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The Humble Indie Bundle #4 (pay what you want and help charity)
- checker 15y agoCan anyone post a list for those of us behind a firewall? Thanks!
- rudyfink 15y agoGratuitous Space Battles (if pay more than average) Gave Story+ (if pay more than average) Jamestown Bit.Trip Runner Super Meat Boy Shank NightSky HD
- nik_0_0 15y agoAvg currently 4.70 (was 4.64 about 1 minute ago! climbing fast, damn HN!)
- jongraehl 15y agoIf the number of purchases so far were small, it's possible that buying several copies at $.01 would bring the average down by more than the cost in penny purchases (this is a strategy for a purely hypothetical selfish person with time to spend, but not $5). I expect the amount to fluctuate above and below $5.
- thehodge 15y agoI just bought this one but wasn't there another bundle just last week? I wonder if too many too soon will lead to bundle fatigue
- twodayslate 15y agoIt was pretty recent, but I think a lot of Indie devs want to get in on these bundles so they won't be going away anytime soon.
- staticshock 15y agoThe "fatigue" implied by the parent has to do with how much people are willing to pay for subsequent bundles, not how many developers are interested in getting in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_fatigue#In_charitable_giving http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_fatigue#In_charitabl... The fact that they won't be going away any time soon is precisely the problem.
- benbeltran 15y agoI agree. I used to get really excited about the humble bundle. They had a few noteworthy games per bundle (All the games they have are good, but some are less known than others). Now that it's a monthly affair I get the initial perception that the bundles have less noteworthy games and that I'm getting tired of so many of them. After a bit of thought I realize I /am/ paying just a few bucks for a lot of games and helping charity and I end up buying them, even if I already own al lthe games. but I fear there's a lot of people who won't make that leap and just say "meh, been there done that". It's sad because the bundle is great for devs and great for gamers.
- ido 15y agoHumble bundles are now back to back. Indie Royal is every 2 weeks, and 2-3 other copy-cat bundles come out pretty often too. Also, I don't know how often steam sales happen, but every time I go online there is one going on (~50-90% off kind of sales).
- benbeltran 15y agoYeah. And it's weird because with steam sales I get the opposite feeling. It's because I'm so used to them probably. I think it's the fact that the bundle used to be a rare happening and now there's a new one at the end of the month. I'll get used to it probably, I hope other people do to. It's a really great project.
- agent86 15y agoOne thing I think separates the Humble Bundle from the Indie Royal bundle is that Humble Bundle games always work on Windows, Mac, and Linux. I primarily use OS X and Linux these days, so that's a big incentive for me, and helps keep my "fatigue" down. That said, if this turns into a never ending string, the amount I contribute towards each bundle would likely drop since frequency would be going up. Probably something for the Humble folks to investigate - which performs better - more frequent small bundles or less frequent larger bundles.
- fuzzix 15y ago
- sounds 15y agoI actually think their business model is perfect for this: right now they get the "honeymoon effect" -- they're new. So every humble bundle is one-time offer. As time goes by (or maybe it's happening now), they will have to do more market research, find better games, maybe even change their offer so it doesn't expire. I'd personally like to see them directly competing with steam and desura (if the offer doesn't expire, they're directly competing). I think they need that kind of competition to push them. In short, don't rest on your first success!
- chris11 15y agoI think that both humble bundle and indie royale are providing high quality games. I think humble bundle is doing a little better, but I still think both companies will succeed. I don't think that they need to directly compete with steam, I prefer getting my games from them. But it would be nice to add accounts to both sites. I've bought enough bundles that I would prefer to have my keys all in one spot.
- listic 15y agoThey do numbered bundles AND special bundles. I mean, special bundles do not count towards the number of bundles. I don't know why they do this; looks confusing.
- sbochins 15y agoI used to pay like $25 for a bundle. But with all the bundles coming out, I don't really feel like paying so much. I want to take advantage of the deals, but know I won't have enough time to play more than %10 of the games I buy. So, I've come to the conclusion I should only pay for the amount of time I'm willing to spend on the game. With so many bundles, that amount of time has gone down significantly. This bundle does have a lot of good games btw.
- rbugajewski 15y agoI agree that the bundles are run a little bit too often, but supporting indie devs always feels good.
- ukdm 15y agoI think this might be the best one yet
- nik_0_0 15y agoAgreed, Super Meat Boy alone is worth whatever you may pay, in my opinion :)
- shangaslammi 15y agoWhy did they drop EFF from the charities? :(
- ramidarigaz 15y agoSupposedly the HIB people voted, and the Red Cross came out slightly ahead. I'm kinda bummed. I might go donate a couple dollars to the EFF anyway.
- haldean 15y agoThey also said that the EFF would be returning as a charity in future bundles.
- cookiecaper 15y agoI was pretty disappointed to see that, especially at a crucial time for electronic freedom with SOPA and PROTECT-IP looming. I'm sure the boosts from HIB were helpful to EFF, and if anyone needs a boost right now, it's EFF.
- graylights 15y ago50% to EFF has always been a reason to buy humble bundles for me. With SOPA I'd have probably paid more this time. I half expect EFF to be added back in, so I'll be waiting on this bundle.
- emillon 15y agoIf that's stopping you, you can still donate directly to EFF.
- citricsquid 15y agoFor anyone curious why this is here, Humble Inc is funded by YC -- beyond it being a collection of cool games people might care for. edit: I was wrong, not just YC. They have $4.7m from Sequoia[1] too. [1] http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/22/sequoia-capital-backs-online-gaming-bundler/ http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/22/sequoia-capital-ba...
- heyitsnick 15y agoThat's very interesting, as I've always thought it was bootstrapped by Wolfire games. Serious question - why does this need funding?
- citricsquid 15y agoThe first bundle (and possibly second) was bootstrapped, they took funding after the idea was shown to work. That's all I know, not sure why they have funding.
- heyitsnick 15y agoThanks for the extra info. Seems to me like this is the perfect company that can eschew outside investment; I assume they curate these bundles with no upfront payment, and then everyone gets a cut of digital sales. Not sure where this $4m could be going unless they have big plans beyond the current the current model.
- forrestthewoods 15y agoBraid can be bought directly with Paypal, Amazon Payments, and Google Checkout as payment options. Corner of the box says "Humble Store". What they do with that is a unknown, but I find it interesting. http://braid-game.com/ http://braid-game.com/
- barrettcolin 15y agoThat reminds me: I noticed that humblebundle.com is apparently involved in the purchase transactions for the recently released 'English Country Tune'. So maybe there's more afoot than just the bundles themselves: http://www.englishcountrytune.com/ http://www.englishcountrytune.com/
- tectonic 15y agoA good friend of mine wrote Jamestown- kick ass game, and way to go!
- libraryatnight 15y agoWow, send him much thanks. I bought it on Steam when it released (because I'm a sucker for shooters), and it's a marvelous game. One of the finest shooters I've played in a long time. The DLC is awesome, too (Guy Fawkes ship!)
- achompas 15y agoIs anyone else not tipping the Humble team anymore? Are you just splitting payment between devs and charities?
- jsnell 15y agoAt least I do the opposite. The Humble team are clearly making my life better by e.g. motivating Linux ports of these games. Meanwhile there are much better ways to donate to charity (and "better" charities).
- 7rurl 15y agoI usually take the default split. I think the devs deserve most of the money, but the Humble Bundle guys need money for bandwidth and their marketing/support efforts. Charity is also worth a little bit.
- smountcastle 15y agoAnyone else experiencing Humble fatigue? When this was a special once a year deal I supported it regardless of the contents of the bundle. Now I feel that there's a Humble Bundle once a week and I've stopped reading their email.
- scottmcf 15y agoI wasn't planning on buying this bundle either, but not because of the regularity of the bundles, more because of the quality of the content. Some of the previous bundles have contained a little much filler/incomplete games/etc. They've really stepped up the contents with this pack though, I know myself and a few friends feeling much the same bought it immediately. There's an incredible amount of high quality gaming in this pack.
- smountcastle 15y agoThanks for taking the time to reply. I investigated several of the games and decided to go ahead and purchase it. I agree that the quality has varied over the past few bundles. The novelty of the Humble Bundle has definitely worn off for me (plus I preferred the original set of charities).
- romnempire 15y agoanyone else bummed that this one didn't include desura keys?
- ergo14 15y agoThey might appear on desura - just not day one - it was like this with introversion bundle.
- Groxx 15y agoAnd it's a pretty good spread, too, maybe the best yet - the last few bundles & mini-events have been a bit lackluster, IMO. But that's just IMO. If you've never played it, Cave Story is one of the best platformers ever, and you must play it if you are a gamer in any sense. The original is available for free (though you might have to English-patch it), but I gather CS+ is a pretty good port.
- jamesgeck0 15y agoI don't know; between the last three mini-bundles we've had Frozen Synapse, SpaceChem, Dungeons of Dredmor, The Binding of Isaac, Darwinia, Defcon, Voxatron, and Blocks that Matter. Four of those are strong candidates for indie GOTY (and the others are still pretty good) so it's not too lackluster yet.
- JangoSteve 15y agoI always find it interesting that the Linux people pay the most. Then again, the games are probably most impressive compared to games generally available on Linux, and least impressive compared to those available for windows. Not to say anything about the quality of three games, just commentary on the different gaming markets.
- 83457 15y agoI've always assume it is more about supporting developers who support linux, and a competition with the other platforms.
- TheCapn 15y agoThat's why I usually pay out a minimum of $20 for the bundle with 100% towards developers. I may sound like an ass saying this but those are popular charities and receive a lot of funding from lots of resources, they can survive without my $5 or $10 while many of these developer groups have only released a couple games. I want to see DRM free indie game development take off so I will contribute to the developers who I feel need it more.
- grannyg00se 15y agoYou're paying $20 when you could be paying a penny. I would hope that nobody is putting you in the "sounds like an ass" category.
- forrestthewoods 15y agoInteresting, but the still spend barely $1 per game. After charity and tip it's probably less than $1 per game.
- septicmadman 15y agoIt's also a possibility that those that pay below average amounts are likely to signal their contribution being made under Windows. Alternatively, high payers have a higher likelihood of marking Linux.
- utkarshsinha 15y agoThese games always make me want to make some of my own!
- natch 15y agoAre the Humble Bundles always mostly about games? It would be great to see some non-game bundles.
- smosher 15y agoI paid the suggested price for this. I'm only running Linux, so it's well worth supporting it. It's a shame about the EFF though. They're at the top of my list these days.
- nyellin 15y agoDoes anyone know how to turn off the Paypal "Bill Me Later" popup that appears every time I make a purchase? I have money in my account. I'm tired of opting out of BML.