The Humble Bundle is Back Again, and Now For Android
Great, it's another Humble Bundle. These are going to be the death of me. This time, it's indie games for your Android phone, or tablet, or Kindle Fire if you don't think it counts as a tablet (it totally counts as a tablet). These are games that ahve been on the Humble Bundle site before, but the Android versions are new, or at least new for the Humble Bundle.
You know the deal. Spend as much money as you want and distribute it to the developers and Child's Play and EFF charities (and the Humble Bundle folks, because they have costs, too) as you see fit. If you spend more than the average, you get a bonus game. This time, the games are Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Osmos, and EDGE, and if you spend more than the average of currently $5.73, you get World of Goo, too. You don't just get the Android versions of the games, though. You also get the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions, including Steam keys. They're not available on iOS through the bundle, because Apple is terrible at making software actually accessible outside of its own store. There's a good chance the Humble Bundle will add more games to the group before the deal runs out, so keep checking the Humble Bundle site over the next two weeks.
Great, Another Humble Indie Bundle.
The Humble Bundle is breaking my balls. It seems like every month gets a new one that gets more of my cash and, probably, more of yours. The Humble Indie Bundle 4 is now out, barely a week after the Humble Introversion Bundle finished. And this bundle is... awesome. Seven great games for just $5 (or more, or less, depending on how generous you're feeling).
First, the details if you're not familiar with the Humble Bundle. You can pay however much you want. If you pay more than the average, you get an extra game or two. The games have no DRM and you can get them on multiple platforms. You can decide how much of your money goes to the developers, the bundle people, or the Child's Play and EFF charities. That's it.
Now, the games this time around are a who's who of the best indie games of the last few years. There's Cave Story+, Super Meat Boy, Jamestown, Gratuitous Space Battles, Bit.Trip RUNNER, Shank, and NightSky. I can name four of those games that are worth $10 alone.
A New Humble Bundle is Here: The Humble Voxatron Debut Bundle
The Humble Bundle is back, and it has all-new games. The Humble Voxatron Debut Bundle includes Voxatron in an alpha build, The Binding of Isaac, and Blocks That Matter. The Bundle's main thrust is to see Voxatron go out the door and get a final version released, which gamers will get along with the bundle, as soon as it comes out. The Bundle's other thrust is charity.
Like other Humble Bundles, the Humble Voxatron Debut Bundle lets gamers pay as much as they want, and to distribute the money developers, the Humble Bundle organization, or the Child's Play and EFF charities. The average donation is between $4 and $7, which isn't bad considering you get three games and give to charity. Since this is just the start of the bundle's two-week run, it's safe to say they'll add a few more games before it ends. Keep an eye out, and don't be stingy! It's for charity. Also, pixel art and nightmare babies.
5 Days Left On The Humble Indie Bundle
Do you like indie games? Do you like contributing to charity? Do you like the best savings you'll get short of piracy? Then you'll love the Humble Indie Bundle #3, now into a week of sales and plenty of bonuses added onto the already generous pack. The bundle includes Crayon Physics Deluxe, cogs, VVVVVV, Hammerfight, And Yet It Movies, and Steel Storm (added as a bonus to all packs). And if you spend more than the average of $5.08 (this could change), you get everything in the Humble Indie Bundle #2, which includes Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos, and Revenge of the Titans. And you get to play Minecraft for free until August 14.
You can spend as little or as much as you want on the bundle, and decide exactly who gets what. If you want to support a single developer, that's fine. If you want to put all the money into Child's Play or the EFF, you can do that too. It's a great deal and some good causes.
The Potato Hits the Fan: Valve Teases Early Portal 2 Release With Potato Bundle Games
This is pretty much the culmination of the Portal 2 ARG, or at least a massive leap in its presence among gamers. Valve has come right out and said that the Potato Bundle indie games will help reboot GladOS and launch Portal 2 early... if enough gamers play them. At the same time. Well, if nothing else, it's an excuse to play more Super Meat Boy and Defense Grid.
As usual, Valve is being mysterious and weird, but the Steam store prominently shows a whole list of the Potato Bundle games, with the number of people currently playing. Something will supposedly happen if all those meters fill up. The question is, what, and when, and how?
Either way, Portal 2 comes out on Tuesday, so... this really is kind of a lot of indie game-playing work for just a few dozen hours' head start on the game. Now, if you don't mind me, I have to fight off aliens with my many towers.
Humble Bundle Sells Trine, Shadowgrounds for As Much As You Want
The Humble Bundle is a brilliant idea. Set your own price for a pack of indie games and decide how much of that money goes to the developers and how much goes to organizations like Child's Play and the EFF. You can be a really cheap dickbag and pay a buck, or a reasonable gamer and pay $10, or be an exceedingly generous chap and plunk a ton of money toward the cause of indie developers, electronic freedom, and childrens' hospitals.
The newest Humble Bundle is out, the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle. For the next 12 days, you can pick up every Frozenbyte game, including an upcoming title and an unreleased prototype title, for as much or as little as you want. That's Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, the upcoming Splot, and the unfinished Jack Claw. The games are completely DRM-free, can be played on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems (depending on the game), and can even be transferred to your Steam account for easy downloading and updating.
Over 100,000 gamers have bought the Bundle, paying an average of $5.11 for it. On the top of the list? Minecraft's Notch, who plunked down $2,000 for it, allocated to the developers and charities of the Bundle. Check it out. You can't go wrong with the price.
Seriously, Get The Humble Indie Bundle
You have three days left to get the best deal of the holiday season: some of the best indie PC games available for however much you want to pay, with ample opportunity to give to charity while doing so. The Humble Indie Bundle #2 is on sale, letting you pay any amount of money for 5 great indie games. If you pay more than the average donation (currently $7.47), you'll get the Humble Indie Bundle #1 to boot! That's 10 total games for less than $10, if that's how much you want to give.
There's good reason for paying $20, or $30, or even $50 for the bundle, though. The Humble Indie Bundle was put together to raise money for charities like Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you can choose exactly how much of your cash goes to the charities and how much goes to the developers. If you've ever wanted to put money toward some good causes while directly supporting independent game developers, this is your best bet.
Highlights of the bundle include old-school adventure with gorgeous art Machinarium, critically acclaimed (and admittedly pretentious and confusing) puzzle-platformer Braid, critically acclaimed physics-based puzzle game World of Goo, aquatic Metroidvania-style platformer Aquaria, and pants-wettingly scary Amnesia precursor Penumbra Overture. Every game is DRM-free, Mac- and Linux-compatible, and integratible into Steam. What are you waiting for?
(Also, consider donating to Child's Play through the widget on the right side of the screen. Just two donors so far will get the wonder that will be our Street Fighter Rifftrax! Come on, good readers!)
Indie developers seek to repair Xbox Live Indie Games image
Xbox Live Indie Games has garnered a reputation for being an unpredictable roulette wheel of weirdness, failure, and several real gems, so a coalition of indie developers are out to give it a little PR boost. The Indie Games Winter Uprising (via The Escapist) wants to start "fighting back against mediocrity and lameness the best way we know how - by releasing amazing games!" The first week of December will see a list of titles go up for sale for 80 to 400 Microsoft points (about $1.00 to $5.00), including a Soulcaster sequel, a secksy dual-stick shmup that emphasizes the tried-and-true combination of large guns and boobs, and something called Asteroids Do Concern Me. Well, they concern me too, buddy.
The Uprising is currently 14 games strong, and the biggest headline-grabber so far is Ska Studios's ZP2KX: Zombies and Pterodactyls!, sequel to ZP2K9. You might recognize Ska Studios from (cut-and-paste is my friend) I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 1NIT!!!1 and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. With indie pedigree like that, this Winter Uprising should have enough legs to storm the gates and kick the doors in.
Amanita’s “Pirate Amnesty” sale: Machinarium $5 through August 12
Amanita Design, the developers of the critically acclaimed adventure/puzzle game Machinarium, are holding a "Pirate Amnesty" sale through August 12. For the next few days, the game will be available for just $5, 75% off its previous $20 price. The thought behind this is to pull in some of the people who have already pirated the DRM-free indie game with a great deal. If you've already pirated the game and still don't want to drop $20 on it, you can legitimately purchase it for $5 and be certain that you supported a great indie developer in the process.
People, this is how you deal with piracy. Instead of introducing increasingly draconian measures that barely prevent people from pirating games and either inconveniences or enrages people who legitimately buy your games (I'm looking at you, Activision, EA, and Ubisoft), focus on appealing to gamers' better nature and try to pull pirates toward legitimately buying your game.
Piracy is an unfortunate reality of software. It's impossible to make a game completely pirate-proof, and to claim you have done so is inviting legions of extremely skilled code crackers to prove you wrong. You can lock down more and more features and require constant registration and authentication, but for every pirate you thwart in that manner you piss off at least ten people who actually paid for the game.
Navigation
Recent Posts
- SMBC Covers Internet Policy Better Than Me
- The Humble Bundle is Back Again, and Now For Android
- Happy Quinceanera, Final Fantasy 7
- Panning Silver: The Wrongo Superman (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #114)
- Bronycon: Bronies and Q Hit the Meadowlands This Summer
Recent Comments
- Doubleself on The Top 5 Sandbox Games
- I_TBAG_U87 on Anatomy of the Rage Quit
- Hosting forums on Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Yes, Deadpool Can Shoryuken (And Why This Is Awesome)
- TheShufflingSkeleton on Get a LittleBigPlanet 2 Beta Key Here!
- Brian on Is Sony Screwing Up the PS Vita? Not Yet. Maybe. Sort of.
