

Indie game made by 2 people out-selling Spore, Left 4 Dead, & Fallout 3 at Amazon - jim-greer
http://2dboy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/amazonnumber2.gif

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wesley
If you haven't already bought it, you should do so right now. A downloadable,
DRM free version is available at 2dboy.com -- support these guys.

Btw, this game was supposed to have a 90% piracy rate.. Though their method of
calculation wasn't very scientific.. <http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/>

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aaronblohowiak
It is the only game i have on my mac. it is engaging, thoughtful and
emotionally engaging. truly superb work of craft.

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euccastro
And this is how it all started:

<http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml>

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angstrom
I still have that in my downloads folder. Hopefully we see a shift that brings
the focus back to game play and away from vertex crunching/pixel pushing. If i
wanted realism I'd go outside. I'm sure that's heresy in the halls of nVidia.

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stick_figure
I feel like Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead are probably moving better through
retail and Steam. Amazon isn't exactly the marketplace where gamers go to
order games so they can wait a few days to play it. Most games I buy are
impulse purchases, and if I can't have it now then I can't be bothered to get
it. World of Goo seems like the kind of game that parents and non-gamers would
buy, and I would guess that that demographic shops more on Amazon.

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toby
That's very cool -- has it been like that for a while or is it temporary
spike?

I remember when my book hit #56 on Amazon for one hour, right after it was
reviewed by Slashdot. I was so happy to have a screenshot where I was just
ahead of Michael Pollan.

~~~
henning
World of Goo has been consistently well on Steam, so I think it's a general
trend.

For every World of Goo there are many other indie games that languish in
obscurity.

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DarkShikari
Shockingly popular indie games aren't really anything new--its just that
people seem to be noticing them more, especially in this day and age of
extremely high budget games. People are always surprised to see one or two-man
projects earning money on the same level as games like _Crysis_ , but it seems
to have been going on for quite a while.

See my post at <http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=398305> for another
example of a very successful indie game developer.

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tptacek
It's World of Goo, right? (The title could be clearer, for those of us who
don't play).

Anyone played it? I was thinking about grabbing a copy for the boy.

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msbmsb
It is World of Goo. I own it and love it, the game idea and environment are
very nice, the physics engine makes the game truly interesting and trying to
hit the "OCD" bonuses, which are advanced goals like collect 21 goo balls or
complete the level under a certain time, are challenging in a thoughtful way.

You can try out the demo first to see if you like it, that's what I'd
recommend. It's available on steam as well.

~~~
wesley
And let's not forget the user shared levels, available at
<http://goofans.com/> \-- extending the playtime immensely.

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jim-greer
Update: now it's #1!

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/229575/ref=p...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/229575/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_vg_1_2)

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nihilocrat
Rapid-iteration and rapid-prototyping seems to be slowly gaining traction in
the gaming industry. The high cost of game development plus high risk makes
for an environment where trying out things in small increments and with quick
turnaround is very valuable.

This dude talks about it a lot: <http://lostgarden.com>

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truebosko
Is there a mailing list for Linux users who want to be updated when a linux
version comes out?

Edit: Nevermind, kind of found it
<http://2dboy.com/mailman/listinfo/announce_2dboy.com>

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jamesbritt
" ... coming soon for Linux..."

:(

~~~
judofyr
Cheer up! At least it's coming to Linux :-)

~~~
jamesbritt
This is true, and that's encouraging.

In the meantime, I may just grab it for win32, see if it plays OK under Wine,
and if not use it on a VMware image of XP.

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Dauntless
If you look carefully you'll notice quite a significant price difference.

~~~
symptic
The difference is most of those games realistically cost over $100M to
develop, and World of Goo most probably cost under $100,000. Just goes to show
how stale the gaming industry is; even when a large-scale game like Mirrors
Edge is released, it's bashed for not being realistic enough.

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azsromej
i bought the Wii version (it's online in the Wii store or whatever it's
called) for $15. It's a lot of fun.

~~~
cbarning
I also bought the Wii version, makes great use of the Wiimote. Lots-O-Fun,
Highly recommended.

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st3fan
Well, I guess they are not Indie anymore!

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ram1024
i suggest people buy left4dead to catch it up. because THAT game is funtastic.

you have no idea

~~~
Freaky
Shame it's massively overpriced for what it is. The only reason I bought it
was it was sub-£20 from Amazon at the time, and even that's pretty steep
unless they're planning some epic free expansions for it.

