Welcome another week to The Cheapskate's Corner! Have you got some spare change you'd like to spend on some cheap Linux games? Please do read on as we're about to tell you what the options are before you decide on whatever you fancy the most.
But first things first, let's recap the already finished sales:
· Amazon's Indie Games section opening celebration ended a couple of days ago. However, there's still a game bundle with Linux games in it: the Indie Combat Pack, with Dungeon Hearts, Guns of Icarus Online and SpaceChem for $9.99. And even though there are no widespread discounts left, there's still the promotion whereby you get 3 games for free (they change every three days or so) when purchasing any indie game. It will stand through July 17, so keep an eye on it if you fancy a particular game and want to obtain some bonus with it.
· The Race Against Time Gamer Bundle is finally over, with or without a Steam key for Waveform. There are quite a few other active deals at StackSocial but none of it includes any Linux game -- as was to be expected, being it mainly a Mac site.
· The Groupees Build a Bundle 6 came and went, with the same three Linux games we told you about on our previous column: Spectraball, Aeon Command and Dynamite Jack, as none of the additional bonus was compatible with our OS. Of course, the bundle also included Freedom Fall a game allegedly being ported to Linux so if you got this deal you can end up with a fourth game to play in the near future.
· And finally, the Humble Weekly Sale: Rochard ended just a couple of hours ago, having given the opportunity to get the Hard Times DLC at a reasonable price and DRM-free for the first time. The very second this weekly sale ended, another one took its place. "What is it this time?", you ask. "Does it include any Linux game?" Well, you'll have to read your way through the next sections to find out! :P
Unfortunately for The Cheapskate's Corner regulars, but luckily for the occasional reader, there are far more ongoing deals than new ones. For the benefit of those inconstant followers let's recap the deals and bundles that are still in the running:
The current Humble Bundle with Android 6 has entered its second week, and you know what that means. You're right, bonus games! Since last Tuesday, the above-the-average purchases will get McPixel, Waking Mars and NightSky:
The rest of this bundle cast is the one we announced last week: Aquaria, Fractal: Make Blooms Not War, Organ Trail: Director's Cut and Stealth Bastard Deluxe for as little as $0.01, and Frozen Synapse and Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut if beating the current average of $4.75 approx.:
All these games come with their corresponding OST as well as a Steam key if paying more than a dolly. Oh, and those owning an Android device should know that there's an Android-exclusive game in the bundle as well: Pulse.
Charlie's Games' Charlie's Games MegaBundle Pack is still going on, with no confirmed ending date yet. So if you still don't own some of his games, here's the perfect chance! Pay $1 or more and get Irukandji, Bullet Candy (2013 update) and Bullet Candy Perfect. If by more you mean at least $9.99 you'll also get a copy and a Steam key for Scoregasm. If you kindly ask Charlie, he'll give you Steam and Desura keys for any of the other games that are available on those platforms.
The usual Indiebundle.org's bundles with Linux content in them are still live:
· The Perilous Puzzle Bundle, with Hairy Tales at the $5 level and Wyv and Keep at the $7 level. Within the first level there's also Great Permutator, which is purportedly being ported to Linux.
· The Deadly Dungeons Bundle, with Dungeon Fray for $5. This alone is not a particularly good deal, considering that the game is being sold for less than that on Desura. The catch is that the bundle also includes Knytt Underground and Dwarf Quest, two games that may end up coming to Linux (although the former is more likely as it's currently at the beta stage, while the latter is only mere speculation), also at the $5 tier. Buy it at your own risk, and don't come back crying to us if any of those games ends up not coming to Linux after all!
gog.com's 2013 #NoDRM Summer Sale is still going full steam ahead. As we reported last week, we've spotted a few of the discounted games that can actually be played natively on Linux using an appropriate installer, open-source client or similar. Check the sales page for the appropriate tool in each case. Here's the gallery depicting all of them:
As we said, don't hesitate to tip us on any game we might've missed!
Another indie sale is going on chez Shinyloot: the SGC Indie Sale 2013, with many games 50% off. Among them, there are 4 Linux titles: Caster (DRM-free + Steam), Gravi (DRM-free + Desura), Rijn the Specpyre in... Manor of the Damned! (DRM-free + Desura) and SpaceChem (DRM-free + Steam):
No new games have been added to the sale during the past week so we're not expecting any new ones during the second and final week. Anyway we'll be keeping an eye on it and we'll promptly inform you about any news on this front.
Last week we told us that two previously commercial games had gone free forever; it's no wonder then that they continue to be free today. :P The games are, as you probably know, Reprisal and Incredipede:
To avoid repeating ourselves column after column, this will be the last time we remind you about them, so please go and download them if you still haven't done so!
As we said above, we haven't many new things to tell you. But their scarcity doesn't make them less interesting, quite the contrary in fact! These are this week's brand new deals:
We teased you before about the new Humble Weekly Sale, but by now you already now that it contains some sort of Linux content otherwise we wouldn't be talking about it here... or would we? Nah, seriously, this week's sale is featuring Klei Entertainment games. Before you start getting excited imagining things like Don't Starve or even Mark of the Ninja, let us tell you that what we're talking here is Shank and Shank 2:
Both of them were featured on previous Humble Indie Bundles (#4 and #7 to be precise) so there's a good chance that you already own them. But if not, or if you want to gift them to a friend, you can get them for any price you want ($1 min for Steam keys, as usual). We guess it's too soon for Don't Starve to be included in bundles, and were Mark of the Ninja to be ported to Linux it would be featured first on a full HIB. Hmm... maybe HIB9? :)
Indie Gala is celebrating the summer with The Indie Gala Summer Dream bundle, featuring 3 Linux games (4 if we're lucky and the mystery game is also compatible with Tux's OS). Pay a minimum of $1 and get Oil Rush, along with the Tower Defense map pack and the OST on Steam:
Beat the average (currently around $3.25) and also get DROD: The City Beneath and DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder on Desura:
As we said, there's a still locked mystery game. We'll be updating this article as soon as it gets unlocked, in case it ends up being a Linux-compatible game.
UPDATE: We've made some inquiries and it turns out that the two other DROD games on the base level are also available for Linux as DRM-free downloads. So paying anything you want you'll get DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon and DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold:
This increases the Linux games count up to 5 while we wait for the mystery game to be unlocked.
And finally, apart from the already familiar two Indiebundle.org bundles, they are releasing a new one tomorrow. Since we are in the business we've been able to take a look at it before anyone else -- nah, you only have to check their RSS feed. :P
It's the Kids & Charity Bundle and as the name suggests it features mainly games for children and four charities you can choose to support. The bundle however doesn't include a single Linux game per se, but many of its games are susceptible of having Linux versions sooner or later:
· At the $1-$4 level there are 3 Teddy Floppy Ear games: The Race, Mountain Adventure and Kayaking. They are all made with Unity, so they could easily be ported to Linux supposing the developers were using version 4 and wanted to do it.
· The $5-$7 level includes Wimp: Who Stole My Pants? and Woodle Tree. The first one is supposedly being ported to Linux, although according to the developer it should've been ready in April. The other one maybe will have a Linux version in a future release according to its creator, and it shouldn't be difficult as this is another Unity game.
Right now we can only think of two deals that could be hitting us in the next few days:
· As the current IndieGameStand deal is again from the first batch offered to the fans, we shouldn't rule out for future deals the remaining Linux titles from this group: The Cat Lady (playable natively using the AGS Linux port, as you know), Constant C (allegedly being ported to Linux) or even Pitman (is listed as a Linux game although there's nothing anywhere to support this claim).
Of course it could also be one of the Linux titles in the second batch: 3089 (Linux beta available), Party of Sin (with a Linux version planned, as avarisclari reported here on GOL), Private Infiltrator (Linux version is in the developer's plans) or Scoregasm (already available for Linux).
The current deal ends on Friday night (in America) or Saturday morning (Europe), so we'll soon see whether the next game being featured is Linux-friendly or not.
UPDATE: It turned out to be a quite Linux-friendly one: Constant C, and "it will be on Mac and Linux in near future" so you can get it now as a sort of pre-order. Hurry up if you're interested as this deal will expire in 35 hours exactly!
· The other interesting prospect was an upcoming Groupees bundle called Bundle of the Undead. We said «was» because the bundle -which is of the build-a-bundle type- is starting in a few hours, they've put up a teaser trailer showing the games... and none of them has a Linux version. :( We'll have to wait for the unlockable bonus before deciding if this bundle is worthy of our consideration or not.
And that's all for today. We're sorry for not having more new bundles but we're not the ones making them, you know? Anyway, we'd be truly surprised if nothing unexpected popped out before next Thursday. So stay tuned for any eventual update, because that'll be a clear signal that some new interesting deal has arrived. See you soon! ;)
What did we tell you? Eh? Just a few hours after publishing the article, as the Spanish Inquisition itself, a totally unexpected bundle has appeared! Let's review it:
The guys at Pixeljam have put their Octology in bundle form and they're offering it to us for whatever amount we deem it worth. So pay what you want ($1 min) to get Potatoman Seeks the Troof, Dino Run SE, Dino Run: Marathon of Doom, Planeteri, Bitku Beta and Snowball!, as well as the Potatoman OST and Pixeljam's Volume 1 music album:
Paying $10 or more grants you access to Pixeljam's Treat List, a special website where members can download free Pixeljam-related bonuses every now and again. Not to mention the fact that you instantly become super awesome!
The bundle will be up for 4 weeks so we'll be talking about it again on future articles, although if you go and get it now you'll be able to skip a couple of paragraphs when reading the next Cheapskate's Corner... :P
. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
But first things first, let's recap the already finished sales:
· Amazon's Indie Games section opening celebration ended a couple of days ago. However, there's still a game bundle with Linux games in it: the Indie Combat Pack, with Dungeon Hearts, Guns of Icarus Online and SpaceChem for $9.99. And even though there are no widespread discounts left, there's still the promotion whereby you get 3 games for free (they change every three days or so) when purchasing any indie game. It will stand through July 17, so keep an eye on it if you fancy a particular game and want to obtain some bonus with it.
· The Race Against Time Gamer Bundle is finally over, with or without a Steam key for Waveform. There are quite a few other active deals at StackSocial but none of it includes any Linux game -- as was to be expected, being it mainly a Mac site.
· The Groupees Build a Bundle 6 came and went, with the same three Linux games we told you about on our previous column: Spectraball, Aeon Command and Dynamite Jack, as none of the additional bonus was compatible with our OS. Of course, the bundle also included Freedom Fall a game allegedly being ported to Linux so if you got this deal you can end up with a fourth game to play in the near future.
· And finally, the Humble Weekly Sale: Rochard ended just a couple of hours ago, having given the opportunity to get the Hard Times DLC at a reasonable price and DRM-free for the first time. The very second this weekly sale ended, another one took its place. "What is it this time?", you ask. "Does it include any Linux game?" Well, you'll have to read your way through the next sections to find out! :P
Unfortunately for The Cheapskate's Corner regulars, but luckily for the occasional reader, there are far more ongoing deals than new ones. For the benefit of those inconstant followers let's recap the deals and bundles that are still in the running:
The current Humble Bundle with Android 6 has entered its second week, and you know what that means. You're right, bonus games! Since last Tuesday, the above-the-average purchases will get McPixel, Waking Mars and NightSky:
The rest of this bundle cast is the one we announced last week: Aquaria, Fractal: Make Blooms Not War, Organ Trail: Director's Cut and Stealth Bastard Deluxe for as little as $0.01, and Frozen Synapse and Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut if beating the current average of $4.75 approx.:
All these games come with their corresponding OST as well as a Steam key if paying more than a dolly. Oh, and those owning an Android device should know that there's an Android-exclusive game in the bundle as well: Pulse.
Charlie's Games' Charlie's Games Mega
The usual Indiebundle.org's bundles with Linux content in them are still live:
· The Perilous Puzzle Bundle, with Hairy Tales at the $5 level and Wyv and Keep at the $7 level. Within the first level there's also Great Permutator, which is purportedly being ported to Linux.
· The Deadly Dungeons Bundle, with Dungeon Fray for $5. This alone is not a particularly good deal, considering that the game is being sold for less than that on Desura. The catch is that the bundle also includes Knytt Underground and Dwarf Quest, two games that may end up coming to Linux (although the former is more likely as it's currently at the beta stage, while the latter is only mere speculation), also at the $5 tier. Buy it at your own risk, and don't come back crying to us if any of those games ends up not coming to Linux after all!
gog.com's 2013 #NoDRM Summer Sale is still going full steam ahead. As we reported last week, we've spotted a few of the discounted games that can actually be played natively on Linux using an appropriate installer, open-source client or similar. Check the sales page for the appropriate tool in each case. Here's the gallery depicting all of them:
As we said, don't hesitate to tip us on any game we might've missed!
Another indie sale is going on chez Shinyloot: the SGC Indie Sale 2013, with many games 50% off. Among them, there are 4 Linux titles: Caster (DRM-free + Steam), Gravi (DRM-free + Desura), Rijn the Specpyre in... Manor of the Damned! (DRM-free + Desura) and SpaceChem (DRM-free + Steam):
No new games have been added to the sale during the past week so we're not expecting any new ones during the second and final week. Anyway we'll be keeping an eye on it and we'll promptly inform you about any news on this front.
Last week we told us that two previously commercial games had gone free forever; it's no wonder then that they continue to be free today. :P The games are, as you probably know, Reprisal and Incredipede:
To avoid repeating ourselves column after column, this will be the last time we remind you about them, so please go and download them if you still haven't done so!
As we said above, we haven't many new things to tell you. But their scarcity doesn't make them less interesting, quite the contrary in fact! These are this week's brand new deals:
We teased you before about the new Humble Weekly Sale, but by now you already now that it contains some sort of Linux content otherwise we wouldn't be talking about it here... or would we? Nah, seriously, this week's sale is featuring Klei Entertainment games. Before you start getting excited imagining things like Don't Starve or even Mark of the Ninja, let us tell you that what we're talking here is Shank and Shank 2:
Both of them were featured on previous Humble Indie Bundles (#4 and #7 to be precise) so there's a good chance that you already own them. But if not, or if you want to gift them to a friend, you can get them for any price you want ($1 min for Steam keys, as usual). We guess it's too soon for Don't Starve to be included in bundles, and were Mark of the Ninja to be ported to Linux it would be featured first on a full HIB. Hmm... maybe HIB9? :)
Indie Gala is celebrating the summer with The Indie Gala Summer Dream bundle, featuring 3 Linux games (4 if we're lucky and the mystery game is also compatible with Tux's OS). Pay a minimum of $1 and get Oil Rush, along with the Tower Defense map pack and the OST on Steam:
Beat the average (currently around $3.25) and also get DROD: The City Beneath and DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder on Desura:
As we said, there's a still locked mystery game. We'll be updating this article as soon as it gets unlocked, in case it ends up being a Linux-compatible game.
UPDATE: We've made some inquiries and it turns out that the two other DROD games on the base level are also available for Linux as DRM-free downloads. So paying anything you want you'll get DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon and DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold:
This increases the Linux games count up to 5 while we wait for the mystery game to be unlocked.
And finally, apart from the already familiar two Indiebundle.org bundles, they are releasing a new one tomorrow. Since we are in the business we've been able to take a look at it before anyone else -- nah, you only have to check their RSS feed. :P
It's the Kids & Charity Bundle and as the name suggests it features mainly games for children and four charities you can choose to support. The bundle however doesn't include a single Linux game per se, but many of its games are susceptible of having Linux versions sooner or later:
· At the $1-$4 level there are 3 Teddy Floppy Ear games: The Race, Mountain Adventure and Kayaking. They are all made with Unity, so they could easily be ported to Linux supposing the developers were using version 4 and wanted to do it.
· The $5-$7 level includes Wimp: Who Stole My Pants? and Woodle Tree. The first one is supposedly being ported to Linux, although according to the developer it should've been ready in April. The other one maybe will have a Linux version in a future release according to its creator, and it shouldn't be difficult as this is another Unity game.
Right now we can only think of two deals that could be hitting us in the next few days:
· As the current IndieGameStand deal is again from the first batch offered to the fans, we shouldn't rule out for future deals the remaining Linux titles from this group: The Cat Lady (playable natively using the AGS Linux port, as you know), Constant C (allegedly being ported to Linux) or even Pitman (is listed as a Linux game although there's nothing anywhere to support this claim).
Of course it could also be one of the Linux titles in the second batch: 3089 (Linux beta available), Party of Sin (with a Linux version planned, as avarisclari reported here on GOL), Private Infiltrator (Linux version is in the developer's plans) or Scoregasm (already available for Linux).
The current deal ends on Friday night (in America) or Saturday morning (Europe), so we'll soon see whether the next game being featured is Linux-friendly or not.
UPDATE: It turned out to be a quite Linux-friendly one: Constant C, and "it will be on Mac and Linux in near future" so you can get it now as a sort of pre-order. Hurry up if you're interested as this deal will expire in 35 hours exactly!
· The other interesting prospect was an upcoming Groupees bundle called Bundle of the Undead. We said «was» because the bundle -which is of the build-a-bundle type- is starting in a few hours, they've put up a teaser trailer showing the games... and none of them has a Linux version. :( We'll have to wait for the unlockable bonus before deciding if this bundle is worthy of our consideration or not.
And that's all for today. We're sorry for not having more new bundles but we're not the ones making them, you know? Anyway, we'd be truly surprised if nothing unexpected popped out before next Thursday. So stay tuned for any eventual update, because that'll be a clear signal that some new interesting deal has arrived. See you soon! ;)
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ UPDATE $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
What did we tell you? Eh? Just a few hours after publishing the article, as the Spanish Inquisition itself, a totally unexpected bundle has appeared! Let's review it:
The guys at Pixeljam have put their Octology in bundle form and they're offering it to us for whatever amount we deem it worth. So pay what you want ($1 min) to get Potatoman Seeks the Troof, Dino Run SE, Dino Run: Marathon of Doom, Planeteri, Bitku Beta and Snowball!, as well as the Potatoman OST and Pixeljam's Volume 1 music album:
Paying $10 or more grants you access to Pixeljam's Treat List, a special website where members can download free Pixeljam-related bonuses every now and again. Not to mention the fact that you instantly become super awesome!
The bundle will be up for 4 weeks so we'll be talking about it again on future articles, although if you go and get it now you'll be able to skip a couple of paragraphs when reading the next Cheapskate's Corner... :P
. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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All of Pixeljam's games are on sale, minimum price is $1.00. I wasn't sure how to put them into the sales chart since it's a bundle.
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Potatoman Seeks the Troof
by Pixeljam
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Dino Run SE
by Pixeljam
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Dino Run: Marathon of Doom
by Pixeljam
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Planeteri
by Pixeljam + Fernando Ramallo
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Bitku Beta
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Thanks for maintaining this site!
-Joe
I have a difficult time finding native Linux games on the sales page now due to all the Amazon and GOG sales. I wish I could filter those out. =(
Nah, they don't hate Linux at all! They just aren't convinced that they can pull it off and still make money. The CD Projekt RED/GOG team put a lot of attention into their games (i.e., they license sources when possible & patch the games to run properly on modern Windows & Mac, completely rewrite installers from native to InnoSetup, etc), and continue to support them.
From what I've read of their statements regarding Linux, it's like "We know! We just don't know how to do it right..." I honestly think they're basically terrified of what it means to support Linux, and are pretty steeped in the FUD (successfully sown by other OS vendors over the years).
My personal opinion? They're waiting to see what happens with Steam. If we make an impact there, and exceed the 2% we're currently stuck in right now by enough, I suspect that's when we'll see some movement from them in the Linux regard.
That said, most of the games would end up being converted from an installer to the raw data files in a tarball (which we can easily do anyway). The barrier to entry for us is so low, and confidence that we'll end up with a working product (specifically DOSBox games I mean) that I can see why the community is willing to accept the status quo. Getting any awesome old DOSBox game working perfectly is so much easier than screwing with the Windows version of Steam, and then the Steam game to be launched by Windows Steam (which many folks still regularly do for some games).
I've done the GOG voting and commenting, etc., but I honestly think it's more of a business decision based on a "wait and see" strategy than anything malicious.
Still, don't let that convince you to hand them a red cent if you don't feel your money's going to the right place. My aim is not to get GOG more customers, it's to separate this notion of "hatred".
Amazon I can't speak to as a software vendor, but they did ensure that their Netflix-competitor can use flash & works in Linux, and they did port their music downloader app natively to Linux, in addition (of course) to sneaking Linux into their ecosystem via the Kindle product line, all of which were embedded Linux (or Linux-by-way-of-Android). Their web services & elastic cloud are all Linux based. So, they're not the least Linux-friendly company by any measure. However, they're also responsible for that awful 1-click patent & for ignoring Mike Frett's Linux questions... so it's a mixed bag with them, as usual :P
I've never bought any games from Amazon but I'm pretty confident the games labelled with [Online Game Code] do consist of nothing less and nothing more than a Steam key (which are the ones I'm putting in the sales page). The only precaution you must take if you don't live in the USA is following these simple instructions.