The Return of the Humble Indie Bundle

The Humble Indie Bundle is a set-your-own-price package of great independent games, and it's back with a second great offering this year. The titles in the bundle are a mixture of great games such as Braid, Machinarium, and Osmos, and works in progress, such as Cortex Command and Revenge of the Titans. Sold separately, they're worth about $85

At the Humble Indie Bundle site you can set your own price for the complete set of five games, with the money split any way you like. Sliders on the purchase page allow you to divide the money among the developers, between two charities (Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation), or any combination of these three and the Humble Bundle group.

In the first 24 hours, there were about 77,000 purchases for a total of more than half a million dollars. Markus "Notch" Persson (creator of Minecraft) kicked things into high-gear by paying $2000 for the set. Average selling price is about $7, which is a disappointment. Broken down across various systems, Linux users were the most generous ($13+ average), followed by Mac ($8), and finally PC ($6).

That's really not enough for this package, and if the average is that low it means some people are pretty much stealing the games. If people want indie games, they need to support indie developers, and the Humble Indie Bundle is a great way to do it while also supporting a couple of good causes.