We did it! The Cheapskate's Corner is back on Thursday, although we may seriously consider moving it to Fridays again. Why? Because of this evening's new stuff landslide. Whenever we thought we had almost finished the column, bam!, something new appeared. Many times like this. Too damn stressful, we tell you. But let it all be for you, our beloved readers. :wub:
Let's start by taking a look back at the -not so many- already finished deals:
· Indie Royale's The Prairie Dog Bundle ended to leave room for another feature (see further down). As we told you last week it included no immediately available Linux games, but three of them are supposed to be eventually released for Linux: Vox, Signal Ops (possibly only on Steam and Zack Zero. If you got it, we hope all these good omens come true in the end!
· In our usual IndieGameStand recap we've got to mention Quest Run, their only Linux-friendly featured game last week -- not counting the current deal, which you'll discover later on in this very same article.
The indefatigable Charlie's Games' MegaBundle Pack is still live and running. By now we're sure you all know how it works: pay what you want -$1 minimum- to get Irukandji, Bullet Candy, and Bullet Candy Perfect. Pay $5 or more to also get a DRM-free copy and a Steam key for Scoregasm. Additional Steam and/or Desura keys can be requested to Charlie himself via email -- and we can bear witness that he delivers fast! :)
There are still two ongoing Indiebundle.org's bundles with Linux content:
· The Rugged Rogues Bundle contains Tales of Maj'Eyal and Voyage to Farland at the $5 level, with Dungeon Prospector at the bonus $7 level. All three games come as Desura keys.
· The SciFi Bundle includes at the $5 tier the soon-to-come-to-Linux Constant C, and at the $7 Bundle+ level there's Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire alpha, both games coming in the form of Desura keys. Plus Beyond Beyaan was confirmed to be heading to Linux, so this one will eventually end up being a 3-title bundle.
Groupees' Be Mine 9 bundle is still going on for another 5 days. Some more bonus have been unlocked since last week and now it includes two games currently available on Linux, Particulars and The 39 Steps:
Both titles can be yours for a minimum of $1 and include a Desura code (Particulars) and a Steam key (The 39 Steps), as well as DRM-free downloads. In addition, at the $1 tier we can also find Depths of Peril, whose creators have already done some work to port it to Linux, and Splatter, which has a Linux port planned but only if the Windows version is successful enough.
Looking higher at the $5 min. level there's Eador: Masters of the Broken World and Ittle Dew, two games that should be hitting Linux soon. While the former's current status is a mystery (UPDATE: not anymore), the latter is already being tested on Linux (UPDATE: it's already out for Linux on Steam!). Regarding Ittle Dew the developer couldn't tell us for sure whether there'll be a downloadable DRM-free version of the game added to this bundle, so be careful if you're not a fan of Steam. :S: Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages could also be available to us someday, although don't expect it soon.
And 3 more bonus are still remaining to be uncovered, so we could be getting more surprises soon!
PS: The Build a Meridian 4 Megabundle is going to expire in less than two days. Its only game that's readily available for Linux is Deadly 30, but as we were saying on our last column we'd rather directly support its developers than buying the entire bundle and indirectly rewarding other studios that don't care about us.
Bundle Stars reopened their Atomic Indie Bundle and it will be aroundfor little over 3 days (UPDATE: they've prolonged it for 4 more weeks, so the deal will be live until September 30th). As we said, its only Linux game is SpaceChem:
The game comes as a Steam key and the whole bundle costs around $5, about a 50% discount over the listed price. Again, if you've got a little place for poor indie developers in your cheapskate heart you may want to skip this deal and get the game from somewhere else. Keep reading to find out where. :P
ShinyLoot officially opened the store recently and are celebrating with an insane Launch Sale. From August 26th to October 6th most of their catalogue is on sale at 15%-25% off. Plus, there are Weekly Deals where the selected games are offered at 50% off, and finally there are also Daily Deals at 80%-85% off -- e.g. today's Daily Deals for Linux are Spectra, On The Shoulders of Ancestors, and Gravi. But check again tomorrow for new exciting deals!
UPDATE: The daily deals are only available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The rest of the time you may want to check the Weekend Deals or the already mentioned Weekly Deals.
We wouldn't want to end this mention without thanking the nice people at ShinyLoot for creating their XML sales feed and for being so awesome as to accept our feedback to better adapt it to our needs! ;)
Happy birthday, Greenlight! It's been 1 year since Steam launched its sometimes controversial indie games selection platform and they are celebrating it by putting 50 greenlit games on sale. 12 of those games are available on Linux (click them to go to their respective Steam page):
The sale will be up until next Monday at 10am PDT (5pm UTC), so don't leave it for later and get those games you never bought because they were too expensive!
Speaking about Steam, we think it appropriate to mention the latest Linux hit: Natural Selection 2. It's 75% off from now and until Monday, so you can get it for £4.74/$6.24/5.74€. If the deal still doesn't convince you, you're in luck as the game has been selected for this week's Free Weekend: install it and play it for free until Sunday 1pm PDT (8pm UTC). Let the struggle for survival begin!
We told you at the beginning of the article, the current IndieGameStand deal is a Linux game, Pandora: Purge of Pride:
As usual you can get the game starting at $0.25, you'll get a Desura key if you pay $1 or more, and you'll also unlock the game's OST if you beat the $1.70 average. Only two days remaining, so go grab it fast if you're interested!
Groupees strikes again! Not content with two game bundles going on, they've now launched the Capsule Computers Indie Bundle. We've had no time to investigate the chances of some of the games included in the bundle eventually getting released for Linux, so we are going to stick to the already available ones. They are Three Dead Zed (DRM-free + Desura code) and SpaceChem (DRM-free + Steam key):
The first one can be yours for only $1, while you've got to pay $5 to also get the other. This deal will be available for the next 2 weeks so we'll be talking again about it. In fact, stay tuned as we'll be updating the article as soon as we obtain some replies from developers of the other games in the bundle.
Amazon.com's indie games section has joined the party by holding their Digital Games Late Summer Deals were they are offering many discounted games. Out of them all, there are 12 games that come in the form of a Steam key and so are available to us Linux gamers (click them to go to their respective Amazon page):
Many of them have been on sale here before but any cheapskate can sometimes miss an interesting sale, right? So here you've got them again. Don't let them pass a second time!
After taking a one-week break, the Humble Weekly Sales are back featuring games from Paradox Interactive. Once again DRM-freedom has gone out the window and Linux availability has been reduced to a single beat-the-average game. Nothing terribly surprising considering that publisher's catalog -- and of course they wouldn't include Europa Universalis IV in the deal. So all you can do here is pay above the average ($5.80 at the time of writing) and grab a Steam key for Crusader Kings II if you don't have it already:
Additionally, those of you who also run the Steam client with Wine and have some savings available, know that you can get The Big Kahuna -48 Paradox Interactive games plus 20 soundtracks- if you pay $125 or more!
And finally, after they laughed at us with their recent Origin bundle the folks at Humble Bundle have decided to laugh with us this time around, so they've launched The Humble Comedy Bundle. Yeah, we know this has nothing at all to do with games, but we think it's a good and lighthearted way to end the new deals section. Games and comedy... after all, ain't life a laughable game? :P
After today's avalanche of bundles and sales we can hardly think of anything else to come in the following days. Luckily we know that IndieGameStand is always there and will offer us a brand new deal in little over two days. The bad news is that they have stopped proposing games to their community to choose from, and our futurable games list has now been reduced to two titles: SickBrick and Party of Sin -- and the latter is only allegedly coming to Linux... :S:
And so ends this rather news-loaded issue of The Cheapskate's Corner! We'll meet again next week, either on Thursday or on Friday, and we hope that with as much content as today. Until then remember to check our sales page to keep updated about the best deals for Linux games. By the way, now the sales page shows the time remaining until a sale expires -if known-, after which it gets autoremoved. Thanks to liamdawe for implementing those features, and see you all! ;)
.
Let's start by taking a look back at the -not so many- already finished deals:
· Indie Royale's The Prairie Dog Bundle ended to leave room for another feature (see further down). As we told you last week it included no immediately available Linux games, but three of them are supposed to be eventually released for Linux: Vox, Signal Ops (possibly only on Steam and Zack Zero. If you got it, we hope all these good omens come true in the end!
· In our usual IndieGameStand recap we've got to mention Quest Run, their only Linux-friendly featured game last week -- not counting the current deal, which you'll discover later on in this very same article.
The indefatigable Charlie's Games' Mega
There are still two ongoing Indiebundle.org's bundles with Linux content:
· The Rugged Rogues Bundle contains Tales of Maj'Eyal and Voyage to Farland at the $5 level, with Dungeon Prospector at the bonus $7 level. All three games come as Desura keys.
· The SciFi Bundle includes at the $5 tier the soon-to-come-to-Linux Constant C, and at the $7 Bundle+ level there's Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire alpha, both games coming in the form of Desura keys. Plus Beyond Beyaan was confirmed to be heading to Linux, so this one will eventually end up being a 3-title bundle.
Groupees' Be Mine 9 bundle is still going on for another 5 days. Some more bonus have been unlocked since last week and now it includes two games currently available on Linux, Particulars and The 39 Steps:
Both titles can be yours for a minimum of $1 and include a Desura code (Particulars) and a Steam key (The 39 Steps), as well as DRM-free downloads. In addition, at the $1 tier we can also find Depths of Peril, whose creators have already done some work to port it to Linux, and Splatter, which has a Linux port planned but only if the Windows version is successful enough.
Looking higher at the $5 min. level there's Eador: Masters of the Broken World and Ittle Dew, two games that should be hitting Linux soon. While the former's current status is a mystery (UPDATE: not anymore), the latter is already being tested on Linux (UPDATE: it's already out for Linux on Steam!). Regarding Ittle Dew the developer couldn't tell us for sure whether there'll be a downloadable DRM-free version of the game added to this bundle, so be careful if you're not a fan of Steam. :S: Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages could also be available to us someday, although don't expect it soon.
And 3 more bonus are still remaining to be uncovered, so we could be getting more surprises soon!
PS: The Build a Meridian 4 Megabundle is going to expire in less than two days. Its only game that's readily available for Linux is Deadly 30, but as we were saying on our last column we'd rather directly support its developers than buying the entire bundle and indirectly rewarding other studios that don't care about us.
Bundle Stars reopened their Atomic Indie Bundle and it will be around
The game comes as a Steam key and the whole bundle costs around $5, about a 50% discount over the listed price. Again, if you've got a little place for poor indie developers in your cheapskate heart you may want to skip this deal and get the game from somewhere else. Keep reading to find out where. :P
ShinyLoot officially opened the store recently and are celebrating with an insane Launch Sale. From August 26th to October 6th most of their catalogue is on sale at 15%-25% off. Plus, there are Weekly Deals where the selected games are offered at 50% off, and finally there are also Daily Deals at 80%-85% off -- e.g. today's Daily Deals for Linux are Spectra, On The Shoulders of Ancestors, and Gravi. But check again tomorrow for new exciting deals!
UPDATE: The daily deals are only available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The rest of the time you may want to check the Weekend Deals or the already mentioned Weekly Deals.
We wouldn't want to end this mention without thanking the nice people at ShinyLoot for creating their XML sales feed and for being so awesome as to accept our feedback to better adapt it to our needs! ;)
Happy birthday, Greenlight! It's been 1 year since Steam launched its sometimes controversial indie games selection platform and they are celebrating it by putting 50 greenlit games on sale. 12 of those games are available on Linux (click them to go to their respective Steam page):
The sale will be up until next Monday at 10am PDT (5pm UTC), so don't leave it for later and get those games you never bought because they were too expensive!
Speaking about Steam, we think it appropriate to mention the latest Linux hit: Natural Selection 2. It's 75% off from now and until Monday, so you can get it for £4.74/$6.24/5.74€. If the deal still doesn't convince you, you're in luck as the game has been selected for this week's Free Weekend: install it and play it for free until Sunday 1pm PDT (8pm UTC). Let the struggle for survival begin!
We told you at the beginning of the article, the current IndieGameStand deal is a Linux game, Pandora: Purge of Pride:
As usual you can get the game starting at $0.25, you'll get a Desura key if you pay $1 or more, and you'll also unlock the game's OST if you beat the $1.70 average. Only two days remaining, so go grab it fast if you're interested!
Groupees strikes again! Not content with two game bundles going on, they've now launched the Capsule Computers Indie Bundle. We've had no time to investigate the chances of some of the games included in the bundle eventually getting released for Linux, so we are going to stick to the already available ones. They are Three Dead Zed (DRM-free + Desura code) and SpaceChem (DRM-free + Steam key):
The first one can be yours for only $1, while you've got to pay $5 to also get the other. This deal will be available for the next 2 weeks so we'll be talking again about it. In fact, stay tuned as we'll be updating the article as soon as we obtain some replies from developers of the other games in the bundle.
Amazon.com's indie games section has joined the party by holding their Digital Games Late Summer Deals were they are offering many discounted games. Out of them all, there are 12 games that come in the form of a Steam key and so are available to us Linux gamers (click them to go to their respective Amazon page):
Many of them have been on sale here before but any cheapskate can sometimes miss an interesting sale, right? So here you've got them again. Don't let them pass a second time!
After taking a one-week break, the Humble Weekly Sales are back featuring games from Paradox Interactive. Once again DRM-freedom has gone out the window and Linux availability has been reduced to a single beat-the-average game. Nothing terribly surprising considering that publisher's catalog -- and of course they wouldn't include Europa Universalis IV in the deal. So all you can do here is pay above the average ($5.80 at the time of writing) and grab a Steam key for Crusader Kings II if you don't have it already:
Additionally, those of you who also run the Steam client with Wine and have some savings available, know that you can get The Big Kahuna -48 Paradox Interactive games plus 20 soundtracks- if you pay $125 or more!
And finally, after they laughed at us with their recent Origin bundle the folks at Humble Bundle have decided to laugh with us this time around, so they've launched The Humble Comedy Bundle. Yeah, we know this has nothing at all to do with games, but we think it's a good and lighthearted way to end the new deals section. Games and comedy... after all, ain't life a laughable game? :P
After today's avalanche of bundles and sales we can hardly think of anything else to come in the following days. Luckily we know that IndieGameStand is always there and will offer us a brand new deal in little over two days. The bad news is that they have stopped proposing games to their community to choose from, and our futurable games list has now been reduced to two titles: SickBrick and Party of Sin -- and the latter is only allegedly coming to Linux... :S:
And so ends this rather news-loaded issue of The Cheapskate's Corner! We'll meet again next week, either on Thursday or on Friday, and we hope that with as much content as today. Until then remember to check our sales page to keep updated about the best deals for Linux games. By the way, now the sales page shows the time remaining until a sale expires -if known-, after which it gets autoremoved. Thanks to liamdawe for implementing those features, and see you all! ;)
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6 comments
Just a note, Zigfrak is tagged as "DRM Free" in the sales page but I think it requires online activation.
Yesterday I wrote to Shiny Loot:
A bit later they answered:
And then some hours later:
So all I had to do is ask. Thank you Shiny Loot!
Great article though. It is much appreciated.
Cya
Yeah, ShinyLoot is definitely the new Good Guy in our hearts. Sorry, IndieGameStand! :P
I hate it too. That's why I prefer one-game deals (individual sales, IndieGameStand deals...) or bundles where you can choose where exactly does your money go (Humble Bundles, Groupees's Build-A-Bundle deals...) so you can truly reward those devs who care and release their games on Linux.
And Linux users are still the ones who pay by large the most for the bundle -- the beat-the-average issue might have something to do in this respect, of course.