What a way to ring in the new year: our new game CarneyVale: Showtime was just named Gamasutra's #1 top XNA Community Game of 2008!

From their website:

The well deserved winner of the DreamBuildPlay 2008 competition, if there's any justice in the world, CarneyVale: Showtime will be the game that puts the Community Games on the map.

It's a blazingly simple concept. You guide a ragdoll up the screen via a series of rotating grappling ropes, and complete the level by flinging him through a flaming hoop. What makes the game so special is its wonderful show of coherence coupled with joyous arcade-esque thrills.

Hurling your little acrobat through the air, popping balloons as you go is just so much fun. It'd be a hard-faced man indeed who wouldn't raise a smile after a particularly successful run of tricks, the crowd cheering them on as they hurtle through the fiery ring and onto the next challenge.

At the frankly silly price of 400 points, and with 18 inbuilt levels and a level editor thrown in for good measure, CarneyVale: Showtime deserves your time. Play it and wonder to yourself why XBLA occasionally drifts into the realms of utter tat, and yet sitting there unattended on the Community Games service lies this gem that eclipses a vast proportion of XBLA games. Then smile and spread the word.

We were just coming down off that news when we found out that Destructoid really, really likes us too. From the start of Jim Sterling's review:

When I first started challenging Community Games developers to submit their work for review on Destructoid, I had hoped that some real gems would come out of the woodwork and prove their worth. I had not, however, expected CarneyVale: Showtime.

At the risk of spoiling the whole review before you even read it, let me say that if you're at all interested in the potential of XNA games, then you really, really, really need to check this one out. A breath of fresh air? This is more like a gale of the stuff.

Then, when we were coming down from that, we found out that Showtime has been getting some rave reviews on the Xbox Forums and was just announced as the #6 top-selling game on XNA Community Games to boot!

Pass the champagne – our new year has just been made very happy indeed. Thanks, everyone! And happy new year!