Humble Indie Bundle Message Board older than one year ago

Here’s a clever idea: instead of paying £30 for a game, or getting it for free then buying lots of little extra bits, or helping to fund it pre-release, what about paying what you want for it? For instance, as part of a bundle of other games? Next big thing, you mark my words.

Team Humble’s just gone live with its first ever experiment using this payment model. For some reason they’ve put a ’5′ in the title, but I’m pretty sure that refers to how many cups of tea they drank while putting it together. They’ve also put ‘Android’ in the title, even though the games are all available on PC too. Silly-billies! Read on to find out the contents of this bundle – oddly, the most famous name in there is one of the optional bonuses rather than at its core.(more…)

As we all know, the free-to-play Facebook game Minecraft 2: Steve’s Magic Garden launches its Kickstarter on Christmas Day this year, published by Activision, funded by the Bulgarian mafia and available exclusively on Origin. But given that’s just a reskinned FarmVille clone that they’ll knock out in five minutes, what are Minecraft-makers Mojang spending their time doing in the meantime?

One of those things is their second Mojam, wherein the Scandi-devs splinter into small groups, rope in famous friends such as Vlambeer, Wolfire and Grapefrukt, and frantically try to make new, teeny games within a strict time limit. Humble Bundle are once again in on the act, with a pay-what-you-want deal for the resultant games, all proceeds going to good causes. By which I don’t mean another platinum hat and diamond-tipped beard-trimmer for Notch.(more…)

The holidays are a time of indecision. Who should you visit? What ugly, uncomfortable seasonal sweater should you wear? Which deity(s) should you dedicate your hedonistic blood celebrations to (aside from Horace, of courace)? And, most importantly, what will you buy before/after your relatives shower you with socks or rocks or whatever it is that passes for a universal gift these days? But it doesn’t end there. Oh no. There are, after all, 927.45 trillion videogames to choose between, so you may as well just start sobbing and curl up in a fetal futility ball right now. Unless… no, no. That’s crazy. But maybe… no. It’ll never work. Ah, what the hell: bundles! Both Indie Royale and Humble Bundle have new offerings up, and they’re quite tempting, if I do say so myself.

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This is admittedly a bit of an “ooh a thing may be happening sort of at an unknown point in the possible future”, but I’m frankly quite fascinated by the moves THQ are making as they battle to fend off moneypocalypse. The Humble THQ Bundle was divisive, what with it not involving the DRM-free indie games that Humble has become synonymous with, but one thing it seems to be is a sign of THQ striving to court a PC audience after long years of being very much console-focused. The PC-only Company of Heroes 2 appears to be a very big deal for them (and Metro: Last Light too, a preview of which I’ll bring you later this week), but now they might maybe perhaps possibly be going one further – they’re talking about Linux support for their games. This is not the usual MO of a large publisher.(more…)

As opposed to not-indie games. Apparently there’s controversy when bundles aren’t indie, though I’d appreciate the ill sentiment more if Indie Royale did it, what with the whole indie in the title thing.

Anyway: the line-up for the Indie Royale Winter package is Greed Corp, Hamlet, BIT.TRIP Runner (isn’t that in everything now?), Conquest of Elysium 3, Leave Home and They Breathe. Seeing as I ruined basically hit-attraction techniques by putting all those names above the cut, I’m going to stuff some videos of each of those games below instead. Then I will be high on hits, beyond my wildest possible hit-based dreams. (I don’t have any hit-based dreams, I’m not Rupert Murdoch even if I am almost as crabby).(more…)

The internet had itself a good old shouting match about the concept of a pay-what-you-want bundle for mainstream, traditionally-published games rather than indie games, but whatever the ethics of that particular drinking receptacle-based meteorological event, it appears the effects have been highly significant. Beleaguered publisher THQ has seen a 40% jump in its stock price in the wake of its Humble Bundle, having so far brought in $3.25 million – and with nine days left to go, too.(more…)

Double Fine’s crowd-funding / PWYW bundle / rapid prototyping / community voting idea-cocktail Amnesia Fornight has just proceeded to its next stage – choosing the four concepts that will be turned into working, playable games. I want to play all of them so I’m happy, but see if they’re Your Sort Of Thing below.(more…)

Yesterday you’ll likely have noticed that Tim Schafer and Double Fine launched a new approach to a Humble Bundle, encouraging people to pay what they want for the chance to vote on what four prototypes the team would develop during their next Amnesia Fortnight. We then brought you his thoughts on why they were doing this, and what impact such things have on the studio. In the second part of our chat, we discuss how Schafer’s time is split between the Double Fine Adventure and running such a busy studio, the effect his project had on the Kickstarter phenomenon, why he thinks you make more money without DRM, and Schafer’s belief in what he calls the “good faith” of gamers.

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As we just mentioned, Double Fine have launched a unique Humble Bundle to let people vote from 23 game pitches to decide four that will go on to be made into prototypes. I spoke to Tim Schafer earlier this evening to ask how this came about, and how such a thing will influence the company. In this first half of the interview we talk about the Bundle, what makes a Double Fine game, and why they’re so keen to show these early stages of game development.

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Double Fine’s Amnesia Fortnight has become a fairly well known event by the developer. For two weeks every year, everyone at the company stops what they’re working on, and get together in small teams to create prototypes for new game ideas. And since 2009, all the games the studio have released have been born from these creative weeks. The likes of Costume Quest and Stacking came out of this elaborate brainstorm. This year they’re doing it differently. “We’re letting the world in on it,” explained studio head Tim Schafer to me this evening, in an interview to appear later tonight. Via Humble Bundle, we get to vote on the 23 pitches to pick the four that will be created as prototypes. And then the whole process of developing will be live-streamed, with the finished projects available to everyone who paid.

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It’s arguable that the current Humble Indie Bundle is the best one yet. I’d argue it. I’m arguing it right now. But incredibly, it just got better. Added to Bastion, Superbrothers, Limbo, Psychonauts and Amnesia are Super Meat Boy, Braid, and bundle first-timer, Lone Survivor. Oh my goodness.

When speaking to Humble’s Richard Esguerra earlier today, I took the chance to ask him about what difference these extras can make. You can see that below.

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The fifth iteration of the Humble Indie Bundle has gone live, granting donors their choice of Mac, PC or Linux versions of Psychonauts, Limbo, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, as well as the soundtracks for each game. Anyone that pays above the average price (currently $6.71) will also receive Baston and its soundtrack.

Seeing as the Steam release of Sword & Sworcery EP is still only available on PC, this bundle is currently the only way to buy it for OSX. As per usual, patrons can decide how much of their purchase price goes to the developers, to charity, and as a tip to Humble Bundle folks.

There’s a new Humble Bundle, wouldn’t you believe it. And blimey, it’s a good-un. I’m not in charge of deciding what’s best, but this looks to me like one of the best bundles I’ve ever seen. Just look at this list: Amnesia, Limbo, Sword & Sworcery, Bastion, and Psychonauts. Seriously. And it has an absolutely brilliant video to promote it.

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Well this here is interesting. The latest Humble Bundle, the Humble Botanicula Debut, has just launched. It’s dedicated to Amanita Design, they responsible for Machinarium, Samorost, and Botanicula. All three of which are in the bundle. So yes, the brand new Botanicula, literally released this very minute, is in the bundle, meaning you don’t need to pay the $10 for it, but rather whatever you want. It’s a bold move, and it’ll be fascinating to see how it affects regular sales on Steam, GOG.com, etc. But it’s very good news for you, as it means you can get the wonderful back catalogue from Amanita, along with a copy of Czech film Kooky if you pay over the average, and the extremely lovely Windosill by Vectorpark.

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