Introducing The Humble Bundle with Android 6!

Oh yeah, I'm there. Frozen Synapse and Organ trail look fun.

Really glad to see an adventure game featured again!  The fact that it's Broken Sword is even better... in fact, I believe this is Revolution Software's first Linux title.  I wonder if they'll continue to sell the Linux version, or hide it away (as we've seen before).  I'd like to see it on Desura, Humble Store, along with the usual Steam key!

That said... I supported their Kickstarter, and ended up with GOG credits for their games, and also bought the Android version of BS: DC when it was on sale for 25 cents :-)

It will still be fun to play the Director's Cut natively, though!

As always, stats for the new bundle can be found in the Humble Visualisations, and there's a preview of hourly per-platform data up as well.

Really glad to see an adventure game featured again!

I'm pretty excited about this too! Have there previously been any playable adventure titles featured in a Humble Bundle promotion (sort of feel like Broken Age shouldn't count yet)? I don't recall any.

Oh yes, certainly.  Well, at least, depending on your definition of the genre!

Recall the Amanita Designs titles, specifically Samorost 2, Machinarium, and Botanicula.  These are probably the closest (though, the narrative in Botanicula is thin enough that some, including Speedster, would prefer to call it more of a puzzle game).  Loosen your definition a little, and we can include TRAUMA, Sword & Sorcery and Stacking as well.  Loosen your platform a little, and there is, of course, the Telltale Games bundle.  Loosen both, and we might include The Room (though, it's more of a puzzle game linked by a loose plot than Botanicula!).

Oh yes, certainly.  Well, at least, depending on your definition of the genre!

Recall the Amanita Designs titles, specifically Samorost 2, Machinarium, and Botanicula.  These are probably the closest (though, the narrative in Botanicula is thin enough that some, including Speedster, would prefer to call it more of a puzzle game).  Loosen your definition a little, and we can include TRAUMA, Sword & Sorcery and Stacking as well.  Loosen your platform a little, and there is, of course, the Telltale Games bundle.  Loosen both, and we might include The Room (though, it's more of a puzzle game linked by a loose plot than Botanicula!).

Oh, you are right! I can't believe I forgot about Samorost 2, Machinarium, Botanicula and Sword & Sworcery (I think they're all unarguably point-and-click aventure games).

I'd probably place TRAUMA in whatever box Myst lives in, which gameplay-wise is fairly different from the first few mentioned.

The Telltale stuff hasn't been in a Humble Bundle though (only a Humble Weekly Sale to date), which I think is important to differentiate - Too many people have trouble telling Humble's different brands apart.

This is yet another brilliant bundle... if you have Android. Most of these titles have been in the other bundles... but not for Android. Frozen Synapse is really a great CROSS platform multi-player. It is its debut on Android. Aquaria is another great Linux title if you are into platformers. Steath Bastard has been awarded several prizes. Broken Sword is a point-and-click that you should not pass. I do not know the other games intimately, but strongly recommend these if you have a large phone, or a tablet, and are tired of the same old Angry Birds and Zynga games that unfortunately sem to clutter the mobile gaming space.

The Telltale stuff hasn't been in a Humble Bundle though (only a Humble Weekly Sale to date), which I think is important to differentiate - Too many people have trouble telling Humble's different brands apart.

I do not think the problem is telling them apart, but actually caring about the distinction. All are done under the Humble label, and that is why I find it so damaging for them to espouse DRM free gaming in one venue and completely ignore it in another. One can, and in some ways should, see how they are handling this and come to the conclusion that not even the Humble guys are really that interested in ensuring that we have DRM free games. Thus we loose one of our largest stalwarts and are made to look weak, ineffective, and uncommitted.

I know this rant is somewhat off topic, but considering the email I got from them is entitled "Get six awesome games for Steam and Android!", the whole situation seems worthy of commenting on, as they are not even willing to truly promote this bundle's DRM free nature in a message to their followers. I have subsequently unsubscribed from the Humble Bundle's mailing list. If they put something up I may be interested in I will learn it from GoL, but if they are no longer truly committed to being DRM free, I can no longer be committed to them, and as such there is no point for me to have a subscription.

Oh, you are right! I can't believe I forgot about Samorost 2, Machinarium, Botanicula and Sword & Sworcery (I think they're all unarguably point-and-click adventure games).

I'd probably place TRAUMA in whatever box Myst lives in, which gameplay-wise is fairly different from the first few mentioned.

The Telltale stuff hasn't been in a Humble Bundle though (only a Humble Weekly Sale to date), which I think is important to differentiate - Too many people have trouble telling Humble's different brands apart.

Yes, my definition contains all of those titles, and I include TRAUMA as well, with caveats.  It was an interesting, and thought-provoking, experience.  The navigation mechanic was a bit obtuse (to me) in that your last polaroid per area inevitably ended in pixel-hunt territory, but I certainly see what you mean.  Both it, and Myst, are puzzle-heavy, inventory-less, first-person adventures, with ambient/emergent story structures.  One could place The Seventh Guest (and it's ilk) in that box as well, and still, they are basically point-and-click.  For me, The Room falls over into puzzle game territory (although it purports a story as well;  I have yet to finish it, so I can't vouch for the story aspect).

Regarding differentiating Telltale, I quite disagree.  The 11 bit studios sale feels a lot like the old one-studio bundles (which I don't think we'll be seeing ever again, as those will be converted to weekly sales, I suspect), but the Telltale sale feels like the THQ one (which was not a weekly sale).  Hence, I feel the distinction is somewhat arbitrary and unhelpful.  Humble have always offered bundles/deals of varying sizes and apparent "value", so I don't really see why the branding should somehow cause their offerings to be considered a vastly different thing.  The averages are certainly lower, but they run for half the duration of the other offerings, but I'm fairly certain that most of the bundle revenue comes in the first week anyway (hence the goodies added to the beat-the-average bonus halfway through).

Regarding differentiating Telltale, I quite disagree.  The 11 bit studios sale feels a lot like the old one-studio bundles (which I don't think we'll be seeing ever again, as those will be converted to weekly sales, I suspect), but the Telltale sale feels like the THQ one (which was not a weekly sale).  Hence, I feel the distinction is somewhat arbitrary and unhelpful.

Actually, the THQ stuff returned as the first weekly sale. The original intention from Humble (at least when I talked to people prior to the Humble THQ Bundle going live) was that it would be presented as a different product off the main humblebundle.com page (much like the Weekly Sale and Amnesia Fortnight promotions). I view the THQ bundle as the exception (the mistake I referred to in my last post) rather than the benchmark to compare others against.

If anything, overlooking the differences between Humble's spectrum of products seems to me to be unhelpful.

It helps Humble manage people's expectations. Remember all the flack they copped between the Humble Indie Bundle #4 and The Humble Indie Bundle V when people were saying that Humble's quality had dropped and were getting cranky enough to say they wouldn't buy future bundles (it's sad how often that gets thrown around these days)? If the differentiation between the Indie bundles, Android bundles and debut bundles were better highlighted, that would have helped people make more informed buying decisions (the same also applies for all the people who missed the first Android bundle because they thought it was Android only and all the people who purchased the Mobile bundle expecting it to support desktop platforms).

The most relevant reason for distinguishing, of course (and this responds a little to Hamish's post), is native support, which the Weekly Sales have been established as not being a reliable source for. I'm definitely not denying that Humble is diminished and made "less special" by not sticking to its guns on the cross-platform, DRM free and "no middlemen" angles, but I do think that if they want to explore that stuff, relegating it to a separate, lesser product is certainly more favourable than polluting their core offerings.

Humble have always offered bundles/deals of varying sizes and apparent "value", so I don't really see why the branding should somehow cause their offerings to be considered a vastly different thing.

Humble were expecting customers to see them as being separate products/brands under the Humble umbrella, but people were still mislabeling the Humble Indie Bundle #3 as HIB4. It wasn't until the real Humble Indie Bundle #4 that people started to catch on that were more than one type of offering. Though Humble failed to communicate it, those varying styles of bundles were internally seen as discreet, differently structured products (I've touch more on Humble's branding troubles in my articles and the interview I did with RYG last year).

The averages are certainly lower, but they run for half the duration of the other offerings, but I'm fairly certain that most of the bundle revenue comes in the first week anyway (hence the goodies added to the beat-the-average bonus halfway through).

I track hourly data on weekly sales to help make it easier to look at this sort of stuff. Sadly I missed the first two days of the Telltale sale due to markup changes at Humble's end (and a lack of free time on mine :( )


Edit: Woah, wall of text. Sorry guys :D

s_d: Would love to discuss what defines an adventure game and how the broad range of potential mechanics/presentations/styles all fit together/relate to each other, but I think I've derailed this thread enough >_<

The most relevant reason for distinguishing, of course (and this responds a little to Hamish's post), is native support, which the Weekly Sales have been established as not being a reliable source for. I'm definitely not denying that Humble is diminished and made "less special" by not sticking to its guns on the cross-platform, DRM free and "no middlemen" angles, but I do think that if they want to explore that stuff, relegating it to a separate, lesser product is certainly more favourable than polluting their core offerings.

Oh, it is certainly better than pulling another straight THQ one. But it all does seems a lot like what the Molson Canadian brand has become - about thirteen years ago they had this big patriotic advertisement push, the most famous being the whole "I am Canadian!" spiel they came up with which was widely parodied. Then they got bought out by Coors, and no longer were Canadian. And yet they still play the same card, trying to pump up national pride while the money earned heads south of the border, even though a large part of their previous advertisements was playing on (admittedly gentle) anti-American sentiment. The beer is still there, and objectively the same, but the spirit behind it is soiled, and their advertisements feel like feeble protestations.

Draw whatever parallels you like between that and Humble Bundle, but I can not help but feel the DRM free side of the main bundles now feel like weak protestations. I still appreciate them being there, appreciate their products, but I am under no illusion I am buying into something greater. And considering that is the message that was originally sold, it can only feel like a betrayal. At least there is still the charity aspect...

I might spring for the current Humble Weekly Sale as then I can get the Hard Times DLC for Rochard outside of Steam or buying the whole game again through their Humble Store widget for full price. Is this the first Weekly sale that is completely true to the main bundles, or were there any before it that I missed?

They also have this nice addition to their description:

Rochard was also the premiere title to debut the Unity game engine on Linux! Unity powers a number of amazing titles and its presence on Linux can only broaden the horizons for cross-platform gaming everywhere.

See, I am not impossible to please. :P

Oh yes, certainly.  Well, at least, depending on your definition of the genre!

Recall the Amanita Designs titles, specifically Samorost 2, Machinarium, and Botanicula.  These are probably the closest (though, the narrative in Botanicula is thin enough that some, including Speedster, would prefer to call it more of a puzzle game).  Loosen your definition a little, and we can include TRAUMA, Sword & Sorcery and Stacking as well.  Loosen your platform a little, and there is, of course, the Telltale Games bundle.  Loosen both, and we might include The Room (though, it's more of a puzzle game linked by a loose plot than Botanicula!).

Oh, you are right! I can't believe I forgot about Samorost 2, Machinarium, Botanicula and Sword & Sworcery (I think they're all unarguably point-and-click aventure games).

Hahaha! Just watch me debate this categorization for Botanicula:

"Botanicula is point'n'click exploration game created by Jára Plachý and Amanita Design."

http://amanita-design.net/games/botanicula.html

That's what the DEVELOPERS of Botanicula call it, so I'm not just making this up. The emphasis is on solving puzzles while exploring unique surroundings and finding all the unique bug types, not on solving puzzles while enjoying a detailed plot like Monkey Island or Broken Sword.

I'm sure you can think of puzzle games that were also given a plot without generally being considered an adventure game, e.g. Corey Cole's Dr. Brain games, but those "puzzle games" did not feature this aspect of exploring a world full of non-puzzle-essential details -- "exploration game" seems a great fit to me.

Hahaha! Just watch me debate this categorization for Botanicula:

"Botanicula is point'n'click exploration game created by Jára Plachý and Amanita Design."

http://amanita-design.net/games/botanicula.html

That's what the DEVELOPERS of Botanicula call it, so I'm not just making this up. The emphasis is on solving puzzles while exploring unique surroundings and finding all the unique bug types, not on solving puzzles while enjoying a detailed plot like Monkey Island or Broken Sword.

I'm sure you can think of puzzle games that were also given a plot without generally being considered an adventure game, e.g. Corey Cole's Dr. Brain games, but those "puzzle games" did not feature this aspect of exploring a world full of non-puzzle-essential details -- "exploration game" seems a great fit to me.

I know I said I didn't want to derail the discussion further, but I wanted to make sure that my earlier comments weren't being misrepresented. I certainly won't deny that Botanicula is defined by its ambient and exploration qualities - in fact, when we did Botanicula for Game Club last year, I described it in the intro as a "point and click exploration game". I'd still group it with those other titles though (under whatever arbitrary category label you want to assign - perhaps "point-and-click adventure" isn't the right one, but it fits well enough for me) without including Myst or Trauma.

Perhaps we should make a separate forum thread for this very worthwhile topic where I can say that playing Botanicula most definitely felt like having an adventure to me? :D

It's ok, we don't have to continue the debate -- I just wanted to point out that it does exist, and that "exploration game" seems like a really descriptive name for games like Botanicula that have a very different feel than the non-myst "adventure games". The people who say "I loved Myst, but adventure games usually have too much of that stupid inventory and conversation stuff" should be able to say "I love exploration games" and have others know what they mean (and I would then recommend they try Botanicula, with a really high success rate ;) )

Really --I did run across some people like that on a non-game forum, and for a while was frustrated at their complete lack of interest in my adventure-kickstarter-of-the-month recommendations. Finally figured out they really like this exploration genre, and yes one of them had played Botanicula with great appreciation.