Games in the time of etc

April 1, 2020 10:37 AM

Humble Conquer COVID-19 Bundle
"This special one-week bundle features $1,071 worth of games and ebooks for just $30. 100% of the proceeds from your bundle purchase go to support organizations responding to COVID-19. For example, delivering protective gear to safeguard healthcare workers and providing medical care to infected patients."
Humble Bundle on MeFi, previously.

A pretty insanely generous bundle this time around, including more than just games.

posted by lazaruslong (51 comments total)

Good golly that's a hell of a haul. Several games on there that I love and have paid on the order of that price for individually previously. Also several that I haven't yet, so, welp!
posted by cortex at 10:58 AM on April 1, 2020

totally! my jaw dropped and it was a no-brainer for me. The Witness alone is usually over $30. And they let me send my dollars to Partners in Health and they are great so yeah.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:10 AM on April 1, 2020

"In Party Hard, you play as someone who is really tired of the neighbors having loud parties. Instead of calling the police, you decide it’s a better idea to kill everyone – using your faithful knife and the environment." Yes, that'll do.
posted by zsh2v1 at 11:11 AM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

I wonder how many times I’m going to buy World Of Goo.
posted by mhoye at 11:12 AM on April 1, 2020 [55 favorites]

I just bought it for myself, and I want to buy it for my son as well. Is it possible to buy it for someone else's steam account, or do I have to make him a Humble account?
posted by The Bellman at 11:17 AM on April 1, 2020

So I love Humble Bundle even though I basically never play games (I did buy a book bundle once upon a time) and I clicked through and didn't really see anything that made me need the bundle.

BUT, they showed their donation recipients at the bottom, reminding me about IRC and Doctors Without Borders and Partners in Health, and letting me know about Direct Relief, so now I have a few more places I can donate, even if I don't buy the bundle.

This is good.

Thank you for posting this, lazaruslong!
posted by kristi at 11:17 AM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

Is it possible to buy it for someone else's steam account, or do I have to make him a Humble account?

You should be able to gift the codes individually, if it's like previous bundles.
posted by dng at 11:18 AM on April 1, 2020

Thanks, dng!
posted by The Bellman at 11:22 AM on April 1, 2020

I can confirm that it's possible to gift the games individually from this.
posted by zsh2v1 at 11:31 AM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

If you've been thinking about exploring ways to play D&D online, the online resource DMs Guild has released a bundle of great adventures in PDF format for $20. This set is legal for organized play, too.
posted by Gelatin at 11:32 AM on April 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

Play Pikuniku! It's sweet and goofy and hilarious, a perfect platforming tonic for this relentless virus mess. It's great on Switch, too.
posted by oulipian at 11:33 AM on April 1, 2020

Into the Breach, The Witness, Superhot, Hollow Knight & Europa Universalis IV, like damn, these are amazing games!!!

I have a fair number of these games, wow, this is a great deal and a nice way to support people who are needing support in this tough time. I think I'll pick this up for my wife's steam account. Thanks for sharing.
posted by Fizz at 11:37 AM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Picked this up though I have a bunch of these games and books already. (I think my third time buying World of Goo!) Especially excited for the Witness and the Double Fine games. (Also my second time buying volume 1 of The Boys... So much less good than the TV show they made out of it)

Doing my part to save the world by not leaving the house!
posted by ejs at 11:57 AM on April 1, 2020

I'd been avoiding a lot of these games under my 'No Tux No Bux' policy, but apparently Steam Proton runs most of the ones I want without issue so I guess I need to amend my policy? Not a huge fan of compatibility shims but I guess if Valve is undermining my vote with your wallet strategy then I may as well go with their workaround.

Now to figure out how to use the Jackbox Party pack while self isolating. Webex?
posted by pwnguin at 12:03 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

My favorite of these so far - though much more humble - is Cone of Negative Energy's PLEASE STAY HOME deal on his simple but very satisfying Hex Kit RPG hex map making tool. $10 for the base program and all the plug-in tile sets. The great Nate Treme of Highland Paranormal Society is currently working on a new tile set for it, too.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:22 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

> avoiding a lot of these games under my 'No Tux No Bux' policy, but apparently Steam Proton runs most of the ones I want without issue so I guess I need to amend my policy

I bought the Witness through steam when it was on sale at the start of the year and ran it on linux through proton with no issues. About 40 hours of puzzling. The Witness is also a fun demonstration of how to teach people new concepts by letting them experiment with sequences of challenges that push you to extend your knowledge and understanding, but never directly telling you what to do. You have to figure it all out yourself. It's great.

As someone who loves and uses linux daily: I don't think it makes business sense for game devs to go out of their way to support linux, as the market of linux gamers is too small. Maybe it makes sense considering linux support once a game has already been massively successful and sold a bunch of copies on PC, on android, on ios, on consoles, since that's where 99% of the customers are. The economics of game development these days, especially for new indie game devs, is brutal: the rule of thumb is that no one will buy your new indie game, since there is so much competition. Or maybe you'll sell 10 copies after 6 months of work. I believe the landscape was quite different over a decade ago (e.g. a bunch of high quality independent games were released to commercial success in ~2008 : world of goo, spelunky, braid, etc).
posted by are-coral-made at 12:26 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

It has Lost Winds in there!!!!! That was one of my favorite apps when it first came out!!!!
posted by Kitchen Witch at 12:33 PM on April 1, 2020

Is this something I could post on Facebook or would you need A Gaming Rig, Dude (TM) to acquire any of these?
posted by bleep at 12:34 PM on April 1, 2020

i think you can post on facebook. many games do not require beefy system specs, and some are even DRM free (don't need to install steam)
posted by lazaruslong at 12:36 PM on April 1, 2020

Even with the ones I've already got, it's a hell of a deal. Somewhat disappointed, though, that Party Hard isn't You Are Andrew WK.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:39 PM on April 1, 2020

Games in the time of etc

Fahrenheit and Lost Winds in Los Virus
posted by Going To Maine at 1:01 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

AFAICT Linux gaming is dead because Proton is too good. My 12yo son's main computer is a linux box (it's my server) and some version of Proton has run nearly every game he's tried.
posted by jclarkin at 1:09 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

pwnguin, you can stream the Jack games on Discord and other people can join in and play. I play them all the time with the people on my MC channel!
posted by headspace at 1:23 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

> I believe the landscape was quite different over a decade ago

I don't think it was. It's always been pretty niche, but I think the convergence around multiplatform tools like Unity which already target macOS and Android kinda made it simpler. It's more work for indies though to QA multiplatform, esp if they're mainly Windows oriented and have no automated testing.

I wonder how macOS implementing Metal and not Vulkan affected things. Seems like it'd be harder if you can't piggyback off some of the work done there. Which I guess is the point 😞
posted by pwnguin at 1:37 PM on April 1, 2020

If you're like me and have a kid at home and a pile of Lego figures, Frostgrave, a fantasy tabletop skirmish game, is currently free.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:05 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've just finished setting up steam streaming with Proton on linux (with a sweeeet new GPU, bought just before the disaster), and it's awesome. It's gotten even better over the last couple years, since the last time I tried it.
posted by kaibutsu at 2:10 PM on April 1, 2020

I can confirm that it's possible to gift the games individually from this.

Oooh, that just tipped me.
posted by corb at 2:18 PM on April 1, 2020

Is this something I could post on Facebook or would you need A Gaming Rig, Dude (TM) to acquire any of these?

I just skimmed the list of games, but I think everything on there would run just fine on a computer with hardware from the last five years or so. I see a couple of 3d games that might benefit from recent-ish graphics cards (like within the last three years) but nothing crazy.

Some of the best stuff on here, like Worms Revolution, VVVVVV, and Into the Breach will basically run on anything.
posted by mmcg at 2:18 PM on April 1, 2020

pwnguin, you can stream the Jack games on Discord and other people can join in and play. I play them all the time with the people on my MC channel!

very important note: as of now, I do not believe that the Mac version of Discord allows you to share audio, only video. Which is a deal breaker for the Jackbox stuff, as the audio is critical to gameplay. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I hosted recently I had to use laggy ass twitch due to this shitty reality. Still searching for a better solution than twitch - I may literally end up just hosting on Houseparty and using an extra tablet or something to point at my TV
posted by lazaruslong at 2:26 PM on April 1, 2020

this is apparently because macos has different rules or something w/r/t programs accessing audio hooks. idk i'm taking my systems / OS course in grad school next year so i'll know better then unless someone here can help lol
posted by lazaruslong at 2:27 PM on April 1, 2020

Into the Breach is incredible and pretty much worth the price of admission alone. The dollars to hours of entertainment is pretty incredible for this bundle.
posted by slimepuppy at 2:27 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

lazaruslong: A workaround could be to use your phone as an intermediary? The audio quality might be terrible, but I can confirm Discord works on both an iPhone and an Android. So play thru Mac speakers, have phone pick it up, have Discord open in voice on phone. Theoretically it would work, in practice I have no idea
posted by brook horse at 2:56 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

totally, i think using a phone as the video / audio solution for the root game will work. i'm just trying to use a simpler solution than discord for that (e.g. houseparty) since a lot of the peeps i'm trying to play with are not Gamers and don't know discord, but houseparty feels easier to them for w/e reason
posted by lazaruslong at 2:58 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Gosh dangit, as someone with a Chromebook and a PS4, I'm constantly wishing I could access steam.
posted by meese at 3:03 PM on April 1, 2020

also i have not played many of these games so all of y'all recommendations are welcome.

so far I have played Zombotron (looks fun but oddly requires you to kinda play for longer than i would like to get to a good stopping point?) and Into the Breach (omg this is totally scratching my X-comm itch and it's so good) and am installing World of Goo since so many people have bought it multiple times.
posted by lazaruslong at 3:09 PM on April 1, 2020

Thanks for posting this, lazaruslong.

In general I avoid like the plague "contribute to get this nifty totebag and a window sticker for your car" promotions. But Humble Bundle has money from me this time because I own some of those games and like the developers, and it still feels like an anonymous donation. I'm supporting those developers and all of my contribution goes to good places.

And I can gift the code to any of those (Steam) games to someone else (on Steam).

I wouldn't have known of this humblebundle without hearing about it here. Thanks again.
posted by lothar at 3:14 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thanks so much for this. I just shared it with my son (21) who said he’d heard of it, but had no idea he could gift the codes! Kindness zooming out in multiple directions from this.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 3:19 PM on April 1, 2020

Not to discourage you LL, the reason that so many people bought World of Goo multiple times is that is been bundled a lot of times. It is a fun and cute game.

Of the bundle, I think that VVVVVV and Super Hexagon may be among my favorite games ever.

Superhot is a puzzle FPS with very stylized graphics. It is great for short sessions.

Psychonauts is another favorite, but it has very janky controls.
posted by jclarkin at 3:21 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Recommendations:

- Undertale: weird but emotional, not too difficult
- Hollow Knight: difficult platformer but gorgeous and a lot of fun if you like difficult platformers, worth $30 by itself
- The Witness: blends into a lot of other walking simulator puzzle games but I remember enjoying it
- SuperHot: RIDICULOUSLY fun in VR, probably also fun not VR
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons: beautiful, emotional, great to play with a friend/partner (local co-op)
- Broken Age: cute little point and click, pretty art
- World of Goo: fun puzzler
posted by brook horse at 3:21 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

I've been told that we are not getting this because:

1) I've made too many dumb pandemic-boredom inspired purchases already
2) I'm sort of gamed out after I installed a swack of other games from previous Bundles that I never bothered with until now
3) We already have a bunch of these

So, if you're on the fence:
- Into the Breach is a fantastically fun and challenging game by the Faster Than Light ($10 on Steam, well worth it!) people that I still play after 100+ hours.
- Tropico 4 is a classic.
- Europa Universalis IV is from the Crusader Kings II company (FREE on Steam) and I should really give it another go.
- Magika 2 is cute and charming, I assume Magika would be more of the same.
- Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadville is a fun build/survive strategy sim from Northway Games, a Canadian indie developer couple

In total we've spent 600+ hours on these five games and the bundle would be a great value if that was all that was in it. Plus, you know, good cause and all that.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 3:35 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Purchased. Thanks! Fingers crossed that Proton will work for at least some of them.

I'm a little surprised that most of the e-book titles are genuine books and not parody. I guess it doesn't really hurt anything to toss some free garbage on top of the pile, but it did give me pause for a moment.
posted by eotvos at 6:21 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm not that much of a gamer and World Of Goo is one I played for hours and even have the soundtrack for in my iTunes. It's fun and charming and was exactly the right level of puzzle game for me.
posted by hippybear at 7:34 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

LOL I just paid half that for Into the Breach (which I see why it has a following but it doesn't scratch the itch for me) just two days ago.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:09 PM on April 1, 2020

I believe by buying this, I'm undoing that one time I killed Toriel, which is where this whole timeline went south. Also, the free month's subscription is pretty nifty... there's another 10 games, plus like 90 DRM-free games you can download and keep. Getting Over It is custom-designed to make you rage-quit. The original Wasteland is the o.g. 1000 hour nuclear apocalypse game back when you just had to imagine what "explode like a blood sausage" looked like.
posted by netowl at 9:09 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

And wow, is Tilt Brush by Google really that good? That's a pretty damn impressive VR thing they got there.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:12 PM on April 1, 2020

If you've shelled out for a VR rig and want to paint in 3D, why wouldn't you have Tilt Brush? It looks just like what they showed, except you're the one sculpting things. The only problem is, there's not much more. It's like VR MS-Paint, not VR CAD.
posted by netowl at 9:46 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Does anyone want my copy of Hollow Knight? I've already got it.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 10:49 PM on April 1, 2020

Ditto for This is the Police.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 10:52 PM on April 1, 2020

This special one-week bundle features $1,071 worth of games and ebooks for just $30.

Hey, isn't that by the same PR person who writes the press releases for police drug busts?
posted by fairmettle at 11:42 PM on April 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

Pikuniku is awesome! I got it on switch and did an actual laugh out loud when I had to defeat the (no spoiler) evil kitchen appliance! Also, you get to make friends with a rock - what's not to like?

If anyone wants psychonauts or broken age, PM me.
posted by sedimentary_deer at 7:21 AM on April 2, 2020

Oh I'm sorry I missed the edit window. Also, if you want pikuniku as I have it on another system. And Indigo Prophecy
posted by sedimentary_deer at 7:29 AM on April 2, 2020