Hey everyone! We've all been putting together Humble Indie Bundle 11, and it is now live! To celebrate the launch, we have pulled together as many developers as possible to answer any questions you may have.

We're the devs of Humble Indie Bundle 11: creators of Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine, Guacamelee!, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, and The Swapper. Ask us anything!

In attendance:

  • NoRepro: Andy Schatz, creator of Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
  • PixelatedPost: Andy Nguyen, producer and designer on Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
  • cracksmith: Graham Smith, producer on Guacamelee!
  • Floris833: Adrian Goersch, managing director on Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
  • hillokon: Olli Harjola, co-creator and designer of The Swapper
  • noogy_reddit: Dean Dodrill, creator of Dust: An Elysian Tail
  • flibitijibibo: Ethan Lee, Linux/Mac porter, Dust: An Elysian Tail
  • Parsap: Jeffrey Rosen, co-founder of Humble Bundle

Proof: https://twitter.com/humble

We’re looking forward to your questions, so ask away!

Comments: 832 • Responses: 7  • Date: 

dexemplu70 karma

Jeffrey, do you thing this "Bundle Bubble" will ever burst? Is there any sign of customer fatigue?

EDIT: I can't spell.

parsap150 karma

I think there was a very brief time when we were first starting out that the Humble Bundle model was so unique and novel that we could have theoretically put out just about anything and seen huge results. That bubble has long since popped. Now the model is no longer novel and we are only rewarded when we create a bundle that our customers truly want. That is the way it should be.

domstah50 karma

Do you think bundles actually hurt "indie" games sales, as I know because of them I don't buy certain games when I suspect they'll be in a bundle within 6 months?

parsap61 karma

I might be a little biased... but no. At this point we have done so many experiments over the years that it is pretty clear that cannibalization is not an issue. Even as bundles start selling millions of copies. Even with expensive AAA titles.

PokenoobDude39 karma

Humble Bundle Team: Would you consider accepting dogecoin for the bundles and your store?

parsap56 karma

Yes! However, we need a reputable company like Coinbase to handle all of the legal logistics for us and accept all liability for it. That is why it took us so long to accept bitcoin. Similar to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, while we love the technology, we hate subtle tax and money laundering laws, and are just not prepared for the huge distraction a court date could be.

liamdawe33 karma

Parsap/Humble Team - Is there a reason HIB's are pushed out with Linux ports either missing or in beta, why can they not be pushed back to a later bundle which will inevitably come? It's not like HIB's will stop anytime soon.

parsap41 karma

It is important to remember that we are actually the reason that many games are ported to Linux. It is painful for us and our reputation among developers to convince someone to drop everything and port their game to Linux, or hire a Linux porter, or have us port it in house for them... and then despite good faith efforts on all parties, it just doesn't happen in the exact right amount of time.

It really sucks to see a developer doing everything right, following all of our advice, and then be like "sorry... could you uh, go ahead and move to this other surprise bundle? Thaaaaanks."

We do indeed do this sometimes, and it really, really sucks. This might have already happened to one of the games in question.

joshguerette12 karma

Hey Humble Team! First off, what a great thing you guys have going, game deals for charity!

How do you guys approach perspective game devs, or do a lot of them come to you? Obviously you have done bundles with some pretty big companies as well as bundles with pretty small indie devs. Are there differences when dealing with the two?

parsap17 karma

Many developers come to us, but we also have a team of people reaching out and convincing developers to bundle. It is particularly difficult with the Humble Weekly Sale... That is a lot of slots to fill! We do get thousands of submissions from developers, but the vast majority do not meet the extremely subjective threshold of awesomeness for us.

AAA companies and indies are night and day. Indies tend to have far fewer lawyers and people involved in any decision making process in general. ;) It has been extremely awesome working with giant companies as well.

echocomm8 karma

In working with Humble Bundle, I imagine that you have made some great connections with game studios to get their products on a bundle. Is there one memory/experience in particular that stands out?

parsap13 karma

I have fond memories of intentionally losing a few disc golf games with Andy Schatz so that he would feel sorry for us and put Monaco in a bundle. Now that he has already bundled with us, this year's annual disc golf game will go very differently!