People here with subpar computers, or Mac/Linux boxes, or just plain poor people, may like to hear about this:
http://www.wolfire.com/humble
The "Humble Inde Bundle" is a partnership between five indie game developers to give people each of their games, PLUS donating a part of the proceeds to charity. All the games work on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Furthermore, the price for the pack is whatever you think it's worth. If you're a cheap jerk you can just give them one penny, but the average payment is up around $8.

World of Goo
The over-pirated puzzle game in which you create structures using materials called "goo balls" to reach a goal. The game introduces quite a few different gooballs and various mechanics over the levels.

Aquaria
If you like 2D exploration games, such as Metroid or Legend of Zelda, this might be your sort of thing. You play as a sort of marine creature in an underwater world called *gasp* Aquaria. There's quite a bit of bullet-dodging combat, and usually a lot of secrets to discover within all the areas. There are also some pretty epic, and moderately difficult boss fights.

Gish
You're tar. The game is based around its protagonist's gooey, amorphous nature. You might compare it to Loco Roco, but by an indie developer. Your 3 main abilities are to Stick to surfaces, Slide through tight spaces, and Weigh yourself down to crush enemies or lower platforms.

Lugaru HD
Most of the time if people are replaced with animals, it's going to make for a kid-friendly, simple and innocent game. This is a bit more on the Redwall side, with vicious, humanoid rabbits pummeling each other to a pulp with fists, feet, knives, swords, and other weapons. It's a very low-graphics game, on the level of Quake 2 in 3rd person. It's also pretty difficult, especially stealth sections where you need to spend time creeping up behind fast-moving guards.

Penumbra Overture
If you've ever read an article about "the death of the horror game" in tears, thinking of the bad action-ization of Resident Evil, this game may change your outlook. The few weapons you get are meant to be last-resort, while most of the game's focus is in puzzle-solving and high-tension exploration. Its episodic sequel is good, too.

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Ah, I heard of this on the Oddcast!
I was totally thinking of getting them-the deal is too good to pass up :D
And it's for charity!

Win xD

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Mmm, I have a fundamental biff with the Indy Bundle.

First, people are inherently greedy, so the vast majority will offer something unreasonable. Such as 1¢, the lowest possible purchasing point.

Second, some greedy people are more resourceful then others. There is no DRM, no secure download, no Serial numbers, no nothing. It's nothing but good faith that they're offering the bundle to the users. The problem is that, I read there's still a 20% pirating rate. 20%! On a bundle you can get away for buying for a penny. How sick is that?

2-D Boy said that of all the platforms, Mac, Windows, Linux.... it was actually the Wii that gave them the 'vast' majority of the profit for World of Goo. The only platform World of Goo is on that has any sort of developer protection built in.

The fact is, Developers need to be paid for the time and effort they put into projects. This bundle is practically saying rape me. One could argue that the people who are paying now for the bundle are mostly the people who would never have bought the games in the first place; ergo, this is money they'd never be making in the first place without this bundle.

Here's my counter, if the Bundle is a success, then it stands that other indie game developers can be expected to put their indie games up for sale in the next bundle. With that as a fact, why should I bother to pay full retail price, if I can name my price at a later date. Or one step further, the games have NO protection built in, so what's stopping me from pirating them now?

It makes me sick honestly.


Disclaimer: That said, I'd totally be the scum bag that would've donated $5 or so for the bundle; but there was nothing in it I'm interested in. But turning around, I'd do the same thing to Fire Emblem, Phoenix Wright, Super Mario and the lot. Premium prices are around for a reason, they protect the developers and encourage more products to be made.

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I agree; the fact is pirates are undeniably ruining PC gaming. The people selling this bundle don't seem to mind, and care more about just making sure people play their game. I personally give no sympathy for pirates, except for very extraneous circumstances (ie, there is absolutely no way for them to buy the game anyway; unrelated to their spending power)
You may be glad to hear that the average donation for the bundle is somewhere around $9. There are definitely some one-cent-ers, but they seem to be a minority.

I'd really like to see something that makes the PC market more viable for this great sort of stuff, even if it just involves a huge takedown of torrent sites.

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I'll make sure to give two cents so as to not make anyone on here mad.

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