News: The Humble Bundle Strikes Again with a "Frozen" Theme

The Humble Indie Bundle has become like an unpredictable little gamer Christmas. It helps indie developers get their games exposure, helps gamers get cheap DRM-free games via the most user-friendly online purchasing process ever, and helps the world at large by raising money for Child's Play and EFF.

A new bundle has just begun. It is entitled The Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle, and is different than past bundles in a few key ways. Customers can still buy the package for whatever price they like. But if they pay less than whatever the average price is at their time of purchase, they will only receive the Frozen Synapse, the excellent tactical turn-based strategy game by UK developer Mode 7 Games that costs $25 on Steam.

 If they shell out more than the average, they will also receive the entire Humble Frozenbyte Bundle from earlier this year, which includes three full games, one pre-order for a forthcoming one, and a game prototype by Finnish indie developer Frozenbyte.

Getting Frozen Synapse for less than $4, which is what average price has been hovering around, is an amazing deal. But the whole Frozenbyte collection is definitely worth the extra couple bucks. Trine is the star of the collection: an action-puzzle-platformer with beautiful graphics and character-switching mechanics reminiscent of the Blizzard classic The Lost Vikings. The other two full games are the Shadowgrounds series, which put Frozenbyte on the map with their frantic but pretty top-down shooting action. 

As if buyers weren't getting enough of Frozenbyte's blood out of this deal, they also get a preorder and exclusive demo for the company's next game Splot and a prototype for a semi-abandoned game called Jack Claw. Neither a preorder nor a prototype have ever been included in a Humble Bundle before. The preorder in particular is clever: it will keep users paying attention to Frozenbyte longer than they would have if they had just gotten full games since they'll have to go back to Frozenbyte's website to get the full versions when it's done.

No one knows how many Humble Bundles there will be. But judging by the continuously updates sales figures on their homepage, there is plenty enough money coming in to keep my favorite new indie game holiday coming. This one lasts until October 12, so celebrate while you can. Merry Christmas.