By John Walker on December 13th, 2011 at 11:44 am.
Details of the next Humble Indie Bundle have once more leaked, because Steam’s Content Description Record Viewer Thingamie is so ludicrously easy for people to spy. And it looks like it’s going to be a bit of a corker, as spotted by DIY Gamer. In the pay-what-you-want collection it seems there will be Super Meat Boy, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, Jamestown, Nightsky and Shank. That’s the first wave, and then there’s even better to get added in.
I felt sorry for the Humble guys when the details of the last one slipped. But doing the same thing twice makes me wonder if this isn’t just deliberate promotion for the deal. And in a world that’s increasingly heavy with indie bundles, it’s worth standing out.
Also in there are what look likely to be the “Beat The Average”. The suggested additions are Gratuitous Space Battles and Cave Story+.
So that looks rather good then.
13/12/2011 at 11:46 DanPryce says:
Yes to the please.
13/12/2011 at 15:34 zaphod42 says:
Shut up and take my money!
13/12/2011 at 11:46 Dominic White says:
Whoo! I got linked by RPS for the first time. I feel special. And fancy.
(I’m the DIYGamer writer, for those who haven’t figured it out)
Do I get a hat for this?
Oh, as it’s not indie, here’s a free story for ya: via the same source as this leak, previously 360-only horrory shooter thing Alan Wake is coming to PC, too. You can look it up yourself with the Steam Registry Toolkit.
13/12/2011 at 12:02 Ross Angus says:
A. Wake coming to PC? This needs it’s own story!
[edit] But didn’t our console cousins not like it very much?
13/12/2011 at 12:04 explosiveface says:
I just got really excited for a second, but then I remembered what they did to that game.
Never forget. :(
13/12/2011 at 12:05 Kaira- says:
Alan Wake had its fair share of problems, mainly repetive combat. Otherwise I found it very nice, though I still have no idea what the plot was all about, it seems murkier than Silent Hills subplots.
13/12/2011 at 12:06 juliancallan says:
A Windows Vista launch title no less!
13/12/2011 at 12:07 Dominic White says:
Alan Wake is basically a Stephen King novel in videogame form. How that statement strikes you will likely tell you whether you’ll enjoy it.
13/12/2011 at 12:20 Gnoupi says:
DIYGamer is a very nice site about indies, btw. Nicely complementing RPS, from my point of view.
13/12/2011 at 13:02 Thomas says:
Source and leak don’t go hand in hand with easily available information on everyones harddrive, whoop de doo.
13/12/2011 at 15:09 TheTourist314 says:
This isn’t TF2. Hats aren’t just thrown about like a gumdrop trail in a German fairy-tale. True results warrant hats!
13/12/2011 at 11:50 otaku4225 says:
I MIGHT have just jizzed myself. If i didn’t already have Super Meat Boy (and NightSky, but that game is just alright) then it would be the best thing in the world. Hot dam this is good. I was going to buy Cave Story. And Shank, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, Jamestown? YES PLEASE. If this is false, I will shank a mofo :D
13/12/2011 at 16:40 siegarettes says:
This would be the most exciting bundle yet, except that ive bought/own/played to completion every one of these except GSB. Some of these I own multiple times over or bought within the month. And I’ll probably buy it anyway.
13/12/2011 at 11:51 donmilliken says:
Rather good indeed. I already own half these games but will probably throw some money their way anyhow for the ones I ain’t got.
Also, hell yeah to Dominic on the news about the next Alan Wake coming to PC. Loved the first game, though I never got to play the DLC episodes on account of my Xbox getting stolen.
13/12/2011 at 11:56 hatseflats says:
Holy bundle bombardment Batman! This going to be like, the fourth bundle within one week? Humble Bundle, Indie Royale, and two others I forgot the name of?
13/12/2011 at 12:00 Suits says:
Indiegala and Littlebigbunch
13/12/2011 at 12:03 Hoaxfish says:
Indie Gala maybe
ninja’d
13/12/2011 at 12:18 ChainsawCharlie says:
There is actually a 5th one:
http://www.intermediaware.com/bundle
13/12/2011 at 11:59 Suits says:
Super Meat Boy huh? I guess we can just stop buying indies and get them here -_-’
13/12/2011 at 13:17 sneetch says:
Yeah, the danger (IMHO) is that all these bundles set-up the expectation that you can do just that. “Cave Story+ is out at €9.99? I’m not paying that when I can wait a month and pay 20c for it in a bundle and I will!”
I wonder how much good these bundles will do the indie scene in the long term.
13/12/2011 at 13:20 JackShandy says:
Don’t be silly, the only people who buy Cave Story+ are those who want to give Pixel money.
13/12/2011 at 11:59 Unaco says:
Hmmm… I might consider it. But I’m sure this Bundle will be in a Bundle for cheaper in the next week or two.
13/12/2011 at 15:21 lasikbear says:
I think I am going to wait for the Steam sale on the bundled bundle.
13/12/2011 at 16:16 polyester says:
I heard you liked bundles, so we put a bundle in your bundle
13/12/2011 at 11:59 Carra says:
Already got half of those games but it still seems worth it :)
13/12/2011 at 12:00 Icarus says:
I already own every game in the new bundle, but I’ll probably chuck a few quid to charity to get them DRM free. (Shank in particular has some EA-inflicted DRM on top of Steamworks)
13/12/2011 at 12:02 Suits says:
Didn’t the Shank demo give some false positives with virus scanners.. Does that still happen in the full version?
13/12/2011 at 12:38 Icarus says:
It didn’t for me, but that’s purely anecdotal.
13/12/2011 at 12:02 Patches the Hyena says:
Nice! And the change I’ve got lying around after filling up was begging to be spent on titbits anyway.
13/12/2011 at 12:04 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
I already have SMB, Jaynestown (no wait…), Nightsky from another bundle (if that continues it will get annoying), and GSB, but I’m very interested if the galactic conquest dlc will be in there.
Still, I cannot pass up a Hundle.
Also, tomorrow there’s that other Bundle starting, I dunno what its name was, but Frozen Synapse was in there, another game previously included in a bundle.
13/12/2011 at 14:24 Skabooga says:
Our love for this bundle / Ain’t hard to explain
13/12/2011 at 12:04 fauxC says:
What an astonishing collection!
Jamestown alone will be worth however much people pay for the entire bundle. Hope it’s going to pop up in the RPS Advent Calendar soon? (My sense of time is really skew-wiff, so I’m assuming it came out in 2011 even if it didn’t.)
13/12/2011 at 12:05 The Tupper says:
I don’t have any of these games and (despite RPS being a regular haunt) have never paid too much attention to any, so don’t know a lot about them. I’ve always liked the look of Nightsky, though.
13/12/2011 at 12:32 baby snot says:
Same here. Only just got around to installing and almost finishing Saira. Can anyone recommend a fix to get the Steam version of NightSky to use *proper* fullscreen? Google is not my friend right now…
14/12/2011 at 00:07 jamesgecko says:
@baby snot: You should really clarify what you mean by “proper fullscreen.” I don’t remember having any problems with it.
Oh, there may have been black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, I think? But that’s just because Nifflas likes really wide playfields.
13/12/2011 at 12:05 JagRoss says:
I have most of these game’s from the meat boy bundle, of which I had most of the games from the Humble Bundles.
13/12/2011 at 12:08 timo395 says:
I want Super Meat Boy, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER and Shank, so sure I will buy it even Super Meat Boy is worth all the price off one bundel. I already own Night sky from one other bundel, so I have something to give away to a poor friend.
13/12/2011 at 12:10 thekeats1999 says:
OK i gave missed thelast couple of bundles due to bundle burnout. But with this one it’s just to good to pass.
Screw the family this Christmas. I have games to play.
13/12/2011 at 12:19 Gnoupi says:
GSB in the humble bundle?
Cliffski sold out to the popular kids! The end is near!
13/12/2011 at 15:13 jonfitt says:
Yes, for some totally unverifiable reason I thought Cliffski was totally against these bundle things ruining the price point for an indie game? Maybe that’s in my imagination?
13/12/2011 at 17:09 armaankhan says:
If I recall correctly, he’s been pretty vocal about being against these PWYW bundles. In fact, he set up the Show Me The Games website as a reaction to the Humble Bundle, to encourage consumers to buy directly from developers at “proper” prices.
13/12/2011 at 20:00 pandora says:
First Vogel, now Cliffsky…
13/12/2011 at 23:14 InternetBatman says:
He probably decided he wanted to do something silly, like buy a house.
13/12/2011 at 12:25 CLD says:
I was expecting Super Meat Boy, but also Amnesia. Maybe in the next bundle.
13/12/2011 at 12:27 Dr I am a Doctor says:
It’s every indie game I ever wanted but for almost no cash whatsoever
13/12/2011 at 12:35 Gap Gen says:
Anyone remember when we thought it was reasonable to spend money on videogames? I don’t.
13/12/2011 at 17:44 Starky says:
I remember never paying for indie games, ever; because unless you were a hardcore genre fan it was almost always better to spend your real money on discounted mainstream titles (usually online retail or even bargain shelf in stores – when they still sold PC games), and indie games were something hardly anyone I knew would even bother with.
Only hardcore indie-gamers ever paid money for em, and I didn’t know a single one of them IRL.
Now, every single one of my gamer buddies has a metric shitton of indie titles on various formats – XBLA, PSN, iPhone, Android, Steam etc (I’m sure a few unfortunates have some for the Wii).
Games they’d never, ever have spent money on, games that they’d probably only ever play if they were on the demo CD/DVD of a games mag.
13/12/2011 at 12:38 Alexandros says:
If true, I will buy the fuck out of that bundle and gift it to all my friends.
13/12/2011 at 12:45 sonofsanta says:
Well that looks excellent. SMB and Shank are already on my wishlist, so definitely sold.
I thought Cliffski hated the bundle thing though, for devaluing games? And now has gone and contributed the excellent GSB as the “freebie” extra, thus devaluing it as much as possible in the eyes of the consumer?
(note to Cliffski, I bought GSB at full price on Steam, don’t be mean to me!)
13/12/2011 at 12:49 CMaster says:
No, you’re thinking of the likes of Jeff Vogel.
Cliffski just says that lowering prices doesn’t always lead to more total income – that it all comes down to how many people would be interested in your game at any price, how much it boosts sales. etc.
13/12/2011 at 13:19 Dominic White says:
Jeff Vogel has since changed his tune – a lot of his games have been super-cheap on Steam lately. Turns out that, rather than devaluing things, it actually brings in far more money than ever before.
13/12/2011 at 14:31 cliffski says:
Making GSB a ‘freebie’ doesn’t sound like something cliffski would do.
13/12/2011 at 15:53 Dominic White says:
The irony is that the ‘above the average’ stuff is considered the freebies, but it’s *everything else* that you get if you only pay $0.1 – people have weird perceptions on such things
But yes, Cliffski, that doesn’t sound like something that Cliffski would do. You have to refer to yourself entirely in the third person from now on, of course.
13/12/2011 at 16:07 sonofsanta says:
@cliffski: Exactly! Therefore you have clearly gone mad. GTB can wait, you need a week off and a large glass of Christmas port.
13/12/2011 at 13:09 Vinraith says:
The only thing I own in there is GSB, but this looks like an easy skip to me.
13/12/2011 at 14:46 Delusibeta says:
I realise opinion and all that but… Really? I’ve got three of the main games and I’m probably going to put down money for Runner and Cave Story alone. This is a damn good bundle by any measure.
13/12/2011 at 18:28 Vinraith says:
I’m holding to a firm “no buying games just because they’re cheap” policy this season, and this would be a serious case of buying stuff I’ll never play just because of its price point. Platformers, action games, adventure games, they’re really just not my thing for the most part these days.
13/12/2011 at 19:34 RauTheLegendary says:
I agree. I’m really tempted by the price, but I still have loads of other games to play and I’ll probably never finish any of these games.
I’m also still wondering if I should go buy Fallout 1, 2 and Ultima 7 from GoG after already buying Planescape: Torment, Baldurs Gate 2 and Gothic 2. So many games I want to play and so little time :/
13/12/2011 at 13:10 Kdansky says:
Looks like a great bundle, and I can recommend nearly all of these games. Which means I already own them… Gaaa!
13/12/2011 at 13:25 sassy says:
Got most of the games but I’m still going to get it … twice!
13/12/2011 at 13:41 Derppy says:
Humble Bundle wipes the floor with the other bundles in every aspect. They have better games, way better advertising, better support and better site.
If someone doesn’t have Super Meat Boy yet, this is the time to get it. It’s one of the best, if not the best platformer I have ever played. It’s right there with the old classics and only improves on them. Extremely tight controls, creative level design, fun references and it isn’t afraid to have a learning curve and some actual difficulty.
Might sound like an advertisement, but this game seriously deserves even more sales. If you have ever enjoyed a platformer game in your life, not buying this for at least 5 bucks should be considered a crime.
13/12/2011 at 13:57 oliwarner says:
I was under the impression that SMB was never going to release a Linux port (the dev was recorded laughing at the idea, essentially saying Linux users don’t deserve it).
Does this mean HIB is dropping Linux support? Or are SMB et al getting ports?
13/12/2011 at 14:04 Kaira- says:
Maybe they’ve dropped the attitude, since Binding of Isaac, while not a Team Meat-game, received a Linux-port. Personally, I don’t really care about Team Meat and their games.
13/12/2011 at 15:58 Hodge says:
Well the Linux port of Binding Of Isaac was completely abysmal, so maybe his attitude hasn’t really changed.
Looking at that list of games, I’d say it’s pretty likely that this will be the first HIB to drop the Linux support. None of those games have existing Linux versions, and all the previous Bundles leaned heavily on stuff that had already been ported across. So unless they’re planning on porting the whole lot, I’d say it’s out.
14/12/2011 at 00:10 jamesgecko says:
What are you rambling on about, Hodge? Of course there are Linux versions in here. I’m looking at them right now.
14/12/2011 at 00:21 oliwarner says:
Well *now* there are.
No, that’s great. Lot of bugs in the Linux versions but they’re all first-releases for Linux so that’s somewhat expected. Looks like Ryan Gordon has been working like a Trojan to port everything. What a rockstar! I would happily have his babies.
14/12/2011 at 02:20 Kaira- says:
Oh god, now I feel bad for giving money to Team Meat (presuming these quotes are correct, I can’t find the source since it’s apparently dead now). God damn. But then again, they did port both BoI and SMB to Linux… confused feelings.
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/g072l/
14/12/2011 at 02:32 Hodge says:
@jamesgecko I happily stand corrected.
13/12/2011 at 13:59 Lambchops says:
Think I’ll buy Cave Story + on its ownsome at some point, I really enjoyed the free version (at least up to the point where I got stuck), so throwing some money at it seems the polite thing to do.
13/12/2011 at 14:12 13tales says:
Huh. Shank and Nightsky, eh? For some reason I thought Shank, at least, was built with Microsoft XNA. Games built that way don’t often seem to make it to non-windows platforms, though I’m sure there are exceptions. Maybe SpaceChem, for one?
13/12/2011 at 15:32 shaydeeadi says:
For SpaceChem you had to install the Mono frameworks to run it when it first came out, I dunno if they got packaged in later on, but surely a similar method could be employed? The Mono kit has it’s own XNA set as well so it is very possibe.
Seriously looking forward to Shank and SMB being in this bundle, been meaning to get them for months so I will probably set a personal donation record this time around.
13/12/2011 at 15:22 Moni says:
Who’s leaking this information? I wonder if it bothers the indies, does it cut into their revenues to have the bundle pre-announced?
13/12/2011 at 15:27 Dominic White says:
The information comes from the Steam product registry itself. Normally not viewable, but with a third-party tool you can poke around it quite easily.
13/12/2011 at 15:25 superjag86 says:
If they definitely include Cave Story+, I will totally beat the average! Otherwise I already have the others apart from Jamestown.
I didn’t buy the last Humble Bundle because I’ve already bought Introversion’s games at least twice before.
Between all these indie bundles and app sales my credit card statement is going to have a weird look about it this month!
13/12/2011 at 18:13 Hoaxfish says:
Bundle is now out: http://www.humblebundle.com/
13/12/2011 at 20:08 Stupoider says:
Whoops. Is it broken? I haven’t received the email it usually sends out after the payment. And putting my email into the lost key thing isn’t getting anything either.
EDIT: Aaah, got it.
13/12/2011 at 18:14 Kaira- says:
Turns out that it really was this. Neat. (meaning, go buy it you dimwits)
13/12/2011 at 19:31 Matzerath says:
Woah, I thought this was about leaked info, but the actual Bundle is out!
(It’s a particularly good one, I am of the opinion.)
13/12/2011 at 19:44 Hoaxfish says:
As far as I’m aware, it was about leaked info… but the bundle has since been released (so, basically a leak a few hours a head of time)
13/12/2011 at 19:56 deadly.by.design says:
It’s about time there’s another bundle with games I’d care to play.
The only problem is that I already own two of the games on Steam (Jamestown & SMB) and another two on WiiWare (Cave Story & BTR)…
13/12/2011 at 20:02 alundra says:
wtf?? why no donation for the EFF this time??
13/12/2011 at 20:57 Kuschelwampe says:
“@humble We are supporting @redcross this time due to a close vote among the HIB4 developers, @eff should return in future promotions though”
14/12/2011 at 00:04 Starky says:
Kinda glad they did, as a British guy, I’ve really no interest in supporting an American law/IP charity – even if it is gaming related (and always gave 0 to it in previous bundles).
The red cross however is probably the greatest force for good in the past hundred or so years, and has probably saved more lives than every other major charity combined.
Edit: Bah, just noticed it was the ARC, oh well, I give to the British red cross anyway, more for the devs :)
14/12/2011 at 08:08 jrodman says:
The EFF Is us-based, and does lobby regarding US-law, but they also lobby in other countries, and are pretty influential about internet-oriented law worldwide. There’s really no reason to avoid supporting them as a citizen of the UK>
13/12/2011 at 20:55 Kuschelwampe says:
Cave Story+ was an instant buy when it came out on Steam at 8.49€. Never heard of, but liked it instantly. Already got NightSky from IndieRoyale.
Had Bit.Trip Runner and SMB on the wishlist. All the other games look very promising.
Soo, this Bundle is absolutely awesome. HumbleBundle is the best, by far !!!
13/12/2011 at 21:09 Strange_guy says:
I wanted Shank and was considering Cave Story+ after playing some cave story a while back and enjoying it, so an obvious buy for me despite owning or not caring about most the games and currently trying to spend too much money on games.
13/12/2011 at 21:37 BlackestTea says:
This is a pre-emptive Christmas gift for me. I have been tip-toing around SMB, Jamestown AND Shank for quite a while (pretty much since their respective WTF is…? videos by Totalbiscuit were put up).
Also so glad that they are finally available on Mac (Yes shame on me, but those are the kind of games I want to be playing on my laptop which happens to have a rotting apple on the back). GBS and the other stuff also sound great!
13/12/2011 at 22:16 RegisteredUser says:
Since GSB is a piece of shit snore game that nobody needs and is exploitable to no end with no real tactics, I will gladly stay below the average to get at Jamestown for delicious co-op online fun.
Oh and in my opinion Shank is decent enough fun for an afternoon(but I already spent that at a friend’s place :p ). I’m glad they still make those, especially for the PC which is sorely underfed in that department.
And SMB ofc is just a feather => cap thing everyone should have!
13/12/2011 at 23:15 Xaromir says:
YAI! They finally switched charity! :) I find it nice that they let another have some for once. Go buy it Super Meat Boy is amazing.
13/12/2011 at 23:26 InternetBatman says:
Cool, got the bundle. I have to say that Team Meat’s artstyle makes me like their games less.
Also, I didn’t realize that Shank was published by EA. It disappoints me because I’d like to see the bundle moving the industry away from publishers. EA isn’t exactly indie.
14/12/2011 at 01:02 Frank says:
Sounds like the best one yet!
14/12/2011 at 03:02 absolofdoom says:
If only you could choose how much money each developer got, I’d give like $100 to Pixel.
As it is, assuming they get equal share, it’s whatever divided by 7…I’d have to give $700 to give the guy a Franklin :(. I think I’ll just ignore this bundle and gift a bunch of copies of cave story instead.
14/12/2011 at 12:17 foda500orama says:
Damn son :o