Humble Indie Bundle 9 released

[jerf]

I've slowly been transitioning to Linux-only gaming, because the whole reboot-into-Windows just to play is a pretty steep bar. (Steeper than it even sounds in practice, as now, basically, every time I boot into Windows I have to spend about 10 minutes updating the damn thing, because I don't do it often enough; this has become a vicious cycle.) This bundle is great for that, with all the Linux debuts.

Linux gaming is still young, but it's picking up surprisingly quickly, really. I describe Netflix streaming as: "If you ask 'Does it have X?', the answer is no. But if you ask, 'Is there something I want to watch?', the answer is yes." Linux gaming is getting there, slowly but surely, at least if you can deal with Indie stuff. (And no hipster intended, but Indie stuff has come a long way in the last couple of years. There's a lot of stuff there that would have been at least A-grade, if not necessarily AAA, only five years ago.)

[ekianjo]

Well there's Metro Last Light coming up very soon it seems, that's a sign that AAA gaming may be entering the dance slowly. On the indie side in the end of July Andy, the creator of Monaco, confirmed the upcoming Linux port. I bought Monaco when it came out for Windows, but I hardly played it since I'm spending most of my time under Linux. NOw, knowing this game is coming on Linux made my day.

And this HB9 is excellent. Very much in the tradition of the best ones from 2012.

[rschmitty]

I suppose it's personal preference on your desktop OS, but I stick to Win7 and linux VMs. No rebooting, no wine, all games work :)

I'd much rather run VMs for linux stuff than wine for windows stuff.

Now if you prefer [insert window manager of your choice] over Win7 then I get ya

[green7ea]

I have also been doing more gaming in Linux recently. I only have a windows partition for Starcraft 2 and League of Legends. If blizzard ever gets on board the linux bandwagon, I won't need a windows partition :-D.

[barbs]

I recently built myself a gaming rig, and am running Linux Mint on it. This works well enough for me. Sure, most games out there are Windows only, but the quality ones that I want to play (dota 2, Amnesia, Quake Live) work great on Linux.

[shmerl]

DRM free Linux gaming is still lagging behind though. We need GOG on board to boost the progress.

[InAnEmergency]

Was excited to play Mark of the Ninja on Linux (64-bit) but all I get is a blank screen :'(

[laureny]

I don't see much reason to rejoice, all the games you see running on Linux are not doing so because they were specifically written for Linux but because the developers used Unity or Game Maker.

Nothing wrong with that, the more such games the better, but it just speaks volumes to the fact that Linux is as fringe on the desktop as it ever was.

Frankly, I don't understand why gamers who happen to use Linux and who love video games as well don't spend $500 on a Windows laptop and save themselves all these headaches.

[elliottcarlson]

Why does every bundle get upvoted to the top every time? I love Humble Bundle, I have bought a majority of the ones they release - but this is no longer news, it's their business model. If they were doing something new (like the introduction of the eBook or comedy bundle) then I can see it being interesting. Now it's no different then if every new AirBNB listing were upvoted to the front page.

[Fishkins]

It's certainly different from an AirBNB posting in that it can be used by an unlimited number of people in variety of geographic regions, giving it much broader appeal. It's often the way I realize a new bundle is out, which triggers me to go buy it. Of course, the emails humble bundle sends out could also fill that purpose, so it's debatable whether that's a good reason. I guess the only other reason is to see people's opinions of the games. I find that useful, but I could also see that it might be more appropriate for other forums.

[jeremygallant]

Faster Than Light is a great game. Worth more than the average price by itself.

[gtaylor]

Indeed, it's a simple and challenging little sucker, too. But a word of warning: It will make you feel like you're doing well for a while, then curbstomp you with zero warning. There's no saving/loading, and if you die, you start back at square 1.

It definitely feels awesome if/when you finally beat it, but be careful with this game if you tend to throw things when angered.

[LeonidasXIV]

Average price was currently $3.90 which is really really low.

[middus]

You can buy this for Mark of the Ninja alone - it is gameplay-wise really great and a very artistic game.

[prawks]

Oh my god yes, so excited Mark of the Ninja is included.

[kzrdude]

It's a very, very memorable game, but what do you think about replayability? I can't really bring myself to play it again.

[barbs]

Rumour has it that Monaco is one of the games that is yet to be revealed in this bundle.

http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/monaco-whats-his-will-...

Monaco's an excellent team-based heist game.

[ekianjo]

It's not a rumor anymore, Andy has announced it officially on the 24th of July.

[cocoflunchy]

FEZ! Awesome! I've been waiting for this game for so long.

[Zimahl]

I'm probably the last person on HN who hadn't seen 'Indie Game: The Movie' but an entire third or fourth of it is about the development of Fez by Phil Fish.

That said, I wish Fish would make a second Fez and just not say a word about it until it's maybe a month out. He'd still get hype and sell a ton of game without people pissing him off.

[msg]

I too love this bundle. Pretty awesome that the three charities are Watsi, Child's Play, and EFF.

The games are all very distinct from each other and top notch. My three favorites:

Fez: a perspective-altering puzzle platformer. It's cute, clever, and well designed.

FTL: a real-time starship crew management game, where you assign people to stations and target your opponent's systems. You fly through randomly generated galaxies and have random encounters. Super replayability.

Mark of the Ninja: a stealth-action ninja platformer with very high production values and multiple paths to victory.

[stevewilber]

FTL has a fantastic soundtrack with a chill, electronic sound. Great coding music.

[ekianjo]

FTL is also described as a Rogue-like game in space.

[MarcScott]

I keep buying these and never have time to play any of the games. I guess I'm doing it for altruistic reasons, as I love the whole philosophy behind the business model.

[benjamincburns]

I'm in the same boat, and like you it never stops me from buying the next one. Like you, I'm trying to support the thing as a whole (Humble, the devs, and the charities), but the side benefit is that if I'm ever bored I have a whole cache of really awesome games I can download at a moment's notice.

[narfquat]

Oh cool, Watsi is one of the charities that the funds are being shared with. Gaming for medicine!

[aray]

All the games support Linux this time! Really looking forward to playing Fez and FTL.

[dschep]

Mark of the Ninja is an awesome game, well worth whatever you chose to pay for a bundle.

[milesf]

Gotta say I'm really impressed with the Humble Bundles. I buy most of them, and still can't believe how cheap they are, assuming you get in early.

Their "unlock more products by paying more than the average" is sheer genius. Most people will pay just a hair over the average, which causes the price to creep up as the bundle gets older. So to get the best deal, you have to buy in early.

I don't know of any other bundle products out there (MacHeist, MacLegion, Paddle, etc) that even comes close anymore.

[SEMW]

> So to get the best deal, you have to buy in early.

Thanks for the advice. I wouldn't want to give any more to the EFF, Child's Play, or Watsi than I absolutely have to.

OK, apologies for the sarcasm, but, well— advice on how to pay as little money as possible, while usually great, strikes me as being in poor taste when the money is going to charity (and/or the indie developers, in whatever proportions you specify).

[helloTree]

If you are interested in chilled thoughtful gaming and have a faible for SciFi ala Star-Trek and Co. you MUST try FTL. It is one of the best games I have ever played and I do not know another game that is similar. It is easy to learn and hard to master and although it is Single-Player it has an immense replay potential.

[OWaz]

Fantastic selection! I love these bundles because the games are always great and the included soundtracks are a pleasure to listen to while coding.

[shmerl]

At last - Trine 2 is DRM free.

[onosendai]

Huh? I got it back in April from the official site, I believe, and it was DRM-free.

[michaelx]

In case FEZ is grey on your Mac, @flibitijibibo already fixed it. The second binary works for me: https://getsatisfaction.com/polytron/topics/humble_bundle_ma...

[axelfreeman]

I bought Alienware X51 with Ubuntu (it's preinstalled in US-Region) and love this indiegames. They (most) work very good. I don't need Windows to gaming. Steam, Humble Bundle and WINE for older games. C&C Red Alert works better with WINE than >Windows XP.

[nollidge]

Trying to buy with credit card, and get a message from Stripe saying "you passed an empty string for iovation_blackbox", as if that means something to me.

EDIT: Nevermind, just had to pause Ghostery. Not sure what script was messing it up.

[ebroder]

Sorry about that! Has to do with some anti-fraud tools we've built into Stripe Checkout. Should be fixed now, so you shouldn't see that again, Ghostery or no. Feel free to let me know ([email protected]) if you (or anyone) still sees it.

[Pxtl]

Holy cow, this one is diamonds.

[teamonkey]

Yep, the best one yet, IMO. A stunning selection.

The only trouble is I already own all of them. :(

[sobering]

This is great! Bought it but paid less than I should have. Broke at the moment.