Dust: An Elysian Tail Wins Dream-Build-Play 2009

[Tom Goldman]

Dust: An Elysian Tail Wins Dream-Build-Play 2009


The winner of Dream-Build-Play 2009 features anthropomorphism and is quite a piece of work.

Microsoft's Dust: An Elysian Tail [http://www.dreambuildplay.com], an incredibly vibrant side-scroller featuring an anthropomorphic hero.

Watching Dust: An Elysian Tail's trailer here, I almost get a bit of vertigo with everything going on, but the game's quality cannot be denied. For winning the grand prize, Dean brought home a cool $40,000. Second place and a slightly warmer $20,000 went to HurricaneX2 Evolution [http://maxblastronaut.com/].

All of these titles highlight the creativity and talent out there in the independent community today. Now, if Microsoft could find a way to get more people to buy titles developed with XNA [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90578-Community-Games-Sales-Disappoint]. Higher profile XBLA indie titles like Castle Crashers have no problem selling, so maybe it's an issue of branding or marketing? Whatever the reason, developers behind games like Dust deserve to earn a living on their amazing works.

Permalink

 

[HardRockSamurai]

I remember when this game was shown in the new room some time ago, and even now, it still amazes me. Well it certainly deserved to win, and I really hope I can get to play it soon.

 

[TheTygerfire]

Wow...Muramasa on the Wii just got matched by ONE DUDE....

I'm probably going to get this. I hope it's not $20 though. And it better have Achievements too.

 

[RavingPenguin]

Woohoo! It won. Its the only game I had known about, but that hardly matters. It won! Yay! Hopefully I'll get to play it soon.

 

[randommaster]

Wow...Muramasa on the Wii just got matched by ONE DUDE....

I'm probably going to get this. I hope it's not $20 though. And it better have Achievements too.

We have to play it first, but the art is definately top-notch. Since it won the game is probably good and I look forward to being able to play it.

 

[Amnestic]

Hah! Excellent. I was rooting for this game. Glad it won. Will be waiting for this to pop up to purchase. I'll definitely be investing.

 

[Zer_]

The only thing that *really really* annoys me about this game is the walking animation. I can't stand it to the point where I doubt I'll even play it because of that.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

The movement is very Muramasa-esque actually, looks pretty good.

 

[walls of cetepedes]

The only thing that *really really* annoys me about this game is the walking animation. I can't stand it to the point where I doubt I'll even play it because of that.

In the video, there's an annotation that says that they've redesigned the running animation.

 

[MarsProbe]

The only thing that *really really* annoys me about this game is the walking animation. I can't stand it to the point where I doubt I'll even play it because of that.

Aye, the movement animation is a little off there. However, the annotations in the video state the run animation has been redone, so maybe you will be able to play the game after all!

Personally, I wouldn't let that bother me too much, especially considering how good the game looks.

 

[Jumplion]

Woo! I'm glad it won! Looks amazing and I wish I could play it!

But I'm unhappy that it'll probably never get to PSN or PC for that matter >_< darn.

 

[Zer_]

The only thing that *really really* annoys me about this game is the walking animation. I can't stand it to the point where I doubt I'll even play it because of that.

Aye, the movement animation is a little off there. However, the annotations in the video state the run animation has been redone, so maybe you will be able to play the game after all!

Personally, I wouldn't let that bother me too much, especially considering how good the game looks.

Aye I turn off my notations on Youtube, so I can't see messages like that.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

Damn. This game is very well designed. Something else I want to play but lack the capabilities to do so... *sigh*

 

[Fenixius]

Well, this game looks fantastic. I heard about it a month ago on Kotaku, and I thought it was gorgeous then.

Pity I'll -never- be able to play it without going to another country. Australia doesn't get access to the Indie Games portal for some reason. Is it our taxation laws? Our censorship board? Our geographical isolation (it take sooo much more effort to push the game through the wires all the way to us!)? Maybe Microsoft just don't like us... but yeah, can't ever play it. Can't even see it on Live.

So grats to the guy who made it! I forget his name, but he did a great job. Pity I'll never see the fruits of it.

 

[Kollega]

Yeah,yeah,all happened like it was supposed to,yay for the creator,i hope it sells well and gets a PC release later on,etc,etc. Don't really know what else to say.

Can someone tell who is the protagonist? What's his species?

 

[Worgen]

I cant wait to give him money for this game

 

[cobra_ky]

uh oh...defensive fanboy urges rising...

Wow...Muramasa on the Wii just got matched by ONE DUDE...

well, just from looking at the youtube videos, the backgrounds in Dust don't seem to have nearly the level of detail or layers upon layers of parallax that Muramasa has.

then again, since i don't have an xbox and Ignition still hasn't sent me my copy of Muramasa yet, i can't say for sure. X|

also, Vanillaware only has about 20 employees and they had to localize the game to boot.

 

[Mstrswrd]

So, I'm hoping that that means it's a now a given that we will see it soon on XBLA.