Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

June 9, 2020 9:54 AM

Itch.io's bundle for racial justice and equality ($5+) already includes 1000 projects at the time of this post, with more to come, with all proceeds being donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. Not only does it includes indie heavy-hitters like Night in the Woods, Cook Serve Delicious 2, Minit and Oxenfree but it also includes a selection of LGBT friendly games like A Mortician's Tale, Highway Blossoms, EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER and Serre; tabletop rulebooks like Glitter Hearts, Blades in the Dark and Lancer; along with many many other games and software. (Previously)

Don't have time to look through 1000+ projects? Itch.io's employee Spencer Hayes created a collection with the most well known games.

posted by simmering octagon (84 comments total)

Yeah I bought this first day. Oustanding deal, great causes. Give as much as you can afford.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:09 AM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's been linked in a number of gaming threads here and there the last week but it's definitely worth standing on its own as a post. So I'm glad to see it posted here as well.

I have a number of these games on other various platforms but it's a worthy cause and it never hurts to have the game on a backup platform that is something other than Steam.

Minit and Oxenfree are both delightful games worth your time. Night in the Woods as a game on its own is beautiful and worth experiencing. The creation and behind the scenes of the game are a bit more complicated. I still think it's worth playing despite the history it now carries. But I can also understand people choosing to give that a pass if they need to. There are plenty of other games out there to play.

It's a great bundle for a worthy cause. Even if you have the games, it's worth throwing $5 or $10 to.
posted by Fizz at 10:26 AM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is so amazing!

OK and, do you say "Itch dot eye oh" or "eecheeoh"?
posted by rebent at 10:48 AM on June 9, 2020

Dumb question - do you just download everything to your computer all at once when you buy it, or can you come back and download later when you want something? Seems like a lot to manage title by title. Thanks!
posted by sensate at 10:51 AM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

A few quick suggestions:

Fortune-499 is a rock paper scissors deckbuilder RPG that cute, short, and that does some interesting things with mechanics. Very much worth playing.

Heavy bullets is a roguelike shooter where you have very a limited number (6?) of bullets and have to pick them back up after shooting them.

Loot Rascals is worth it for sound and visuals alone, but is also an interesting strategy roguelike full of charm.

Haque a (another) roguelike, but much closer to the rogue tradition than most. It's got style, as well as quirk, and it's also hard as hell so I've barely made any progress. I think a successful run is pretty short, which is something I appreciate.
posted by aspo at 10:53 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Yah, if indie games are your bag this basically has you covered for-ever.
posted by Alex404 at 10:57 AM on June 9, 2020

sensate, I believe the licenses will be attached to your itch.io account so you can download as you want.
posted by quaking fajita at 10:59 AM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Sensate, everything is linked to your Itch account at the time of purchase. The navigation is a little rough at the moment – titles don't show up in your library proper (and the Itch desktop app, which is a thing!) until you download them through the bundle page, and the search functionality is limited so far – but it sounds like better organization is on the horizon.

From the page in question:

Note: Projects in this bundle are hidden in your library by default untill you first access them in order to avoid flooding your library. You can return to this page at any time to access any projects you wish to show in your library.

Note: We will be updating this page soon, we know it's difficult to navigate so many games. We know you want a button to add show everything in your library. No need to reach out. Any new games added to the bundle will automatically show up here. Thanks!

posted by lumensimus at 11:00 AM on June 9, 2020

According to what I saw when I went to the page, there are only 6 hours left. If I hadn't seen this post, I would have missed my chance. Thanks simmering octagon!
posted by myfavoriteband at 11:05 AM on June 9, 2020

myfavoriteband: It's actually six days. There's still time!
posted by May Kasahara at 11:07 AM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

OK and, do you say "Itch dot eye oh" or "eecheeoh"?
posted by rebent at 1:48 PM on June 9 [+] [!]
Itch dot eye oh. Itch is the name, and ".io" is a domain, similar to '.com'.
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:22 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Can someone explain how this works? I looked at one of the games that looked interesting and it said if you bought it you got a "steam key" but not if you bought it via the bundle. what's a steam key? Is it what I use to unlock the game? If I buy the bundle can I download each of the games whenever I want from here on in or am I supposed to download them all at once and keep track of them?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:24 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

What a crazy thing to own / have access to. People are going to be discovering gems in this pile for years. I foresee a whole bunch of "I'm going to play through the entire itch.io racial justice bundle!" YouTube channels (and maybe even a few who actually do it!).

I hope MeFightClub gets a thread going where people can talk about some of the cool games they find in this thing.
posted by straight at 11:26 AM on June 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

If only I had a penguin...: Steam is a popular PC gaming service. Often PC games sold through other stores will include a Steam key, which is a code to unlock the game to play via Steam for people who prefer that. None of the games in this bundle include (or require) Steam keys, so you don't need to worry about that.

Once you make an account at Itch.io and buy the bundle, you'll be able to download anything included in the bundle whenever you like just by logging into your account and going to your personal bundle download page.
posted by skymt at 11:32 AM on June 9, 2020

If only I had a penguin, Steam is the most popular online storefront for PC games so a lot of times when you buy a game elsewhere it will include a "Steam Key" to attach ownership of the game to your Steam account, so you can download it through Steam any time you want to play it.

Itch.io is another online PC games storefront (that also sells some things like .PDF materials for pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons style role-playing games and board games). If you buy this bundle, you will have an itch.io account and can download from itch.io any games that are attached to your account. But you won't get an additional key to attach the games to a Steam account.
posted by straight at 11:33 AM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Can someone explain how this works?

Steam key refers to the most popular digital storefront and games library--it's a code that, when available, you have the option to add into the Steam client and then have it in your library there. (A significant percentage of game-havers get downright insistent that everything has to be in their Steam for convenience sake.)

For the games in this bundle, that's not an option. You can download any of them individually from the webpage; itch.io also has an app that hooks into your purchased library, but by default it doesn't see the bundle contents. There's some verbiage on the "thank you for purchasing" page showing they're aware people would appreciate better navigation and library view into the cornucopia of games here:

Note: We will be updating this page soon, we know it's difficult to navigate so many games. We know you want a button to add show everything in your library. No need to reach out. Any new games added to the bundle will automatically show up here. Thanks!

But you don't have to download everything. You'll always (as long as itch.io's around, of course!) be able to log into your itch account and download individual ones.
posted by Drastic at 11:33 AM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

skymt, I think I owe you at least two cokes for that one.
posted by straight at 11:34 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

It's a coke-bundle owed from many of us!
posted by Drastic at 11:35 AM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

A new batch is being added, bringing the total to 1200+ projects, including Celeste.
posted by simmering octagon at 11:52 AM on June 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Powerful multiposts aside, I want to shout out a small handful of my favorites from this for anyone who's lost staring at the quickly-growing list.

• A Short Hike: Run and glide around a mountain as a young bird, catch some fish, chat with the other hikers, and try to reach the peak.
• OneShot: Help a child restore the sun of a dying world.
• WE ARE DOOMED: Colorful abstract twin-stick shooter that Metafilter user skymt has called "better than Geometry Wars."

posted by skymt at 11:55 AM on June 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

Right now navigating the bundle is a bit of a pain, probably because itch.io never really anticipated having a 1000+ game bundle, but that'll probably improve in the future, so don't let the awkward navigation at the moment put you off: you'll still have those games, and it'll (probably) be easier to find them a bit later.
posted by Pyry at 11:56 AM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is a stupidly good deal
posted by Going To Maine at 12:13 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Excellent stuff - and so much to chose from!

I read there were a number of LGBT titles - as others have said though, it's hard to navigate. Any recomendations? I've already downloaded A mortician's tale.
posted by sedimentary_deer at 12:21 PM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Nuclear Throne, if roguelike action games are your deal, may eat many hours of your life.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:24 PM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

I read there were a number of LGBT titles - as others have said though, it's hard to navigate. Any recomendations?

I don't have any specific recommendations but if you go to the LGBT tag page and sort by popular, chances are if the game says "in bundle" the bundle is going to be this one.
posted by simmering octagon at 12:34 PM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

Just bought and now have an itch account. I am excited to start playing Dungeons & Lesbians.
posted by joannemerriam at 12:44 PM on June 9, 2020

I found at least one non-game ebook in the mix. Any others?

Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe
posted by tofu_crouton at 12:56 PM on June 9, 2020

Another essential recommendation of games included in the bundle:
Desktop Goose [MeFi previously]
posted by bigendian at 12:58 PM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

So I am very much not a gamer, but this seems dumb to pass up. :7)

Are there more lightweight, "Alto's Odyssey"-type games for the casual here? That "A Short Hike" seems very much my kind of thing.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:58 PM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Already bought it, just seeing the one about the New Zealand forest. It's Windows-only so I can't play it, but I bet there's more gems in there, like The Ground Itself.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:21 PM on June 9, 2020

Thanks for posting! I bought a bundle for myself and a number of other people.
posted by tickingclock at 1:23 PM on June 9, 2020

I haven't had a chance to play with anything, but Catlateral Damage is amusing the heck out of me just by existing.

On the other hand, I have started using Tape as a very pretty way to keep track of what I've been doing at work. I haven't done much with it yet, but so pretty!
posted by Katemonkey at 1:41 PM on June 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

Thanks for highlighting this, Fizz! The bundle keeps growing. itch has decided to only add games that are paid-for (not free ones) - to stop the bundle becoming completely enormous. It's currently at 1,366 items.

It feels completely overwhelming right now, but also incredibly inspiring. I'd thought for my entire life that you had to Make Games Properly. Then I see something like a completely normal dating simulation that is definitely completely sweet, innocent and normal - which has scribbly basic MS Paint art and a soundtrack that is literally one voice going 'doo bee doo doo' the whole time, but is still a silly, fun parody of dating sims.

It makes me think that I could do games too, and it could be anything at all!
posted by NoiselessPenguin at 1:55 PM on June 9, 2020 [7 favorites]

> Nuclear Throne, if roguelike action games are your deal, may eat many hours of your life.

129 hours and counting. Some day I might even make it to the end.
posted by 3j0hn at 3:00 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'd thought for my entire life that you had to Make Games Properly...

Oh, you would really love Anna Anthropy’s Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form. It’s wonderful and about exactly this.
posted by oulipian at 3:04 PM on June 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

"A Short Hike" is worth whatever you pay for the bundle, all by itself. What a lovely game that is.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:09 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Combined with my Steam and GOG backlogs, my grandchildren might be able to finish these
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:35 PM on June 9, 2020 [9 favorites]

This is such an astounding bundle. There's so much to recommend, and if you like zinester-style indie games, you can almost just pick a game at random and see a quirky wonderful little or not-so-little game. But I notice that Airships:Conquer the Skies is in it, by mefi's own Zarkonnen so I'll limit myself to recommending you check that one out. It's great.
posted by surlyben at 3:43 PM on June 9, 2020

I just wanted to point this out in a clear way, because most of the comments are about games.

The bundle isn't just computer games

I've also found lots of game assets like tile sets for anyone wanting to create games. There are various PDFs from stories, to roleplaying resources, to a Global Games Industry Guide. I've found a task management app with a ton of style and a pixel fireplace.

Itch.io is a quirky little digital marketplace and people are using it in all sorts of interesting ways.
posted by krisjohn at 3:45 PM on June 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe

I just read this in hardcopy and would recommend it! Really good melancholy trans sci-fi.
posted by ITheCosmos at 4:02 PM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

It looks like Celeste is in now too. This is getting out of hand (in the best of ways). I'm honestly glad that I paid for a couple of these games the good old fashioned way.
posted by Alex404 at 5:10 PM on June 9, 2020

John Walker, formerly of Rock Paper Shotgun, listed off some of his faves back when there were merely 742 games in the bundle.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:20 PM on June 9, 2020

My Mac won't open most of the game files that I downloaded. Half of them it says the developer can't be verified, and the other half it just plain says "can't be opened."
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 6:16 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Wow, in addition to all the indie games I've never heard of, there is a surprising number of games that I had heard of, many on my Steam wishlist. In addition to the ones listed above, there is:

J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars and STARDROP - a couple of nice-looking first-person adventure games set on space stations

Runner3 - Third in the Bit Trip Runner series which I've enjoyed, sort of a cross between a rhythm game and an endless runner with elaborate and charming art/graphics and some great soundtrack tunes.

Last Knight - a Crash Bandicoot-style 3D-on-a-rail platformer with graphics more like the recent remaster than the PS1 version.

Quadrilateral Cowboy - a programming / hacking / heist game by the maker of Thirty Flights of Loving and a bunch of other good games.

Overland - a turn-based strategy game about traveling by car through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It looks a little bit like an FTL sort of game.

Metamorphabet some sort of kids toy not-really-a-puzzle type thing that charmed the socks off of Rock Paper Shotgun

Glittermitten Grove

The World-Begins With You - a very nice little bit of Tomb-Raider style 3D exploring/puzzling

Walden - an attempt to turn the Henry David Thoreau book into a walking simulator? Looks very pretty.

Spring Falls - a beautiful little puzzle game
posted by straight at 6:17 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

And I will concur with everyone who says that A Short Hike is absolutely worth your time and money. One of my very favorite games of the last few years.
posted by straight at 6:20 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

My Mac won't open most of the game files that I downloaded. Half of them it says the developer can't be verified, and the other half it just plain says "can't be opened."

Not sure if this is your problem, but not every game is supported on every platform - in the store, if you filter for Mac for OS and set the 'price' filter to 'paid', you'll see the ones that you're able to play on Mac. Some of them have specific instructions on how to open them on their download page too I believe.
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 6:25 PM on June 9, 2020

Ok, I bought it. Now tell a noob what to do. Like I assume I should pick a couple of games, play til I get tired of them and then delete them because there's now way I can fit 1400+ games on my laptop (and I"ll probably never play them all anyway)?

Is there a way for me to save my level or whatever if i delete them, usually (I imagine this will vary by game)?

Do I need to buy a joystick or is my age showing when I say that? (My Vic20 games almost all required a joy stick exccept the educational ones).
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:54 PM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

Also Starseed Pilgrim (very difficult puzzle game about figuring out what it's about), The King's Bird (beautiful platformer), Bleed & Bleed 2 (2D - platform shooters), The Floor is Jelly (platform puzzle bouncy-physics), Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, And The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (sort of like whatever The Stanley Principle is), Not the Robots (stealth game, try to eat office furniture without getting caught)
posted by straight at 6:56 PM on June 9, 2020

Ok, I created an account. Logged in. Filtered for "paid" and a few other things, but then when I pick a game it tells me "buy now" instead of "download."
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:58 PM on June 9, 2020

You have to go to the bundle page and download the game from there rather than from the game's home page.

If you find a game you want to try, you can type the name in the search bar on the bundle page (should be the page link sent to your email when you bought the bundle). Rather than trying to scroll through all 1000+ looking for it.
posted by straight at 7:00 PM on June 9, 2020

Yes you can buy a joystick. Many games will work with an Xbox controller (they are expensive).
Almost all games will work okay with your keyboard.

Yes, just download something and delete it when you tire of it. You can download again if you want to go back to it. Saving your progress is going to vary from game to game. Many will keep your save file buried somewhere in My Documents and it will still be there if you delete the game unless you specifically delete the save as well. Other games won't keep your place if you delete the game. Some will not be the sort of game where saving your progress matters.
posted by straight at 7:03 PM on June 9, 2020

I haven't had a chance to play with anything, but Catlateral Damage is amusing the heck out of me just by existing.

It's adorable. Very clunky blocky graphics for gameplay, but there are high-res photos of what I assume are the developer's cats around the apartment.

Tip: If you swat at cabinet doors enough, you can eventually get them open and get into even MORE mischief.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:36 PM on June 9, 2020

Walden - an attempt to turn the Henry David Thoreau book into a walking simulator? Looks very pretty.

You can also pick berries. I haven't figured out the rest yet. I like games that let me run around picking things. (Can never have too much elfroot!)
posted by Jacqueline at 7:41 PM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

My Mac won't open most of the game files that I downloaded. Half of them it says the developer can't be verified, and the other half it just plain says "can't be opened."

Unfortunately, if you want to be a known Mac developer, you need a Mac (and possibly also to pay a fee to Apple? it has been a while since I looked into it). That's fine if you have a budget and are making games for profit, but it can be a significant barrier if you are making a no-budget indie game that is unlikely to make much money.

Also, OS X recently switched to not allowing 32-bit software to run at all. Older titles may get hit with both issues. I'm sure there are ways around both, but I'm not enough of a Mac person to be able to tell you what they are. Perhaps someone who knows can tell us how? (the 32-bit thing probably involves a VM or rolling back to an older version of the operating system)

(It's technically possible to develop for OS X in a VM, but it's a violation of the license agreement, and probably also the developer agreement. This makes me incandescent with nerdrage sad that I can't share games I make with my Mac-owning friends, but that's neither here nor there.)
posted by surlyben at 7:43 PM on June 9, 2020

Half of them it says the developer can't be verified

If you hold down the control key and choose "Open" in the menu that pops up you'll get a dialog box that lets you choose Open.

If you're on Catalina, many of these won't even start. But I'm only on page 10 of 48, downloading games that look interesting, and I've still found 20 intriguing games to play.
posted by bendy at 7:57 PM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

This bundle was already the best bargain in the history of gaming at 700 games, including a wide selection of excellent titles. At this point, it's still the best bargain in the history of gaming, and if you have any interest in video games, at all, or will ever, you should jump on board.

OK and, do you say "Itch dot eye oh" or "eecheeoh"?

I use the Idle Thumbs pronunciation, which is "eecheeoh".

Oh, you would really love Anna Anthropy’s Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form. It’s wonderful and about exactly this.

Definitely do not look up Anna Anthropy herself though, she's a missing stair. (I am not a good ally, but the one thing I can do is remember who's been credibly accused of abuse.)
posted by Merus at 8:06 PM on June 9, 2020

I played Sky Rogue — a rougelike, arcade style air combat game — for many months on the Switch, and I think you will enjoy it if you like that kind of thing. I never made it past level five!!

Somewhere I saw it described as “swooshy” and I wondered if that was a genre of game I hadn’t heard of. What other games are swooshy??
posted by chrchr at 8:56 PM on June 9, 2020

Another how do these bundles work question:

Presumably the creators sign on to be in a bundle? And then don't get paid. And anyone who wants one of these games will likely buy it this way since you can, if you choose, get the bundle for less than many individual games.

It seems like if I'm a game creator, I'm better off giving a few hundred dollars to The Cause myself than doing something that results in no one buying my game in a way that makes me money. And since the inclusion of any particular game isnt likely to affect bundle sales, me giving a few hundred dollars instead of including my game probably nets them. ore money, too.

So what's the game developer angle here? Publicity? Or are they hoping that people who try the game and like it will buy it individually to get the "steam key" I've just learned about? Or are they assuming 90% of people likely to ever buy their game already did, so the opportunity cost is actually small?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:04 PM on June 9, 2020

I reckon it's a combination of publicity and "most people have already bought it," IOIHAP, but I doubt anyone is seriously expecting customers to rebuy things just for steam. It's worth noting that some of the titles are currently free anyways even without the bundle.
posted by juv3nal at 9:11 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Well, it's like voting. Your one game probably isn't going to tip the scales, but it feels good to be one of the 800+ people who made this thing so big that it's getting lots of attention and raising millions of dollars instead of thousands. The bundle was in the news when it was 700+ games, but tipping it past 1000 got even more attention.
posted by straight at 11:24 PM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

Definitely do not look up Anna Anthropy herself though, she's a missing stair

Interesting. Apparently I had stopped playing attention to the community by the time that she was cancelled.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:54 PM on June 9, 2020

Re: the unverified developer nastygram on Mac, it should mostly go away if you use the itch.io software to install and launch games. It'll also give you a convenient way to re-download and browse. (It won't backup saves, but it'll help with updates.)
posted by Anonymous Function at 12:08 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

It seems like if I'm a game creator, I'm better off giving a few hundred dollars to The Cause myself than doing something that results in no one buying my game in a way that makes me money.

My assumption is that things like this pull money from people who aren't opposed to BLM but who aren't going to go out of their way to donate.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:56 AM on June 10, 2020

I bought it. In fact, I bought it twice, once for myself and once for my spouse. We would like to sit on the couch and play games together on the TV, which has a Windows laptop connected to it. There is also an iPad. What should we do?
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:02 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Faint of Butt, you should go to the bundle page, type "hike" in the search box, download "A Short Hike" to your laptop, and play it with the arrow keys or get an Xbox controller and plug it in to one of the USB ports. Then do the same for whichever other games take your fancy.

Or as Anonymous Function points out, it might be even easier to download the itch.io app to your laptop and use that to download and install some games.

https://itch.io/app

If you can get a controller (there are other options besides Xbox) that would probably be more comfortable on the couch than trying to play using your laptop keyboard.
posted by straight at 8:18 AM on June 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

I also bought it a bunch of times for myself and others. At this point it would actually be insane not to buy it, and that doesn't seem to be a controversial opinion since they've raised over $3.9 million and the average person is paying just under $11.00 for the bundle.

There are now over 1,400 packages in the bundle and there is absolutely certain to be something in there for you if you play games at all.

On thing I didn't see mentioned upthread: If you make games (or, say, have a kid who does) the bundle also includes a bunch of "asset packs" -- essentially digital game art (animated figures, tiles, sprites etc.) that you can use in your own games if you are good at code and bad at art.

This is an amazing deal for a fundamentally just cause. Buy it.
posted by The Bellman at 8:22 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Their servers might be having some trouble. I just tried installing the itch.io app and the installer wasn't able to download it.
posted by straight at 8:25 AM on June 10, 2020

Somewhere I saw it described as “swooshy” and I wondered if that was a genre of game I hadn’t heard of. What other games are swooshy??

Jet Lancer is very swooshy. I don't know if it's in the bundle, though it is on Itch.

Also, for those who need help sifting through the tremendous number of games in this bundle, Laura Dale has announced her intention to start posting short reviews of the ones she finds interesting, starting with Extreme Meatpunks Forever.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:30 AM on June 10, 2020

OK, I see so much talk about "A short hike" I downloaded and played for a while last night. I don't get it. Can someone explain what's so great about it?

I got to the top of the mountain (along the way got three feathers, a bunch of coins, 7 shells, learned to climb, got the good shovel and the treasure map, swam, climbed, flew. Obviously I didn't get the 15 shells to the demanding character, didn't get to the island or dig up the treasure on the beach and I forgot to access my phone on the mountain top which I why I went there in the first place, I guess. But meh...it had the feeling of being at the supermarket and filling my list in some convoluted random order that has me going through every aisle 10 times in by the least efficient route possible just to buy some milk and a bag of chips.

But everyone loves it, so obviously I'm missing something. What am I missing?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:36 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

My Mac won't open most of the game files that I downloaded. Half of them it says the developer can't be verified, and the other half it just plain says "can't be opened."

I've found that many of the "can't be opened" games can be fixed by running chmod +x <path to game>.app/Contents/MacOS/* on them from the terminal. Installing them through the desktop app also seems to work.
posted by marakesh at 11:01 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Super excited about Celeste.

And 100 other games.

THIS IS WILD YALL
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:45 PM on June 10, 2020

John Walker, formerly of Rock Paper Shotgun, listed off some of his faves back when there were merely 742 games in the bundle.

...and has gone back to visit and recommend some more: Here Are Some Suggestions To Get Started With The Itch.io Black Lives Matter Bundle:

I’ve been asked quite a lot of times if I could provide some sort of curated guide to the utterly extraordinary Itch.io Black Lives Matter bundle. The thing is, I too am a human being just like you, and as such am equally daunted by the mad joy of what is presently 1,427 games and tools for $5.

posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:48 PM on June 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

This is like travelling to an alternate-universe with an entirely different library of 8/16/32 bit games
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:38 PM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

A Short Hike is bright and colourful, amusingly written, kinda low stress, kinda self-directed and you can't die. Pretty much the opposite of a lot of games. I think that's why people like it. It doesn't make me squeal with joy but that's not always what I need from my entertainment.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:53 PM on June 10, 2020 [6 favorites]

All those things and it also has pretty excellent artwork using primitive graphics, a surprising number of nooks and crannies to explore, and the flying / gliding feels really good.
posted by straight at 4:26 PM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

But meh...it had the feeling of being at the supermarket and filling my list in some convoluted random order that has me going through every aisle 10 times in by the least efficient route possible just to buy some milk and a bag of chips.

I think it's a kind of goal-oriented versus happy to just wander attitude kind of split?

It sounds like you probably set out with the idea of wanting to do something, whereas I just kind of pick a direction and go and If I see something that looks interesting to try and do I try it and if in the process I end up falling off a cliff, I'll explore what's at the foot of that cliff instead of trying to get myself back to where I was before I fell.
posted by juv3nal at 5:30 PM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

A Short Hike is a box of toys, rather than a goal oriented game per se. By the time the story 'ended' (which I had forgotten about completely by the time it arrived on my playthrough) it was just another fairly neat thing halfway through a long sequence of fairly neat things it had laid out for me to do. It aims to be a pleasant diversion, rather than a life changing journey, I think, and should be approached as such and put away when its charms diminish with time.
posted by Sparx at 5:36 PM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

I just started playing A Short Hike and I think it's what I'd want from this bundle (and gaming right now) - something cute, low stress, and that I'll be able to shelve in a few days and leave with some pleasant feelings.

I don't have a lot of emotional bandwidth (or time) for computer games right now, but I did give myself a little bit of downtime to recover from the last few weeks of stress, and it's just sort of . . . nice. I'm enjoying figuring things out without feeling like I have to figure every little thing out.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:47 PM on June 10, 2020 [3 favorites]

the Itch desktop app, which is a thing!

A hard-to-install thing at the moment: the app's installer errors out if it fails to download a file, which is happening to people a lot at the moment. I was able to get it to complete after a few retries.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:42 PM on June 10, 2020

Yo, someone created a search tool for the Bundle. You can search by game name, genre, tag, etc. Makes wading through that Bundle so much easier.

There's kind of TOO much, lol, it overwhelms.
posted by Fizz at 6:37 AM on June 12, 2020 [13 favorites]

I chipped in a bit and got this without being too excited because hell yes, it is way too much. However I'd heard good things about Blades in the Dark and got it.

And have been reading the rule book. It's an intriguing RPG style I haven't played much, improv and storytelling heavy by design. The game won't work unless everyone is committed.

I don't know when I'll get to it with some of my normal crowd, in between scheduling and play style preferences. I don't know if I'd be any good at it. BUT anyone who is in a similar spot can memail me if they want to try getting a game going.
posted by mark k at 8:59 PM on June 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

I bought four bundles, one for me and one for each of the kids. I don't know when I'll have time to look at any of the games myself, but I should be basically set for the rest of the year.
posted by Harald74 at 11:44 PM on June 14, 2020

That search tool was really nifty, btw. And I found that I now own Pico-8! (Previously)
posted by Harald74 at 11:48 PM on June 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Humble Bundle's turn now.
posted by Tsuga at 8:03 PM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]