By Alec Meer on January 31st, 2012 at 7:08 pm.
…Which I don’t say to demean the fine contents of the latest Humble offering, but simply because there are slightly fewer games than usual, plus it’s primarily an Android phone offering, albeit with PC/smug expensive PC/beardy defensive PC versions of the contents also available. Which is, of course, why I’m posting it. They’re calling it the most cross-platformish bundle they’ve even done. Contents this time around are:
Anomaly: Warzone Earth (reverse tower defence), Osmos (cellular absorption puzzler), and EDGE (cubist physics puzzler). Pay over the average – currently in the $10 zone – and you’ll get World of Goo too.
Which is probably more exciting in terms of the Android version than the PC version (which you surely own already, right?) as that’s been big-money prices for a while now. As per tradition, celebratory Humble video below, purchase page here, and presumably next week they’ll reveal they’ve added a couple of extra games to the package. Or maybe they’ll surprise me, and give away a free orangutan with every purchase.
Pretty neat to get all four formats in one purchase, as it were. I have an Android phone, which I’m quite fond of, but I would like a slightly better one. Quite fancy that absurdly-sized Samsung Galaxy Note actually, so it can potentially replace my eyeTablet as well. Anyway! Enough empty hardware lust from me.
Two weeks left on this bundle. As always, your money can be split between devs, Child’s Play and the EFF.
31/01/2012 at 19:10 Bungle says:
I’m only interested in the beardy, defensive PC versions. Where can I find those?
31/01/2012 at 19:46 The_B says:
They’re all in the same bundle. Buying it nets you them on all formats at once.
31/01/2012 at 19:12 rei says:
I honestly can’t even count the redundant copies of World of Goo that I’ve bought over the years, since it’s been in something like a dozen different bundles. The Android version is very tempting though, especially since I never finished it (or got very far even) on the PC due to being quite terrible at it.
31/01/2012 at 23:02 Axess Denyd says:
Same here. This World of Goo has a separate Steam key than the other games, so I offered it up to friends.
01/02/2012 at 00:25 Belsameth says:
The controls are purely touchscreen tho, obviously, which means you need a Galaxy Tab or *very* thin thingers to play it with any kind of accuracy.
31/01/2012 at 19:15 Vagrant says:
And here I was expecing a Rod Humble Bundle
31/01/2012 at 19:21 diamondmx says:
Loving the accents in the video.
31/01/2012 at 19:21 Gundato says:
It is like they knew I purchased an Android tablet and just had to give me stuff to play.
31/01/2012 at 19:59 Patches the Hyena says:
Ditto, albeit with my shiny new Galaxy Nexus.
31/01/2012 at 19:25 Kaira- says:
So we have normal PC/expensive hip PC/beardy defensive PC/beardy defensive PC (even if it doesn’t support X) transported to mobile phones available
Anyway, I already own pretty much all of them, so I don’t feel like buying this time. Sorry Bundle.
31/01/2012 at 22:49 Gasmask Hero says:
If it has a picture of some old rotten piece of fruit on the case, it’s not a pc.
There. I relieved one quarter of your multi format angst. You can thank me later.
31/01/2012 at 23:10 Kaira- says:
Technically speaking, you relieved half of my angst.
01/02/2012 at 10:58 Harlander says:
I thought the second one was “haircut PC” in the standard lexicon
31/01/2012 at 19:28 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
I love this. Actually I was wondering how long ot would take for events like the HIB to arrive on the Android platform!
31/01/2012 at 20:09 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
My Defy is too old for Anomaly, but the rest looks fantastic on the old girl.
31/01/2012 at 19:41 Suits says:
Already had Osmos in another bundle, so I just got Anomaly and EDGE (which isn’t available in my country in Steam shop and frankly I don’t mind this time). Can’t be asked getting WoGoo again.
31/01/2012 at 19:50 ThTa says:
Wait, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, EDGE, Osmos and World of Goo on my Android phone?
This is fantastic. They’re already pretty fun on PC, but relative to the rest of the games on Android, these are some of the best I could possibly conceive playing on it, right now. (Barring emulators)
31/01/2012 at 19:54 CaspianRoach says:
Oh well it was foolish of me to expect it to be better than #4. That one was simply astonishing, probably the best bundle ever done yet.
31/01/2012 at 20:10 MythArcana says:
I’m really starting to miss the days of $49 retail games that were built like a tank (and are still on my computer after a decade). Upon seeing the recent flood of cartoony 2D platform puzzlers and tower defense games (the new Match 3 craze), I’m tempted more than ever to reach into my 1998 drawer for some superlative gaming goodness.
Either I’m drawn to $50 wonders such as Distant Worlds or Dominions 3, or I spent vast amounts of time with NetHack and Stone Soup which are free open source projects. You will see none of these type of quality games in any bundle…and especially not on *that blasted kiddie network everyone is using*.
I understand the charity aspect of these bundle drives, but I somehow feel this is just another shovelware approach to marketing using our conscience as the purchase guide. Regardless of the motive involved, it’s still just yet another reason to crank out 1 month development cycle games that offer 9 hours of actual gameplay. We need a change here.
31/01/2012 at 20:22 bear912 says:
To be honest, I’m not even sure how to respond to that, so I’ll just go with this:
Your comment has less than 9 hours of gameplay. We need a change here.
31/01/2012 at 20:42 LionsPhil says:
Indies are kind of irrelevant to all that, though—they’re just going to do whatever the authors feel like, and sometimes you get a Nethack or a Dwarf Fortress instead. And so it has been for pretty much ever since when games could be considered “deep”, and “indie” was known as “shareware”.
The ire would be better directed at the popcorn chain-of-cutscene developments from people who have the money to do bigger, deeper things, i.e. the AAA world.
31/01/2012 at 21:17 Dawngreeter says:
MythArcana is the reason why we can’t have nice things. We used to play with sticks in the mud before his money-sucking “computer game” pals came along.
31/01/2012 at 21:52 ThinkAndGrowWitcher says:
MythArcana. You evidently haven’t played World of Goo or Anomaly Warzone Earth, never mind anything else on there. And just to finish with a well-deserved flourish: Twat.
31/01/2012 at 21:57 Brun says:
I actually somewhat agree with MythArcana. Most indie games have little to no appeal to me whatsoever. As he said, there appears to be an overabundance of platformers and tower defense on the indie scene. I know that’s blasphemy on RPS, but some of us prefer our games to have a little more depth to them.
31/01/2012 at 22:30 Juan Carlo says:
I’ve been saying it for months and everytime everyone attacks me like it’s blasphemy: Indie gaming has become formulaic and kind of boring. True, there are lots of examples of games that use the freedom to do something truly new, but for every one of them there are 100 forgettable platformers, tower defense games, and lazy revivals of forgotten “retro” genres from the 1980s.
31/01/2012 at 22:48 aerozol says:
Your trash is my treasure.
31/01/2012 at 22:53 LionsPhil says:
@Juan: That’s basically just Sturgeon’s Law, though. The real problem is anyone who treats “indie” as a seal of approval, or otherwise implies that because something is indie it is worthy of your money. (See also: tendancy to want to back the underdog, even if the underdog is the underdog because they’re not actually as good as the top dog who poured in much more time, money, effort, love etc. than “lol pixelart platformer with a gimmick” or “tower defence with 3D graphics, but lacking half the gameplay mechanics from the free Flash game”.)
31/01/2012 at 23:16 InternetBatman says:
If you can’t find good indie games, then you’re just not looking hard enough. Sure there have been a flood of shoot-em-ups, crappy puzzlers, but there have been some real gems too. There were plenty of crappy games in the old days too.
01/02/2012 at 00:18 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
Yes, some of these games are in the “casual” corner of indie gaming.
well, Dwarf Fortress and some roguelikes are in the “hardcore” corner of gaming. less obvious appeal, mor long time engagement. Everybody here has grasped the difference. There’s not only no need to argue, there’s not even an argument.
these hardcore games wouldn’t work quite as well on a platform like the HIB, and You said yourself, that you seem to be happy to churn out 50 moneythings for an indie game like Distant Worlds.
01/02/2012 at 01:21 Consumatopia says:
I interpret the Indie scene in computer games as a reaction to the complexity-for-complexity’s-sake that was all too common in games around the turn of the century. In particular, the early days of 3D gaming on consoles, specifically the Playstation 1/2 era, was characterized by a decline in both aesthetics (hideous jaggies) and usability, but not any accompanying increase in gameplay depth. For example, the controls for a 3D platform game were more cumbersome than those for a 2D platform game, but once you learn those controls the game itself isn’t strategically any deeper. And you could have a 2D game like Aquaria that was at least as beautiful and emotionally evocative as anything in AAA gaming.
But today, the mainstream pendulum has swung over completely to the other side. 3D graphics no longer look like jagged polygon puke–they look like the real world, only better. And the games, far from being overcomplicated, are now hyper-simplified. (Which is deeper–Modern Warfare 3, or Spelunky?) To say nothing of the rush to casual Angry Birds type games. So some corners of the Indie scene are reacting to that and talking up complicated procedurally generated titles (Minecraft, Terraria, all the roguelikes).
01/02/2012 at 08:51 pertusaria says:
Fate of the World was in an Indie Royale bundle and is relatively complicated, although perhaps not as much so as the games you’re talking about (I haven’t played them, sorry). I don’t think you have to give up hope entirely of bundles featuring deeper games.
That said, short, simple games make for small files which are easy to host and download, so there probably will always be a bias toward cute puzzlers and platformers in these bundles.
01/02/2012 at 11:39 Malibu Stacey says:
Terraria disagrees with you MythArcana. Also AI War. Also Spacechem. Also S.P.A.Z. Also Magicka. Also Trine. Also………
31/01/2012 at 20:38 Quetzo says:
In my opinion this is totally a step in the right direction. By offering the games simultaneously for pc and android they don’t only enlarge their customer base but also give people like me, who already have played through 2 of 4 games on the pc a reason to buy it anyway. And get value for it!
31/01/2012 at 20:56 James G says:
Well I don’t hold out much hope for them working with my Wildfire, but pretty sure my next phone will also be Android. Got it anyway, as Edge is on my wishlist.
Of course, I now have the problem that my chances of buying a tablet are dramatically increased as I now have a series of games ready to play on it.
31/01/2012 at 21:10 johnpeat says:
My games will work on your Wildfire – I know cos I used to use one to test em!! :)
http://www.somewhatdog.com
I aim low to ensure maximum satisfaction (says her indoors!) :)
They’re free :)
31/01/2012 at 22:09 ZIGS says:
Get this: yesterday I was just about to buy Anomaly for the Android. I didn’t and today I see this. Imagine my joy :)
31/01/2012 at 22:11 Armante says:
Doh. I have all bar Edge on Steam already. And I didn’t like the demo of that.
But I have an Android.. do I need games on that, that I’ve already played?
Hmmm. Nah.
Nice idea though :)
31/01/2012 at 22:37 Juan Carlo says:
Do people actually play stuff like “Warzone” or “World of Goo” on an android phone? Or are they meant for tablets? I have an android phone and I get a headache just trying to surf the internet because the screen is so small. So I couldn’t ever imagine wanting to play a game on it–or at least not games like these which I think are better suited to a full size screen or a tablet.
31/01/2012 at 22:55 LionsPhil says:
I would imagine that trying to play World of Goo’s “digital” chapter episodes on a touch-screen would be finger-chewingly infuriating. They certainly are on a trackpad. Mouse very much required.
01/02/2012 at 09:01 Gnoupi says:
Actually, for World of Goo, it’s actually better than the original, and seems more like it was meant to be. That is, assuming that you play on a tablet and not a phone. On a tablet, the goo balls are the size of your finger, and it uses multi-touch. So you can really have fun building, and putting several balls at the same time, using several fingers. When you think about it, it’s a game about dragging elements to other places, which is finally more “natural” on a touchscreen than with another way of control.
On a phone, it is playable, but more complicated than the pc version.
About Anomaly, the interface is really made for a touch control, finally, you need only to tell where your commander goes, and you launch a power here or there. It goes very good for a tablet.
31/01/2012 at 22:55 Miked says:
Frankly I’m up to my eyeballs in orangutans so I might give this a miss.
31/01/2012 at 23:00 LionsPhil says:
It’s not like it’s exactly a primate example of Indie Bundling. Some of the packs apeing their business model have gibbon more away for your arbitrary amount of money.
31/01/2012 at 23:16 .backslash says:
Stop it with the monkey business, you two!
31/01/2012 at 23:21 Xocrates says:
You can get it for chimp change anyway.
31/01/2012 at 23:39 westyfield says:
Some of these puns are absolute howlers.
01/02/2012 at 08:45 pertusaria says:
Ah well, I’ll give it a ook anyway. I’ve been baboonzled before.
31/01/2012 at 23:13 tossrStu says:
Well even just scrolling through an email or a webpage or Twitter is a bit chuggy and juddery on my el-cheapo Android phone (Orange San Francisco, phone fans) so I doubt it’ll be up to much in the way of gaming (and I’ve already got Osmos, Edge and World of Goo on the iPad anyway). I’ll still pick this up though; I’ve heard good things about Anomaly, and I wouldn’t mind the PC version of Edge too.
31/01/2012 at 23:25 InternetBatman says:
I’m just gonna skip this one. I have most of them anyways.
31/01/2012 at 23:33 liquidsoap89 says:
I didn’t even know Edge was on phones. I loved that game!
31/01/2012 at 23:43 Lewie Procter says:
It was actually first released on iOS.
01/02/2012 at 00:10 Bhazor says:
Honestly I doubt it would be as well known if it wasn’t for its *interesting* history.
http://chaosedge.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/edgy/
31/01/2012 at 23:59 halbarad says:
Am I the only one getting completely fed up of indie bundles?
The market is innundated with the gits. There were less rats in 1665 to 1666 in London than there are indie bundles these days.
Oversaturation does not a happy Halbarad make.
01/02/2012 at 00:40 Agnol117 says:
No, you’re not the only one.
01/02/2012 at 01:20 soldant says:
I don’t like them either. Simple solution – just don’t buy them. I’ve already purchased quite a few of the games in pieces over the years, I honestly don’t know why people think I should keep rebuying them. They got my support once, that’s enough. But as I don’t like them, I don’t buy them. If someone wants to keep paying for these packs, then let them go for it.
01/02/2012 at 02:05 Dervish says:
Try posting that in a Call of Duty thread.
01/02/2012 at 11:23 halbarad says:
Solidant : I don’t buy them, I am the sort of person who speaks with his money.
I didn’t buy MW3 for even remotely like the full price (£40 the initial selling price on the PC. I bought it during a recent sale at gamestation and got a staff discount from a friend who works there. Ended up costing me £10… still not worth it, horrible game. Waste of a tenner).
Anyway, I digress. Yeah, I’m fed up of indie bundles and I just don’t buy them now. However, I’m still able to raise the rather serious point that bundles are ruining the market for indie games the same way as Activision ruined the market for music games.
When you keep releasing them and keep adding something extra, people ignore other alternatives and stick to just that OR, in some cases, they get fed up of being milked over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over (ad infinitum) again.
Indie bundles are abusing that market to hell and it wont be long until they’ve liquidated it (for lack of a better term)
01/02/2012 at 00:06 Bhazor says:
I’m still surprised they haven’t improved the site layout. Would it really be so hard to add a login screen? As it stands I have to go rummaging through 6 months of email to find thedang unlock link.
It bugs me everytime I download a game I bought from them
01/02/2012 at 06:21 mlaskus says:
They do improve the website regularly though and it was well designed in the first place. Lack of ability to login is a bit jarring and something I found myself longing for a bit, but I think it has a simple explanation. They want to encourage us to download this stuff and keep copies ourselves, letting us have accounts would give people the wrong idea. This way they shouldn’t even indirectly make people feel entitled to be able to download this stuff forever. Though of course there will be a terrible outcry of rage if ever old download links stop working, but you simply can’t get through to some people.
01/02/2012 at 09:07 Heliocentric says:
Does your email not support searching?
01/02/2012 at 00:54 Icarus says:
I definitely approve of them adding Android as a platform. That said, I already own all of them except EDGE on Steam, and owning them again on Android isn’t enough of a draw. Sorry Humble, but this’ll be the first HIB I’ll be skipping :/
01/02/2012 at 08:31 Elmokki says:
I already own World of Goo, but that didn’t prevent me from beating the average :D
Warzone Earth was somewhat interesting, the others I don’t really care that much for, but they might be interesting games to play with my phone.
01/02/2012 at 12:04 bill says:
I’ve finally had a few free days and managed to finish a few of the games i got in the FIRST and 2nd humble bundles!
After buying the first few, the last one was the first i skipped… and i think i’ll skip this too.
I already got Osmos and WoG (4-5 times!) on PC, and I can’t see WoG working on a 4 inch screen.
money – saved!
01/02/2012 at 15:26 Risingson says:
Android reviews of three games I’ve tested in my Samsung Galaxy S II:
- Edge plays a bit badly. Graphics look gorgeous, but the controls are clumpsy.
- Osmos plays much better, though it’s difficult to get to the movement controls. It looks and sounds wonderful.
- The Android port of World of Goo is a complete marvel. Really. Very recommended.