Remember the content packed Gish 1.6 update we caught a few days back? Turns out Chronic Logic wants to celebrate a bit over its release, offering their excellent 2D platformer for a price of the buyer’s choosing from now on. No limited-time sale, just name your price now, or whenever you want.

It’s a growing trend that has sparked some controversy from loyal players who pay full price closer to (or a lot of times prior to) the title’s official release; but I still believe it’s been warmly received by most and certainly has some new blood checking out indie games. (Can’t beat those prices!) I certainly believe that we’ll see more developers take to this model earlier in their game’s lifespan–perhaps someday even at or before launch–as most of these experiments so far have ranged from decent to fantastic results.

Chronic Logic includes in the press release an excellent explanation as to why they believe the “pay-what-you-want” model can work not just as a sale, but as a long term price point for indie games. It’s a must read on the subject:

This pricing strategy often times raises eyebrows and people ask the question, won’t everyone just pay the minimum? As an indie company the relationship we have with our customers is much different than what you would see between huge corporations and gamers. We are not just out to make money, but genuinely enjoy producing unique game experiences for our fans. Within the community most gamers respect the role that indie developers play in keeping content fresh and competitive. We are not out to feed the masses with top notch graphics or put out bulk gameplay with already famous icons. The content generated by indie companies gives a unique feel with every game that just can’t be created by the giants – sort of like that favorite song no one else knows about. Gamers are different than the average consumers, they are more aware of the roles small companies play in game development, and because of this, are more willing to support the developers who create the games they love to play.

My thumbs are all sorts of up. Grab Gish for your price here, or try the new demo available for PC, Mac and Linux. If you already own it, you can download whatever update you need here.