Indie Bundle for Abortion Funds

July 3, 2022 3:40 PM

The $10+ Indie Bundle for Abortion Funds features more than 790 projects (and counting) from all across itch.io, with 100% of the proceeds being donated to the National Network for Abortion Fund's Collective Power Fund, which moves money directly to abortion funds across 20+ U.S. states. The bundle includes titles like Hypnospace Outlaw (detective/'90s internet simulator indie darling), Calico (incredibly cute coffee shop / lifesim), Buck Up And Drive! (PINK. BACKFLIPPING. TRUCKS. ON THE MOON) and Catlateral Damage (a first-person destructive cat simulator).

If that's not enough, the "Worthy of Better, Stronger Together for Reproductive Rights" bundle, with proceeds going to the National Organization for Women and the Center for Reproductive Rights, will be available until July 15.

posted by simmering octagon (22 comments total)

I love how activist itch.io is.

Also, yes, Buck Up and Drive! is FANTASTIC if you have fond memories of Outrun and want to throw a car at a cop (the car is you). That, alone, is worth $10.
posted by curious nu at 3:49 PM on July 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Well, my Playdate just arrived last week, so I’m excited to see Down the Oubliette by RDK included here. (If you don't have a Playdate, you can play the game using the emulator that’s included in the free development tools.)
posted by mbrubeck at 4:17 PM on July 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Wanderhome, Apocalypse World, Glitter Hearts, tons of great top-notch content here along with a literal flood of smaller projects that might become your new favorite thing.
posted by rikschell at 6:45 PM on July 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

2/3 of the MBMBAM bros did a video of Catlateral Damage for Polygon, oh wow, some years ago now, which is how I fell into the whole world of chatty game-alongs and Monster Factories. Downloading! (My other bundles are weeping, this is too much game content...)
posted by cobaltnine at 7:04 PM on July 3, 2022

Ooh, Daniel Linssen’s Roguelight looks like a fun roguelike platformer. Gameplay video and brief review.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:36 PM on July 3, 2022

Thought I'd try Calico. Cute but keyboard control is pretty rough, maybe I'll get a controller. Any recommended?
posted by Glinn at 7:37 PM on July 3, 2022

https://randombundlegame.com helps you choose what to play next. You could say "show me colorblindness-friendly strategy games with controller support and a metacritic rating over 75."
posted by Sterros at 8:43 PM on July 3, 2022 [7 favorites]

When they say “100% of the proceeds” do they mean gross or net? By this point in life, I am equipped with a 50mm shell of cynicism that makes me question every charitable effort, including my own.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 9:28 PM on July 3, 2022

I think they mean all, gross. By default they take 10% of each regular sale for overhead (though the developer can set that higher or lower, including zero, and also make the content free). But the bundles are separate, and they ostensibly don't take any cut. They raised $8m for the NAACP in 2020 after the cops killed George Floyd. I don't know a ton about them and this is the first time I've bought in (I play 99% console or F/OSS games and only own Mac PCs), but they are generally respected as legit and doing what they say afaict. Wikipedia has info on other big charity bundles they've done.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:15 PM on July 3, 2022 [5 favorites]

The Worthy of Better has some really cool indie horror stuff in it like Bloodwash, Lost in Vivo, and all of Torple Dook's Dread X Collection games (he was the only dev to have a game in each of Collection 1-3 and The Hunt, and would probably have had one in the recently-released 5 if he wasn't busy expanding his entry for Dread X Collection 1, "Hand of Doom", into a full-sized game). Also from the Dread X Collections is Philip Hesselback's "Axis Mundi", one of their best entries.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:33 PM on July 3, 2022

Oh and I've just noticed another couple of Dread X Collection alumni, "Sucker For Love:First Date" and "Spookware" , which are the expanded full-sized game versions of a couple of games from Dread X Collections 2 and 3. Also corpsepile's "Submission", for my money a top five DXC game. Dread XP is apparently big on this bundle.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:40 PM on July 3, 2022

Glinn An Xbox controller really is about the best controller you can get. The USB ones just connect straight to your computer, no fuss, and they're really great controllers.

For games that work better with controller than mouse/keyboard (Sundered, Sakuna, etc) it's my go to controller.
posted by sotonohito at 7:48 AM on July 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

"moves money directly to abortion funds across 20+ U.S. states"

Awesome. Independent clinics perform more abortions than Planned Parenthood! Also see:

https://donations4abortion.com/

https://keepourclinics.org/

via: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRqbxh96ynlqdYUInUZB5GWrE2GIcW3FEXdtxO_n2BXMAd2HOkNssn3aP77zSXBN43TIJ3Xab2ih9vE/pub
(aka https://bit.ly/RoeWYCD)
posted by johnabbe at 11:05 AM on July 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

How many of these are new, versus how much overlap is there from previous giant fund-raising game bundles?
posted by wenestvedt at 1:46 PM on July 4, 2022

How many of these are new, versus how much overlap is there from previous giant fund-raising game bundles?

According to the bundle browser, 500 of the 792 items haven't been in a mega bundle before. Possibly more once the 200+ items submitted since yesterday get included into the bundle.
posted by simmering octagon at 2:47 PM on July 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

SOLD.

I may only ever play one or two, not being a gamer by any means, but I love being part of a big action to show that nerds & gamers can act collectively for women's rights.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:49 PM on July 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

Hell yeah! Thanks for letting us know about this one.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:23 PM on July 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Abortion Funds bundle includes VideoHole Episode I, which features fantastical and comedic elements but also contains a lot of real feelings, like a more whimsical Night in the Woods. There's a lot of potential here. The first Episode II trailer came out less than three months ago and it looks like the feelings won't stop flowing. Here's the normal and mysterious trailers for Episode I, and the free games by the developer.
posted by BiggerJ at 12:12 AM on July 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this post. Like wenestvedt I'm not really a gamer but am happy to throw money at these bundles and it's a bonus to get some new apps/games to fiddle with for a few minutes.
posted by bendy at 8:09 PM on July 5, 2022

Though, plenty of the apps are Windows only or not compatible with newer x64 or M1 Macs. Still Desktop Goose is delightfully annoying enough to be totally worth the price.
posted by bendy at 8:17 PM on July 5, 2022

Desktop Goose gets super annoying super fast.
posted by bendy at 8:30 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

The bundle got updated to add all the submissions for a total of 1122 items. Even if you don't like pc gaming, almost half are tabletop rpgs.
posted by simmering octagon at 10:09 AM on July 9, 2022