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

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CAGiversary!
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Games.
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$1.45+
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And now we unlocked Jagged Alliance 1 Gold Edition. Easily one of my top 5 games of all time. The sequel being in there as well.
I just bought the sequel Jagged Alliance 2 Gold the other day, this is a nice bonus for me.

Here is a guide for anyone who wish to install the v1.13 patch for Jagged Alliance 2 Gold.

  1. Install Jagged Alliance 2 Gold from Steam and run the game once.
  2. Create a folder named "JA2G" and copy the folder "Jagged Alliance 2 Gold" from your C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common folder to your new C:\JA2G folder.
  3. Download 01 and 02, unpack both in order to C:\JA2G\Jagged Alliance 2 Gold folder and overwrite any existing files.
  4. Click on "ja2.exe" file in the C:\JA2G\Jagged Alliance 2 Gold folder and run the v1.13 game.
 
I just bought the sequel Jagged Alliance 2 Gold the other day, this is a nice bonus for me.

Here is a guide for anyone who wish to install the v1.13 patch for Jagged Alliance 2 Gold.

  1. Install Jagged Alliance 2 Gold from Steam and run the game once.
  2. Create a folder named "JA2G" and copy the folder "Jagged Alliance 2 Gold" from your C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common folder to your new C:\JA2G folder.
  3. Download 01 and 02, unpack both in order to C:\JA2G\Jagged Alliance 2 Gold folder and overwrite any existing files.
  4. Click on "ja2.exe" file in the C:\JA2G\Jagged Alliance 2 Gold folder and run the v1.13 game.
what about if i have a mac

 
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I just bought the sequel Jagged Alliance 2 Gold the other day, this is a nice bonus for me.

Here is a guide for anyone who wish to install the v1.13 patch for Jagged Alliance 2 Gold.

  1. Install Jagged Alliance 2 Gold from Steam and run the game once.
  2. Create a folder named "JA2G" and copy the folder "Jagged Alliance 2 Gold" from your C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common folder to your new C:\JA2G folder.
  3. Download 01 and 02, unpack both in order to C:\JA2G\Jagged Alliance 2 Gold folder and overwrite any existing files.
  4. Click on "ja2.exe" file in the C:\JA2G\Jagged Alliance 2 Gold folder and run the v1.13 game.
Be careful, that's not really a patch but a mod. It's an amazing mod, mind you and must be played but you owe it to yourself to play 1.12 vanilla first IMO. There are some fantastic changes in 1.13 but also some really bad ones if you don't know what you're doing (just look up the Drassen counterattack for one).

 
So, I just bought the bundle and noticed the soundtracks (which is a neat touch, forgot Casey had mentioned that). Which makes me curious.

Does anyone with the Trading Cards Bundle know which games came with included soundtracks on their profile page? (It's the only BlinkBundle I'm missing from my profile).

 
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So, I just bought the bundle and noticed the soundtracks (which is a neat touch, forgot Casey had mentioned that). Which makes me curious.

Does anyone with the Trading Cards Bundle know which games came with included soundtracks on their profile page? (It's the only BlinkBundle I'm missing from my profile).
To The Moon, Really Big Sky, Gentlemen!, Knytt Underground, and Bad Hotel included soundtracks.

 
So, I just bought the bundle and noticed the soundtracks (which is a neat touch, forgot Casey had mentioned that). Which makes me curious.

Does anyone with the Trading Cards Bundle know which games came with included soundtracks on their profile page? (It's the only BlinkBundle I'm missing from my profile).
Now that you mention it, I noticed that they have a
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icon for the games with included soundtracks, that is the icing on the cake for this bundle.

 
Now that you mention it, I noticed that they have a
K9hQgOw.jpg
icon for the games with included soundtracks, that is the icing on the cake for this bundle.
Yup, Curently only Escape Goat and SOL Exodus have soundtracks included. Hopefully the mystery games has one too.

 
Damn, I would have bought it/not missed it if I had known about all the included soundtracks. Thank you for the info.
No problem.

A few of these game's soundtracks could've been picked up from other bundles: To The Moon (Humble Indie Bundle 10), Bad Hotel (Humble Bundle: PC and Android 8), and Really Big Sky (Indie Royale - The Chosen 2 Bundle).

 
No problem.

A few of these game's soundtracks could've been picked up from other bundles: To The Moon (Humble Indie Bundle 10), Bad Hotel (Humble Bundle: PC and Android 8), and Really Big Sky (Indie Royale - The Chosen 2 Bundle).
The only soundtrack out of those I have is To The Moon. :whistle2:( Sucks, but oh well.

 
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I got it from HiBX. It was in the $1-tier with the soundtrack. If you pennied into HiBX, you should have it too.
I didn't. HIBX caught me at a time when I was unwilling to spend money on stuff that would never make it out of my backlog (making it the only numbered HB I don't own at least the base tier of).

Besides, if I pennied into HIBX, I would own TTM DRM-free, at least. Difficult though that may be to swallow for most CAGs, I'd still count that as owning it.
 
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I didn't. HIBX caught me at a time when I was unwilling to spend money on stuff that would never make it out of my backlog (making it the only numbered HB I don't own at least the base tier of).

Besides, if I pennied into HIBX, I would own TTM DRM-free, at least. Difficult though that may be to swallow for most CAGs, I'd still count that as owning it.
I assume you changed your mind by HiB11? :p

So I've been talking to the dev of Steam Bandits: Outpost, the Starter Pack that we get comes with $15 worth of premium currency. Premium currency will be primarily used of vanity items (hair dye, pets, painting buildings, decorations), though these sort of items can also be purchased with in-game monies.

The dev has also said the iocoins are giftable. I've just asked if that means you can buy them for other people, or you can just give some of the ones you already own to people, waiting to hear back. He's said he's not sure if he'll make them tradeable, so we'll see.

So why does any of this matter to you? Well, if the iocoins are indeed able to be gifted from one's own stash, these codes for $15 worth of coins should actually be worth something when the game drops (by using Steam alts to funnel the person's main character more coins). I'll probably end up playing the game and keeping the coins to myself, but it's something to think about.

 
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Hey, guy with encephalitis baby avatar, you're missing your big chance.  Humble, IG, and Poopies have been putting out some lame bundles last couple of weeks.  Now is your time to shine.  Claim that spotlight!

 
Alright, the Steam Bandits dev just told me that you can only buy coins for other people, you can't just send ones you have to them, but that they'll think about it implementing it.

So nevermind what I said earlier. :p

 
So just to give people a heads up Blink Bundle will be making some pretty major changes starting in June. We've been doing a lot of feedback back and forth with developers and publishers over the past week. We've included in the discussions a lot of past participants, as well as very well known indie devs that haven't bundled yet for one reason or another. And even publishers that are planning to (or already have) pull support from most of the bundle market.

These changes may become a standard going forward with the regular bundle becoming more of a very special event. Our goal from the beginning was to provide a quality bundle that really supports ongoing indie development while not devaluing products too much, and the trending of the bundle market is going opposite of that. So our plans are to move forward in a different direction.

Can't give much in ways of specifics right now. I can say that the new approach is much more likely to make the bundles stand out. And that even though we've debut bundled a lot of titles to this point...the new system will ramp that up considerably.

Edit: I should add one specific. The changes should allow for us to remove all unlocks.

 
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These changes may become a standard going forward with the regular bundle becoming more of a very special event.
This is how these sorts of bundles started out in the beginning anyway. I just don't think it's reasonable for a bundle group to think they can sustain a constant stream of bundles back to back or concurrently and keep the quality of games up without repeating other bundles or even themselves.

While everyone loves deals, somewhere along the way it turned into quantity over quality. I also think it's training customers to buy as many games as they can dirt cheap even if they have little or no interest in them. A few years ago if someone told me I'd own 2,000 or so games and never play 99% of them I would think they were nuts but here I am.

 
This is how these sorts of bundles started out in the beginning anyway. I just don't think it's reasonable for a bundle group to think they can sustain a constant stream of bundles back to back or concurrently and keep the quality of games up without repeating other bundles or even themselves.

While everyone loves deals, somewhere along the way it turned into quantity over quality. I also think it's training customers to buy as many games as they can dirt cheap even if they have little or no interest in them. A few years ago if someone told me I'd own 2,000 or so games and never play 99% of them I would think they were nuts but here I am.
I definitely agree with you. I just celebrated my 2 year anniversary on Steam, and I have more than 1200 games. I've been buying less bundles now than ever. This is mainly because I can't justify paying the money for a collection of games that I'm extremely unlikely to play. And that's more becoming the norm. It's become more about appealing to collectors, backlog addicts and unfortunately resellers. So the developers aren't getting really promoted well, since very few people are actually playing the games (outside idling for cards). Mix that with the price per key plummeting, and that trend is simply not sustainable long term. At least not with quality in mind.

That said, I've been happy with how we've been able to feature a lot of titles that people genuinely do want to play. But with the trends of the bundle market I worry about how that will affect quality going forward. Especially since the downward trends puts pressure on higher price point bundles to go in the same direction, which we simply will not do. So we need to be proactive with changing things up a bit. Maybe even by presenting a new bundle type featuring games where most people want to play all of them. A shocking concept!

 
As much as I like cheap games, I can't say that I'm too excited about the current landscape of dozens of bundles filled with crap. And as fun as it is seeing those +1s rolling in your profile, I'd personally rather have bundles consisting of games of higher quality -- even if it means a drop in quantity.

Being realistic, I know that the questionable "games" will continue to get bundled just to get attention, but if Blink can carve out a niche of getting better developers on board and still deliver good prices, well then I think that's something I'd potentially be interested in.

I'm just pretty sure that I wouldn't go for a bundle consisting of fewer games, similar quality, and higher prices (not talking about Blink here, but bundles in general).

So... let's see what you guys come up with. 

 
Being realistic, I know that the questionable "games" will continue to get bundled just to get attention
Some of that is Valve's fault since they made the selection process a popularity contest by crowd sourcing it.

I mean, does anyone really think Air Control should have got in? But it was in a bundle and people were lured by the promise of free keys so it did.

 
I sort of hope Blink's new direction is that they offer bundles that have fewer games at a higher price, but where the quality of the games are higher and they're games people actually wanna play.

 
Some of that is Valve's fault since they made the selection process a popularity contest by crowd sourcing it.

I mean, does anyone really think Air Control should have got in? But it was in a bundle and people were lured by the promise of free keys so it did.
It's going to get worse after greenlight removed and steam will become something like google play where anyone who has little extra from cards (assuming submission cost is kept) can release thing they did for school coding project.

 
Some of that is Valve's fault since they made the selection process a popularity contest by crowd sourcing it.

I mean, does anyone really think Air Control should have got in? But it was in a bundle and people were lured by the promise of free keys so it did.
It doesn't help that there are rumours of Valve changing that system, so that gives Greenlight participants more incentive to get things through now. So Greenlight bundling and free key promotions are rapidly increasing. And this puts unfair pressure on other Greenlight participants to do the same thing even if they don't think it's a good idea for their product long term.

I've actually received more than 30 emails regarding including Greenlight titles in BB just in the past week.

 
I've actually received more than 30 emails regarding including Greenlight titles in BB just in the past week.
Hey, I'm all for another Greenlight bundle, but only if the games in it are actually worthy of being greenlit, and not done so just because of the promise of free keys or potential card "rebates".

If anyone one could pull together a good greenlight bundle, I bet Blink could.

 
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Hey, I'm all for another Greenlight bundle, but only if the games in it are actually worthy of being greenlit, and not done so just because of the promise of free keys or potential card "rebates".

If anyone one could pull together a good greenlight bundle, I bet Blink could.
We're not against the general idea of a Greenlight bundle. We've even said in responses that we may consider it in the future. But if we did it I don't see us just throwing 10-20 titles at the wall, and seeing if they stick. I don't like the fact that the current method has actually caused people to overlook quality Greenlight entries simply because they're not in an extremely cheap bundle or free key promotion. We'd definitely have to have a different approach to consider it.

 
We're not against the general idea of a Greenlight bundle. We've even said in responses that we may consider it in the future. But if we did it I don't see us just throwing 10-20 titles at the wall, and seeing if they stick. I don't like the fact that the current method has actually caused people to overlook quality Greenlight entries simply because they're not in an extremely cheap bundle or free key promotion. We'd definitely have to have a different approach to consider it.
Exactly. As of late, the only things I was really playing were a couple of free greenlight games. And recently, (due in no small part to Humble's lack of decent game bundles for some time now), I actually started buying #FAKECAG'ing games I wanted to play.

The sheer difference in quality is astounding, even in equally "indie" titles. I can't even tell if greenlight contains solid games anymore, unless they've all been buried by the "free keys for voting" crowd.

 
The sheer difference in quality is astounding, even in equally "indie" titles. I can't even tell if greenlight contains solid games anymore, unless they've all been buried by the "free keys for voting" crowd.
I've been sharing cool looking stuff to my activity feed, but it seems more and more people don't actually check that.
 
Exactly. As of late, the only things I was really playing were a couple of free greenlight games. And recently, (due in no small part to Humble's lack of decent game bundles for some time now), I actually started buying #FAKECAG'ing games I wanted to play.

The sheer difference in quality is astounding, even in equally "indie" titles. I can't even tell if greenlight contains solid games anymore, unless they've all been buried by the "free keys for voting" crowd.
As a bundle buyer I haven't been a big fan of what Humble has been doing with the dailies. I don't like the setup at all, and often it's just been ridiculous. But in their defence Humble Bundle has gotten more money from me over the past couple weeks than any other bundle. Do I buy Paper Sorcerer, which I'm guaranteed to play, for $1 or 2....or do I buy a 8-12 game similarly priced bundle that I'm unlikely to play any? To me the answer is becoming more obvious.

Though I am not a true CAG. I preorder too many games and buy others at highest price point to have that CAG title. Van Helsing II and Banished being the latest.

 
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I sort of hope Blink's new direction is that they offer bundles that have fewer games at a higher price, but where the quality of the games are higher and they're games people actually wanna play.
While I like that idea in theory, in reality I know that I would just think those games will be rebundled somewhere else cheaper later on so I would just pass on it.

It used to be that if you snooze you lose on games in a bundle but now with so many bundle groups, many of which are running bundles back to back and concurrently, if you don't like a particular bundle lineup or price point then chances are those games will be rebundled elsewhere.

Exactly. As of late, the only things I was really playing were a couple of free greenlight games. And recently, (due in no small part to Humble's lack of decent game bundles for some time now), I actually started buying #FAKECAG'ing games I wanted to play.
I do that sometimes too. I find that if I pay at or near full price for a game I'm much more invested in it and will definitely get around to playing it soon. With bundles even if it's a game I like I don't really feel an urgency. I know I got it as cheap as it will likely ever go and I don't have to worry about getting my money's worth or playing it before it goes cheap. It just goes into the 'I want to play it and will get around to it someday' (maybe) pile. I paid very little and hence I have very little investment.

I realize these two replies of mine seem completely contradictory, but I guess for me my behavior is either buy a game up front or else wait for it to go in a cheap bundle or a very cheap sale. Something in between, like say 50% off or a not super cheap bundle, is not very appealing because I feel if I waited this long I might as well just wait for it to go really cheap.

 
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Any "change" is really just going to be less games for a higher price.  Anything that isn't significantly less than 75% off on a Steam sale I'll likely pass since I can just buy it using card money or I might just pass altogether since the reason I buy most of these bundle games is only because it is so cheap.  

That's really how it is now.  There's only 1 or 2 games I'm interested in during the current bundle and if I were to buy it for $5 it's only because I'd feel like at least I'm getting a few other games in the process.  

 
I sort of hope Blink's new direction is that they offer bundles that have fewer games at a higher price, but where the quality of the games are higher and they're games people actually wanna play.
Ah, so you want Blink to do something like Humble's Daily Bundles.
 
While I like that idea in theory, in reality I know that I would just think those games will be rebundled somewhere else cheaper later on so I would just pass on it.

It used to be that if you snooze you lose on games in a bundle but now with so many bundle groups, many of which are running bundles back to back and concurrently, if you don't like a particular bundle lineup or price point then chances are those games will be rebundled elsewhere.
But with the way things are going that snooze you lose is more likely to come back even stronger than before. More quality titles are becoming bundle resistant, since the PPK is almost to the point of being insulting. Arguably it's already gone far past the point depending on who you talk to. And it's not working out well in ways of promotion either. It doesn't seem like it because the overall amount of games hitting Steam has been increasing, but the quality titles going into bundles has been seeing a pretty sharp decline. And since even publishers are starting to become wary of bundling as things progress downwards, then that is just going to add to that even more. That's one of the reasons why bundle dilution has become a recent trend.

 
Any "change" is really just going to be less games for a higher price. Anything that isn't significantly less than 75% off on a Steam sale I'll likely pass since I can just buy it using card money or I might just pass altogether since the reason I buy most of these bundle games is only because it is so cheap.

That's really how it is now. There's only 1 or 2 games I'm interested in during the current bundle and if I were to buy it for $5 it's only because I'd feel like at least I'm getting a few other games in the process.
We're still going to be running a bundle, so we still have to set it up so that it's extremely attractive. Setting it up so that it's just comparable to what Steam offers isn't going to work. But at the same time selling their games for 20 cents a game is simply going too far for many developers and publishers. There has to a point between the two that makes sense.

Ah, so you want Blink to do something like Humble's Daily Bundles.
Pass. I'm not going to introduce something that I wouldn't buy myself. While I might have bought a couple low tiers during the dailies I haven't bought even one full bundle.

 
But with the way things are going that snooze you lose is more likely to come back even stronger than before. More quality titles are becoming bundle resistant, since the PPK is almost to the point of being insulting. Arguably it's already gone far past the point depending on who you talk to. And it's not working out well in ways of promotion either. It doesn't seem like it because the overall amount of games hitting Steam has been increasing, but the quality titles going into bundles has been seeing a pretty sharp decline. And since even publishers are starting to become wary of bundling as things progress downwards, then that is just going to add to that even more. That's one of the reasons why bundle dilution has become a recent trend.
Capitalism:

Race-to-the-Bottom.jpg


 
Greenlight bundles have degraded in quality.  They're good for "+1" collectors but most of the games getting Greenlit these days are garbage.

 
Any "change" is really just going to be less games for a higher price. Anything that isn't significantly less than 75% off on a Steam sale I'll likely pass since I can just buy it using card money or I might just pass altogether since the reason I buy most of these bundle games is only because it is so cheap.
I agree with this, but from mainly in reference to games I'm uncertain I want. If I'm going to take a chance on something that looks like:

- a cheap mobile port

- someone's first game

- abandonware

- poorly reviewed stuff

then I want it for less than 75% off. Games that are well-received or seem very interesting have a little more leeway in my opinion.

Fortunately, Casey already said that he wasn't interested in simply competing with the standard Steam sale and that he didn't want to sell a bundle he wouldn't buy.

 
But with the way things are going that snooze you lose is more likely to come back even stronger than before. More quality titles are becoming bundle resistant, since the PPK is almost to the point of being insulting. Arguably it's already gone far past the point depending on who you talk to. And it's not working out well in ways of promotion either. It doesn't seem like it because the overall amount of games hitting Steam has been increasing, but the quality titles going into bundles has been seeing a pretty sharp decline. And since even publishers are starting to become wary of bundling as things progress downwards, then that is just going to add to that even more. That's one of the reasons why bundle dilution has become a recent trend.
Admittedly you are seeing more of the behind the scenes than we are, but I think it's going to take a long time of multiple titles regularly not, ahem, blinking and being resistant to bundles long term for me to stop thinking 'Oh it will just be bundled cheap multiple times anyway'.

I've been hearing complaints about bundling from developers from some time now but I've yet to notice a mass number of them not doing bundles or doing one but no repeats.

If everybody else is doing it because they all feel pressured to it really won't matter much if there are a few holdouts unless a holdout is very high profile and in high demand. It also won't matter much what a developer intends to do if the consumers perceive a game to be one that is likely to be in a bundle. Much of the damage there is already done. It will take time and a lot of work from multiple people in the indie games scene to change that perception.

I think it's also worth noting that people who religiously follow bundles are a niche segment and sites like this and Reddit Game Deals are a bit of a microcosm. As crazy as this may sound to us, there are plenty of people who don't wait for sales or bundles to buy games. Humble is pretty much mainstream but the other bundle sites aren't. I am constantly hearing from people who don't even realize there are other indie bundles besides Humble. I think it's tougher for indies to break into that crowd though. For every Minecraft you have hundreds more games that just never get mainstream attention.

 
I've been hearing complaints about bundling from developers from some time now but I've yet to notice a mass number of them not doing bundles or doing one but no repeats.
I recall reading about developers growing disillusioned with bundles at about the same time as I started buying bundles almost two years ago.
 
I recall reading about developers growing disillusioned with bundles at about the same time as I started buying bundles almost two years ago.
Right, they've been grumbling about it for almost as long as bundles have been around but instead of the trending lessening it's only been intensifying.

I think there's a disconnect between what they say and what they do, what they want and what they feel they have no choice but to do. I get that but at the same time I don't think developers themselves complaining about it or even threatening to pull out of the system is really going to change it. Not unless they get some solidarity and some action behind those threats.

 
Right, they've been grumbling about it for almost as long as bundles have been around but instead of the trending lessening it's only been intensifying.

I think there's a disconnect between what they say and what they do, what they want and what they feel they have no choice but to do. I get that but at the same time I don't think developers themselves complaining about it or even threatening to pull out of the system is really going to change it. Not unless they get some solidarity and some action behind those threats.
Market forces...

128664514423998759.jpeg


 
Capitalism:

[customspoiler="Gimundous jpeg"]
Race-to-the-Bottom.jpg
[/customspoiler]
I don't understand why slavery is being depicted as the grim reaper there. Is there some artistic intent? Or is it just an equation of "slavery sucks, and so does death"?

I'm not saying you can't make connections, it's just that they seem tenuous considering the rest of the piece.
 
bread's done
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