Humble Indie Bundle Games Go Open Source

By: Derek Yu

On: June 3rd, 2010

Humble Indie Bundle

The pay-what-you-want Humble Indie Bundle was an amazing success, raising over 1.2 million dollars, with nearly $400,000 going to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the wonderful Child’s Play Charity. We were really blown away by the response to the bundle and the buzz it generated across the internets. Definitely a win-win-win situation all around! Thanks to everyone who participated and helped spread the word on this!

To keep the love flowing, four of the bundled games had pledged to go open source toward the end of the bundle: Aquaria, Lugaru HD, Gish, and Penumbra Overture. Well, I’m happy to say that the source code for those games has finally been released! You can find out more (including all the relevant links), at Wolfire’s blog.

Posted in Community, Linux, Macintosh, Open Source, Windows | Tags: BitBlot, CrypticSea, FrictionalGames, Wolfire

torsion

…awesome.
flyboy95

…awesome.
Brahmedinejad

damn, bro. that's hella ducats! great to see the pay what you want thing is actually doing well for alot of yall. it's a great idea but I always assumed that it would drag ass as far as actually making money goes. good to be proven wrong so often lately!

hopefully we get to see something done with the source of penumbra at least, that engine really impressed the hell out of me when I tried it out.
Dodger

I'm merging the Penumbra and Aquaria Sources as we speak to create

Bioshock 3: In Rapture We Trust

Sure, I'll be sued, but at least we'll have a proper sequel to Bioshock.

;-P

(BTW – Hasn't anybody here noticed that Hydorah is FINALLY out and ready to be played!?!? What is everyone waiting for?)
Dimma

It's crazy cool how Aquaria still has such nice 2D graphics, among indie games – you know is there any good competitor graphics-wise at all?
Dodger

@Dimma,

You mean just 2D graphics right? Among indie games only, I say Aquaria are certainly some of the best. It would be hard for me to choose a favorite but if I was going to point out what makes Aquaria unique it would have to be the fact that the graphics are both sharp and smooth without being pixelated. Everything appears fluid, animation, visual fx, etc all sit and work nice and neatly with the games large and beautiful environments. This must also be a testament how well the graphics and game engine were melded together. It definitely shows that a lot of work and love went into the whole project even before the game would have been finished. There is a high level of detail in even the smallest of objects. In this way Aquaria certainly stands out and proves that indie games can look as good, if not better, than mainstream games. I would still argue that Machinarium, Gish and World of Goo could prove this as well, but again, it could possibly come down to the scale of the world in Aquaria and those added little details you discover along the way that might set it apart from other greats.

There are other great looking 2D games that are still sharp and smooth such as Machinarium, World of Goo and Gish (which is still one of my favorites as well), but I think where Aquaria outshines those games in one particular way is the actual scale and scope of the game. It's very much an open world. Discoveries must be made to progress beyond certain points but once these discoveries are made you may travel back and forth at will. I'm sure many players have found themselves simply exploring even before trying to progress the main story just to take in the view.

So in terms of being memorable and beautiful I would say Aquaria does stand out among it's peers simply for its graphics, but I say this without taking away from what other great 2D games have to offer in terms of gameplay as well. Thankfully Aquaria is also a lot of fun and even has a level of intrigue and mystery about it.

There have been a lot of other great looking indie games though and I appreciate games with graphics that are both simple and pixelated and can even find beauty or awesomeness in them as well. Within A Deep Forest, Noitu Love 2, Immortal Defense, Titan Attacks, Weird Worlds Return to Infinite Space, VVVVVV, and even the just released Hydorah (just to name a few), are all great fun games but they also have something appealing and memorable in the way they look which I think adds to the way the game feels while it's being played. There is something awesome about the way each of them looks and I still like them all for different reasons.

It's very hard to try and compare one great game to another, but sticking with your original question and trying to compare Aquaria based on graphics alone is difficult as well but what makes it stand out to me is the fact that it is both large and beautiful and discovery lends to the sense of awe progressing through the game seeing environments and enemies change all while traveling through this world remains fluid and wide open.

However, as much as we could take good memories away from the games we play, each player might experience something different when playing them so it is all very much subjective to individual opinion since we can't exactly share the same feelings and experiences we have with the exception being through individual expression. I don't think it's hard for a majority of people to agree that something looks good, but that won't necessarily mean that because of it's looks it will be a favorite among the many. That's where the experience along the way will prove what exactly makes one thing stand out as more beautiful than another thing.
Dimma

@Dodger,

My question probably came from the fact that I haven’t yet thought much about indie game graphics.
And you may be crazy, posting the most elaborate answer I have ever received. Thank you :)

It is really hard to compare graphics between games, as they do function in separate contexts. The detailed yet smooth colors and characteristic shapes, on their own, appeal alot though! – Even if contributing more to sense of awe than gameplay fun, which is why bit-style games e.g. Cave Story can still be as fun.

I forgot about Machinarium, it looks very polished (I haven't played it myself). I also do like the personal style of the popular Braid though its brown colors appear a bit more uniform than the colors of Aquaria. I guess they are competitors kinda, thinking of the level of details in both.
Dodger

@Dimma,

I'm only slightly crazy ;-)

I'm just thankful that there are so many great indie games to play and talk about. I'm always up for playing through them and then discussing them. Aquaria was a big step forward though in my opinion. There hadn't and still haven't been many indie titles quite like it in all aspects (graphics, sound, gameplay, and sheer size).

Hopefully these guys and gals that make all of these great games will just keep em coming though. :-)