Humble launches own publishing label with solid lineup
Business!
It's still weird to me that the Humble empire was spawned by folks who started out (and quickly returned to) making games about kicking rabbits in the face. Humble is becoming even bigger now, this week announcing the launching of an initiative to fund and publish games. They've announced an initial lineup of seven games, including ooh! Scorn! That FPS-adventure where everything's guts and gristle. The one where Pip chatted with the devs about its look. Grand. I'm glad to hear that's still coming. The rest of the lineup is interesting and varied too.
The first seven games are:
- Aforementioned gristle 'em up Scorn [official site].
- "Collect-a-thon platformer" A Hat in Time [official site].
- Keyboard Sports [official site], which delightfully turns your physical keyboard into a virtual level.
- Ikenfell [official site], an RPG about a school for witches and wizards.
- Zack Bell's sack-knocking platformer HackyZack [official site].
- Cute-looking small-town craft-o-social RPG Staxel [official site].
- No Truce with the Furies [official site], an odd cop RPG which- hey! an RPS forumeer is working on.
That's a good-looking starting line-up they've there. They're looking for more, of course. Most of those games have been in development for a while and some have even crowdfunded before, so I guess Humble are helping them over the line.
Humble started with The Humble Indie Bundle organised by Wolfire Games in 2010, and have grown a whole lot since spinning off into a separate company. They have launched over a hundred bundles with everything from games to comics, opened the Humble Store in 2013, started the Humble Monthly Bundle subscription service in 2015, and in 2016 started dabbling in funding games with small, exclusive 'Humble Original' games for Humble Monthly. Heck, Keyboard Sports started as a Humble Original itself.
"All of our games will be 'presented by Humble Bundle,' carrying a seal of quality and curation that fans have come to expect," Humble publishing lead John Polson said in this week's announcement. "For each aspect of publishing, developers can choose the services they need, making Humble Bundle a truly modern and adaptable publisher."