The Bitcoin Bundle - indie game developers support Bitcoin

[ffssixtynine]

(Mods: Move this topic if not the best forum)

A bunch of us indie game developers just launched The Bitcoin Bundle (reddit link)

The developers of World of Goo, Eufloria, And Yet it Moves and Spirits wanted to express support for the currency, especially given what's happened this week, so you can pay what you want for our games, but only in Bitcoins.

All the developers will be paid in Bitcoins as well; we are not using BitPay or Coinbase to convert the coins when you buy the bundle.

If you like what we're doing, please spread the word on Reddit, social networks, or whatever Bitcoin site of your choice. The games are for PC, Mac and Linux, and are DRM free/Steam where available.

Many thanks to those of you who have helped us along the way.

[1714024539]

1714024539

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Paid 1 BTC to support bitcoiners

[solex]

ffsixtynine

Is there any general discussion by designers about using bitcoin as an in-game currency (where one exists, like in WoW)?
It seems that any role-playing game where people had a real-world currency up for grabs - might attract a lot of player interest.

[Sukrim]

There are Open Source games out there - just fork one of them and add a Bitcoin module.

[ffssixtynine]

Paid 1 BTC to support bitcoiners

You are a star. I hope you enjoy the games.

re: in-game currency - yes, and it's going to happen for sure. I would take it now but we don't support IAP/DLC in Eufloria.

[Sukrim]

An interesting thing would be a game where you mine on the side into a jackpot - limited to the slowest of the n players taking part in a game.

E.g. 50 MH/s can be sustained throughout the game by the slowest player, this gets paid into a shared pot (you're free to mine more for yourself on the side) by every player and then the winner(s) get the money in the end.

All you need is some slightly modified pool software and a way to influence matchmaking and get results (though this could even exist completely out of the game - however there are problems in determining winners then).

[Yuusha]

I'm getting an "The specified key does not exist." error when I try to download Spirits for PC. Eufloria worked fine.

[ffssixtynine]

Edit: Please refresh the download page. Should be fixed. Thought you meant Steam at first.

Let me know.

[Jace]

That's awesome! Great work guys, will order later today!

By the way, good thing you're supporting the EFF, but since you're receiving money (and presumably also passing on EFF's share) in bitcoins, perhaps it's a good idea to hold your EFF donations until they actually accept BTC themselves?

[Yuusha]

Edit: Please refresh the download page. Should be fixed. Thought you meant Steam at first.

Let me know.

Works fine now, thank you!

[ffssixtynine]

That's awesome! Great work guys, will order later today!

By the way, good thing you're supporting the EFF, but since you're receiving money (and presumably also passing on EFF's share) in bitcoins, perhaps it's a good idea to hold your EFF donations until they actually accept BTC themselves?

Now that's a hot topic for me as I haven't yet decided what to do. On the one hand, I want to donate, on the other hand, I want to donate in Bitcoins!

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Are you interested in a custom payments backend that also lets the user specify which % goes to the developers, which % goes the which charity? As well as with all payments processing done with your backend, so no fees if Coinbase charges you fees.

[tulkos]

Happy to pay 0.5 btc and I already have World Of Goo!
Looking forward to future bundles 

[ffssixtynine]

Are you interested in a custom payments backend that also lets the user specify which % goes to the developers, which % goes the which charity? As well as with all payments processing done with your backend, so no fees if Coinbase charges you fees.

We've got a custom back-end but we didn't implement that far.

We elected to use Coinbase this time around but so far issues relating to the lack of limitations are what seem to be cropping up. For example, we have a number of 'dust' payments, and even have a 0 transaction. I have an issue or two with the UI as well, but it does the job and is offering US users the chance to buy BTC too.

I'd quite like to do another bundle or two now we've got this far. The mainstream bundles will make money, we'll only make small change, but it'll help creatives get used to Bitcoin.

FYI Coinbase does not charge fees unless you convert currency.

Tolkos: Thanks!

[Kikkerdril]

I would love to higher my contribution for Android versions of Euphloria and Spirits. Thanks anyways for this great initiative!

[ffssixtynine]

Make an extra Bitcoin donation 

[randomguy7]

No offence but how do we know you actually are who you say you are? The domain info is anonymized and the ssl certificate is domain validated only (which is fine to protect the data transmission but it doesn't tell anything about who you are).

edit: can you upload some hidden file on one of the official sites like worldofgoo.com as proof?

[MegaBrutal]

Men, a dream came true!

What are the two most awesome things in the world? Indie games and Bitcoins! And what's even more awesome? The two combined! \o/ I also thought about something like this before, but I don't have any games to sell.

On the top of that, I wanted to get World of Goo for almost 2 months, and now I got it in a bundle which I paid for with Bitcoins! \o/

I'd like to tell you that I'm a HUGE fan of indie games, I believe in the indie game scene. I'm an indie game dev wannabe myself, though I need A LOT of practice to achieve that.

Though I haven't heard of the other games bundled (until now), but about World of Goo particularly, I know it's started as an experimental game at experimentalgameplay.com - that is the context when I first read of it - then later I encountered its soundtrack (Best of Times) and I knew I want the game! This game is awesome and actually exceeds my expectations. With this game, 2D Boy serves a really good example of how to come up with an experimental game and then take it to something more! And that they support Bitcoin is extraordinarily awesome!

(Please relay my message to 2D Boy! )

\o/ Hurray indie games! Hurray Bitcoin! \o/

[ffssixtynine]

No offence but how do we know you actually are who you say you are? The domain info is anonymized and the ssl certificate is domain validated only (which is fine to protect the data transmission but it doesn't tell anything about who you are).

edit: can you upload some hidden file on one of the official sites like worldofgoo.com as proof?

Check the Eufloria blog or e.g. Ron Carmel's Twitter (World of Goo) http://www.twitter.com/roncarmel
Also on Gamasutra and various Bitcoin sites.

MegaBrutal: Passed your post on to Ron & Kyle

[randomguy7]

Thx for the link. You know, better safe than sorry (especially with the amount of scammers around here).