We're Humble Indie Bundle V: creators of Psychonauts, LIMBO, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Bastion, and Humble Bundle. Ask us anything!

Andrefpvs · 11 months

Forgetting for a bit about charity and altruism, is it viable for developers financially to sell their games at what I'd imagine ends up being a much lower revenue than what you'd get at normal prices? (is this even true?)

Or do the sales volumes make up for this somewhat? Individual experiences from each developer are appreciated.

bballplayersgs · 11 months

How do you decide which games get put into each bundle? Is it semi-random or do you look for games that you want to support and add the developers to the bundle group?

Gagaro · 11 months

Did you expect 2 000 000 dollars in only 24 hours ?

Peter_R · 11 months

For TimOfLegend: you've been making games for a while now. What about making games is different for you now, as opposed to the video game days of yore?

1fromUK · 11 months

SG_Logan Can you do a record yourself in the narrator voice for a ringtone please?

Vrokolos · 11 months

Is valve contributing to this? Is all the bandwidth for the steam downloaded games payed by valve or the humble bundle? Do you pay anything to valve for this pack?

pooksterlicious · 11 months

Can the guys from Supergiant give us any hints on what they're working on next? I loved Bastion (and all of the other Bundle games) and can't wait to see what's up next from you guys.

jsteezin · 11 months

To Mr. Schafer: will there ever be a Psychonauts 2?

costa24 · 11 months

Thanks so much for the bundle guys (although I already owned all but one of the games, lol). To the Supergiant crew...
- Did Warner Brothers have to sign off on the game being a part in this?
- Were they enthused about it?
- Did you guys have to make some concessions or promises as to how much revenue would be generated?
- Is the revenue generated so far below, at or above your expectations?

Thanks again.

morningbus · 11 months

This isn't really a question, but I have an idea for the Humble Bundle and all the developers involved:

Someone should make a fighting game featuring the characters that have been in the Humble Bundles and you should name it Humble Indie Rumble.

Whether this is actually a good idea, I don't know. But the wordplay demands it be made.

wilerson · 11 months

FG_Thomas & FG_Jens: You guys managed to make me see a friend run away in fear from his computer. Congratulations.

FuriousMouse · 11 months

Thanks for all the Humble Bundles that you have made, I bought them all. All 12 of them (Yes there have been 12 Humble Bundles in total).

I have to admit that I haven't even downloaded all the games yet let alone played them, but the reasons I bough them were primarily 1) DRM Free 2) Linux Support and 3) You can download and play them whenever you want.

Thanks! You are all doing great work!

mr_nippon · 11 months

@Frictional Games/Amnesia: Did you hear that the Doom 3 re-release will have an armour-mounted flashlight? No more switching. What was the worst idea you had that probably would have ruined your game?

BTW I love your quality Linux port and I'm not even mad that I paid a second time.

2th · 11 months

@Tim: Why was Psychonauts included? It isn't exactly an Indie game. Not that i am complaining since I love the game, except for Meat Circus (I HATE YOU TIM FOR THAT LEVEL!), but I am curious as to the rationale for including it in this bundle.

phort99 · 11 months

How did the Humble Indie Bundles influence your decisions to port your games to Linux? What was the porting process like?

PurpleMoustache · 11 months

Hi! Thanks for doing this AMA!

I have a few questions for each dev:

Tim: What was your favorite part of making Psychonauts?

DinoP: Were you expecting LIMBO to become a headlining XBLA game?

SG_Logan: What is your favorite line from the game?

SG_Greg: Did you ever find it difficult writing the story the way it is presented?

jimjammers: Huge fan of your work, what is your favorite song from the game?

kristpiotrowski: Massive fan of SB:S&S EP. Will there be another game like this in the future?

FG_Thomas and FG_Jens: By now Amnesia is known as one of, if not the most scary games of all time. Were you expecting the game to become this infamous?

parsap: When you started the very first HIB, were you expecting it to eventually come to this?

qubitsu: What goes into planning for a bundle?

SuperbrothersHQ: I love the art in the game. What do you use to make it, and how long does it take to put in all the detail in an area?

osxoep · 11 months

SG_Logan, SG_Greg et al. You guys are awesome.

At any point of the development of Bastion did you think it was a risk with the way the narrator told the story? It's a step away from the conventional way of telling a story in a game. For me it seemed perfect though.

No spoilers please, I'm still playing. I actually bought it last week haha.

helloimowen · 11 months

What games have you played recently that really wowed you with a new idea/mechanic?

courtenberry · 11 months

Dear Supergiant Games, I heard your office manager is kind of amazing. Like a T-Rex fighting a giant robot amazing. Is that true?

Sincerely,

Definitely-not-your-office-manager's-wife

owned2260 · 11 months

For the Frictional guys: What are the scariest games you guys have played?

costa24 · 11 months

To the Humble Bundle crew, one of the best things about the bundles for me and my friends is that they provide Linux versions of some of our favorite games. Is this a requirement you find you have to insist on? Do you get pushback from devs or publishers of established titles, saying they'd otherwise be willing to take part but not excited about making the effort to port to Linux?
Thanks.

pvejunky12 · 11 months

How did you choose the name of your games/studios?

EnderbyEqualsD · 11 months

I just want to say this is by far one of the most fantastic bundles yet. I keep getting more and more impressed with the quality of the bundle while keeping the ability to "pay what you want".

My questions is how the heck are you going to top this? Or even in the short term, what could you possibly add to this bundle a week from now to make it even better? It seems impossible!

EDIT : Followup question that has always plagued me - Do you guys actually lose money by the ~~jerks~~ (OK, maybe they aren't all jerks) people that only give $1?

purefloat · 11 months

To each dev individually: what's your favorite game in the bundle other than your own?

x70x · 11 months

How do you feel about the increasing number of other game bundles and bundle websites? Do you feel that there is any danger with training consumers to value indie games at a lower price?

The_A_Drain · 11 months

This might get buried (actually not even sure if this thing is still going) but I wanted to ask a pretty serious question, and a group as prestigious as yourselves is imo perfect for it.

There's been accusations dating back a couple years now that these kinds of bundles, in particular the Steam sales but I'm going to focus entirely on the indie side of things, actually hurt the long term profitability of your titles.

Now, personally I'm undecided. I don't know what I think because this coin is a multi-faceted one, it has many sides and I've not heard enough on either side to make a decision.

As I understand it, the accusation is that for a short term boost in sales and revenue, you sacrifice longer term sales not just for yourself but for the entire indie sector, the line being that it deters potential customers (especially at release) because they are becoming trained to wait for/expect these insane deals. However there's going to be a portion who wouldn't have bought the game at all at full price to make up for it, how big that portion is and whether it mitigates the potential damage I couldn't know.

I've been hearing a lot lately in support of the idea these sales are damaging to the scene in the long run, and not so much on the other side. I have heard that a Steam sale is what saved the Darwinia guys (Go UK! :D) from bankruptcy, but when your only concern is paying your rent right now, then a short term boost in sales seems like a great idea.

What I'm asking in short is what is your opinion on the idea that these sales train consumers to wait/expect a lower price than your game is worth, and how do you feel the potential impact differs between the smaller (2 guys in a rented apartment, Cthulhu Saves The World guys, the Bastion team, etc) indie companies, and the mid/large sized companies (Double Fine, Curve Studios, etc).

Also it's getting a bit too serious up in this question so GO BRONY BUNDLE! :D Also squeeeee Greg Kasavin, I've been a fan of yours since Gamespot, Bastion is amazing.

jtraub · 11 months

Jeffry, How much time does it take to make all agreemenents (+paperwork?) and include a game into a bundle? When have you started preparation for Humble Bundle V?

I am just curious how much time does it take from an idea to the release

DarthBo · 11 months

TimOfLegend: Thank you for the Psychonauts linux port!

You already released a Mac port a while back, but that was a Cedega wrapper. I was pretty disappointed by that, but am glad to see you went with native ports this time :)

What made you decide to make a Linux port? Will you be porting other Doublefine games to Mac and Linux now? (please say yes)

Storm360 · 11 months

Has the humble bundle influenced you supporting Linux in any way? Would you port future games and would Steam having a Linux client also influence that?

slahvalyn · 11 months

For Tim Schafer: with the tremendous success kickstarter has given you and your team, do you think you will personally always use this route to fund a game, or does traditional publishing still have some advantages in certain scenarios?

potexto · 11 months

I usually give 5-7 dollars to the HIB,I know but some peaple who give 0.01. What do you think about it ?

Virkaveli · 11 months

To each of you: What were your favourite games growing up?

Also, I just want to express my appreciation for every one of you and what you've put together. Every one of these games is an incredible step forward in the world of gaming, and every one of them is a masterpiece. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping at it. <3

Edit: No wonder these games are so fantastic; you all have great taste!

DinoEggMatt · 11 months

Is there any games you wanted in but were not allowed?

hyperacti · 11 months

Do you prefer Skippy or Jif?

DinoP · 11 months

Here is my Bastion key, I had bought it already:

WA8IQ-6GK5F-L5N4G

VVValorious · 11 months

DinoP and everybody from Bastion: Thank you for the two most amazing and satisfying games of all time. These indie games are better than the majority of games I play. The artwork is exactly that: art, art that belongs in museums. The gameplay is never tiresome, just something perfect.

Just one question: Will we ever see more of Bastion or Limbo? Maybe not full on sequels, but just something to give some closures from two magnificent worlds.

schrobotindisguise · 11 months

To FG_Thomas & Jens;

Have you considered monetising your game with microtransactions? Start charging for extra oil and you'd make a fortune ;)

SkaveRat · 11 months

Just wanted to let you guys know: I LOVE you for supporting linux!

Edit: there are some problems with Arch Linux, tho ;)

DarthBo · 11 months

Why was Limbo allowed into the bundle when it uses Wine for the linux "port"?

Don't get me wrong, I love Limbo, but what kind of precedent is this?

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