Game Dev Bundle Dev'd Some Games For You

The long in development Game Dev Bundle, put together by some enterprising Redditors, has made its debut. Unlike some of the bigger players, this truly does feature like an indie effort; featuring indie games submitted and curated by select members of the community, it features a lot of offbeat and relatively unknown titles that none the less are still worth checking out.

Luckily for those worried about the rapidly expanding bundle shaped hole in your wallet, the Game Dev Bundle is strictly pay what you want; paying over six dollars unlocks a stellar bonus games and some additional treats, but the basic bundle is designed to fit budgets of all sizes. Still though, try to be generous; the profits are split evenly by the developers, hosting costs and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Unsurprisingly there's no Steam keys here, but on the other hand you do get direct downloads and Desura unlocks across the board, which is a fairly impressive coup for such a grassroots effort.

So how about those games? Well, there's a lot of new to me stuff here, plus a couple of old favourites. Skip past the break for more.

Economics Downturns Can't Stop the Recession Bundle

Indie Game Bundles is a site designed to round up news about bundles all in one convenient place, but it seemed inevitable that they would get into the bundle game themselves with the Recession Bundle. Fortunately, they've found a niche that's not often used by other bundles: freeware. Most of the games you can pick up form absolutely nothing, with donations accepted and rewarded with two commercial games (including Desura keys, which are being worked on now). Everyone gets ten percent of whatever is earned: the site, each of the developers and a charity; in this case, SOS Children's Village Croatia.

It seems a bit redundant to review freeware, but maybe you need a bit of convincing that downloading these games is worth spending your very busy time on. That's where I step in, with reviews of every free and paid game in the bundle. Skip past the break for the freebies first, followed by the bonuses.

Stay Inside and Beat the Heat with the Summer Indie Royale Round-up

Indie Royale just keeps getting bigger and bigger. To celebrate the wretchedly humid weather, they're bringing nine indie games to the beach party. This includes an award winner, a neoclassic adventure, an eccentric shooter, three very eccentric shooters, an even more eccentric shooter fighting game and a revamped Flash game classic.

Included among the nine is a beta key for the Transformersrsque MOBA AirMech, which you can find my thoughts on in the last Royale round-up. Paying above eight dollars will snag you a music album, Pixeljams Vol. 1, while the minimum price constantly fluctuates, as always. If you plan to pick one up, the sooner the better.

Of course, the question is should you pick one up? Skip past the break to see my thoughts.

Be Mine 3 With a Little Help from My Friends

Hey there, bundle fans! The Be Mine 3 came out, and with quite a few interesting games in it to boot. Awesome, right? Indeed, except for one tiny problem. Backlogged as I was with a series of reviews I had to finish, there was no way I would be able to come up with timely and insightful thoughts about this package for you folks.

Not to despair! I know plenty of insightful, smart and all around talented people on Twitter, so I turned to them for help in crafting a guest review for the Backlog Journey, the site's first ever. Let me just say I was not disappointed.

Skip past the break for our very first guest bundle review. I'm as excited as you!

Indie Fort 2: Return of the Fort

Remember the IndieFort? It was a pretty great bundle from GamersGate with quite a few games that, to me, felt like a breath of fresh air from the usual bundle offerings. Well, like all good bundles, it's back again for a new round with six more games. Also like the last bundle, the six games being offered are rather eccentric and unusual, which is exactly the kind of games I love.

Of course, this means you might be rather perplexed about whether or not this is the bundle for you. Well, I'm here with my usual bundle review to set you straight on all six games on hand. Skip past the break for the full scoop.

Pixel Goats and Lovely Auditoriums: The June Bug Indie Royale Round-up

I don't want to get into a big debate about which bundle is the best bundle, because the wonderful thing about bundles is that you can buy them all and gets many wonderful games from the lot of them. But I have to say that while I think the Humble Bundle V was a seriously amazing bundle, it didn't truly excite me as I owned multiple copies of every game in it. This Indie Royale, on the other hand, is jam packed with games I've always been curious about, and that I'm now thrilled to get to play and own and download and everything.

Unfortunately, aside from a Mac version of Auditorium, you're going to be sticking with Windows in this bundle. Aside from that, this is a really amazing bundle. Every time it feels like Indie Royale outdoes the last one, and this is no exception. Skip past the break to see what awaits.

Hail to the Humble King, Baby

I review bundles. That's my thing. I do other stuff too, or at least I try, but in the end my goal for each of my bundle posts is to say "Yes, this is a wise purchase of games for your backlog" or "Nah, you can probably do without these games." Obviously I'm not really needed here.

This is the best bundle Humble has ever released. OS support across the board. Soundtracks. It's sold over 500,000 copies and has raised well over 4.5 million dollars. I just can't imagine there's a single person out there who's going "Hmmm, well, I'm not sure if it's a good deal." It's the best deal. If you play video games you have to buy it.

So this is less of a review of the Humble Indie Bundle V, and more of a victory lap. It's a bit rushed and off the top of my head. There's only 19 hours to go as of this post. Why am I bothering to finish this? Because why not? Skip past the break, quick!

Indie Underdog Pack 2 Has Arrived!

Hey, you! The Indie Underdog Pack is here with a new bundle, and it has a bunch of underdogs that deserve a look. This bundle has Tesla: The Weather Man, a historical account of the AC/DC wars, Drains, an underwater rebellion with a reluctant hero, Ichi, a great one button puzzle, Clone Wolf: Protector, an onslaught of bearded fury, and 48 Chambers, an arcade jaunt through many rooms with many spikes.

But when is the review coming? Well, err, several hours ago, actually. I was fortunate enough to be asked to do a bundle overview for the Indie Game Magazine, so you can find it hosted there. So yes, go check out the review and then check out the bundle. That is all.

Indie Gala V Part 3: The Top Tier

So you've already got twelve games, but it's not enough! Well, if you pay at least six dollars, IndieGala throws in four more games and a bunch of music. Not too bad at all, no? Again, keep in mind that this is to benefit charity, and you can skew your donation to wherever you want it to go. Also keep in mind that I've previously done reviews of the tier 1 games and tier 2 games, so be sure to check those out too.

So far we've had twelve games with a few gems and a few duds mixed in. How are the final four games going to stack up? Find out past the break.

Indie Gala V Part 2: Big Rallies, Battle Mages, Black Holes and Bad Rats

And welcome to part two of my grandiose three part reviewing epic. In this instalment of the robust Indie Gala V, we take a look at the tier two games. These are the games you get for paying over $4 or more. So if you're interested, just grab a couple of toonies and pony up to help out with the earthquake in Emilia Romagna and help to fund AbleGamers. And don't forget about the eight games I've already covered.

But what games do you get on this new tier of your Gala invitation? It certainly covers a variety of genres, including 4X, racing sim, RTS and puzzles. As always, skip past the break for my take on them.

School's Out for the Indie Royale Round-up

Welcome back to another round of the Indie Royale, this time in celebration of that wonderful time of the year when the whole summer is ahead of you. In this bundle, there's plenty of slightly obscure or unknown games to check out, so you might find a few new games you never even realized you wanted. Bizarre first person adventure? B-movie beat-em-up? Murder simulator? Electrical engineering? Kitty? It's all here and more.

But you'll never find out if I just keep talking, so let's get right to the games! Skip past the break and we'll chat about the seven titles included.

It's Time for Adventure with a Bundle in a Box

Let's talk about Bundle in a Box. It's a new bundle launched by Kyttaro Games, and worked on by the inimitable Gnome of Gnome's Lair, a certifiably awesome site of which I can only aspire to. It runs on a pay what you want model, with a minimum price that drops as sales go up, and a beat the average bonus. It focuses on a single genre, in this case adventure titles. It has some Steam activated games, and others that are DRM free only. It includes a never before released game, and one that's making its digital distribution debut.

It's also really really good. I'm pretty excited about this bundle of games, and you should be too. Skip past the break to find out why I've been raving about it on Twitter.

Build a Bundle: Where Friendships are Made

UPDATE AGAIN: Celestial Mechanica has been unlocked for everyone. I added in a bit about it at the bottom.

UPDATE: The missing games have been reviewed now that the downloading problems are solved. Check out Ubersoldier 2 and Dark Fall at the end of this post.

Have you ever bought an indie bundle with a game or two in it that you just don't want? Groupees has got your back. Their latest bundle steps away from the Be Mine moniker for the time being and offers up one of the most unique payment schemes for a bundle that I can remember. In the Build a Bundle, you can carefully pick and choose between twelve games, with both the minimum and recommended price set based on what you pick. It's a minimum of nine bucks for the whole deal, with twenty percent of every purchase going to save polar bears. Everyone knows polar bears are rad, so it's pretty win win.

Six of the games were previously featured in Be Mine 1. For those games, I'm just going to direct your attention to my Be Mine 1 write-up, as re-reviewing five extra games would be a lot of work and doesn't make a lot of sense. The only game in that write-up that isn't offered this time is Wasteland Angel. For Post Apocalyptic Mayhem, I'll be covering it here since I haven't written about it before because my copy of the Be Mine 1 had a fishy screensaver not that I'm bitter.

So that leaves seven unknown games for you to pick from. With the unique way of picking and choosing what you want, more than ever my game by game analysis should come in handy. Skip past the break and we'll begin.

The Charity for All Indie Royale Round-up

Like a magnificent bolt from the sky, a new Lightning Pack has been launched by Indie Royale with four new games to pick up and play and love and such. Of course, every Lightning Pack so far has had some kind of theme, so what's the game here? Well, it's charity. Yes, every bit of money after credit card fees goes straight to Amnesty International, the EFF, ActionAid and UNICEF, and you get to decide how to divvy it up. The folks behind Indie Royale and the developers involved aren't looking for a single cent for themselves. How generous!

As for the games, all can be Steam activated besides The Shivah, and only Osmos offers non-Windows versions. But as a bonus, donating over $7 will get you three albums: FX4 by Jake "virt" Kaufman who is the composer for many awesome soundtracks including Retro City Rampage, IN1ep by 6955 which is a brand new EP, and fan favourite chiptune composer Disasterpeace's Level album. Overall, it's quite a nice haul.

But how about those games? Skip past the break with me and find out.

Maybe It's Time for an Indie Royale Round-Up

This post also appears in a multi-part format on IndieGames.com.

It's Indie Royale time again! Yet again they've managed to impress with a fantastic selection of games; the Indie Royale folks definitely deserve some applause for keeping up a pretty high standard of quality for the last several bundles, and this one is no different.

This month we have a very popular tower defence/shooter mash-up, a expectation defying zombie puzzle and a slew of games from quirky publisher Digital Eel. Better yet, every game is DRM-free, Desura capable, and mostly able to be Steam activated with the exception of Weird Worlds and the bonus games.

So what is in store? Skip past the break.

Indie Gala IV: The Voyage Home

UPDATE AGAIN: A new game was unlocked. I've got the scoop.

UPDATE: Music has been added to the bundle. I'll list the tracks below.

In my round-up of the Indie Gala's third bundle, I was somewhat less than impressed with most of the games. There were a few good highlights, and some of the bad parts looped right back around to so-bad-it's-good territory, but generally speaking it was a bit of a misstep in my opinion. Shortly after the end of that bundle, Indie Gala launched a new bundle with just two baseline games and two beat the average bonuses. Of course, there was a promise of more to come, with five new games just unlocked. That leaves us with nine games to work through, so I suppose I better get busy.

Every game in the pack activates on Steam with two exceptions, which I will mark when we get there. First up past the break is the baseline games, then I'll delve into the beat the average bonuses.

Botanicula and Friends make a Humble Debut

I always feel a bit foolish when writing out these mini-bundle reviews for the Humble Bundle, because chances are you've already bought it. It's cool, I don't mind that you didn't hold your breath for me to say whether or not Botanicula is charming. The fact is that even with their slight diversions into smaller and more Android flavoured territory, the Humble Bundle always seems to pack in the biggest and most popular games on the market, and their staunch commitment to forgoing a minimum, their requirement of Windows, Mac and Linux versions plus the nice perk of letting their users set the divide of the profits means that Humble Inc. will likely stay on top for a while.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that they occasionally throw a complete curveball to the fans like including a brand new game on the very first day of release. But Amanita Design stepped up to offer the Botanicula Debut, a package of their brand new indie darling combined with their previous smash hits Machinarium and Samorost 2. If you enjoyed their previous work, this bundle is a definitive collection of Amanita plus a great feel good way to pick up their newest title. Plus,

Paying at least five dollars nets you a Steam key, while if you beat the average (which has been settling in at just under nine dollars), you'll pick up a copy of Windosill as well, an adventure game/art piece from Vectorpark. You also get access to Kooky, a Czech film that Amanita did some of the art direction for that looks pretty neat, but only contains an English dub. Now I love me some foreign films, but I always prefer subtitles which are unavailable here. But even if you don't mind dubs, the curious choice to use Czech actors without a firm grasp on English is quite distracting from the nice visuals. Still, it's worth a peek.

But this here is Backlog Journey, not amateur film critic night! You're here for games commentary, and I aim to please. I'm going to change up my usual formula and start with the beat the average bonus, slowly working my way up to Botanicula at the bottom. If the suspense is killing you, skip past the break.

A Spring in your Step with the Indie Royale Round-up

This post also appears as a multi-part guest article on IndieGames.com.

Indie Royale returns with another fantastic bundle, this time with six fresh new interesting games. There's a great tower defence with a ton of atmosphere, a neat action RPG with several new tricks up its sleeve, a beautiful retro platformer, and three great games from an awesome shoot em up dev.

Better yet, the bundle offers much better Mac support and a variety of options for downloading your games. And if you pay more than $5.00 (or the equivalent in your own currency) then you get Danimal Cannon's chiptunes jam session Roots. Not too bad at all. Check past the break for my usual commentary on the games offered.

The Indie Buskers Want to Play You a Tune

This article will also be posted on Indie Game Mag.

UPDATE: Some of the games are being updated, including a great new version of The Sun is Deadly, plenty of new levels for Rose in Time and a hefty graphic and more update to Super Office Stress. Check it out on your download page.

So this weekend was the long awaited game jam of the Indie Buskers, a superstar team of underground indies who wanted your crazy ideas (shout out to the butt shotgun guy). The plan was that they would take these ideas and over just 48 hours turn them into real games that you can play and everything. Well, they've certainly put their best effort forward for each of the winning ideas, and you can play them all by dropping a few dollars into the Indie Busker hat on their website. Don't try to slink by and say that you don't have any change on you, because these buskers take credit. So ha.

Since it's kind of like a bundle, I decided to treat it like so and do one of my beloved bundle reviews, mostly just to step in and explain a little bit about how each game turned out. Obviously the 48 hour limit means that the games aren't going to be very lengthy and deep affairs, but there is a lot of good ideas and impressive designs that went into each of these titles.

You probably don't need someone to tell you whether or not you should throw a few bucks at the buskers, but skip past the break anyway for some quick impressions of each of the games.

A Bundle 2 Be Yours: Be Mine Feeds the Hungry

UPDATE: The DLC has been unlocked, which means extra goodies are now thrown in as a bonus, including DLC packs for Beat Hazard (which makes the game way better), Madballs and The Baconing.

Groupees is back, and they aren't fooling around this time. After a rocky start to their last package, the Be Mine bundle has been souped up and primed for another round in the bundle ring. And it is quite a bundle indeed.

This time, the focus is all about feeding the hungry; bundles are measured in meals for hungry folks. For every two dollars you pay, that covers a meal for someone in need. The bundle itself is a two meal/four dollar minimum, with five meals netting you a bonus game and some other goodies.

The bundle is generally limited to Steam keys, with Beat Hazard and Sol Survivor offering DRM free options as well. For people who like computers with fruit logos, Beat Hazard, The Baconing, Madballs and Killing Floor all work via Steamplay, so you can join in too.

So what are you getting for your charitable donations? Find out past the break.