For the fourth, and hopefully not the last, time, the Cabrera Brothers have assembled another Free Bundle. Featuring five games from various genres, there is something in it for everyone…especially since it doesn’t cost a penny. Or even…a pence. (See, I’m globalizing!)
The lineup includes:
Bear Surfin Mega Wave from Normalen Baren You Have To Win The Game from J. Kyle Pittman Dirty Split from dreamagination team Vicinity from Vicinity Team Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch from CutmanMike and Team MM8BDM
As of this writing a little under 13,000 Free Bundles 4s have been downloaded. There are still thirteen days left. Previous bundles, (which are still available) have been downloaded approximately 320,000 times.
The Free Bundle 4 also promotes the Kickstarter campaign for Ithaka of the Clouds, and other indie media outlets. The Cabrera Brothers are unaffiliated with anything but the assembly of the bundle.
“Like always, [we] won’t be getting a dime from this Indiegogo campaign,” the Cabrera Brothers explain on the bundle page. “His sales are his sales alone. We are doing this for the sole purpose of helping a fellow indie developer and hopefully, to encourage others to join us.”
Visit the Free Bundle 4′s official website and instantly download the games, for free.
If you know of (or developed) a free game that you’d like to see in the next bundle, email the Cabrera Brothers at tip[at]cabrerabrothers[dot]com.
Groupee have just started their most recent bundle promotion with the Be Mine 5 bundle. This latest bundle is yet again done on a tier system containing X-Blades, Kings Bounty: The Legend and Neo Scavenger at the lowest level, requiring only $1 to obtain these three great titles.
Though with just the investment of $5+ you will gain two great games: Tropico 3 and Stranger’s Wrath along with three awesome graphic novels. It is not often that many bundles branch out into printed media, so it is very refreshing to see Groupee go this route and including: The Sixth Gun V1: Cold Dead Fingers, Sharknife: Stage First and Wasteland V1: Cities In Dust 3.
It is also important to note that a portion of funds raised will go to charity MercyCorps. A fantastic humanitarian charity that helps provide support globally to some of the worlds most turbulent areas.
Though there is still two more tiers yet to be revealed. The first of which will contain five indie albums and the second will be a bonus game revealed on October 8th. A big theme in this bundle seems to be the fusion of music and games. Music has for the longest time always played a vital role in video games and as technology has advanced so has the implementation of music and sound overall. It is great for this reason to see Groupee play particular attention to music and bundling it along side the games. Although done in the past, this bundle really emphasises it.
The Be Mine 5 bundle does look fantastic, covering game, music and graphic novel, really spanning the genres. I am sure this will therefore appeal to a great deal of people out t there and for such a bargain price I am sure many people will part with their money for this great deal. Be Mine 5 is available from Groupees official site here.
The Bundle In A Box: Deep Space bundle has gotten ten more games added to it. While it already had some wonderful games like Death Ray Manta and also offered Jeff Minter’s Tempest influenced masterpiece Space Giraffe, Dark Scavenger, remade Commodore 64 Armalyte, The Wreckless, Sol: Exodus, Robot Riot and Miner Wars Arena, a few more games have also been added to the bundle to make it more magnificent.
The Deep Space bundle has added the Bagfull of Wrong and 10 of its arcade games. The Bagfull of Wrong was the winner of 2 Eurogamer Expo Stars. The bundle firstly contains War Twat for PC and Mac, which is a sort of arena shooter. It’s also added the critically acclaimed Squid Yes Not So Octopus (or “SYNSO”). This game is another arena shooter that tends to only last about 1-4 minutes but offers some beautiful neon colors during gameplay. It’s also a pretty silly game, as you probably gathered from the name alone.
You’ll also find SYNSO: Squid Harder, which is a followup to SYNSO. The game sports even more squids and guns and just overall silliness as we saw in the previous edition of the game. This title also was the star of Eurogamer Expo 2009 Indie Games Arcade.
There’s a lot of squid games here, aren’t there? Well, another one in the bundle is Squid and Let Die. Next we have FISHFISHBANGBANG which defines the fish shoot ‘em up genre and also pays tribute to the almost forgotten Vectrex console. Ambiomat is also another notable indie game added to the bundle. If you’ve purchased the bundle already, this should be available to you already, and if you haven’t purchased it, there’s still time to go grab it before the bundle ends on Friday, September 28th. As most of these bundles are, the price is simply set at a pay what you want.
Just the other day a new bundle was pieced together to help promote the Rainforest Alliance. Winter Wolves noted developers of several award-winning dating sims and role playing games has allied with Groupees for their new bundle.
The Manga Game bundle includes initially three great titles: Heileen, Bionic Heart and Vera Blanc: Full Moon. However there will be extra content included for additional goals, these extra goals come in several different forms. Every person who pays more than $5 for the bundle will receive a copy of Always Remember Me and Heileen 2: The Hands of Fate . Running alongside this if you pay $10 or more for the bundle you will also receive Planet Stronghold.
In addition to these extras once the units sold reach 1 000 units everyone will get Spirited Heart, and finally for 5 000 units everyone will get Planet Stronghold. For so many great titles this bundles really is one to pick up if you like these manga styled games and don’t forget it aims to help the Rainforest Alliance.
The Rainforest Alliance for any of you who are uninitiated is and organisation to help conserve the massive biodiversity found in these vast rainforests. This is a huge mission in the modern day world due to globalization, with more and more people destroying the rainforest it has become ever more important to be involved in conservation efforts making the Rainforest Alliance a very important cause.
Winter WolvesManga bundle operates on a pay what you want scheme, much in keeping with the general line bundles have followed. So if you are really strapped for cash you can get the three initial titles for a s low as $1. I would not suggest this however as these games are indeed worth your money and the charity is also doing great things.
The Manga bundle will be running for just over nine more days (at time of writing nine days and nine hours), so be sure to hurry if you are interested in this great little bundle. The Manga Bundle is available from Groupees site here.
Saturday saw the launch of the new bundle from Indie Royale called “The Back To School Bundle”. The bundle runs from 15th of September until the 22nd of September and contains seven great titles which are as follows (click the names to find out more about the game):
The Back To School Bundle includes these seven quality games with the most impressive addition being the exclusive addition of Bunny Must Die! Chelsea And The 7 Devils (Bunny Must Die!) from Rockin Android. It is a great addition with Bunny Must Die! as it is officially coming out next month making this is a great opportunity to get the game early and largely for a steal of a price, especally when bundled with the other six stellar titles.
Bunny Must Die! is a 2D exploration-based platformer resembling a lot of the old styled platformers of days gone by in a distinct Japanese styling. Bunny must brave the depths of the Devils’ Labyrinth and overcome the powerful 7 Devils, in this hilariously over the top action platformer.
Find many magical items such as the Sylph Shooter and the Hyper Heels to allow you to battle through the difficult large connected map filled with unique enemies, traps and puzzles in your quest to save Bunny from this hell.
The Back To School Bundle really seems to be a great steal covering seven awesome titles making this a must for any indie game enthusiast and gamer alike. The Back To School bundle can be purchased here from the Indie Royale site.
However if you are unlucky enough to miss the bundle Bunny Must Die! is released on Desura on October 2nd. Also if you are interested in Bunny and her crazy adventures but would rather have it on Steam vote for it on the Greenlight Community project. For all the latest news as it breaks be sure to check back to The Indie Game Magazine.
Telepath RPG: Servants of God is a strategy role playing game by indie developer Sinister Design, who have recently announced that Telepath RPG: Servants of God has become one of the games to now be available in the new IndieFort Bundle 3. For those that haven’t played it before this game is a spectacular top-down strategy based role playing game with a unique middle eastern / steampunk setting. If you purchase it now as part of the IndieFort Bundle 3 you can save at least 84% off its typical purchase price, and pick it up for $3.99 bundled with two other games of your choice (Telepath RPG: Servants of God typically sells for $24.95).
IndieFort Bundle 3 handles bundles a bit differently than other sites giving you complete control over what games to include within your bundle. There are three packages that you can choose from: the bronze pack (3 games for $3.99), the silver pack (6 games for $6.99), and the gold pack (9 games for $8.99). IndieFort Bundle 3 offers a selection of 24 games that are available to be placed into its bundles, including: Telepath RPG: Servants of God, Star Prospector, 3079, Project Black Sun, Blue Libra, and a few other titles.
If you haven’t played Telepath RPG: Servants of God yet, or if you’re looking to pick up a whole bunch of quality indie games at a bargain price then definitely look into buying one of IndieFort’s Bundles. If you’re worried about the developers getting paid you can also choose to give extra money to the developers at checkout. You can check out the IndieFort Bundle at their website, and you can find out more about Telepath RPG: Servants of God at the developer’s official website.
Today, Beatshapers announced that their new Indie Bundle would be going live on to Playstation Stores (including PS3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation Portable) world wide. If you haven’t heard of it yet, this bundle is stacking up to be one of the most prestigious game bundles on PSN, offering 5 games, and as a collective they have received multiple awards from indie game festivals, the media, and even an Apple Design Award. What all games will be included in the bundle?
Wizorb – A combination RPG and brick breaking game, this title by Tribute Games aims to combine classic arcade games with the elements of classic role playing games. More Wizorb info
Cannabalt – A simple, endless running game made by Adam “Atomic” Saltsman. More Cannabalt info
Enigmo – A unique, award winning 3d puzzler created by Brian Greenstone and Pangea Software. More Enigmo info
Galcon Labs – A high paced, intergalactic arcade-strategy game by Phil Hassey. More Galcon Labs info
Break Quest – An innovative, interactive, physics based break-out game created by Felix Casablancas and Nurium Games. More Break Quest info
This bundle is available in all European PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Playstation Portable stores as of today for the price of €5.99. Beatshapers Indie Bundle is also available in the American PlayStation Store for $6.99. PlayStation Vita owners can look forward to seeing the bundle shortly. If you’ve played any of these games before, or are looking for some great indie games to play on your Playstation devices, then make sure to check out this bundle.
Well, this is a bit more like it. Another indie discount bundle steps up to bat, and this one has a cause behind it: Getting a better distribution deal. 8 games, most formerly iOS/Android releases, all bundled together with an eye to raising interest in them for when the Greenlight indie fast-tracking system launches on Steam later this month.
It’s a two-tier kinda deal here. Four games for $1 or more, another four if you pay $5 or higher. It’s a generally solid bunch, even if none particularly set my world on fire. In the $1-$4 bracket, we’ve got one-button puzzler Ichi, shamelessly Super Crate Box-ish Muffin Knight, cute time-attack platformer Dino Run SE and Syder Arcade, which is a pretty polished attempt to bring Amiga-style shooting back to PC.
The second-tier of games is all formerly-iOS releases, I believe. First is arcade hack n’ slasher Samurai 2: Vengeance, monochrome platformer Gunman Clive, rather more colourful 3D platformer Paper Monsters and twin-stick shooter Guerilla Bob. Solid games one and all. No timeless classics, but an enjoyable lineup.
All eight games are for both Windows & Mac PCs, and are all DRM-free. There’s no charity tie-in here – this bundle is entirely focused around increasing the profile of these games in order to help bump them up the public rankings once the Greenlight service launches. While there’s a great many digital distribution sources out there these days, it’s a sad fact that a lot of gamers have a ‘No Steam, No Purchase’ policy, so getting your on Valves ubiquitous storefront is a major boon to commerical viability.
The Green Light bundle is available now, and the Steam Greenlight service launches soon. Share your thoughts on the games below, and do make sure to vote for them once you can if you like them. Indie developers need to eat to make games, y’know.
I know I’ve been fairly critical of some indie bundles lately, especially those from Indie Gala, which have very much stretched the definition of ‘Indie’ by featuring a great many games from prolific publisher BitComposer Games. This, though… well, it’s just impressive to see the greatest indie bundle (the last major Humble Bundle) so quickly followed by the worst. Introducing the Groupees Be Mine 4 bundle.
What we have here is a mediocre-to-poor set of games topped off by a catastrophic stinker. Zero Gear is a fairly generic kart racer with pretty graphics, but plagued by control issues and crippled netcode, which is fairly inexcusable when you’re releasing a multiplayer-centric game. Dead multiplayer seems to be order of the day here with Guns of Icarus, which is an interesting defensive team shooter where you’ll be lucky to find another person playing. As a solo experience, it’s a hollow and frustrating experience, sadly.
Metal Drift continues this theme by being a fairly interesting concept once more – future sports in hovertanks – but also being yet another multiplayer-centric commercial game with absolutely nobody playing it. You can find far better both in the free and F2P spheres. Laxius Force is the great unknown here – a JRPG-esque game which honestly looks like it was produced with RPG Maker (those menus are eerily familiar) – and with sub-par art, but the few reviews I’ve been able to find of it have actually be fairly positive, which is a surprise. It’s the first part of a trilogy, apparently.
But really, the one thing that brings everything crashing horribly down here is Revelations 2012. A game that made people ask some big questions, such as ‘How did this get approved for a Steam release!?’ or ‘Why has God forsaken us?’. Essentially an indie clone of Left4Dead, but with a rather questionable Meso-American theme. Four badly rendered, badly acted modern-day Americans battle an endless tsunami of painted, loincloth-wearing natives in order to stave off the prophesied apocalypse apparently due later this year.
It bears repeating that Revelations 2012 is bad. It has become a regular point of mockery around the internet, and the only positive review anyone could find for the game was on a site run by a personal friend of the developers, and that was apparently established just before the release of the game. The game uses Valve’s own Source engine, which helps put Valve’s own efforts into perspective. The animations are terrible, the single weapon model (some kind of glowing neon magical power-glove) is astonishingly bad, the textures are blurry and the game, being multiplayer-focused, is even more of a train-wreck in singleplayer. I’ve heard that it’s literally impossible to beat the game by yourself, as the AI allies that you get will just refuse to shoot at the final boss.
The only real icing on the cake here is that a purchase of $5 or more gets you an early access key for the upcoming Guns Of Icarus Online, the even more multiplayer-oriented followup/sequel. In all honesty, if you want to support charity, it’s best to go straight to the source. I really can’t recommend this bundle to anyone, unless you plan on giving the Revelations 2012 Steam key to people you hate. That, I suppose, could have some inherent comedy value. Still, it’s sad to see this bundle being just so very weak, especially after their previous offering included some genuinely great games, including the fantastic Avernum series on Steam. Avoid.
In hopes of increasing their support in the upcoming Steam Green Light system, 8 independent developers have teamed together to create a new, pay-what-you-want bundle that will be available on August 23rd, 2012. The bundle highlights eight indie games that are not currently available on Steam, including:
Muffin Knight by Angry Mob Games – An action-packed platformer that gives you control of a myriad of fairytale characters, each with unique abilities.
Guerilla Bob by Angry Mob Games – A full of action shooter, described as having “plenty of kick-a*s weaponry, unique enemies, explosive ammunition and non-stop humor.”
Ichi by Stolen Couch Games – A challenging, but simple to play, one button puzzle game, which will fool you with its simplistic look.
Samurai II Vengeance by Madfinger Games – Become a wandering samurai, seeking revenge across the war-scorched country side of ancient Japan.
Syder Arcade by Studio Evil – A multi-directional side scroller shoot ‘em up, paying homage to the challenging action games of the 90′s.
Dino Run SE by PixelJam – Try to out run the dinosaur’s doom in this prehistoric racing game.
Gunman Clive SE by Bertil Horberg – Set in the 1800′s, this game puts you in the shoes of a gunman looking to save the Mayor’s daughter from a group of bandits.
The Green Light Bundle looks to be a great deal for lovers of indie games, and make sure to support these games of Steam’s upcoming Green Light system if you like them. The bundle can be ordered from the official site on August 23rd.
