Brace yourselves, here comes the crazy train. The new Humble Indie Bundle features five highly acclaimed indie games (with a combined cost of about $80) and is available for whatever price you see fit. What’s more is that the games are DRM free and you can divide your payment whichever way you like amongst the developers, the Child’s Play charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It’s win-win-win. Did I mention how much win it was?
So what are the sodding games I hear you scream? There’s World of Goo, which was perhaps the first game to conduct the pay-what-you-like experiment and in itself is worth it. If you haven’t played World of Goo then I suggest you crawl out from under that cheerless rock you’ve been hiding under and go and buy this now for the love of all that is fun. It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. There’s also the IGF grand prize winners Aquaria and Gish. There’s Lugaru HD, a physics based bunny beat’em up (now in HD!!) which I’ve only ever heard great things about, and then finally there is Penumbra: Overture which I loved. You can find out why here.
The offer lasts for 7 days and since I started typing this post has alarmingly gone from raising $60,000 to over $67,000 with the average transaction being about $7.50-$8. It’ll be very interesting to see what the final figures will be like for such an offer. You can grab this stellar bundle here.
UPDATE: It seems Frictional Games are offering a 75% discount on the other two Penumbra titles as well when you purchase this bundle.
UPDATE: Just received an email from Wolfire: Samorost 2 (by the developers of Machinarium) is now part of the bundle.
Email the author of this post at greggb@tap-repeatedly.com
Great find, Gregg. Frankly, anyone unwilling to drop a few bucks (or more, if you can afford it) on a bundle like this is not right in the head. Not only do you get some kickass indie games, but you help people as well. I trotted over to buy my copies right after reading your post here, and I see that they’re up to $85,000. Not too shabby, guys. Not too shabby.
Damn, impressive games and it sounds like it’s raising a lot of money. I already have Overture and World of Goo on Steam, but I will have to look into those other three.
Nice find, Gregg.
At first I thought “Great Deal” then I saw that not only could you get the Penumbra Collection for a song, and not only are these games AVAILABLE FOR MAC AND LINUX, but one of the charities is the EFF. Now how can anyone go wrong with this great and greater deal? I’m all over it. Thanks for this Gregg.
Holy mackerel, it’s gone up to $188,562 in the last 12 hours. Do you think it could have raised that amount in the same time at a set price? I don’t think so.
Done and done. I don’t think I’ve ever taken so much actual pleasure from the act of paying people money.
Welcome to Tap, Tetchy. There’s nothing remotely guilty about it is there? Unless of course you’re a skin flint and pay very little. Speaking of which, try putting in 0 as a payment…
The total so far: $478,000. That’s a lot of brass in 3 days.
I just made my donation and downloaded my games (Thank you devs who port to Mac!). I split it evenly between devs and EFF. A great deal for everyone. As a bonus I bought the Penumbra Collection for $5. Can’t beat that. But while I was in the mood, I did something I’ve never done before – pre-ordered a game – Amnesia. I played the Penumbra Overture demo last year and liked it but never got around to buying the game because of the keyboard controls. That’s no longer a deal breaker for me, and so many here recommended it to me as a good post-Fallout 3 game, so off my PayPal $$$ went to Frictional. I figure that if Penumbra was so good, their next should be even better. Problem is I now have to wait 3 months for Amnesia.
Tomorrow I will call my son and tell him I’m making a gift donation for him. Let him get frightened out of his wits right along with me.
Frictional has now raised $489,771, but what is really interesting to me is the breakdown of donations relative to operating system:
Windows donations averaged $6.93. Mac donations averaged $9.68. Linux donations averaged $13.69. If I used Linux I’d be willing to pay more for games ported to Linux too.
I’m always happy when I can play really good, meaty games on Mac. The entire Penumbra Collection took just about 5 minutes to download, and about that much to copy to my HD. Eat my dust, Windows!
Money well spent!
I’ll be purchasing the bundle over this weekend and will no doubt pre-order Amnesia as well, which will also be my first ever pre-order. Have you played any of the other games in the bundle before? World of Goo is bloody brilliant. I can’t say I was overly fussed on Gish but I’ll definitely give it another whirl. Lugaru looks good fun and Aquaria just looks beautiful.
Just to clarify: 2D Boy, Bit Blot, Wolfire, Cryptic Sea and Frictional are jointly responsible for the bundle. I’m amazed at how much they’ve raised so far though. The post sales figures will be very interesting because they usually release the more detailed ones once the numbers have been crunched.
Anyway, let me know how you get on with Penumbra: Overture. Everybody I know who’s played it has stopped inexplicably despite enjoying it. Don’t let me down! 😉
Hi Gregg. I only quit a game if it is really boring or really glitschy. I like to finish a story, hence my purchase a few days ago of Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta. After much, MUCH trouble getting the GFWL client to work I finally got it up and running through brute force (2 calls to tech support couldn’t do it, but I did eventually). Now I get to see how it all turns out – maybe.
After months and months of Windows gaming it will be fun to be back to Mac for Penumbra. I don’t tend to get jumpy/scared in games, but the demo did make me jump twice, and the Amnesia teaser made me jump once. Gotta be good. Scratches and Dark Fall 1 & 2 were not scary. I have The Lost Crown and STILL haven’t started it. Also looking forward to Dark Fall Lost Souls. Would somebody scare me, please??? (Politicians don’t count, they’re all scary.)
I’ve only been playing Penumbra for ten minutes and I’m already scared. I can assume it gets more terrifying from here?
I also see they’re officially over half a million dollars at this point. That’s amazing!
It certainly does Matt but the mysterious story should keep you putting one foot in front of the other. If immobility takes hold of you, just think of Arnie screaming ‘DO IT!!’ in your ear: you’ll be rattling through it in no time!
@Spike: That’s good to hear 😉 I haven’t played any of the more traditional horror adventures although a few of those are on my list. To be honest I can’t envisage them being the same sort of experience as Overture due its free-form control and first person perspective; there’s a tangible connection with the environment and character that goes with that. Overture tends to have a slow burning sense of dread running through it rather than frequent cat scares but rest assured there are plenty in there. It’s pretty much the kind of horror Jason Dobry alludes to in his What Not To Fear article.
I’ll say it: I kind of like the Penumbra controls. Definitely unique and different, and clumsy at times, but there is something a little more organic about working with the universe in that way. Sort of like the Wiimote could be used if any developers used it right. A control system similar to this, in a similar horror setting, could also be a good Natal app.
I thought the controls in Penumbra were fine, except for the hammer swing. I changed it in the game files and used the normal swing. Spike, I wasn’t scared much by Penumbra and I haven’t seen enough of Amnesia to know, but it might be scarier. If you want to be scared, play System Shock 2. It will have you cowering in a corner. It was so good, I played it twice. Korsakovia is a scary one too.
I’m about ready to give up on The Lost Crown. It just isn’t grabbing me and the main character walks SO SLOW!
I am intrigued and will give this a try.
But I have to agree with Pokey that System Shock 2 was the scariest game I ever played. I am amazed I got through it.
And Pokey, I could never get caught up in The Lost Crown. I did finish it but only because I began it.
Kay
@Steerpike: I loved the controls as well. They really helped make the environments and objects around you feel more real and weighty. Opening a door, usually relegated to a button press, becomes a little task in itself and coupling that with the possibility of what could be on the other side of it, the action is never really taken for granted. Even opening draws is considerably more exciting than pressing ‘E’ or whatever. That was my only reservation regarding the weapon swing but thankfully that can be solved with the .ini change.
If you’ve played Metroid Prime: Corruption you’ll know how similar the idea is of manually interacting with the world around you. It’s a joy in both games.
What does everybody make of the graphics in Penumbra? The developers recently said how much effort they’d put into improving the engine for Amnesia and were still dismayed that some people were giving it a hard time. Me personally, I was really surprised at how solid and appropriate the visuals were considering all the negativity I’d read about them since the games release. They remind me a lot of Thief and I think that’s down to the lighting and shadows.
Well, I’ve only given it an hour or so but honestly, the graphics seem fine, particularly for a low-budget indie game. It looks just as good as The Void – whose graphics engine appears to have distinctly similar capabilities if highly different art direction. While neither would hold up to a million-dollar extravaganza like Just Cause 2 or something powered by Cry, such expectations are unfair and unrealistic in the indie space. Besides, horror has its own palette. There’s certainly a simplicity to Penumbra’s graphics, sort of a 2002-4 era style, but it works well at evoking the terror and the developers don’t charge a premium for the work.
‘Horror has its own palette’. I like that. You’ll have to excuse me if I hurt my back lifting that phrase for my own means…
Also, Lugaru is excellent. Very solid controls and the combat is really fun when you get into the swing of things. To say I wasn’t all that enthused by it initially, I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I’m enjoying it.
EDIT: Samorost 2 has now been added to the bundle!!
Oh wow, I’ve just checked back on this. Mac compatibility? Oh YEAH! This officially kicks off my foray into PC gaming, and what with Steam arriving for Mac tomorow, it should be interesting to see where this whole thing goes!
Ok, so lets talk Penumbra. I’m really intrigued by this from hearing such good things about it from both of the Burnelli Brothers. However, It’s currently 11:43pm. In 2 days my family go on holiday for a week, leaving me completely home alone. Home alone in a house that we’ve only just moved into within the last couple of weeks, and I’m still finding my feet around (I am NOT going in that basement). Do I start Penumbra?
Aaaaaaaaannd, that’s the last we’ll ever hear of Mat on the site. Gregg or Lewis will later privately email me, saying “Listen, Steerpike, um… they found Mat driven mad with terror, standing facing the corner in his basement. So. He’s been institutionalized and all that. Just, you know, an FYI.”
Sigh.
Haha..
Well, I started playing it. I reckon I’m around 10 minutes in, and I’m scared. I’ve not actually seen anything yet, either.
I’m just pleased my ‘ickle Mini runs it.. pretty much without a hitch, too. I know it’s hardly Crysis but still..!
I totally forgot you were a Mac disciple Mat and the bundle’s cross-compatibility is, er, was something I neglected to mention and a very important feature. Bugger.
EDIT: There’s a three day extension! It’s unstoppable.
[…] Can you feel it? The crazy train is rolling into town again. And not a crazy Steam powered train either, no, one fuelled by Wolfire. Yes it’s the return of the Humble Indie Bundle: five sweet indie games each compatible with Windows, OSX and Linux, DRM free, individually giftable and all going for whatever price you like. Choo choo indeed. The best bit is that your payment can be split any way you like between the devs, either of the charities (the Electronic Frontier Foundation or Child’s Play) and Wolfire (responsible for the initiative and bunny beat ‘em up Lugaru included in the last bundle). […]