren’t some decent games out there. They might not be as flash or polished, but they can be a hell of a lot of fun.