Indie Game Steam Package Deals

By: Paul Eres

On: August 7th, 2009

Seems Steam has answered the indie games D2D package with a package deal of its own (two, in fact): Audiosurf, Blueberry Garden, Braid, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Darwinia, Everyday Shooter, Gish, Mr. Robot, The Path, World of Goo, all in one package for $30. And a subset of five of those for $20. Ends Monday.

Posted in Business, Steam

http://studioeres.com Paul Eres

hope nobody minds that i posted the exact same thing here and in indiegames.com/blog — was lazy and just copied and pasted to both blogs
Cranky

Steam: gg no re, pwned scrub
D2D: :(
Kibble

That is an amazing deal. ;o
zork nemesis

I’d pay more for a package that doesn’t include the Path.
d3sphil

Nice :). I already own a couple of these, but I am seriously considering buying even the $30 pack just to get some new ones (still being cheaper then buying them individually).
Anon

$30 for audiosurf, braid, world of goo, darwinia and crayon physics is insanely amazing. plus you get some other games ;O. if i had money i would buy this, even though i already have audiosurf and braid, for the 360. DAMNIT WHY AM I POOR!
DRM Free

More complaining: Too bad the privacy/data collecting/drm issues with steam outweigh the bargain for me. Why can’t Greenhouse do something like this?
http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

i already have almost all these games but i’m taking it anyway because the ones i miss are over 30$
TheCube

Damnit! Worst time ever to be actually broke. That includes SIX games that I’ve been wanting to play forever! (and two I own)
TheCube

Actually, 3 that I own, oops. I tried to block out all of my experiences of The Path.
ngajoe

Dang…I own all but blueberry garden…
Loki

I want to buy both, but that would mean buying the path twice.
:P
Nava

Bought! I already have Braid and World of Goo, but the remainder are still quite worth it :)
Nathaniel607

HOLY SHIT! AMAZING!

Unfortunatly, I live in Britain, and must pay Â£30 due to no conversions…. still a great deal though; they are over Â£100 bought seperatly! I own two.

Actually, I’m in Barcelona now, so the price is in Euros (almost the same as Â£) so maybe it’s just the poor Spaniards that need to pay more… oh well, I’ll find out tommorow.
http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

yeah steam suck for this thing, i paid 30 EUR, that’s like 42$
Noyb

If I already have some of these games on Steam, will it allow me to gift them or will the extra license just vanish?
http://studioeres.com Paul Eres

to my knowledge, unfortunately you can either gift the entire thing or keep the entire thing (with the rest vanishing), not gift part of it
Stefan

I’ve never played The Path, but heard its terrible. Can anyone fill me in on why its so bad?
http://b-mcc.com// BMcC

Bloody excellent deal.
Boo

@Stefan: if you’d ask me, I’d say yes, The Path is terrible, and they think they created the most revolutionary ‘art-indie-groundbreaking-soul-tearing’ video game. Anyway, opinions will differ, of course.
But the deal is still worth it, I played Braid, World of Goo Audio Surf and tried Gish and Darwinia. All of them are neat, plus Everyday Shooter and Mr. Robot, from what I’ve heard, are also pretty good.
Tye The Czar

I’m wondering, since I already have Audiosurf, and I’m going to purchase the $30 bundle, do I have to pay for another copy of that same game?
GC

@Noyb: After I bought the orange box, it gave me the option to give the extra copy of HL2 as a gift.
Allen

There is only one scene of vaguely implied rape and it is not what the game is about.

Shoving around your opinion around as fact is a dickish thing to do Zork.

The Path is a bad ‘game’ if you want to stack it up against video games as a whole. But it’s an interesting experience. It was worth the 20 bucks and even better when you get this deal.

Zork nemesis is just upset there aren’t any mind breaking puzzles or aliens and laser beams or blood and gore or chainsaw guns or tits and ass.
zork nemesis

Oh is that how it works here? You delete people’s comments and then plant a strawman in the dirt bed? Classy. I’ll have plenty of positive things to say about games that deserve them, trust me. When you consider the value you are getting with this pack, you’d be crazy not to buy it. Even $50 is a fair deal.

Sorry I wasnt allowed to answer your question stefan.
bob

@Noyb, @Tye The Czar:
Extra copies will disappear for any game that isn’t HL2 or L4D. You could always buy it as a gift and “gift” it to a new account you create, if you want the ability to play both your copies of the game at the same time. Of course it’ll be a pain logging in and out of accounts depending on what you want to play… but maybe not all of the games require steam to be logged in in order to play?
Scott

probably shouldn’t yell at someone for stating their opinion as fact and then do the same thing
zork nemesis

And it’s a comment board, anyway. of course everything is opinion. why would we need to attach “my opinion is” to everything, is this page going into an encyclopedia? Is a documentary being filmed?

I’m gonna spend tomorrow playing through some of these games. I’ve held off this long on Braid and World of Goo because I knew at some point they would be put on sale together, as they pretty much represent independent games as a whole. Gish is a game I had considered buying a number of times but kept forgetting, so that’s a bonus for me.
william broom

This package looks great, I’m definitely going to buy it.

People whinging about the Path are getting really tiresome. I understand you don’t like the game but you don’t have to post a comment about it on every single article wherever it’s mentioned.
strong

this looks like a glorious deal- i just wish i had steam and money

i don’t see why people are yelling about the path- without it this would still be a great deal

so yay
Anarkex

Man, I’m pissed. I paid double that for all the good games in the pack months ago. Can’t I just get The Path for free so I can whine about it some more?
Archagon

You can only gift extra copies of Orange Box games on Steam, I think.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Greenhouse have limited activations?
Hereagain

I really like these bundles and deals that are going around on sites like D2D and Steam. Like most people here, I already own a number of them. My only problem is I’m not a fan of steam. I love the idea of it, but can’t stand the DRM and the fact that steam has to be running in order to play games that are purchased through steam. Many people obviously like the system (or just plain don’t care… or perhaps don’t understand the information which is constantly being gathered through such a service). I’m sure the guys at Valve aren’t quite as nefarious as lets say… uhmmm… Microsoft… but I don’t like the system they’ve got going. Sure, set me up an account so I can purchase through their service, but don’t make me have to run your bloody software to run somebody-elses software.

I do like this type of promotion though and the great exposure it can bring to indie developers.

The only problem now is, the lesser known indies need to be given some of this exposure without having to sell the shirts off their backs, or their souls.
http://secretmeandering.blogspot.com Louis F.

20$ even if it’s just for Gish, Darwinia and Mr. Robot? Sold.

I still hope that more of my money went straight to the developers of the other great games when I paid them full price : )
http://secretmeandering.blogspot.com Louis F.

DANG! Thought I would get to pick which 5 I wanted!
william broom

I bought it…!

Downloading sweet, sweet Braid at this very moment.
SteGriff

This is surely far better than the other package.
Dinsdale

Nice deal but I still say these things are downright insulting.
Soulliard

I already have World of Goo and Braid, but this is still an amazing deal. And unlike the D2D bundle, most of these games actually run on my computer. Of course, this means I also have to download Steam, but that’s a small price to pay for such a great deal. My weekend just got a whole lot more fun.
Bob

DRM Free: Funny, I’ve never had any problems with Steam, and this is from someone who hates DRM and the like.

Anyway, this deal is very good.
Scott

im not an expert, but im pretty sure DRM just means something that controls the usage of some media. thats basically what steam does.
Skofo

The problem isn’t DRM, it is draconian DRM. Limiting installs is an example of draconian DRM. *glares at Cortex Command*
Moi

When they see this package , real gamers will think indie games are all about gimmick.
Ilya Chentsov

The opening vignette with all those characters is just charming. Like the face of indie gaming.
Stefan

By the way, I actually got the package before my post, because it really is great deal. The games I’ve tried so far are Audiosurf, Blueberry Garden, Braid, Gish, and Crayon Physics. I really like Audiosurf and Braid, Crayon Physics is decent but I feel it definitely good of been better. I only spent a couple of minutes with Blueberry Garden, but there is too much slowdown so I can’t fairly judge it, and Gish was alright.
Scott

i would consider steam pretty draconian, since i cant even play things i own without going through it
Chrono

This pack is missing Spectromancer for me to consider buying it.

Not to sound rude. I just really would like Spectromancer in there.
Adam

Steam does have an offline mode, there is no requirement to be physically logged into their servers to play. I fail to see how it’s any more “draconian” than any other game with a launcher. I understand the problems people have with DRM, but there comes a point where the criticisms go well past reasonable into fanatical hyperbole.
Anon3354

Offline mode is fine and all, but will you be able to play the game in a year again? A RIAA representative made an interesting remark about DRMed music recently. He basically said: people cannot expect to use what they paid for indefinitely. There’s nothing wrong with products that suddenly stop working.

Any DRM that makes me dependent on a another party is flawed and unacceptable.
QXD-me

Yes! Just bought my second copy of The Path. Unfourtunately, instead of melding into a double-super-amazing version of The Path, Steam’s just ignored the fact that I’ve paid for it twice (I expected this and I don’t really mind).

And about the Steam DRM. I don’t see why it would stop you from playing them if Valve closed down. They wouldn’t just set up their servers to delete everyone’s games as a last malicious attack, and if you back them up on disk you’ll always be able to start them in offline mode.

Anyway, my overall main point is that it’s well worth it and that people who bash The Path either: 1.) haven’t played it and are thus ignorant or 2.) have played it but were closed minded and also, ignorant anyway. I don’t believe everyone should think The Path’s amazing (I don’t, I just kinda like it), but I don’t see how anyone can dislike it so vehemently.
Nathaniel

I got it, it’s Â£24 here (still a bit off…), but yeah, it’s great, even though I already had three games (Braid, Audiosurf and Everyday Shooter), World of Goo is awesome, I can’t get Darwinia to work (keeps scrolling to the left for no reason) and WTF is Blueberry Garden? Do you just collect all the large objects?