Cortex-Command posts

The second incarnation of the Humble Indie Bundle is now over and, thanks in part to the organizers extending the deadline by five days, the latest "pay what you want" indie game bundle brought in $1,815,934.53 in revenues for the five indie games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) plus two charities (Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play). The six games from the first Humble Indie Bundle were added later in the week if people donated more than the average per-person amount.

More detailed financial stats will be revealed later but the average per donation was $7.80 with Windows users averaging $6.63, Mac users averaging $9.25 and Linux users donating an average of $13.75. The largest single donation was made by an anonymous bidder who gave $5,555.

Update: There's been some updates to the site since we posted. The final revenue number is now $1,822,482.80. Plus a person calling himself "Nexus Scorpion" is the new number one contributor with $6,132.96.

The team at the Humble Indie Bundle have been generating a lot of money already with the second batch of games with its 'pay what you want" business model. But now the team has upped the anty. The Humble Indie Bundle 2 now includes all of the games from the first Humble Indie Bundle.

Yes, you can get all of the bundle's current games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) plus all of the game's in the original bundle (World of Goo, Gish, Aquaria, Penumbra Overture, and Lugaru HD plus the freebie Samorset 2). People who have bought Bundle 2 can download the Bundle 1 games now. People who have yet to purchase Bundle 2 can get the Bundle 1 games if they pay more than the current average which is currently $7.35. Paying $7.35 to get a whopping 10 great indie games (plus one freebie) is still a massive bargain.

The Humble Indie Bundle 2 has now generated over $1 million in revenue since the "pay what you want" indie PC game downlad event launched about six days ago. It was supposed to end on Tuesday but now it looks like the second Humble Indie Bundle 2 is getting an extension.

According to the bundle's Twitter page the date has been moved back a few days as its organizers "work on adding some new features." According to the Humblebundle.com page it is now scheduled to end on Christmas Day around 6 pm Eastern time. That means you still have time to donate a few bucks (or over $3,000 like one person did) to get five indie games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) plus donate to two charities (Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play).

The second round of the Humble Indie Bundle has continued to generate an incredible amount of revenues for a "pay what you want" model. On Saturday evening the revenues breached the $1 million mark as gamers continue to donate what they can for five indie games along with two charities and the Humble Bundle organizers themselves.

Another new development is that the games can now be redeemed by Humble Indie Bundle owners via two download services: Steam and the newer service Desura. Two of the games have yet to show up on Steam (Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) but they will be made available to Humble Indie Bundle buyers when they launch on Steam. There are still two more days for the Humble Indie Bundle; it's scheduled to end on Tuesday, December 21 at 4 pm Eastern time.

It's been just one day since the launch of the "pay what you want" return of the Humble Indie Bundle but so far it looks like this second effort to highlight indie games will be an even bigger success than the first such effort. According to the web site the revenues from Humble Indie Bundle 2 have generated just over $500,000 in just the first 24 hours. Nearly 70,000 purchases have been made to get five indie games (Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans) with an average of just over $7 per purchase (together, the games normally sell for about $85). It's currently unknown how much money has been given to each game. It's also unknown how much was contributed to the two charities (Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play) or to a tip for the Humble Bundle organizers.

Some people have spent well over that average to get these games. One of them is Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of the indie hit Minecraft. According to the site he's currently the person who has spent the most with a massive $2,000 contribution. The bundle deal still has a lot of life left in it; it's currently scheduled to shut down on December 21.

Last year the team at indie game developer Wolfire launched the Humble Indie Bundle which let people pay what they wanted for five indie games. The bundle generated over $1.2 million over the length of the deal. Now the same team is doing it again with the Humble Indie Bundle 2.

Five more indie games are a part of this new deal: Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, and two games that technically are still in beta versions: Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans. All five games are DRM-free and come in Windows, Mac and Linux flavors. You can choose to spend any amount of money you want to get all five games and like the last bundle you can also choose to donate a portion of your money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play. This year there's also an extra option to tip the Humble Bundle folks. According to the Wolfire web site, "We have some humble ideas on how to change digital distribution that we're going to try out." The Humble Indie Bundle 2 lasts until December 21 at 4 pm Eastern time. You can check out the launch trailer for the bundle after the jump:

With the IGF finalists announced, game makers only have a short while longer to find out the best of the best in indie games from last year. From the best overall game to the one with the most impressive art, there's several different categories for indie game designers to aspire to be the top of. This week we're going to take a look at a few of the games that have made it to the finals.

One of the lesser categories in the IGF is Technical Excellence. While still important, it doesn't receive as much attention as some of the other categories. This year, though, there's a lot of excellent entries in this category. They are all great on every front, but they truly shine in their excellent technical accomplishments over everything else. These are the games that push the envelope forward and show just what we can do with computers. So take a gander at what these independent developers have to offer to you. You won't be disappointed!

In this case, the headline says it all. Dan Tabar's phenomenal arcade-strategy-shooter-physics game Cortex Command, which was talked about in the 15 Indie Games for the Holidays feature, has been knocked down in price from $18 to $9 from November 28th through the 30th in celebration of Thanksgiving (and Black Friday). Buying the game in beta phase right now will net you all the features as well as all future features and the full campaign once it is released.

If you don't know what Cortex Command is, well, it's hard to explain in entirety. It's about remote-controlling body to shoot at each other and dig tunnels through the landscape in a real-time environment, but it's also about explosions, finding treasure, and skillful platforming and shooting, among other things. The demo is freely available through the Data Realms website, and is best played with a gamepad like the Xbox 360 controller.

So you are looking for a new experience in gaming. But the mainstream market is getting you down with its high price tags and extensive DRM. But there's a lot of great games out there that you can get cheap. The indie market is strong, and some of the best games around can be found for half the price of the price of more mainstream games like Dead Rising or Fallout 3. They've also got far less rigorous specs than their mainstream counterparts, which is also a welcome change of pace. We've got a list of some of the best indie games money can buy, ranging from the puzzle extravaganza World of Goo to the clever and addicting Armageddon Empires. So indulge in the little guy this holiday season. You won't be disappointed with the results you get.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2008 PC Game Holiday Gift Guide

We here at Big Download love indie games. From telling you about them, playing them, or offering downloads for them, we are all about helping lesser-known developers get their name out into the world. Each week on Saturday, we'll give you the Indie Wrap-up, a collection of all the indie news stories and features during the previous week.

There were no major independent releases this week, with most of the week's news concerning more freeware than independent. There have been an explosion of new releases, however, thanks to the Procedural Generation Competition being held over on TIGSource. Stay tuned for more news concerning the excellent output from the competition!

Features and Downloads

	Freeware Friday: Torus Trooper Our resident indie fan James Murff takes a look at one of freeware's best shoot-'em-ups, even if he gets disoriented by all the twisting.
	Armageddon Empires demo available for download The incomparable Armageddon Empires now has a demo available for download through the Big Download service!
	MODvelous Monday: 6/2/2008 David Craddock takes his weekly look at mods to the excellent single-player Half-life mod They Hunger.