Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Update: I got in touch with the Humble Bundle folks to find out more about how this out-of-nowhere partnership came about. See what they had to say after the break.

Original: I was incredibly tempted to begin this post with a joke about how the charity slider on this Humble Bundle is redundant, because THQ is already basically a charity. That would be mean, though, so I opted to– oops, I already did it. Hm. Shame backspace was never invented. Anyway, the latest bundle of densely packaged humility puts the spotlight on a decidedly non-indie THQ, but oh well. Indie’s a pretty terrible word when it’s used to write off great games because they weren’t coded by a half-person team in a garage-bedroom constantly beset by subarctic winds and ravenous wolverines. So, right then, let’s take a look inside.

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Double Fine’s crowd-funding / PWYW bundle / rapid prototyping / community voting idea-cocktail Amnesia Fornight has just proceeded to its next stage – choosing, via public vote, the four concepts that will be turned into working, playable games. I want to play all of them so I’m happy, but see if they’re Your Sort Of Thing below.
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Double Fine’s Amnesia Fortnight has become a fairly well known event by the developer. For two weeks every year, everyone at the company stops what they’re working on, and get together in small teams to create prototypes for new game ideas. And since 2009, all the games the studio have released have been born from these creative weeks. The likes of Costume Quest and Stacking came out of this elaborate brainstorm. This year they’re doing it differently. “We’re letting the world in on it,” explained studio head Tim Schafer to me this evening, in an interview to appear later tonight. Via Humble Bundle, we get to vote on the 23 pitches to pick the four that will be created as prototypes. And then the whole process of developing will be live-streamed, with the finished projects available to everyone who paid.

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Somehow bearing the numeral ’6′ after it, despite there having been at least 40,000 Humble Bundles by this point, the latest in the wildly successful series of pay-what-you-want indie grab-bags is go right now. Torchlight is the headliner, which is some funny timin’ what with the sequel being pretty darn close now, and it has sterling support from Rochard, Space Pirates And Zombies (aka SPAZ), Vessel and Shatter. Pay more than the average – which currently sits at around $5 – and you’ll get Dustforce too.
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The decision by Amanita to put out the stunning Botanicula as part of a Humble Bundle on the day of release sounds, at first, like a lovely idea. A brand new game in a pay what you want bundle? Amazing! Except of course for those who pre-ordered it at full price. Personally, I think the $10 it would have cost anyone is a bargain for a game as utterly lovely as this, and people who pre-ordered clearly believed it to be worth that much to them at the time. But I do understand the frustration of learning that others could be getting the game, along with two other Amanita classics, for as little as one cent. That’s galling. I caught up with Amanita’s main man, Jakub Dvorský, to ask him about the reaction, and he informs me that it was their mistake, and to make up for it everybody who pre-ordered the game will be receiving the fantastic soundtrack, an art book, and a copy of Machinarium, for free, tomorrow.

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Well this here is interesting. The latest Humble Bundle, the Humble Botanicula Debut, has just launched. It’s dedicated to Amanita Design, they responsible for Machinarium, Samorost, and Botanicula. All three of which are in the bundle. So yes, the brand new Botanicula, literally released this very minute, is in the bundle, meaning you don’t need to pay the $10 for it, but rather whatever you want. It’s a bold move, and it’ll be fascinating to see how it affects regular sales on Steam, GOG.com, etc. But it’s very good news for you, as it means you can get the wonderful back catalogue from Amanita, along with a copy of Czech film Kooky if you pay over the average, and the extremely lovely Windosill by Vectorpark.

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Oh, I do like the cuddly side of this industry. Mojang, one of the cuddliest developers, is spending this weekend making a game. They’re doing it in conjunction with the ultra-huggable Humble Bundle peeps, meaning that the game they create will be available to those who donate money to charity. At the moment no one seems to know or think it relevant to explain which charity, and I’m trying to find out. Hopefully it’s Child’s Play or the like, and not Cream Teas For Paedophiles.

And they’re going to broadcast the whole process as they do it, for 60 hours. You can see the details in the video below.

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