
The Humble Indie Bundle #4 (pay what you want and help charity) - Jach
http://humblebundle.com/
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citricsquid
For anyone curious why this is here, Humble Inc is funded by YC -- beyond it
being a collection of cool games people might care for.

edit: I was wrong, not just YC. They have $4.7m from Sequoia[1] too.

[1] [http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/22/sequoia-capital-
ba...](http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/22/sequoia-capital-backs-online-
gaming-bundler/)

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heyitsnick
That's very interesting, as I've always thought it was bootstrapped by Wolfire
games. Serious question - why does this need funding?

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citricsquid
The first bundle (and possibly second) was bootstrapped, they took funding
after the idea was shown to work. That's all I know, not sure why they have
funding.

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heyitsnick
Thanks for the extra info. Seems to me like this is the perfect company that
can eschew outside investment; I assume they curate these bundles with no
upfront payment, and then everyone gets a cut of digital sales. Not sure where
this $4m could be going unless they have big plans beyond the current the
current model.

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forrestthewoods
Braid can be bought directly with Paypal, Amazon Payments, and Google Checkout
as payment options. Corner of the box says "Humble Store". What they do with
that is a unknown, but I find it interesting.

<http://braid-game.com/>

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barrettcolin
That reminds me: I noticed that humblebundle.com is apparently involved in the
purchase transactions for the recently released 'English Country Tune'. So
maybe there's more afoot than just the bundles themselves:

<http://www.englishcountrytune.com/>

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thehodge
I just bought this one but wasn't there another bundle just last week? I
wonder if too many too soon will lead to bundle fatigue

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benbeltran
I agree. I used to get really excited about the humble bundle. They had a few
noteworthy games per bundle (All the games they have are good, but some are
less known than others).

Now that it's a monthly affair I get the initial perception that the bundles
have less noteworthy games and that I'm getting tired of so many of them.
After a bit of thought I realize I /am/ paying just a few bucks for a lot of
games and helping charity and I end up buying them, even if I already own al
lthe games. but I fear there's a lot of people who won't make that leap and
just say "meh, been there done that". It's sad because the bundle is great for
devs and great for gamers.

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DarkShikari
Cave Story+ is an updated-engine version of what is probably _the most famous
indie game of all time_ that basically started the modern indie games
movement. It would not be unreasonable to say it's one of the best
action/platformer games ever made -- a completely indie Metroidvania game
that's better than most similar games from major publishers despite being made
entirely by one person in his spare time.

Jamestown is a completely awesome arcade-style danmaku shooter inspired by
CAVE games and Touhou -- but unlike some recent poor attempts to emulate these
styles (e.g. Deathsmiles), it adds loads of creativity of its own, like its
so-absurd-it's-hilarious storyline and setting. It was worth every cent on
launch, and now you can get it for way less _with a half dozen other games
included_.

This might be the best Humble Bundle yet just because of these two.

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nazgulnarsil
uncontrollably clicked purchase when I saw cave story+. I'll buy anything
related to cave story. The creator is really missing out with the lack of
merchandise.

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duskwuff
Plush Balrog? :)

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shangaslammi
Why did they drop EFF from the charities? :(

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ramidarigaz
Supposedly the HIB people voted, and the Red Cross came out slightly ahead.
I'm kinda bummed. I might go donate a couple dollars to the EFF anyway.

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haldean
They also said that the EFF would be returning as a charity in future bundles.

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smountcastle
Anyone else experiencing Humble fatigue? When this was a special once a year
deal I supported it regardless of the contents of the bundle. Now I feel that
there's a Humble Bundle once a week and I've stopped reading their email.

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scottmcf
I wasn't planning on buying this bundle either, but not because of the
regularity of the bundles, more because of the quality of the content. Some of
the previous bundles have contained a little much filler/incomplete games/etc.

They've really stepped up the contents with this pack though, I know myself
and a few friends feeling much the same bought it immediately. There's an
incredible amount of high quality gaming in this pack.

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smountcastle
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I investigated several of the games and
decided to go ahead and purchase it. I agree that the quality has varied over
the past few bundles. The novelty of the Humble Bundle has definitely worn off
for me (plus I preferred the original set of charities).

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tectonic
A good friend of mine wrote Jamestown- kick ass game, and way to go!

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libraryatnight
Wow, send him much thanks. I bought it on Steam when it released (because I'm
a sucker for shooters), and it's a marvelous game. One of the finest shooters
I've played in a long time. The DLC is awesome, too (Guy Fawkes ship!)

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smosher
I paid the suggested price for this. I'm only running Linux, so it's well
worth supporting it.

It's a shame about the EFF though. They're at the top of my list these days.

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ukdm
I think this might be the best one yet

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nik_0_0
Agreed, Super Meat Boy alone is worth whatever you may pay, in my opinion :)

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JangoSteve
I always find it interesting that the Linux people pay the most. Then again,
the games are probably most impressive compared to games generally available
on Linux, and least impressive compared to those available for windows. Not to
say anything about the quality of three games, just commentary on the
different gaming markets.

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83457
I've always assume it is more about supporting developers who support linux,
and a competition with the other platforms.

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TheCapn
That's why I usually pay out a minimum of $20 for the bundle with 100% towards
developers.

I may sound like an ass saying this but those are popular charities and
receive a lot of funding from lots of resources, they can survive without my
$5 or $10 while many of these developer groups have only released a couple
games. I want to see DRM free indie game development take off so I will
contribute to the developers who I feel need it more.

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grannyg00se
You're paying $20 when you could be paying a penny. I would hope that nobody
is putting you in the "sounds like an ass" category.

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natch
Are the Humble Bundles always mostly about games? It would be great to see
some non-game bundles.

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Groxx
And it's a pretty good spread, too, maybe the best yet - the last few bundles
& mini-events have been a bit lackluster, IMO. But that's just IMO.

If you've never played it, Cave Story is one of the best platformers _ever_ ,
and you _must_ play it if you are a gamer in any sense. The original is
available for free (though you might have to English-patch it), but I gather
CS+ is a pretty good port.

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jamesgeck0
I don't know; between the last three mini-bundles we've had Frozen Synapse,
SpaceChem, Dungeons of Dredmor, The Binding of Isaac, Darwinia, Defcon,
Voxatron, and Blocks that Matter.

Four of those are strong candidates for indie GOTY (and the others are still
pretty good) so it's not too lackluster yet.

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nyellin
Does anyone know how to turn off the Paypal "Bill Me Later" popup that appears
every time I make a purchase?

I have money in my account. I'm tired of opting out of BML.

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utkarshsinha
These games always make me want to make some of my own!

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achompas
Is anyone else not tipping the Humble team anymore? Are you just splitting
payment between devs and charities?

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jsnell
At least I do the opposite. The Humble team are clearly making my life better
by e.g. motivating Linux ports of these games. Meanwhile there are much better
ways to donate to charity (and "better" charities).

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checker
Can anyone post a list for those of us behind a firewall? Thanks!

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rudyfink
Gratuitous Space Battles (if pay more than average)

Gave Story+ (if pay more than average)

Jamestown

Bit.Trip Runner

Super Meat Boy

Shank

NightSky HD

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nik_0_0
Avg currently 4.70 (was 4.64 about 1 minute ago! climbing fast, damn HN!)

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jongraehl
If the number of purchases so far were small, it's possible that buying
several copies at $.01 would bring the average down by more than the cost in
penny purchases (this is a strategy for a purely hypothetical selfish person
with time to spend, but not $5). I expect the amount to fluctuate above and
below $5.

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romnempire
anyone else bummed that this one didn't include desura keys?

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ergo14
They might appear on desura - just not day one - it was like this with
introversion bundle.

