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Businesses Games

Humble Bundle 2 Is Live 217

Posted by kdawson from the now-how-much-would-you-pay dept.
Dayofswords writes "The first Humble Bundle was a monster success, with over 100,000 people donating over $1 million in total to support the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Child's Play, and of course the developers behind the games. The second bundle is now live (bundle site), containing five great games: Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos, and Revenge of the Titans. Each game is DRM-free, the games work on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and you pay what you want and decide where your money goes."
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Humble Bundle 2 Is Live More

Humble Bundle 2 Is Live

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  • Linux (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @11:53PM (#34556988)

    And, as with the first Humble Indie Bundle, Linux buyers are more generous than Windows buyers. :)

    • I dual boot linux and windows.

      I paid double of the average Linux user. (before this was a slashdot story)

      But is there a bias for Slashdot users?

      Either way they actually aren't bad games and even if your not feeling generous, a few bucks doesn't hurt for a good cause.

      • Either way they actually aren't bad games and even if your not feeling generous, a few bucks doesn't hurt for a good cause.

        I don't see the point of buying games that "aren't bad". If you want to donate something to charity, just do it but don't feel you have to compensate the game makers for mediocrity.

        It's the same with people who buy shitty chartiy records. It would be better just to donate the money directly to the charity.

    • I paid $10 for the last bundle (as a Linux buyer), but I still haven't even tried any of the games..
    • No, those attributing the purchase to Linux were more generous than those attributing the purchase to Windows. You got to chose after the purchase what to attribute it to.

  • Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nhaines ( 622289 ) <nhaines AT ubuntu DOT com> on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @11:53PM (#34556990) Homepage

    The games are fun, they work on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and the charities are good causes.

    This is pretty much just win-win for everyone, a great way to not only *get* some nice games on Linux but *support* games on Linux, and to support a bunch of good causes as well. I'm less familiar with these games than the last bundle but I'll check them out and likely donate if I like even one of them.

    • I'd be curious if they are better than the first bundle? I've purchased that one, but apart from World of Goo (which I already had) I thought they were rather disappointing. From a technical level it felt like the sort of games I might have played ten years ago (again: apart from World of Goo which has a very professional feel to it).
      • I take it you gave Aquaria just a cursory glance, and were put off by Lugaru's (admitedly dated) grafics?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mcvos ( 645701 )

          I tried Aquaria. Nice atmosphere, but there just wasn't enough to it to continue.

          World of Goo was genius. The others were meh. Well, Samarost was cute for a while, but ultimately pointless.

          • hmm ... Samarost2 has some nice (if very psychedelic) puzzles. It's main problem is its length, as it is very very short. Aquaria has a huge and diverse world along with (also) some nice puzzles, great mechanics, some incredibly good looking graphics and wonderful soundtrack. It's probably the only 2D ~run and jump~(kind of) game I ever actually finished. Lugaru is pretty tough, but has some complex combat mechanics and a very forlorn desperate atmosphere which I found interesting. Sadly I got stuck on the

      • I don't know any of them but "Braid." I bought it for the xbox 360 and it was awesome. Easily worth 5-10$ alone (that is if you like that sort of puzzle game).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rwv ( 1636355 )
        Braid (the leading title this year) is supposedly good. It has won awards for its gameplay. The first time I came across Braid was at last year's Penny Arcade Expo in Boston and the person talking about it had good things to say.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Jaysyn ( 203771 )

        You didn't like Aquaria? It seems just as polished as WoG to me. I've had Machinarium for a while & it's a neat, quirky little puzzle game.

    • Is that if you really want to support Linux gaming, like show that Linux people are willing to pay a reasonable amount for games on their platform, they you need to actually pay a reasonable amount. That does NOT mean $10 or the like.

      Last time this was done, Linux users were practically spraining their elbows they were patting themselves on the back so hard over the fact that their average price was higher than Windows. What they didn't look at is that it was still pathetic, it amounted to like $2 per game

  • I don't know if it is just the day one attention but has anyone else had a long delay in getting their key? I already tried re-sending it to my email and checking my junk folder, just wondering if this was just an email typo on my part; although my payment confirmation went to my email just fine.

  • While I applaud the effort, I'm not really sure you can label this as a "monster success". A decent - though not obscenely large - number of people paid 1/5 the normal price of a single game for five games.

    Nor is the absolute number - 1 million bucks - all that much money in the game development world. 10 people's salaries for a year? 20 on the outside? Hardly seems like the costs of development would be covered!

    Disclaimer: I've not played the games, so maybe they're one-man jobs, I don't know.

  • Are mid-range PC games dead? (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @12:37AM (#34557228)
    Nobody disputes big box stuff (like Fallout 3) isn't going anywhere, and the indie stuff like this is doing great, but whatever happened to the middle tier stuff? You know, Stuff like No One Lives Forever & Blood, or Independence War or even Fallout Tactics? Is it just me or did they get squeezed out this generation?

    Indie games are fun in spurts, but I'm starting to miss the days of a steady stream of B grade titles with the budgets to do something a bit more meaty, but without the baggage of a big budget release. Anyone see gamespy's PC release list this month? They're listing stuff like 4 packs of girls games and emulated Sega Genesis games released on Steam for Pete's sake... :(

    • I bought Mount & Blade: Warband for $7.50 during a Steam sale recently, and it might qualify as what you're talking about.

      It's basically Darklands, but worse (shallower gameplay and less-interesting world) in most ways save for AWESOME large battles and a cool kingdom-building aspect. Bonus: it's one of the most alt-tab friendly games I've ever seen. I've been playing it on a middle-ish level PC and I can smoothly alt-tab to a Linux VirtualBox VM to do work while my party travels between cities, then

      • The Witcher Sequel is also available from gog.com as a drm-free pre-order for the same price as is available Steam. The Steam version will probably have Steam Achievements, etc, though, so which is more worth the money may be up to some debate.

      • Just like the Humble Bundle, you can also get a copy of The Witcher 2 without DRM. Pre-order it on GOG.com

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jaysyn ( 203771 )

      Space Rangers 2 is a great B-list game. I also like the UFO: After***** series.

    • A good place to look for them in Impulse. It is a service like Steam, and they do have AAA titles too, but they also seem to have more low end publishers signed on. People like Paradox Interactive, 1C, and Meridian4. These aren't indy games, they aren't self published games from one person. The companies listed are game publishers, however they work on lower budget titles. So you don't go to sell them a $50 million game, they won't, can't, fund it. However you might go to sell them a $2 million game.

      As such

  • Not as impressed this time around. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by flimflammer ( 956759 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @12:38AM (#34557236)

    I was a big fan of the original Humble Bundle. I paid a fair price for the collection, but this time around I'm just not impressed. The only name in that collection that really sounds bells with me is Braid, and I'd be surprised if anyone didn't have a copy already. Osmos wasn't all that fun. I played the demo on steam a while back and felt like it was trailing behind free flash games. Two games aren't even finished yet and one of them is really early in development, and no idea when they'll be in a finished state (they can't all be Minecraft in terms of releasing early).

    To be honest, I'd feel bad making the offer I think this bundle is worth.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by aXis100 ( 690904 )

      I think Osmos was a great game, and quite challenging in the later levels. Sweet graphics, cool music and the mental challenge of orbital mechanics.

    • I already own and finished Machinarium (a couple of times, as my kids just seem to love it) : don't be deceived by the "flash game" label. It's literally a piece of art. It's the kind of game Ebbert (or whatever the famous movie critics's name was) should have looked at before saying Video Games can't be Art (and be fun at the same time btw).

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Aladrin ( 926209 )

      Oddly enough, I didn't have Braid (I tried a demo, but didn't really like it) but I did have Osmos and Revenge of the Titans. I made a pretty low offer because of that. But I didn't feel bad about it because that was what I felt it was worth. My friend who didn't have any of them made an offer quite a bit higher.

      The problem I see with 'what it is worth' is that I can't tell that until after I play, and I have to pay before that.

      Especially since the first bundle got a Steam key eventually, and that makes

  • Humble Bundle 1 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bigstrat2003 ( 1058574 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @01:05AM (#34557344)

    Ah, the Humble Indie Bundle... the event that provided conclusive proof that many, many people who claim to pirate because "I can't afford", or "DRM sucks", or some other principle are completely full of shit. I hesitate to say most, but it was a significant enough number to really leave a bad taste in one's mouth

    Here's hoping this one doesn't have a bunch of asshats essentially ripping off charity, but I rather don't think that'll be the case.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sancho ( 17056 ) *

      I wouldn't pay "full price" for any of those games but Braid. I'll likely donate just to get a DRM-free, Linux version of it. I'm doing that despite the fact that I paid $15 for it on Windows 18 months ago. I'm "stuck" with the rest of the games (two of which sound like they're not even complete and one of which is available for $5 on another platform (Osmose/iPad)).

      Ripping off charity? Hardly. The games just aren't worth much to that many people.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Izaak ( 31329 )

        If you are into puzzle games at all, the bundle is worth it for Machinarium alone. Heck, even if you are not into puzzle games, Machinarium is worth it for the fantastic artwork. Me and the GF have been playing it non-stop since we downloaded it.

    • I paid for the bundle and then downloaded it from a different site to save them bandwidth.

      I imagine many people did the same.

      • He's referring to the analysis they did on the first HB which found that 25% more people downloaded it than 'paid' for it, even though they could have obtained it legally. Explained in their blog post here:
        http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Saving-a-penny----pirating-the-Humble-Indie-Bundle [wolfire.com]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by vadim_t ( 324782 )

          There are quite a few other explanations for that other than piracy, some of which people mentioned when it was discussed originally.

          For instance:
          Buying at work, saving the URL and downloading at home or vice-versa (some people still use modems)
          Paying double then giving a friend the download URL. Children people in some countries can have trouble making online payments.
          Proxies
          Changing IP addresses

          • Certainly. For example I have paid once, at work, and I will probably download from my own home and from my parents' home. Since they ask us to save bandwith I'll probably download each game from one location and save them to an external HD, but it isn't hard to imagine that many people are not going to do that. Clicking and downloading again is much easier.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by devent ( 1627873 )

          If I understand correctly you have to pay to download the HIB. Event if it's 0.01$ you need to have a bank account or credit card. On the HIB2 you need to have Paypal, Amazon or GoogleCheckout which I for example have neither nor I want. That's the trouble for paying and obviously 25% don't want or can pay.

          How many of this 25% are just some kids which just want to play a good game and know about Torrents&co. Do you think they will go to their parents and ask them to pay for the game? Even in the USA chi

    • And yet there's probably also many many that have at some point pirated games but also/now pay for them. I know when I was in college and didn't have a job I didn't pay for many games - now I work and don't pirate any at all. (Though I won't pay high prices for games I'm not sure if I'll enjoy)

      Lately I've been picking up a lot of year or two old games off Steam and GFWL (they offer $1 deals every week or two) for cheap and enjoying them. When games cost $5 you can buy a lot and not feel bad tossing one a

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Jaysyn ( 203771 )

        Speaking of *finally* buying games you pirated in your youth, GoG.com is having a huge 50% [gog.com] off sale for a good bit of their catalog.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Skuto ( 171945 )

          Thanks for the pointer. I've never bought from GoG before, but I see some old games I wanted to replay and which are stupidly expensive on Steam...

        • Whoa Psychonauts is on sale for $7? For anyone who hasn't played it, buy it now!

    • Re:Humble Bundle 1 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by vadim_t ( 324782 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @04:02AM (#34558170) Homepage

      Here's a question: who cares?

      I mean, when selling software, what is your goal, to get enough money, or to enforce your vision of how the world ought to work?

    • provided conclusive proof ...

      Unless you can demonstrate that "many, many" of the people who didn't pay for the bundle are also the same people who use the "can't afford/DRM" reasons to pirate games, your argument is empty. You would also need to put at least some kind of magnitude if not concrete figure on the quantity of people involved. "many, many" is a rhetorical flourish, and tells us nothing.

  • Is there a good (and current) Linux alternative to Fraps?
    Since I have multiplatform games I'd prefer not having to boot into Windows just to record the output.

    • I use Yukon, but it's very fiddly to get going, especially when it comes to using it with 32-bit Windows games on a 64-bit linux install. Also I use a separate audio recorder and have to sync the start up later in iMovie.

      Finally, Yukon writes things to its own weird uncompressed format, so something like "Secrets of Morrowind" had a vast, multi-gigabyte .seom file which then had to be filtered into mencoder to convert it into something that could be imported into iMovie for editing. One of them was about

  • Why Anonymous Can't Take Down Amazon.com? Really?? (Score:3)

    by Skuto ( 171945 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @02:21AM (#34557650) Homepage

    Gee, 4 or 5 articles ago Amazon EC2 gets massive free advertising on slashdot, and now I can't buy anything because of this:

    http://ec2-50-16-43-113.compute-1.amazonaws.com/#temporary-url-for-traffic-reasons [amazonaws.com]

    I would say, Humble Bundle is succeeding just fine where Anonymous failed. So much for using Amazon to help coping with webload! I hope the indie authors didn't pay too much for using the "most invincible website" service.

    • They use that extra server capacity to serve their custom "The website is down" page while their website is down.

  • I'll pay double if there is. I really liked messing with the source of the games from the previous bundle.

  • Steam (Score:2)

    by Spad ( 470073 )

    About 2 weeks ago I got an email from the Humble Bundle guys because they were sending out Steam keys for the 1st Humble Bundle pack to those who bought it, which is really handy for me. I wonder if they'll be doing the same for the 2nd one?

  • Revenge of the Titans... (Score:5, Informative)

    by princec ( 688726 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @05:27AM (#34558610)
    ... is actually finished. We released the game on the Bundle instead of our own site (www.puppygames.net) (though it's still there, but I doubt anyone is interested right now ;)) I hope a few slashdotters give it a play - it's taken us 3 years to make. The devil is in the details. We're working on some Linux .deb installer problems at the moment. Cas :)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jaysyn ( 203771 )

      I just bought the new Bundle sight unseen (except for Machinarium). Your little RTS looks very fun. And cute. I'm thinking the kids & I will have a good time playing it. Thanks!

    • Two of my great weaknesses! I may have to give it a try.

      Any timeline for when it goes on sale on your site? I just already own the other games in the bundle that I would wish to own, so I'd rather simply purchase it directly if I decide to after trying the demo.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by princec ( 688726 )
        It's already on sale :) (Has been since May, though it only finally lost its "beta" tag yesterday) Cas :)

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