The Humble Bundle strikes (my wallet) again!
OK, so here's how it works. The folks at Humble Bundle work with developers and publishers to get games for you, then tell you you can pay what you want, and YOU decide how much goes to the devs, Humble Bundle itself, and charity.
The main Bundle is on a two-week cycle, and features several games at name-your-price, several more at beat-the average (typically $4-$6), and often adds several new games after the first week for the beat-the-average price (don't worry, they don't make you pay again. If you already beat the average, you can go ahead and download them). Sometimes games will be available for a somewhat higher payment tier.
The Weekly Bundle, as the name implies, is a one-week cycle, and features, again, name-your-price, beat-the-average, and sometimes higher priced tiers. What you see is what you get; no further games will be added.
Typically indie games are offered but sometimes a major publisher will get involved (THQ, EA and WB Games have all offered bundles recently). Most games are available on Steam but DRM-free versions are typically offered as well (EA games were available from their totally-not-Steam Origin service).
The recently-added Books Bundle is the same deal as the Weekly Bundle, but you get ebooks.
Another somewhat recent addition is the Humble Store. Games are available on Steam, usually for their regular retail price, but sometimes offered at discount (independent of Steam's discounts; a game may be on sale through Humble Store and not directly through Steam, and vice-versa). 10% of the sale goes toward charity.
This is a great way to get yourself some cheap games. My Steam library has exploded in the last year and a half from maybe 5 games to nearly 100. The first Bundle I purchased was the Humble EA Bundle (EA was kind enough to not take any money as well, so all of it went to either charity or Humble Bundle). Available for name-your price were (if I remember correctly): Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, Dead Space and Dead Space 3, Mirror's Edge and Medal Of Honor. For beat-the-average (less than $5 when I got it), Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 with some Sims 3 DLC packs were offered. Later, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising and Populous were added for beat-the-average. It also coincided with the Battlefield 3 Premium upgrade going on sale for $15 on Origin, so I nabbed that. So for $20 I got Battlefield 3 Premium and a slew of other games that normally would have cost around $250 at the time.
I've mostly grabbed Weekly Bundles for $1 (for that much I put it all to charity), though there was an RPG Maker Bundle last week that I paid the full $12 tier (at their default split) to grab RPG Maker VX Ace (which was actually available at the name-your-price tier) and all the DLC that was offered (some of which was exclusive to this Bundle). Total retail value: $370. So you may see me release a classic 2D RPG in the future (or a 2D beat-em-up as one of the Bundles was for Multimedia Fusion 2). I even grabbed Awesomenauts from the Humble Store when it was on sale for $3.
As of this writing, the current Humble Bundle (which ends in less than a day; new Bundle every other Tuesday) is "PC and Android 10" offering Symphony, Draw A Stickman: EPIC, Galcon Legends and Galcon Fusion at name-your-price, with Skulls Of The Shogun, Metal Slug 3, Breach & Clear, Fieldrunners and Fieldrunners 2, Frozen Synapse and ittle Dew (that's not a typo) added at the beat-the-average (currently $4.90; grand total retail: $164).
The current Weekly Bundle (every Thursday) is the German Edition (so I assume that means all available games were made by German developers, or they can only be played in German, or they can only be played if you are German, or can only be played in Germany, or...). The name-your-price tier contains Beatbuddy: Tale Of The Guardians, Spirits, The Great Jitters: Pudding Panic, Tiny & Big in Grandpa's Leftovers, Galaxy On Fire 2 Full HD, Crazy Machines 2, and The Guild II Collection. If you beat the average (currently $3.88) you also get Risen, The Book Of Unwritten Tales Digital Deluxe Edition, and ArcaniA. Lastly, if you pay at least $9, you also get Giana Sisters: Twisted Bundle and The Night Of The Rabbit: Premium Edition. Total retail: $176.
So in short, the Humble Bundle is fantastic, as you get games cheap AND help out charity at the same time!
EDIT: The RPG Maker Bundle is currently available in the Humble Store for $24.99... that's $370 of software for $25!
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