Perhaps you shouldn’t get your hopes up, but then again, this seems to be pretty solid evidence that Steam is making its way to Linux very soon.
Indie developers and their games have been kind to Linux gamers, which is an often neglected platform, especially by the AAA side of the industry. They returned the favor by consistently being the highest contributors to the Humble Bundle which gave Linux gamers many new titles for them to try out, for example. Now, it seems that the penguin gamers will be treated to Steam in the near future.
What’s the evidence then? Well, a Reddit user has posted an image of an email conversation with Valve about porting the Source Engine to Linux which seems to be real and solid confirmation. Here’s the image for your viewing pleasure:
Why would we be interested in this though? Well, recently we discussed the idea that Valve were looking to make many big changes to Steam, ones that were to be focused on the needs of indie developers and like we just mentioned, Linux gaming is mostly catered for by indie developers. So, if more indie games will be on their way to Steam (hopefully) then it’s surely very good news to know that they will be able to make their games available to Windows, Mac and now Linux on the same platform.
That’s not to mention the benefit this will have to the many indie game bundles which will also be able to cater to the very generous people of Linux even easier if this was to happen! Let’s just hope that this means it really is on the way along with many more indie friendly changes to Valve’s digital distribution platform.
The pre-order stage is over and now Indie Royale‘s April Fools Bundle is on sale, but what games are contained within this time?
For the next six days and counting, you can pick up five indie games from Indie Royale’s April Fools Bundle at a very cheap price. As always, the minimum price of this bundle fluctuates according to how much people are paying for it – go over the minimum and you’ll drop the price for everyone else and vice versa. If you do go over the minimum you’ll receive some bonuses as well though!
Let’s have a look at what’s up for grabs in this latest iteration of the bundle then:
As previously stated, go over the minimum price and you’ll also receive Sexy Synthesizer’s “Japanese ’80s-style chip album” Rock: Deluxe Edition. Those who pre-ordered the bundle will also receive this bonus automatically.
Go grab your April Fools Bundle over on the official Indie Royale website.
Groupees has revealed the full line up and other important information of their second Be Mine Bundle and they’re taking orders right now!
Though the first effort from the Be Mine bundle went off to a very rocky start, the Be Mine 2 bundle seems to be going a lot smoother at the moment. After teasing the line up not too long ago, Groupees have now unveiled the bundle and are taking reservations in preparation for the launch in a few days time – a wise move considering what happened last time.
The Be Mine 2 bundle is actually put together with Feed Them With Music which means that every $2 spent on the bundle will be donated to the charity which is able to transform every dollar into three meals for those in dire need of food.
Of course, as well as helping charity you’re also going to want to grab some games, so the Be Mine 2 bundle contains the following games at a $4 minimum:
If you ramp up your donation a little bit more to the $10 mark then you’ll also receive a few bonuses, namely Killing Floor, music from hip-hop artist Eligh and another special item which is yet to be announced.
Of course, there are plenty of group incentives to be unlocked when the bundle has sold enough copies, including DLC for the games in the bundle, more music and even an indie horror film too. All is detailed in the video below:
You can beat the masses when the Be Mine 2 bundle officially launches by paying for and reserving your copy right now over on the official website.
Today, we bring sad news – A Valley Without Wind‘s 1.0 release has been delayed for a week. A whole week!
(Drops to knees) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Wipe your tears dear child, it’s only a week that you must be parted from the 1.0 version of A Valley Without Wind. We know it will be hard and this is tragic news, but you can get through it…we have no doubt.
Okay enough tomfoolery – AVWW really has been delayed for a week as it will be coming out on April 23rd rather than the 16th. The reason? PAX East. Yeah. Arcen Games wrote in the update that because they’ve had to prepare for PAX and now that more than half of the team will be unable to work on the game during the convention, they won’t have enough time to prep for the big release on the date as planned.
(Shakes fist) Curse you PAX East!
Well anyway, AVWW will still be coming to Steam for $14.99, unless you grab it before it’s released in which case you’ll get the game for $9.99. If you have no idea what all this commotion is about then you need to get educated – AVWW is a procedurally generated, sidescrolling kick-ass-a-thon which is fully co-op able and very, very luring with its unique visuals.
More information on A Valley Without Wind can be found on the game’s official website.
After releasing the public beta of their turn-based RPG, Iron Tower Studios are now taking pre-orders for Age of Decadence.
If you’ve been dabbling in the recently released public beta of Age of Decadence you may be glad to know (presuming you like the game) that you can now pre-order the game and in doing so, help out the developers even more. Iron Tower have delayed the pre-order stage until now because they wanted to make sure that people knew what they were pre-ordering. With Age of Decadence, you should be expecting a fairly deep RPG experience, with turn-based rules and plenty of actual ‘role-playing’ mechanics with fully fleshed out paths to suit all of your choices.
We suggest, as the developers do, that you play the beta if you haven’t already, before you pre-order. If you do like the game and want to secure yourself a copy then, like we said, you can pre-order through BMT Micro for $25.
If you’re feeling generous and really want to help out the developers you can donate more though and there’s incentive to do so as well, as listed below:
$25 (pre-order) – will be listed and thanked in the credits
$30 (pre-order plus $5 extra) – will receive a nice, golden tag – Patron of the Motherfucking Arts
$40 (pre-order plus $15 extra) – you can create a filler character* for the game
If you go over that you’ll just get a million thanks from the developers and probably some hugs and kisses or something. More pre-order details are outlined here.
Iron Tower expect Age of Decadence to be finished and released in 2013, so there’s still a while to wait yet. Hopefully, if enough pre-orders come in and the developers can use that money to focus full time on the project then it will be even sooner!
More information on Age of Decadence can be found on the official website.
If you’re looking for a good deal on some quality indie games then you may want to mosey on over to our good friends at GamersGate who have just announced the IndieFort Bundle.
As part of their big announcement of their new IndieFort platform, GamersGate have organized a bundle to get the ball rolling called the IndieFort Bundle. IndieFort is a collaboration between indie game PR guru, Alexander Poysky, and digital distribution platform, GamersGate. It is intended to allow indie developers access to resources for development and to cater to greater control over distribution for both finished games and those in various testing or funding stages. More details will be on the way about that soon!
No doubt the majority of you are interested in the bundle though. In which case, for those of you not familiar with these kinds of campaigns, it really is as simple as choose a price, pay it and then all those titles will be yours forever! The IndieFort Bundle will be going live this Thursday, April 5th 2012 and if you really wanted to, you could get it for as little as $6. That said, please do try and think of the hard working developers who put their heart and soul into these projects. The reason for guilt tripping you is that anything over the minimum $6 goes straight to the developers themselves, no cuts for anyone else at all.
There are other incentives in the form of tiered unlockables though. That means that there are more goodies up for grabs upon reaching targets like 10k units sold, 20k, 30k and so on – we’re talking soundtracks, art and other surprises that will be announced when the bundle goes live. If enough people buy the bundle to reach 50k units sold in total, then the developers will release their upcoming games for free to those who bought the bundle.
So, without further ado, let’s have a look at what you’ll be able to grab in the IndieFort Bundle:
Rougelike is an age-old genre that’s managed to get steadily more and more bloated over the past couple of years, but this streamlined top-down RPG cuts that beast down to the basics and runs with it! It might seem a little simple at first glance, but I warn you, it can get dangerously addictive if you let it get ahold of you.
We’ve already given Cardinal Quest pretty extensive coverage here at IGM, so if you want to learn more then check out our interview with lead developer Ido Yehieli or take a gander at our review where it earned a healthy 70% (“good”) on our rating scale.
Fight, trade or die in the cold abyss of space with this 2D space sim from BigBlockGames. Chose to either follow a preset storyline of space piracy and corporate conspiracy, or forge your own destiny in the sandbox free-for-all mode. Either way, you’ve got a whole universe in front of you and ton of space-age weapons to blast it to bits with!
While we don’t have any major coverage of this title just yet, there’s some free version available on the official site if you want a little taste of what this space epic has in store.
With Kenshi, enter a free-roaming RPG world with over 400km2 just waiting to be explored. Command a small army of desert samurai dudes or go it solo with just one core character, it’s all up to you. Kenshi also breaks with established RPG tradition by abandoning crutches like level scaling or giving player characters super high stats over their NPC counterparts. So if want your guys to be badass invincible super heroes, then you gotta work for it! Also, it has really big swords. Always a plus in my book.
Just so you know up front, this game is still very much in the alpha stage of development, thus is by no means a “finished” product. As a matter of fact, it ranked in our list of Top 10 Most Promising Indie Games in Alpha Stage!
Hey, do you want to control a giant hover tank and shoot lasers at stuff for no real reason? It’s ok, you don’t have to hide it, you’re only human after all. Steel Storm is old school styled top down shooter full of destruction and mayhem across 25 missions and various multiplayer modes. Think you could make it better? Then hop into the unique real-time mission editor and share your masterpiece with the world.
If this game tickles your fancy then you may also want to take a peek at the early rumblings of Steel Storm 2, which is going to be…… a first person shooter?? Crazy times.
By far the most “harcore” game on this list, Demise: Ascension is the latest iteration of a long lived series of ultra-in depth dungeon-crawling fantasy romps that should be immediately familiar to anyone who’s “experienced” some of the earlier Elder Scrolls games. Be warned my friends, this one ain’t one for the faint of heart!
For more info, take a history lesson with lead developer Decklin (aka the Twisted Dwarf).
And last but by no means least, Wanderlust. Love your RPGs but looking for something a little more accessible than demise but a little more fast paced than Cardinal Quest? Then this is the one for you! Go it on your own or team-up for some 4 player co-op action in a colourful fantasy world that should tickle the nostalgia glands of any longtime JRPG fans.
If that doesn’t quite sell you on it, then perhaps you should take a quick read of our Review where it scored a incredible 80% (“amazing”) on our review scale!
For more information on the IndieFort Bundle, be sure to check GamersGate when it goes live, we’ll keep you informed though of course.
B+ Games have announced their new game, iTerraform, which seems to be a very ambitious idea but one that could be oh so good if pulled off.
With the rise of sandbox-crafters, we can excuse any groaning that may follow the revealing of iTerraform, but we would also add that this is a game of the genre that perhaps stands out for a little bit more. The developers of iTerraform, B+ Games, describe it as an “online 3D virtual game”, which immediately distances it from a ‘sandbox-crafter’. The game itself runs on its own currency, with which the players will be able to buy land with which they may do as the please, apparently.
The game’s virtual economy can be earned in-game though the means of doing this have not been divulged as of yet. As you may have guessed, you can also buy this virtual currency with your real money, which instantly makes people jump up from their chairs and scream “dirty MMO” at us so it seems. Hey, we’re just reporting on the details here and people have to make money right?
Anyway, the important part is what you can actually do with this virtual land and presumable other assets in the game upon purchase. The short answer is “pretty much anything”, or at least as much as the game’s assets and interface allow – your creativity is the limit and more and more will be added to the game over time to open up new possibilities. The longer answer (yes that was the short one) is plant trees, create buildings, control avatars, ride in vehicles, mine for minerals and plenty more, PLUS, you’ll eventually be able to upload your own assets to the game and sell them inside the game’s economy.
It sounds like a crazy but workable idea and one that we’ll be watching as development continues. Check out the game’s first trailer to get more of an idea of the kind of thing we’re talking about here.
You can find our more information on iTerraform over on the developer’s official website.
The Indie Gala 3 has just gone live and this time there are significantly less games available but there lots of secrets to be unlocked.
If third time is a charm then you’ll be delighted to hear that The Indie Gala has released another bundle, this time their third, with many games for low prices. In fact you can pay whatever price you want for them but if you want to get all of the games and the bonuses that will be added to the sale then you’ll want to pay over the average.
When you put your money on the table you can then adjust the sliders to donate the money how you want between the Gala organizers, the developers and charity (Child’s Play and Save the Children)
There will also be four bonuses added to the bundle for those who pay over the average, these are still unknown however.
The Indie Gala 3 is available for the next 15 days, so you have plenty of time to grab the games at the price you’re willing to pay. The secret bonuses will be revealed and distributed sometime during the second week.
More information on The Indie Gala 3 can be found over on the official website.
It’s back…again! The Be Mine Bundle 2 has been announced so it’s time to guess what games may be in this forthcoming indie game deal.
Hopefully we won’t have all of the hiccups that the first Be Mine Bundle caused with this sequel bundle. As was the same with the other one, a trailer has been released announcing it and what it will contain. It seems the Be Mine Bundle 2 will be linked with Feed Them With Music charity this time around, which is presumably getting a cut of the money from this and probably the supplying the music that will be given away when a certain amount of donations are received.
You’ll get six games with this one, initially at least, which all come with Steam keys. There’ll also be four bonus levels that, if it works like the original bundle, will be unlocked when certain donation targets are reached. The trailer is below and if you want to know what games are being teased as part of the bundle just scroll down a little further.
So, did you work out which games it was? Well, we have the list right here for your convenience:
As we half expected, Indie Royale have just released the St. Patrick’s Day Bundle which includes four games and as a bonus, two extra games and soundtrack.
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, Indie Royale present six games and a soundtrack as a bonus, all for a very cheap price if you want – or more if you’re feeling generous which will knock the minimum price down for others too.
Most titles are available for both Windows and Mac, as well as on Steam or Desura. There’s a couple of exclusives bunged in there too – DLC Quest and Lair of the Doer make their PC debut, while Vertex Vortex Remix Cortex is an exclusive release and is “a new puzzle re-imagining of Vertex Dispenser using just simple mouse controls”.
Those who pre-ordered the bundle or who pay over the maximum will also receive the NES-inspired 15-tracK OST from Daniel Capo, available in FLAC and MP3 file formats.
There are going to be more bonuses on the way too, so make sure to watch out for them as they come along and get your downloads on the go.
You can find out more information on the St. Patrick’s Day Bundle over on the official Indie Royale website.
