Blink Bundle Megathread | 12/09 - 12/16: Hidden Gems Bundle 3

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I'm missing enough in there to make this a pretty good bundle for $2 (maybe $3). At $5, it's just overpriced for what I want from it.
 
Pointless bundle. The only useful thing you can do with those cards is sell them and once a game with TC's is in a bundle, the prices for those cards plummet.

 
madjoki said:
Have all of tier 1, nothing of tier 2 and for that it's way too expensive.
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I think I only have Circuits and Retro/Grade in tier 2, so I might cave in at $5 once the mystery game pops up.

MrNinjaSquirrel said:
Excellent bundle...if you don't own almost all the games =/
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Have Go Home Dinosaurs, FATE and Chip ever been bundled yet though? I know Canyon Capers was bundled recently, and Secret of the Magic Crystals a while ago but I guess I'm lucky I own neither?

ianharwood said:
Pointless bundle. The only useful thing you can do with those cards is sell them and once a game with TC's is in a bundle, the prices for those cards plummet.
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That's why you buy the bundle immediately and sell the cards as quick as you can. :mrgreen:

 
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BobbyTastic said:
I think I only have Circuits and Retro/Grade, so I might cave in at the $5-tier.

Have Go Home Dinosaurs, FATE and Chip ever been bundled yet though? I know Canyon Capers was bundled recently, and Secret of the Magic Crystals a while ago but I guess I'm lucky I own neither?
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Go Home Dinosaurs was in a Groupees Spotlight, but many wouldn't consider that a bundle. FATE and Chip haven't been bundled.

 
Waggles said:
I like it. It actually has a couple things I wanted in it, plus some stuff that was in previously undesirable bundles.

Even your repeat bundles are pretty great, Casey, so I'm looking forward to seeing your new themes over the next few weeks.

I'm buying for ponies and dinosaurs.
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the best theme bundle would be simulation bundle hehe

 
Drabelincoln said:
Next theme bundle should be a no repeat bundle....this is like a bundlestars bundle except priced 3 dollars more than it should be.
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I blame the awful bundles on the drought of indie games on Steam. There's clearly nothing left to be had apart from repeats.

 
I only really want Chip and Cayon Caper maybe? Little too much for my blood. At $3 would have been an easy one to pick up.

 
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Thanks, definitely in for one. Not sure why I even bother anymore as I now have more PC games than I oculd ever play in a single lifetime, but oh well, at least I am supporting the industry. 

 
I'm only missing 3 games and 2 DLC out of this one. If the unlock game is good I'll probably consider it. Canyon Capers and Chip both look kind of fun for some reason. 

All in all, this is another decent bundle if you don't own many... it's just a little pricey for what it is.

 
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Somehow I actually only own 4 of these, so I'll probably pick it up.  Doubtful I'll play any of them beyond Retro/grade, which was already on my list to play.  Any other recommendations?

 
cyrus386 said:
Somehow I actually only own 4 of these, so I'll probably pick it up. Doubtful I'll play any of them beyond Retro/grade, which was already on my list to play. Any other recommendations?
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Yeah.. if you like TD games and don't mind cute, Go Home Dinosaurs is nicely done.

 
cyrus386 said:
Somehow I actually only own 4 of these, so I'll probably pick it up. Doubtful I'll play any of them beyond Retro/grade, which was already on my list to play. Any other recommendations?
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A Virus Named Tom is an enjoyable fast paced puzzle game with a lot of charm.

Love is a very nicely done minimalist platformer focused around speedrunning (you'll almost certainly finish your first playthrough in under 30m).

Not The Robots is a really unique stealth roguelike full of personality (though the difficulty is pretty high; I've yet to manage to beat it).

Go Home Dinosaurs is a basic but enjoyable TD game, your enjoyment of which will hinge almost entirely on whether you find high pitched gophers making pop culture references cute or aggravating.

Retro/Grade is an excellent rhythm game disguised as a shmup that really deserves more love than it's gotten (best played with a guitar controller if you have the option).

 
MrNinjaSquirrel said:
Go Home Dinosaurs is a basic but enjoyable TD game, your enjoyment of which will hinge almost entirely on whether you find high pitched gophers making pop culture references cute or aggravating.
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I played this one with the volume down almost exclusively, and listened to my own background noise.

 
Whispering Willows is a pretty good standout title.. I kind of wish they saved it for their next main bundle rather than adding it to a card bundle.

 
Whispering Willows looks like quite a good bonus....I will wait for it to be rebundled as the games i'm missing just don't justify the cost.

 
I was expecting Borderland to sell WW for some ridiculous cheap price not realizing it was one of the few things in this bundle actually worth something just like he did with the horsey dlc Idiot bought but HOPES DELETED.

You guys scared him off and made him take his Italian sausages and go to another playground.
 
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So after selling most of the cards from this bundle, I've picked up a total of $3.71 in everyone's favorite funbucks.  That's without counting Circuits or A Virus Named Tom (already had them) and with eight cards still sitting on the market (including two foils).

Yeah, $5 sounds like a crappy deal.  But then, I actually use my steam wallet on things sometimes.  Given that I'd spend the money on Steam eventually anyway, $1.29 is a much nicer price for this bundle, and the leftover cards could knock another buck off that if the foils ever sell.

Just wanted to toss that out there because the response to this bundle seems pretty lukewarm.  The whole point is that the cards pay for most of the bundle.

 
Except for those of us who have most of these games already we can't really sell the cards again unless we want to fuss over alts.
 
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The longer you've been bundling, the crankier this

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makes you.

Otherwise, 11 halfway decent games and DLC is a great deal for
 
Yeah we have too many bundle people (including me) that have been buying bundles for a while. It's hard to get us salivating at the mouth especially considering it has many repeats.

 
The trading card bundles definitely aren't aimed at us, which I think Casey has said on a number of occasions. And I'm fine with that, provided the main bundles continue to be mostly excellent.

 
MrNinjaSquirrel said:
The trading card bundles definitely aren't aimed at us, which I think Casey has said on a number of occasions. And I'm fine with that, provided the main bundles continue to be mostly excellent.
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The thing is, I don't know how much exposure they get to the "new" bundle buyers (which are the type that would buy these bundles). I mean, Humble does fairly well with rehash bundles, but most other sites don't. It's hard to know how well these bundles are selling without a counter on the site.

 
spoderman said:
The thing is, I don't know how much exposure they get to the "new" bundle buyers (which are the type that would buy these bundles). I mean, Humble does fairly well with rehash bundles, but most other sites don't. It's hard to know how well these bundles are selling without a counter on the site.
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Well I didn't say these bundles were actually a good idea.

 
spoderman said:
The thing is, I don't know how much exposure they get to the "new" bundle buyers (which are the type that would buy these bundles). I mean, Humble does fairly well with rehash bundles, but most other sites don't. It's hard to know how well these bundles are selling without a counter on the site.
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Actually the first trading card bundle outsold a couple of our main bundles. We have to find other types of likely themed bundles to feature. Some that will not appeal to very avid bundle buyers. If we solely focused on appealing to just the hardcore crowd it wouldn't be sustainable, since we wouldn't be able to do bundles regularly enough. I'm not talking about doing 3-4 at once or anything. But even doing 10-12 game bundles where nearly everything is previously unbundled without breaks is difficult to accomplish with lots of other bundles all trying to get similar titles. This is especially true for a newer bundle that has a very low bundler cut and also doesn't have additional resources that compliment it (i.e. online storefront).

So we'll continue to try things like trading card bundles or possibly genre specific bundles. We have some publisher specific bundles on the way as well. Not all of these are going to appeal to everyone.

 
Well, there's nothing that says a trading card bundle has to be all repeat games though.  Or games bundled multiple times over.  I don't expect a trading card bundle to be no repeats (though again, it's not like that would be impossible either), but there's ways to make the bundle more appealing to a wider audience.  You could secure 4 games not previously bundled and put those in the $1.99 tier and then the rest of the stuff in the $4.99 tier.  Then you could sell to the hardcore bundlers at the $1.99 tier and the newbies could buy the $4.99 tier to get their card fix. 

In this case if you would have put stuff like Fate and SOTMC in the $1.99 tier I might have been tempted for the DLC alone and I'm sure others would have been too.  I guess the fear would be that people wouldn't buy the $4.99 tier but if you are genuinely trying to appeal to newbies who want cards, the bundle doesn't become any less attractive with a restructure.  Otherwise, it just looks like a pretty blatant attempt to sell the higher tier and generate more money with one or two games and a bunch of repeats.  

 
I know that this bundle is not aimed at me and that's fine but at the same time I think there's a method to Cheaplikeafox's madness. The idea of putting the stuff like Fate, SOTMC+DLC and Whispering Willows in the low tier and the other stuff in the higher tier is not a bad one. The people who don't have any of this stuff and buy for the cards rebate will get the $5 tier regardless, but with the tiers flipped around like that the hardcore cheapasses like us would buy the low tier.

As it stands now for those few I don't have I'm just waiting it out. There's too many ongoing cheap bundles from multiple sources and most games end up bundled multiple times so I'm just not seeing a reason to pay $5 for 3 games.

 
Cheaplikeafox OS X said:
Well, there's nothing that says a trading card bundle has to be all repeat games though. Or games bundled multiple times over. I don't expect a trading card bundle to be no repeats (though again, it's not like that would be impossible either), but there's ways to make the bundle more appealing to a wider audience. You could secure 4 games not previously bundled and put those in the $1.99 tier and then the rest of the stuff in the $4.99 tier. Then you could sell to the hardcore bundlers at the $1.99 tier and the newbies could buy the $4.99 tier to get their card fix.

In this case if you would have put stuff like Fate and SOTMC in the $1.99 tier I might have been tempted for the DLC alone and I'm sure others would have been too. I guess the fear would be that people wouldn't buy the $4.99 tier but if you are genuinely trying to appeal to newbies who want cards, the bundle doesn't become any less attractive with a restructure. Otherwise, it just looks like a pretty blatant attempt to sell the higher tier and generate more money with one or two games and a bunch of repeats.
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It wouldn't be impossible to do a trading cards bundle without repeats, but like I already pointed out it would be incredibly difficult to do that alongside regular bundles. We need bundle types to fill in gaps between main bundles so that the entire structure is sustainable.

Putting previously unbundled titles at the lower tier isn't really workable on a regular basis. Often these titles don't want to be placed in the lower tier, since many haven't even had significant discounts on Steam yet. I've had that specifically requested many times including the main bundle. And we'd be potentially sacrificing average price for a higher bundles sold number that wouldn't necessarily mean more revenue for the developers, which is our main concern. Doesn't necessarily work out for anyone in the long run. It's more likely we'd just remove the lower tier entirely, which is being considered for future bundles.

But people should keep in mind that this trading card bundle was an anomaly. Usually these trading card bundles will entirely focus on previously bundled titles. This one featured a few that weren't. The main reason why is that due to the Steam sale we had a long break, and we had to do a lot of rearranging with the main bundle, so we decided to do something a bit different as a bonus.

 
In the end, it probably has more to do with bundleconomics we aren't privy to as consumers than anything else.  When I see the potential of 4 games in a $2 tier - I see 4 devs each getting 50 cents each.  When I see the $5 tier has a $3 increase and includes 8 more games, then I see 8 devs getting 37.5 cents each.  

And I'm sure that's not how it works at all and most likely all proceeds from the bundle are pooled together and each dev gets some predetermined percentage of the total.  And for all I know, some devs could be pulling in a far bigger percentage of the haul than the other devs based on their game.  

Just seems that through it all, both the dev of the better/more sought after games and the consumer seems to be footing the bill to throw money at lesser devs not necessarily because they deserve it, but moreso because of some sort of arrangement in the bundle world.

Just can't help but remind me of those comic "random" packs shops sell.  A decent to good comic on the front and back, and the middle packed with junk that would never sell on its own.  

 
Cheaplikeafox OS X said:
In the end, it probably has more to do with bundleconomics we aren't privy to as consumers than anything else. When I see the potential of 4 games in a $2 tier - I see 4 devs each getting 50 cents each. When I see the $5 tier has a $3 increase and includes 8 more games, then I see 8 devs getting 37.5 cents each.

And I'm sure that's not how it works at all and most likely all proceeds from the bundle are pooled together and each dev gets some predetermined percentage of the total. And for all I know, some devs could be pulling in a far bigger percentage of the haul than the other devs based on their game.

Just seems that through it all, both the dev of the better/more sought after games and the consumer seems to be footing the bill to throw money at lesser devs not necessarily because they deserve it, but moreso because of some sort of arrangement in the bundle world.

Just can't help but remind me of those comic "random" packs shops sell. A decent to good comic on the front and back, and the middle packed with junk that would never sell on its own.
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I've thought about this too and how some games just keep bundling over and over and over and over well past the point of saturation I guess just because they know it's easy money and they can just ride the coattails of other more in demand games that people want. And it made me wonder if Cognition or The Cat Lady or whatever get the same bundle cut for being the umpteenth time bundled that some newer in demand game would get.

 
Cheaplikeafox OS X said:
In the end, it probably has more to do with bundleconomics we aren't privy to as consumers than anything else. When I see the potential of 4 games in a $2 tier - I see 4 devs each getting 50 cents each. When I see the $5 tier has a $3 increase and includes 8 more games, then I see 8 devs getting 37.5 cents each.

And I'm sure that's not how it works at all and most likely all proceeds from the bundle are pooled together and each dev gets some predetermined percentage of the total. And for all I know, some devs could be pulling in a far bigger percentage of the haul than the other devs based on their game.

Just seems that through it all, both the dev of the better/more sought after games and the consumer seems to be footing the bill to throw money at lesser devs not necessarily because they deserve it, but moreso because of some sort of arrangement in the bundle world.

Just can't help but remind me of those comic "random" packs shops sell. A decent to good comic on the front and back, and the middle packed with junk that would never sell on its own.
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We actually work on an equal share system. Not really sure how others do. And it has worked out for us, so we have no plans to change that. So piling the "most attractive" titles in the lower tier doesn't really benefit the bundle as a whole. That's why we're considering just going with one tier. Makes more sense for us.

Additionally our average price purchased is a selling point for us. We don't focus on bundles sold as much as maybe others do. We prioritize overall revenue and revenue per product. I don't like upselling something when the hard numbers don't really exist. And the promotion side of the non-Humble market definitely isn't proven.

 
caseyblink said:
We actually work on an equal share system. Not really sure how others do. And it has worked out for us, so we have no plans to change that. So piling the "most attractive" titles in the lower tier doesn't really benefit the bundle as a whole. That's why we're considering just going with one tier. Makes more sense for us.

Additionally our average price purchased is a selling point for us. We don't focus on bundles sold as much as maybe others do. We prioritize overall revenue and revenue per product. I don't like upselling something when the hard numbers don't really exist. And the promotion side of the non-Humble market definitely isn't proven.
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So knowing that, everything makes perfect sense as far as how Blink runs. My ramblings are more rants about the bundle industry as a whole than aimed specifically at Blink. I just think overall the bundle industry isn't promoting economic efficiency for either consumer or dev. And while definitely commendable, I don't think the equal share system is necessarily the fairest, but from the random rumors it seems most bundle sites tend to follow it. As a dev I would be less and less inclined to join a bundle nowadays unless I guess I got some sort of kick out of helping support the game industry and other devs.

 
One tier really REALLY sucks for me unless it's a ridiculously cheap level like Indie Gala or something.

I own so much that I almost never buy $4-$5 bundles like Bundlestars puts out. I pretty much have to not have a majority of the games which just very rarely happens for me.

Again, I get that I'm not the target audience and that's fine, but if you guys end up doing $4 or $5 one tiers I will definitely be passing and sticking with Indie Gala and Groupees and the occasional Humble $1 tier unless there's an odd bundle that really has a high proportion of never been bundled befores. These days that's hard to get a full bundle like that though so I don't really expect it.

Cheaplikeafox OS X said:
So knowing that, everything makes perfect sense as far as how Blink runs. My ramblings are more rants about the bundle industry as a whole than aimed specifically at Blink. I just think overall the bundle industry isn't promoting economic efficiency for either consumer or dev. And while definitely commendable, I don't think the equal share system is necessarily the fairest, but from the random rumors it seems most bundle sites tend to follow it. As a dev I would be less and less inclined to join a bundle nowadays unless I guess I got some sort of kick out of helping support the game industry and other devs.
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On the other hand, for a developer who has already bundled and probably isn't selling well this would seem to encourage them to continue to bundle over and over as much as they could as an income stream. There really seems to be no penalty for doing so.

 
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Cheaplikeafox OS X said:
So knowing that, everything makes perfect sense as far as how Blink runs. My ramblings are more rants about the bundle industry as a whole than aimed specifically at Blink. I just think overall the bundle industry isn't promoting economic efficiency for either consumer or dev. And while definitely commendable, I don't think the equal share system is necessarily the fairest, but from the random rumors it seems most bundle sites tend to follow it. As a dev I would be less and less inclined to join a bundle nowadays unless I guess I got some sort of kick out of helping support the game industry and other devs.
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With an equal share system you're likely going to encounter less drama within the indie community. Because outside an equal share system you start to become judge and jury over which game is more attractive than others. I can think of a few titles from previous main bundles that ended up garnering significantly more attention to the bundle than what others might see as more attractive. Gnomoria and King Arthur's Gold are two perfect examples of that. The only game that was more talked about than Gnomoria in the first bundle was Eldritch. And it wasn't because it was in the lower tier, since less than 5% of the overall customers purchased just tier 1. King Arthur's Gold was most talked about title in the 2nd bundle.

Too often you'll end up being wrong about what is the selling point of a bundle because often you won't really know until it actually hits. And basing the revenue split off something like game redemptions, mentions on twitter or Facebook and link through traffic obviously would make it ridiculously complicated (and potentially exploitable). If others also adopt the equal share system it's because it works. It's simple and easy. I can count on one hand the amount of objections from potential participants, and I'd have a few fingers unused.

 
Cheaplikeafox OS X said:
As a dev I would be less and less inclined to join a bundle nowadays unless I guess I got some sort of kick out of helping support the game industry and other devs.
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Well you can already see that happening, with how many repeats there are and quality new games continuing to be absent from bundles you'd have expected them to be in. I think devs are realizing that often times it's not worth bundling your game unless you've reached the point where it won't sell at all otherwise (which could be awhile for good games, and fairly quick for crappy ones, which again make sense with what games have been getting bundled).

Sucks for people buying bundles, but you can hardly blame the devs considering how the bundle industry is right now.
 
motoki said:
I know that this bundle is not aimed at me and that's fine but at the same time I think there's a method to Cheaplikeafox's madness. The idea of putting the stuff like Fate, SOTMC+DLC and Whispering Willows in the low tier and the other stuff in the higher tier is not a bad one. The people who don't have any of this stuff and buy for the cards rebate will get the $5 tier regardless, but with the tiers flipped around like that the hardcore cheapasses like us would buy the low tier.
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C'mon Casey, you could make another twenty, thirty bucks. At least. How can you refuse?!!

 
caseyblink said:
Unless I'm playing Fieldrunnners 1 or 2, which is often.

We're back next week with another trading cards bundle. Another bundle may actually follow that one before the trading cards bundle is over. Then the first of our special promotions bundle should follow. We had to rearrange things due to the earlier than usual Steam sale. Plus, we've been busy planning some expansions to the Blink network that aren't directly linked to the bundle, but will likely enhance it.
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So, with the trading card bundle come and gone, I'm wondering when these other bundles will hit. It'd be good to see you guys get on a regular rotation as all the other bundle sites are going nuts, running two or three (or more) at a time.

 
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