[In this Gamasutra-exclusive postmortem, NinjaBee explain what went right - and wrong - while creating Avatar-enabled Xbox Live Arcade worldbuilding game A Kingdom For Keflings.]

A Kingdom for Keflings is NinjaBee's fourth self-published Xbox Live Arcade game for the Xbox 360 (after Outpost Kaloki X, Cloning Clyde, and Band of Bugs). Following our usual passion for something new, we created an original IP and designed a new game with unique game mechanics.

We hoped a happy avatar-themed city-builder with a focus on the inhabitants of the world would appeal immediately to sim game players and be easily accessible to anyone else who wanted to give it a try.

The core team was the usual mix of programmers, artists, and designers, but in this case most of them had worked on one or more of our previous Live Arcade games and brought helpful experience with them.

After the release of A Kingdom for Keflings, we made a particular effort to play the game online with strangers and hang out in forums, listening to feedback, helping with questions, and generally collecting notes.

The total response to the game has been more positive than we ever expected, and playing with enthusiastic players has been a joy. On the other hand, there's plenty of negative feedback to go with the positive, and we've dutifully taken our lumps there as well.

Continue reading Gamasutra's Postmortem of A Kingdom For Keflings