Indie developers let you decide how much their games are worth

The independent developers behind World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra: Overture have joined forces to cut out the middle man with the release of theHumble Indie Bundle. The unique package offers DRM-free versions of these underground hits for Windows, Mac, and Linux. But the interesting part is that they’re letting customers name the price.

Above: Here’s the photo that pops up if you try to be too much of a cheapskate. It looks like$1 is the minimum amount required for thebundle

By default, your donation is split evenly between the developers and theChild’s Play charityand theElectronic Frontier Foundation, but you can customize it so that your money goes where you want. According to the bundle’s official site, 50,400 people have bought the bundle at the time of writing. Although the average amount of each contribution is only $7.41, nearly the bundle has managed to raise nearly $400,000.

Above: If you haven’t played World of Goo yet, now’s your chance

Above: Aquaria is another great underground indie hit included in the bundle

While we haven’t played much of Gish or Lugaru, we have lots of praises forWorld of GooandAquaria– and even though we may not be huge fans ofPenumbra: Overture, it is one of the few genuinely scary “horror” games out there. Plus, the price is always going to be right, because you’re the one who’s deciding on how much you want to donate. We hope to see more projects like the Humble Indie Bundle soon. It’s good for indie game developers and helps two great charities. But thanks to the donation payment model, it’s the customer who’s the real winner with a great bundle of games for a reasonable price.

Above: Pay as much or as little as you want for the Humble Indie Bundle

May 6, 2010