The Humble Indie Bundle [Pay What You Want]

May 6, 2010 5:06 AM

World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru and Penumbra Overture are all included in this package. The best thing about the bundle? You can pay whatever you want (above 0 ofcourse), which you can choose to split between the developers and charity at any percentage you'd like. The bundle lasts for another five days and seven hours. All of the games work on Mac, Windows, and Linux so this is a great way to check out any of these popular indie titles if you haven't had a chance to play them yet.
posted by pancreas (40 comments total)

This looks like an interesting scheme, supporting good causes and promoting great games. But that "rap" in the video makes me want to sell my ears and give the proceeds to charity.
posted by him at 5:17 AM on May 6, 2010

I can recommend Aquaria, it was a joy to play.
posted by joecacti at 5:22 AM on May 6, 2010

Hmm... the video has an average payment (it says $0.12) but the site doesn't. I'd love to know what they're getting on average, especially because eliminating free sales seems likely to help them considerably compared to the Radiohead album.

Also, why are they splitting the proceeds between such limp charities? I'd much rather see MSF or Oxfam.... Political organizations like EFF really shouldn't be getting the same tax-exemptions that humanitarian organizations receive in the first place, and I'd think geeks would be the first to realize that.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:27 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you haven't played World of Goo (live under a rock much?), go and buy this now.
posted by unSane at 5:49 AM on May 6, 2010

There's a "Real-time Statistics" box right below the video with "Average contribution: $7.88", anotherpanacea.
posted by Ritchie at 5:49 AM on May 6, 2010

World of Goo is worth one or more cents by itself!
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:52 AM on May 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

Doh!
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:52 AM on May 6, 2010

I already bought WoG. Twice, actually. Are the other games worth it?
posted by DU at 5:56 AM on May 6, 2010

Man I already bought Goo and Gish at full retail but I might hit this up anyway.
posted by Skorgu at 6:01 AM on May 6, 2010

Penumbra Overture isn't bad, but World of Goo is the one worth the money here.
posted by deezil at 6:04 AM on May 6, 2010

anotherpanacea - you could always pay less, specify a split that excludes the EFF, and make another donation to the charity of your choice...

(I've been meaning to shell out for non-demo versions of both World Of Goo and Gish for a while now... looks like my laziness has paid off...)
posted by russm at 6:22 AM on May 6, 2010

The more I think about it, the less clear to me is the distinction between a political and a humanitarian organization. Even the exact same charter (say, getting people to vote or educating them) could be one or the other, or both, in different cultures and from different PsOV.
posted by DU at 6:28 AM on May 6, 2010

Supporting net neutrality seems like a distinct kind of activity from saving lives.
posted by anotherpanacea at 6:35 AM on May 6, 2010

This is a cool idea, I paid ten bucks. Will be enjoying the games this weekend.
posted by LooseFilter at 6:38 AM on May 6, 2010

Supporting net neutrality seems like a distinct kind of activity from saving lives.

Think of it as prevention vs cure.
posted by DU at 6:46 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

not to derail, but net neutrality could go a long towards saving lives. ok, that was a very short derail. :)

paid $10 (already paid for WoG on the Wii). i'll check these other games out. i need something to do at work somedays.

given my current financial woes (read: stupid car expensive fix grrrr), some new fun for cheap makes me happy.
posted by sio42 at 7:03 AM on May 6, 2010

Yeah, I saw this a couple days ago. I was going to pay $10, but it wouldn't divide neatly between EFF, Child's Play, and the devs, so I ended up paying $15.

What a great idea. I should've given to these charities and played these games awhile ago.
posted by ODiV at 7:33 AM on May 6, 2010

Ordered. I already have WoG and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm all about DRM-free charity. Major kudos to them for supporting more than just paypal as a payment method.
posted by slimepuppy at 7:34 AM on May 6, 2010

I'd love to know what they're getting on average, especially because eliminating free sales seems likely to help them considerably compared to the Radiohead album.

There's a danger that people will pay less than what their credit card processor charges per transaction though. It doesn't look like it's a problem with the average at almost $8, but it would be a worry with Internet smart-asses out there. ("Hey! I can buy it for $0.01! I'm going to send one to each of my 100 MySpace friends!"
posted by ODiV at 7:37 AM on May 6, 2010

Very cool idea, and I have never played World of Goo, so I'm in for $10.

I really like the way they set this up, and I hope that it actually works out well on a cost basis for them.
posted by misha at 8:10 AM on May 6, 2010

I gave them $10, which is still a steal even though I already have WoG.
posted by joedan at 8:13 AM on May 6, 2010

I heard about this yesterday, and was on the fence -- I want to support DRM-free games and commercial games for Linux... but, then again, I don't actually play video games.

But I just bought them. I figure, what the heck -- I could pay a price high enough to raise their average but still low enough that it doesn't seem a loss if I only spend an hour screwing around with each of them.

I'd heard a claim that you couldn't pay less than $1, so I tried entering $.01 first. It pops up a picture of a destitute developer holding a sign asking you to give at least a dollar, but doesn't appear to forbid it.
posted by Zed at 8:15 AM on May 6, 2010

Fuck you very much, pancreas, I had work to do this morning!
posted by theredpen at 8:17 AM on May 6, 2010

why are they splitting the proceeds between such limp charities? I'd much rather see MSF or Oxfam

Because Child's Play and the EFF address issues close to gamers' hearts, in general.
posted by asciident at 8:39 AM on May 6, 2010

On a related note, World Of Goo fans might be interested to know that you can download the soundtrack for free.
posted by hippybear at 8:59 AM on May 6, 2010

I love World of Goo, best game I have for the Wii.

Does anyone know how well these games run on an old mac? I have a powerbook g4, and it can run a little slow with graphics heavy programs
posted by deliquescent at 10:03 AM on May 6, 2010

why are they splitting the proceeds between such limp charities? I'd much rather see MSF or Oxfam

I hope you can see the irony of posting a comment deriding a charity that promotes a free and open internet on a (relatively) free and open internet.

Also: your favorite charity sucks.
posted by !Jim at 11:00 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

World of Goo is one of my favorite games of all time.
posted by davejay at 11:12 AM on May 6, 2010

deliquescent: I have a G4 Mac Mini with World of Goo installed. It ran with only an occasional hiccup when it had 512MB of memory, with over a gigabyte it ran without problems.

On net neutrality and other causes compared to saving lives: Really, both of these charities are worthwhile. Saving lives is good, but so is giving people better lives. I hate to use rhetoric the Tea Partiers would engage in, but... didn't the founding fathers risk their own lives to give us a nation worth of living in?

Anyway, I know I would appreciate it if we didn't get into "X charity is better than Y" fights here. They sound rather petty to my ears.
posted by JHarris at 12:09 PM on May 6, 2010

No love for Lugaru? That game's tons of fun.
posted by brundlefly at 12:21 PM on May 6, 2010

Word of Goo is an amazing game. I've heard good things about Aquaria and been meaning to pick it up. I guess now is the best time to buy it. Thanks for this, I wouldn't have known it was going on if it wasn't for metafilter.
posted by lilkeith07 at 12:40 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

I *heart* World of Goo on the Wii, so I decided to go for it and get them all. I'm going on a LONG train trip tomorrow and wanted some good games for my netbook. Everything but Penumbra and Aquaria run beautifully (which is a shame because I played Aquaria for a bit on my desktop and loved it).
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 2:04 PM on May 6, 2010

Just got an email from Wolfire, looks like everyone who purchased the bundle can now also download the game Samorost 2, which looks really cute.
posted by wundermint at 9:42 AM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/humble-bundle-gives-pirates-what-they-want-gets-ripped-off.ars
posted by darth_tedious at 9:55 PM on May 10, 2010

Gives pirates what they want? Pirates are already getting what they want.

It looks like the program is a success though, which is great. I'm slightly embarrassed it took something like this to get me to give to Child's Play and the EFF.
posted by ODiV at 10:39 AM on May 11, 2010

This deal is through in about two hours, so if you're on the fence, now's the time!
posted by ODiV at 10:43 AM on May 11, 2010

The reasoning behind the 25% piracy figure seems a little wonky. For two days of data, and we don't know how representative they were, 490MB/unique IP was downloaded. So they took total amount downloaded divided by 490MB to yield a count of 105,000 downloaders, and compared that to 79,000 contributors to yield their 25% piracy figure.

Simply a larger number of people downloading all 6 games (I did) would cut into what they're calling indicative of piracy. Did more early contributors already have one or more game, so they downloaded less than later contributors? Beats me, but it doesn't seem like it or any similar possibility was considered.
posted by Zed at 11:32 AM on May 11, 2010

Now they're open sourcing four of the games. It's crazy.
posted by Zed at 5:15 PM on May 11, 2010

You mean I paid donated $20 for stuff that would have been free!?!

Oh wait, that's okay. Of the games other than Goo, only Aquaria seems to be very good. Reminds me of Loom.
posted by anotherpanacea at 4:49 AM on May 12, 2010

afaik they're just open sourcing the engine. You'd still have to pay for the games.
posted by ODiV at 7:36 AM on May 12, 2010