We're Humble Indie Bundle V: creators of Psychonauts, LIMBO, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Bastion, and Humble Bundle. Ask us anything!

Thanks for all your questions reddit! Most of us had to get back to work or lunch (but a few answers might still be coming through). Thanks for supporting these fantastic game creators and charities, and for making it possible for Humble Bundle to keep bundling. If you've noticed any bugs, please send an email to contact@humblebundle.com so we can try and get it sorted out!

Hey there, we've all been working on Humble Indie Bundle V for months, and we're really stoked that everyone's getting a chance to check out the games and soundtracks!

For those who aren't familiar, a Humble Indie Bundle is a collection of games that you can buy for whatever price you want. The proceeds go to the game developers and charity (and we ask for a Humble tip for bandwidth and developing the promotion), and you can adjust exactly how much money goes to all the participants.

The stupendously creative and incredibly hard-working folks behind Psychonauts, LIMBO, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, and Bastion are here for the AMA* so ask away!

In attendance:
* TimOfLegend: Tim Schafer, co-founder of Double Fine, creator of Psychonauts; gentleman, scholar, effervescent source of notable quotables
* DinoP: Dino Patti, co-founder of Playdead, creators of LIMBO
* SG_Greg: Greg Kasavin, Supergiant Games writer and one of the designers of Bastion
* SG_Logan: Logan Cunningham, actor, voiceover artist, and the voice of Rucks, the inimitable Bastion narrator
* superbrothersHQ: lovingly crafted art, writing, co-lead design and creative dynamo for Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
* jimjammers: Jim Guthrie, indie musician and composer of songs and sounds, co-creator of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
* krispiotrowski: Kris Piotrowski, creative director and game designer at CAPY, co-lead design & guru for Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
* FG_Thomas: Thomas Grip, development co-lead of Frictional Games, creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent
* FG_Jens: Jens Nilsson, development co-lead of Frictional Games, creators of Amnesia: the Dark Descent
* parsap: Jeffrey Rosen, co-founder of Humble Bundle
* qubitsu Richard Esguerra, Humble Bundle organizer

Proof: https://twitter.com/humble/status/208595232445562880

* jimjammers will be around for the first 45 minutes or so, but is off to save the universe with music after!
** We're going to try to be on 'til around 2pm PDT! (Some folks staying up in other time zones will have to leave earlier though.) Thanks for all the great questions so far.

Comments: 2785 • Responses: 5  • Date: 

EnderbyEqualsD742 karma

I just want to say this is by far one of the most fantastic bundles yet. I keep getting more and more impressed with the quality of the bundle while keeping the ability to "pay what you want".

My questions is how the heck are you going to top this? Or even in the short term, what could you possibly add to this bundle a week from now to make it even better? It seems impossible!

EDIT : Followup question that has always plagued me - Do you guys actually lose money by the jerks (OK, maybe they aren't all jerks) people that only give $1?

qubitsu726 karma

Nothing is impossible! Friendship is magic.

Gagaro350 karma

Did you expect 2 000 000 dollars in only 24 hours ?

qubitsu324 karma

We went into it knowing that these are some of the best games of the last couple of years (and they're personal favorites of folks on the Humble Bundle team too), so we definitely had high hopes and high expectations. But every bundle is a new rodeo and we're never quite sure what to expect. :)

bballplayersgs270 karma

How do you decide which games get put into each bundle? Is it semi-random or do you look for games that you want to support and add the developers to the bundle group?

qubitsu137 karma

Apart from considering both subjective and objective measure of handsomeness, it's a pretty organic process. We basically try to put together a bundle that we think our customers will be super-excited about. Our conversations with developers are usually about a bunch of factors, like what the developers' plans are, platform porting plans, etc. And then at a certain point, the different conversations about what's possible roughly line up and turn into a drive for a specific Humble Bundle. (But things can shift even after that point if someone participating comes up with a wild idea that would be cool for the bundle.)

PurpleMoustache229 karma

Hi! Thanks for doing this AMA!

I have a few questions for each dev:

Tim: What was your favorite part of making Psychonauts?

DinoP: Were you expecting LIMBO to become a headlining XBLA game?

SG_Logan: What is your favorite line from the game?

SG_Greg: Did you ever find it difficult writing the story the way it is presented?

jimjammers: Huge fan of your work, what is your favorite song from the game?

kristpiotrowski: Massive fan of SB:S&S EP. Will there be another game like this in the future?

FG_Thomas and FG_Jens: By now Amnesia is known as one of, if not the most scary games of all time. Were you expecting the game to become this infamous?

parsap: When you started the very first HIB, were you expecting it to eventually come to this?

qubitsu: What goes into planning for a bundle?

SuperbrothersHQ: I love the art in the game. What do you use to make it, and how long does it take to put in all the detail in an area?

qubitsu197 karma

What goes into planning for a bundle?

Emails, Skype, and Ouija. But mostly Ouija.

jtraub90 karma

Jeffry, How much time does it take to make all agreemenents (+paperwork?) and include a game into a bundle? When have you started preparation for Humble Bundle V?

I am just curious how much time does it take from an idea to the release

qubitsu90 karma

Sometimes it can take a few weeks, and sometimes it takes basically no time at all. We started thinking about Humble Indie Bundle V pretty much right after Humble Indie Bundle 4, but there are a lot of formative conversations that happen before a bundle is officially a bundle.