Xbox Live Indie Games: How To Survive

But even the service's big winners feel that it is sometimes neglected, that perhaps more could, and should be made of it. As Sawkins puts it when asked about promotion: "I would sort of agree that Microsoft don't tend to do enough.

"On the dashboard there's the avatar section. That's not been touched in about 6 months. I look at it and think, why's Fortresscraft not there? Avatar Drop has been there for so long, surely anyone who's going to buy would have done so by now?"

More promotion means more sales, says Sawkins, surely a win for all involved?

"I got one of my games promoted for Valentines day stuff last year and I've never seen such a turnaround in sales. Just wow, the graph did a vertical turn upwards. That was only in Canada and only on an obscure section of the dash. I don't know why those lists aren't updated, why they aren't pushed.

I got one of my games promoted for Valentines day last year and I've never seen such a turnaround in sales. I don't know why those lists aren't updated, why they aren't pushed.

Adam Sawkins

"One of the differences I've noticed about Fortresscraft and my previous games was that when it came out, people already knew about it. My average sales on first day is about 40-50. That's quite cool. Fortresscraft did about 16,000. That's not people discovering it, they damn well knew it was there.

"We shipped about 65,000 on the first weekend. Our conversion rate is about 96 per cent. They're not randomly discovering it, they're being told by their friends or reading about it on the web. I got tired of telling people how to find it - people didn't know where the indie games section was.

"If you're bored of Call of Duty one evening, just sit there on the indie arcade and add fifty of them, play them through. Same thing with the App Store. I'd like MS to work on that, that browsing isn't really there on the indie dash. I'd like to see things like other games in the same genre, people who liked this game also liked... That sort of cross-polination."

Steinke agrees to a certain extent, but feels that what is offered is still nothing to be sniffed at.

"Being on the Xbox dashboard is a privilege that I couldn't possibly be more appreciative of Microsoft for, and has more impact than anything else. Those are where your customers are.

"However before the dashboard changed in November of 2010, it seemed we got nearly twice the exposure based on where were we located in the dash. My game Avatar Laser Wars was the number one selling game at the time of the change. Aside from putting us in a more prominent position like before, I couldn't ask for much more."

Barker's Crest's Matt Davis sees that promotion as being earned, reserved for the cream of the crop.

"I think we've been given quite a bit of exposure from Microsoft," he says.

"Three of our four games have been featured on dash promotions in one form or another. Avatar Golf was a daily deal during Christmas one year and Avatar Legends is currently featured on the August 'Most Wanted' promotion. I feel like we earned it by building fun and marketable games."

Perhaps the lesson to learn, here. Publishing a game on XBLIG doesn't get you XBLA levels of support. You won't have a marketing budget assigned to you and you'll be lucky, or will have earned it, if you get a prominent slot on the dash. One or two exceptions aside, you're not going to be able to give up the day job.

But, if you're willing to make it a labour of love, to take on a project for nothing more guaranteed than the warm glow of knowing it's out there, on the off chance that it could be in the hands of millions of gamers worldwide by the end of the week, XNA and XBLIG offer a nigh-on unique opportunity.

It's not the most glamorous system. It's probably neither the best subscribed, promoted nor advertised. But if the spirit of the bedroom coders who laid the foundations of this industry occupies a little corner of your soul, then maybe you should give it a try.