The Cheapskate's Corner 20 (Oct 4th-11th) (UPDATED)

Welcome to The Cheapskate's Corner's 20th edition. We're all insatiable cheapskates, so we're never going to get tired of finding for you the best bundles and sales with Linux games in them. As usual, let's make you cry about what you missed if you've just discovered this column, or if you're not as regular a reader as you should be:











· Last week's Humble Weekly Sale featured games from Kalypso Media, and one of them was available for Linux: Anna Extended Edition. The new one doesn't contain any traces of penguin meat though. :(


· The Indie RPG Bundle from Bundle In A Box expired after two weeks during which it offered us Hack, Slash, Loot, Dungeon Fray, The Wizard's Lair, and Telepath RPG: Servants of God, besides some extras including art, OSTs, and strategy guides.


· LA Game Space's Experimental Game Pack 01 offer ended just today, so you no longer can get the 24 games (30 when they are all finished), 14 out of which are available on Linux.


· Groupees' KISS 2 Bundle has ended for good after being reloaded last week. It included Grimind and The 39 Steps, but also the soon-to-come-to-Linux Ampu-Tea and Radical Roack, and Shadows of the Vatican which could eventually be ported to our OS.


· Get Games holded the Cheap as Chips sale during last weekend. In it, you could purchase Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition, Hotline Miami, Puddle, or Serious Sam 3: BFE for a fixed price of £3/4€/$5.


· Indie Royale's The Alaska Bundle expired last Wednesday to give way to a new one (see below for more on that) and with it also expired your chances to get hold of Electronic Super Joy and Flipper.


· And finally, after opening its games store IndieGameStand keeps featuring Linux titles on its 96 hour-long deals. As we told you on our previous column, during last week they offered Proteus and the hopefully coming soo to Linux 99 Levels To Hell.






















IndieBundle.org is still featuring 3 bundles with Linux titles in them:


· The Phoenix Horror Bundle offers you The Cat Lady for $5; remember that this game can be played natively on Linux using the AGS Linux port. Additionally, the bundle also includes the first 2 episodes of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, the first one in the $5 tier and the second one in the $7 Bundle+ level. Both games are allegedly coming to Linux whenever the developers finish the 4 games for this series and upgrade their Unity license to v4. Last chance to get ahold of this bundle as it will be ending in just a few hours!

UPDATE: This bundle has been retired and is no longer available.


· The Anime Bundle contains Planet Stronghold at the $5 level, and QuestRun at the $7 Bundle+. Besides, Fatal Theory is going to be ported to Linux, so here's another reason to go for the bull bundle.


· Finally, the SciFi 2 Bundle is only offering one Linux game right now: Snorms. However, 3 out of the other 4 games in the bundle could be available for Linux someday: Exoplanet: First Contact could be ported to Linux if there's enough demand, BrokenEarth was allegedly coming soon, and the developers of Compromised are currently switching to use MonoGame and will eventually release the game for Linux.













Bundle Stars' Atomic Indie Bundle is still going on after being prolonged for an additional month, so there's still time to get SpaceChem for $5 or your local equivalent. However, as we always say, we like to reward those developers that chare about Linux and getting it here won't result in much of your money going to Zachtronics Industries. So we'd like to encourage you to get this game by other means: there are 2 available right now. Keep reading to find them out.













Last hours before ShinyLoot's Launch Sale expires! There aren't insane 80-85% off Daily Deals anymore, but you can still snatch some of the current Weekly Deals or Weekend Deals. And don't forget to take a look at the rest of the 15%-25% off games for any last minute purchase -- e.g. Spacechem, for $7.99. :)

UPDATE: The ShinyLoot Launch Sale is finally over. However, you can find a few new discounted games on their sales page.













SavyGamer and Gameolith joint venture, The SavyGamer Bundle is still available but only until tomorrow Monday. Pay $10/7.40€ or more and get 5 indie games, three of them natively playable on Linux. They are Frozen Synapse, Richard & Alice, and SpaceChem:



Remember that you'll need the Linux port of AGS to be able to play Richard & Alice. This game is only available as a DRM-free download, while the other two register on Steam. The bundle also includes Derrick the Deathfin, whose developer recently assured us is still coming to Linux.

UPDATE: The bundle has expired and thus it is no longer available.













And finally, the last ongoing bundle this week is Flying Bundle's Flying "Welcome" Bundle. Pay at least $1 and get BEEP (Steam key + Desura code) and Plith (Desura code only):



If you can afford $3.50 or more you'll also obtain Ittle Dew and The Polynomial - Space of the Music, both coming as Steam keys:



Apart from those 4 titles there's another one (Micy Roll that could be ported to Linux if the developer is able to overcome some technical difficulties. This deal is ending next Tuesday/Wednesday (depending on where you live) so hurry up if it's still not yours.
























This week's most interesting new deal is FlippFly's initiative Not On Steam Sale, where a lot of developers are offering their games that are not on Steam (although most of them are trying via Greenlight). Up to 23 Linux titles can be found at various discount rates. Click any of the following thumbnails to access a specific offer:



All the games present on Greenlight (and many that are not!) promise a Steam key whenever they get greenlit, so you'll get a DRM-free version of the game right off and a Steam key in the future if you (and the developer of the game in question) are lucky. The sale is scheduled to end on Wednesday 9 October, although some of the adhered games will remain at a discount for an undetermined period after that deadline.













Indie Royale's brand new bundle is The Debut 5 Bundle, including the Linux games The Curse of Nordic Cove:



As is the norm at Indie Royale you've got to beat the current minimum ($4/3€ at the time of writing) to get the bundle, what constitutes more than a 50% off discount from that game's listed price. There's less than 3 days remaining, so we presume the mystery game will be revealed pretty soon. Let's hope it's another Linux game that makes the bundle more desirable for our eyes.

UPDATE: Less than an hour after publishing this article, the mystery game has benn uncovered. It's Expander:



Our wishes have come true and the bundle has become more attractive to us Linux gamers. :)













Since Friday Green Man Gaming is celebrating the Multi Buy Week. In a pure grocery store style, they are offering 2 or 3 games for a fixed amount. In the Take Two For deal you can get any two of the following games for only £10/12€/$15:



Alternatively, with the Take Three For deal you can obtain any three of the following games for only £5/6€/$8:



Since this store doesn't actually sell Linux titles, all these games are accidentally available as Steam keys but still it's an interesting enough deal. It's ending next Friday at 16h UTC, so you've got practically all the week to think your ideal combinations.













One of Steam's current Dayly Deals is Half-Life Complete, the ultimate Half-Life universe game pack including Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Source, and Team Fortress Classic:



All 10 games can be yours for just £6.74/$9.99/6.99€. Alternatively, most of them are also 75% off individually so you can complete your collection by purchasing only the ones you lack. As we said this is a dayly deal and it will be over in less than 24h, so run if you want it!

UPDATE: This Steam offer is already over.













Just like in our last column, the current IndieGameStand deal is literally running out of time at the time of writing. So, just for the very early readers of this column, know that you can pay what you want to obtain Inverto:



Pay more than $1 and get a Desura key for the game, or beat the $1.50 average to obtain the level editor and some HD wallpapers.

UPDATE: As we warned you yesterday night, this PWYW sale has already inspired. The new 4-day-long deal is the also Linux-friendly Rktcr:



Get it for $0.25 or more. If you pay at least a dollar you'll get a Desura key too, and if you beat the current $2 average you'll also obtain a bonus level pack and some HD wallpapers.
























We are recovering this section because we want to talk to you about two uncertain bundles. The first one is the new Big Bad Bundle. It does contain at least two Linux titles (there's a soon-to-reveal mystery game that could push the count up), but since this deal only provides Steam keys and those particular games haven't been released on that platform, the effective total is nil. :(  We've inquired the developers of all this bundle's games and here's some of the answers we've received:

· On the $1 min. Level 1 there's Hack, Slash, Loot, and its developer has told us he's looking for a solution to the problems he's had when trying to release the Linux version of the game on Steam, but that he doesn't think one will be found anytime soon.

· On the $8 min. Level 3 there are two relevant games. The first is Cargo Commander and according to its developers, they are definitely thinking about releasing a Linux version on Steam within a few months. The other one is Vessel, a game ported to Linux on occassion of the Humble Indie Bundle 6 but that has since then failed to get released on Steam; its developers have assured us they are working on it, although they didn't specify any estimated date.

This bundle will still be around for 9 more days so we'll likely be reporting about it on our next issue with hopefully more info about the rest of the games in this deal.













Groupees's Build A Bundle 7 doesn't contain any game readily available for Linux, but two of its titles are bound to be released on our OS:

· Firstly there's Zack Zero, the developers of which told us last August that they were "working on a Steam and Linux update, along with some bug fixes".

· And secondly there's the now commercial Frogatto & Friends, whose Linux version should be available soon enough.

So there you go. If you've got $1.50 or more to spare and want to (relatively safely) gamble them, you can purchase these two games in this bundle and patiently wait until they are available on Linux.


DISCLAIMER: As we always say in these occasions, purchase anything in the Games Roulette section at your own risk. There's no absolute guarantee those games will ever get Linux versions, so don't come complaining at us if you buy any of these deals and it ultimately backfires.



















· In just a few hours, the Build a Casual Bundle Groupee will be launched. Its initial cast of games include 2 titles scheduled for release in Linux in the upcoming months: Pickle Frenzy (whose Linux version is set to be released in December) and Crazy Belts (coming to Linux on 4 November according to IndieDB).

UPDATE: It's now on, although the only game listed as being Linux-compatible is Crazy Belts.


· Lastly, let's review our list of candidates for future IndieGameStand deals: SickBrick and Great Permutator. It could also be Party of Sin (allegedly coming to Linux) or Little Racers STREET (it will be ported to Linux whenever gets greenlit). As we said earlier the current deal is expiring very soon so by the time you're reading this the new one may have already gone live, so you can tell if it's one of these or not. :P









And that was all for today! We'll be meeting again next week, but before that don't forget to check our sales page to be the first to know about any new deal including games for Linux. Bye! ;)
















As entropy pointed out in the comments section, the current Humble Weekly Sale featuring games from Nordic Games does include a title that's coming to Linux: Painkiller: Hell & Damnation. As GOL duly reported back in March the game was initially due for release shortly after. Although it's suffered many delays and mishaps ever since, it's supposedly still coming our way. If you're of an optimistic nature you can pre-order this game for $6 or more, and at the same time you'll be also securing Steam keys for all the other games in the bundle, in case they are eventually ported to Linux too. Like all other Humble Weekly Sales, this one is ending next Thursday at 19h UTC.

As you can probably tell by the previous paragraph this deal fits into the Games Roulette category, so the aforementioned disclaimer also applies here: spend your hard-earned money on this deal at your own risk and discretion.














FireFlower Games is holding another thematic sale this week. This time around it's a Sci-Fi Sale, and they are offering all their sci-fi/space related games at various discounts. Among them, the games available on Linux are Kaiser Earth and Zigfrak:



Nihilumbra also appears as being part of this sale, but we think it's merely coincidental as this game was already at 10% off before the sale began.



. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.