They were freeware. Only the special editions with comments required payment.

I think he tried to charge a small fee for a special edition once, but soon gave up on the idea again. Apparantly it didn't work out or people complained or he wasn't comfortable with the idea himself.

I guess it's kind of hard for developers to make the step from freeware to commercial, due to the expectations and sometimes entitlement of their audience. I have to admit in the early days of Wadjet Eye games I didn't like the idea either that someone used AGS to create commercial games and I was not interested in paying them. That was a long time ago though, maybe even at a time I didn't earn my own money yet and didn't know how to make international payments on the internet. My attitude towards it has changed a lot since those days and I didn't regret paying full price for The Shivah, Gemini Rue, Puzzle Bots and Blackwell Deception CD edition (incl. Blackwell Bundle).


Sadly, they can't. Wadjet Eye has no rights on and no control over Emerald City Confidential. Dave Gilbert revealed that he tried to buy the rights back from PlayFirst but so far without success. :(


I listed some other indie adventures here, but I can't vouch for them being good. The reason I'd be interested in them is precisely that I don't know them yet. ;)

Additionally, there are the games of Daedalic, like The Whispered World and Edna & Harvey: The Breakout, or KingArt's The Book of Unwritten Tales, but since they might have international publishers, they're not that likely to show up in DRM-free PWYW bundles, I guess. (The Whispered World was part of a different adventure bundle last year though, with a fixed price and only semi-indie; I missed that one).

Then there's stuff like Alchemia (seems similar to Amanita's games), Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman Mine, Alpha Polaris, Dear Esther, The Tales of Bingwood ... probably a few more if you keep looking. But again, no guarantee for quality. Still, I think part of the attraction of such low price bundles is to take a gamble and try something you wouldn't buy otherwise, not to get those games dirt cheap you'd have happily bought anyway.

Has anyone been having trouble getting to the site? Every time I try to look at the bundle, my browser just lags indefinitely.

http://www.socko1.com/

At the current rate I doubt the bonus will ever be unlocked. And the price drops won't be significant either. I guess waiting is quite a counterproductive tactic. I'll just get the bundle for The Sea Will Claim Everything, a little charity and as a token of appreciation for all the indie devs making adventure games and the people liking them enough to give them their own adventure game bundle.

EDIT:
Hm, what I didn't realize is that Ben There Dan That is probably the Special Edition with enhanced graphics and soundtrack etc. I only played the freeware version, so it might have some value for my collection. ;)

Shit, just noticed they have 1893... their original DDL distributor kicked the bucket.

And The Sea Will Claim Everything seems to follow up on the style of The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge
http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/games/the-strange-and-somewhat-sinister-tale-of-the-house-at-desert-bridge/
which is good and free. And the music... awww...

Too bad I already have the AGS titles. On the other hand, the keys could be gifted.

Welp, now I feel stupid. I picked up the bundle and planned on getting The Shivah and Metal Dead, but I accidentally payed the average instead of beating it, paying one less cent than I should have.. It's still a good deal, but it's very annoying as I was looking forward to the bonus games, especially The Shivah. :/

EDIT: I figured I might as well email support and see if something can be worked out. I really want the bonus games and I'd be sad to lose them to my own stupidity and itchy trigger finger.

Ah, TSWCE is indeed a follow up on the TSaSSTotHaDB. Similar art, similar writing and a massive expansion of the previously only hinted at world. And Bolshewhiskey you have to give to a pirate octopus with a hook tentacle.

Still torn over this. I have four of the games (including The Shivah). Is is worth paying over the average for Metal Dead?

Good god that's a long acronym. :O And this: "And Bolshewhiskey you have to give to a pirate octopus with a hook tentacle." is not something I expected to read this morning. XD

Btw, I got an email back from support this morning and they added the bonus games to my account. Good customer service is a huge plus in my book, so I'll definitely be looking forward to whenever the next Bundle In A Box is. I'd like to see an RPG one, especially with RPGs more in the style of the Infinity Engine games or Fallout as opposed to the standard jRPG (not that I have anything against jRPG, they're just much more common because of RPGMaker).

Also, hoping enough people still like adventure games for >8,000 more sales because I really want the soundtracks.

I bought it now, too. Paid 3$. Didnt want to be too greedy ;).

Off - playing Gemini Rue :)

Wait till you try the game (you did download the freebie, didn't you?). It's got a dinosaur and a turtle arguing about politics, a spider pig, a paranoid rabbit who always thinks he's followed by someone, and a command "Gerbelize" in the menu.

While TSWCE among other things gave names to save slots... I think I'll need to restart the game I saved to Bob, because I was sleepy and missed a ton of text while searching for the fertilizer to get my transponder mushroom...

I'd love to see Knights of the Chalice in a bundle or sale on day. I'd definitely get it if the price was a bit lower.

Yeah, me too, but I fear they were a little too optimistic regarding the expected sales and despite there being some articles about the bundle in the relevant indie games blogs, I feel this bundle gets a lot less attention than most of the others. Hopefully they'll think of some way to reward the few loyal adventure game fans who bought it anyway, if even the goal of 8.000 won't be reached.

Also, I think the decreasing price idea is a bit pointless the way it's implemented. $2.99 already is a very good price for the bundle, especially if you don't own the games yet. What difference do a few cents make unless you're a real cheapskate who isn't interested in the games anyway? And even if there are enough cheapskate to wait for the price to drop, it seems to be counterproductive because the very slow rise of customers paying for the bundle might discourage others who are not sure if it's worth buying or who are hoping for the unlockables.

I would not be too sure about this. As we discussed before, a lot of people will probably wait till the end.

See above (I edited my post to add something about the price drop). It doesn't look like that will work out. If everyone's waiting for the price to drop, there will never be a significant decrease in it. And those games are worth a lot more than $1-2 dollars, so I'd guess the people who don't want to pay $3 are not in the main target group anyway or perhaps already own most of the games, which means the bundle isn't that much of a success.