Once upon a time, in the magical land of 2008, the launch of the Xbox Live Community Games channel – now Xbox Live Indie Games – ushered in a new era for amateur coders and indie developers. Suddenly it was possible to independently create and release a downloadable game on the Xbox 360 without the need for a publisher.

According to Microsoft, the very first game to hit the service – a virtual Rubik’s Cube clone called Cubage – was a harbinger of some of the more derivative titles that would eventually flood the Indie Games channel. Other early releases, however, showed that great things can come in pint-sized packages.

While we didn’t have any luck in our numerous attempts to reach Cubage’s developer to chat about his experiences while crafting the debut title for the Indie Games channel, we did catch up with a few of the creative minds behind several of the service's interesting launch-window games to see where they’re at now.

Weapon of Choice (400 MS Points, Mommy’s Best Games)

Nothing screams “gnarly” quite like using a handheld jet engine to melt the face tentacles off of oozy alien scum. Nathan Fouts’ over-the-top Contra homage, Weapon of Choice, was among the first standout Xbox Live Indie Games, due to its bizarre but distinct hand-drawn art style, blistering heavy metal soundtrack, and unusual twists on well-worn sidescrolling shooter gameplay tenets. And guns. Don’t forget the guns.

Beyond the vile, disgusting creatures and insane weaponry, it’s Weapon of Choice’s automatic “Death Brushing” mechanic that still resonates with Fouts to this day. “I worked hard to [incorporate] a lot of big changes into the run-and-gun genre,” he explains. With Death Brushing, time instantly slows whenever your massive gun-toting warrior is about to eat it, giving you a chance to get out of danger. “Death Brushing has been since used in Pac-Man Championship Edition DX and Vanquish, so it’s pretty exciting to have made a significant gameplay contribution like that,” he adds.

While Weapon of Choice has done well over the past few years, initial sales were lower than expected. “My expectation was that gamers would be more adventurous in checking out and embracing the [Xbox Live Indie Games] channel,” he says, noting that hasn’t quite played out the way he hoped. “Fortunately, by this point, I think a lot of gamers have heard of XBLIG, and if they hear a story about a really good indie game there, [they’ll] go and find it.”

Like other indie developers, Fouts optimistically hoped the channel would be an alternative to the more stringently vetted Xbox Live Arcade line-up – a place where gamers could find all manner of strange and interesting titles to explore.

That’s still true to an extent: you don’t have to dig very deeply into the Indie Games channel to find some pretty weird stuff. “In a way XBLIG has lived up to expectations: you can release a game to a console free from publisher involvement, and with great tools,” he says. “It’s just very tough to get noticed and have people download your game.”

Even so, Fouts hasn’t given up. In addition to previous releases like Shoot1UP, Game Type, and Explosionade, he has plans for other Indie Games channel projects. Mommy’s Best Games is also gunning to launch a proper Xbox Live Arcade release in the near future as well.

Colosseum (240 MS Points, Shortfuse Games)

Colosseum isn’t just memorable because you can unlock dual-wield chainsaw swords for your customizable character. With its colorful design, cel-shaded art style, and polished presentation, this comic-book inspired arena battler is among the most slick-looking games available on the Indie Games channel. Oddly, it’s these good looks that may have hampered its success in the long run, says Shortfuse Games’ Johan Hermerén.

Despite being an impressive-looking game, he feels Colosseum got mixed reviews because players had high expectations. “Colosseum was graphically top-notch compared to competing games at and around launch. This drove the expectations up, and since the perceived value was lower, the score also became lower,” he says.

Looking back, Hermerén believes the game just isn’t as fun as it should be – though we disagree – and thinks it could have been improved by putting more focus on expanding the gameplay mechanics. Ultimately, he says his small team had to spread their focus to other aspects of the game.

After the original Colosseum was released, the team created a simpler, more streamlined version called Colosseum: Hammerball (also released via XBLIG). That’s not all. Shortfuse Games also came very close to signing a deal with a major game publisher for their vampiric Elvis impersonator brawler, Hail to the King, but the deal was canceled at the last second. Since then, they’ve been working as game industry consultants and are teaming up with Pieces Interactive for an upcoming project. At this point, Hermerén has moved on from the Indie Games channel to explore Steam and the iOS AppStore – markets he feels are more promising.

“I still think that the Xbox Live Indie Games [channel] is really cool,” he notes. “Entry barriers have always been sky high on the Xbox 360, and suddenly everybody could get a game on the console, though lack of marketing and lack of visibility of the platform is a huge downside. Before launch we were told that XBLIG would be an entry platform for new developers where promising talent would be considered for Xbox Live Arcade. As far as I know, that has not happened.”

Hermerén believes that while the Indie Games channel is a good idea, the equation doesn’t balance, and so Microsoft should put more effort into it.

Galax-e-mail (240 MS Points, Bog Turtle Games LLC)

When Carl Erikson and his brother Erik decided to come up with an entry for the 2008 Dream.Build.Play competition, they set out with three simple goals: learn how to use XNA, make a fun and easy-to-play Xbox 360 game, and recoup their development costs. They managed to do all of that in only a few months, crafting a clever twin-stick shooter in the process. Galax-e-mail has you delivering messages across the cosmos while blasting away swarms of enemy ships. It’s a wild, frenetic arcade-style retro romp with some unusual power-ups and intriguing tweaks to the classic formula.

“We literally had no expectations for Galax-e-mail; we just wanted to see it published on the Xbox 360,” says Carl Erikson. “We hoped that we might get some recognition through the Dream.Build.Play 2008 contest, but our past history in contests was not particularly encouraging. Furthermore, we had no idea how the XBLIG platform would initially be received. We viewed the whole process as a learning experiment.”

The experiment was a success on the whole. The game scored well in the competition and among critics, and it made just enough money for the brothers to cover the cost of the two Xbox 360 consoles they picked up to make the games.

Today, Erikson says he and his brother download every Indie Games demo to scope out the channel’s variety, but end up deleting most of the trial demos almost immediately because they’re just not any fun. “For the end consumer, I can see how trying to wade through the selection is a frustrating and time consuming process," he says. “That being said, we absolutely love XBLIG in that it allows us a relatively easy way to get our games on the Xbox 360 console.”

With several other upcoming Indie Games titles and another larger fantasy-themed project in the works, expect to see more from the brothers Erikson soon.

Indieverse is an ongoing weekly column where we shine some light on Xbox Live Indie Games and indie developers. Check out our archives here.