Humble Bundle’s latest offer is one that should be appealing for PlayStation 4 owners, especially those who love indie titles. The Humble Indie PlayStation Bundle 2019 offers up to nine different games and will be available until February 12th, 11 AM PST. Head here to pick it up for yourself.

The tiered-model is fairly simple – pay $1 and you get Grim Fandango Remastered, The Bard’s Tale Remastered, and InnerSpace. Pay more than the current average, which is about $9, and you get four more titles – Layers of Fear, Wasteland 2 Director’s Cut, The Talos Principle, and Broken Age. If you pay $15 or more, then you also get Killing Floor 2 and Shadow Warrior as well. Not a bad deal, overall.

Along with the games, you’ll also receive soundtracks for Grim Fandango, InnerSpace, Layers of Fear, and Broken Age. These are available at each game’s respective tier. Consumers can also decide how much of their money goes to charity, the Humble Store, or the developers in question.

SpaceChem

SpaceChem is an intriguing and wickedly clever title that challenges you to create different designs for effectively converting raw materials to chemicals. It sounds straightforward but the actual process is full of potential since you can determine how different outputs are constructed, what the best ways to streamline production can be and everything else in between. It’s fairly complex and not the easiest to dive into for beginners but that moment where everything just clicks together for your own personal “Eureka!” moment is fantastic.

Double Fine Productions’ Broken Age is currently only available on the PC, PS4 and PlayStation Vita but Xbox One users may finally get a chance at the lovable adventure title. European content rating system PEGI has rated the game for Xbox One as per Reddit users which could mean an official announcement is not far off.

However, the ESRB in the United States doesn’t have the game in its database. At this point, we’ll have to wait and see. Broken Age released two years ago on the PlayStation 4 and Vita. Whatever deal Double Fine may have had with Sony could be coming to an end soon. Regardless, we’ll have to wait for the developer’s statement.

Broken Age was, well, broken into two acts when it first came about due to additional funding being required. You can read our review of Broken Age: The Complete Adventure here to decide if the full package will be worth your time.

The PlayStation Network’s Instant Game Collection has been updated with the free games for October 2015, which includes titles like Super Meat Boy, Broken Age, Unmechanical: Extended, Chariot, Kung Fu Rabbit and KickBeat. These titles are free to PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Broken Age and Super Meat Boy are available for both PS4 and PS Vita thanks to Cross Buy support while Unmechanical: Extended, Kickbeat and Kung Fu Rabbit are supported on the PS4 and PS3. Chariot is only available for PS3 players it seems.

The PS Plus Edition of DriveClub, which was free, has been removed this week after its introduction in June. It’s likely that it could return but one would think that Sony would keep it on PSN for a much longer period of time, especially given how long it’s been delayed.

What are your thoughts on this month’s Instant Game Collection for PS Plus? Let us know in the comments below.

However, what about some of the bigger names of the Kickstarter craze? Where are they currently, where are they headed and what made them so unique? We take a look back at some of the biggest Kickstarter projects since 2012 along with the various successes and controversies that have followed them to release.

Divinity: Original Sin

Right from the get-go, Larian Studios’ Divinity: Original Sin faced an uphill battle. How do you justify funding for an RPG which has always been the underdog, straight from the first iteration that released in 2002? Larian developed and published Divinity: Dragon Commander in 2013 but it’s not often that a studio can handle both responsibilities. With the emergence of Kickstarter, it found a platform that could not only ensure funding but also serve as a medium to communicate directly with its paying customers, guiding them through the process of development.

When Divinity: Original Sin released, it was universally acclaimed for its solid RPG mechanics, choice system and amazingly realized world. Nowadays, Larian Studios is working on an “enhanced edition” for the game in preparation for the game’s release on Xbox One and PS4 (the makeover will be heading to PC as well as a free upgrade for existing owners).

Along with a revamped control scheme to support gamepads, online and split-screen co-op, 1080p visuals, changes to the storyline for a more satisfying ending and DirectX 11 support, there will be new endings, new locations, new quests and newer tactics required for besting enemies. Think about it – this is an enhanced edition for a game that released roughly a year ago.

Divinity: Original Sin has completely turned Larian’s fortunes around as well. Thanks to the project’s success, selling more than one million units, Larian is working on several other projects that it will reveal later this year.

Wasteland 2

It’s amazing how revered the Fallout name is today and yet, how many gamers actually know about the roots of the franchise. This isn’t due to any real lack of knowledge though. Fallout 3 released under Bethesda and adopted the studio’s Elder Scrolls-esque first person perspective in a fully 3D world with tons of replay value.

However, Fallout’s beginning wasn’t completely self-contained. It actually began with Wasteland, Interplay’s original sci-fi, post-apocalyptic RPG which dealt with a future ruined by past nuclear fallouts. The series had a spiritual sequel in the form of Fallout as director Brian Fargo worked on other projects for Interplay. In 2003, Fargo purchased the rights to Wasteland from Konami and inXile Entertainment set about to create a sequel to the original post-apocalyptic RPG.

Wasteland 2 was recognized at the time for being one of the most successfully crowd-funded gaming projects in Kickstarter history. It amassed $2,933,252 in funding. Later, it achieved the distinction of being one of the few Kickstarter projects to actually release into the commercial space following the wave of crowd-funding in 2012.

The future of Wasteland 2 looks incredibly bright as the studio is working to revamp the game’s visuals using Unity 5 and release on PS4 and Xbox One. Numerous patches have served to further refine the game and quash bugs but the visual upgrade will also bring new gameplay additions as well. As it stands, Wasteland 2 serves as a reminder that regardless of whether it’s “niche” or “old-fashioned”, a good RPG will be commercially successful.

Star Citizen

Also known as “Wing Commander VI: Chris Roberts’ Strikes Back”, Star Citizen is a massive sci-fi space sim that has currently surpassed $80 million in funding as of April 2015. Though its Kickstarter campaign ended with $6.2 million in funding back in November 2012, funds towards the game continued well into its development cycle.

Though yet to release in its full commercial form, Star Citizen looks to evolve the Wing Commander and Freelancer formula far beyond what any other developer is attempting. Space trading and combat simulation are a given but Cloud Imperium Games is also placing an emphasis on the utter scope of the game, with numerous star systems to explore and planets to register your presence on. The game’s multiplayer focus is distinctly sandbox-like and feels more like a massively multiplayer online RPG. To that effect, players can trade with each other, engage in piracy, face each other in Arena combat and much more.

That’s not all though. Star Citizen will also feature a robust first person shooter component as players traverse on foot through areas, utilizing zero gravity settings for free form fighting. This module is currently being revamped for the game following a four player co-op demo at PAX Australia 2014. Did we mention that the game still has its own fully-fledged single-player campaign called Squadron 42 that players can progress through?

Regardless of the ultimate scale of the project and how much work will be required post-launch to support it, it’s safe to say that Chris Roberts’ journey from Origin Systems to Digital Anvil to Microsoft has found a happy conclusion with Star Citizen.

Broken Age

As the first game to really kick-start (all puns intended) the wave of crowd-funding in the gaming industry, Broken Age was little more than the “Double Fine Adventure” from the minds behind Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. Its director Tim Schafer was already a seasoned veteran, having worked on cult classic adventure titles like Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. Surely enough, as the campaign started for $400,000 in funding, backers flooded to the potential that the medium offered, eventually raising more than $3.45 million when all was said and done.

Shortly thereafter, many other developers dipped into the crowd-funding pool, finding similar success and beginning the trend of kick-starting games that we see today, helping developers avoid the usual stress of seeking out a publisher and crafting their game to fit the criteria of “the suits”.

However, Broken Age later exposed a central problem of the crowd-funding platform. As Schafer analyzed the overall direction of the game, based on what was promised and what it set out to deliver. It was revealed that at its current progress, Broken Age would only be released in full in 2015. The decision was then made to split the game into two acts with funds from the first act going towards financing development on the second act.

Needless to say, there was a hefty amount of backlash. Would Double Fine ask for more funds? Why wasn’t it just delivering a finished product like it had initially promised? Despite Schafer promising that sales from the first act and Double Fine’s own money were being used to finish the second act, the experience served as a valuable lesson to backers: Things can, and often do, change during development.

The complete Broken Age adventure is available now though for PS4, PS Vita, PC, Android, iOS and other platforms, netting a fair bit of critical acclaim. There was still some disappointment, with some reviews criticizing the game’s final state, but on the whole, Broken Age’s contribution to video game crowd-funding can’t be ignored.

Mighty No. 9

Remember how we mentioned that Broken Age was a lesson in plans changing during development, often affecting various aspects like content and finances? Comcept’s Mighty No. 9 is a prime example of the phenomenon, except without the developer using its own funds to ultimately complete the game.

Mighty No. 9 began innocently enough. It was to be a spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise and if Capcom wasn’t going to give fans a new Mega Man, they would fund it themselves. That the original creator Keiji Inafune was at the helm only sweetened the deal and when Mighty No. 9’s Kickstarter campaign began, it achieved its goal of $900,000 in just two days. Combined with PayPal funds, the crowd-funding total came to $4,046,579.

The game subsequently grew in scope. Deep Silver hopped aboard as a publisher and the game was announced to be heading to nearly every single current and previous gen platform (including the handhelds). Over time, Comcept started more crowd-funding campaigns for additional content. English voice acting cost backers $200,000. A DLC stage featuring Ray, the rival of the protagonist Beck, garnered an additional $198,000. And it didn’t quite help that as more gameplay footage released, albeit in the early alpha stage, the game was looking less impressive than initially promised.

Mighty No. 9 is still set to release though and will be out in September 2015. We’ll have to wait and see whether it lives up to the massive hype and after Broken Age’s various issues, we’re a bit skeptical as to whether Mighty No. 9 will deliver.

Shadowrun Returns

Shadowrun is another great franchise in the history of gaming which suffered its fair share of missteps on the way to its crowd-funded rebirth. Its roots are in pen and paper RPGs, standing on even ground with the likes of Dungeons & Dragons and Cyberpunk. Created by Jordan Weisman, who also had a hand in MechWarrior, Shadowrun was eventually adapted into a series of games from FASA Corporation. When FASA Corporation shut down, the future of games like MechWarrior and Shadowrun was immediately in doubt.

Microsoft’s attempts to revive the series were – to put it kindly – disastrous. It’s 2007 Shadowrun title was a first person shooter which focused on multiplayer gaming and didn’t even offer that much content to begin with (think of it as an earlier version of Destiny). Needless to say, it bombed and the series was retired once more.

Weisman and his company Harebrained Schemes began development on Shadowrun Returns when it acquired the rights from Microsoft in 2007. Unlike the FPS, Weisman would be at the helm this time and Shadowrun Returns would go back to the cyberpunk espionage and RPG mechanics that the franchise was revered for. After raising $1,895,772 the game released in July 2013 for PC and Mac OS X, displaying a remarkable turnaround since its campaign began a little more than a year prior. Shadowrun Returns was a success and received an expansion in the form of Dragonfall. This was later expanded to Shadowrun: Dragonfall – Director’s Cut and no, additional funding was not required.

Harebrained Schemes recently launched a campaign for Shadowrun: Hong Kong and despite it contributing partially to the game’s overall budget, it hit its goal of $100,000 in the span of hours. There’s still plenty we don’t know about the game but once again, it stands as a testament to the viability and demand of “niche” RPGs in today’s industry.

Pillars of Eternity

It’s often not highlighted enough how much these crowd-funding campaigns influence the future of developers. With studios shutting down all the time, it’s easy to ignore that even vaunted geniuses like Peter Molyneux struggle to find funding (though the man has had his fair share of controversies to discourage backers). In the same vein, to think that Obsidian Entertainment wouldn’t currently exist without Pillars of Eternity is mind-boggling.

This is because Obsidian has always been viewed as a relatively top-tier RPG developer. It worked on Neverwinter Nights 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, two big-name sequels that arguably eclipsed their predecessors. Even if efforts like Alpha Protocol and Dungeon Siege III didn’t pan out, the studio could still create unforgettable experiences for RPG fans. Fallout: New Vegas is proof of that.

So when it was revealed that Obsidian Entertainment would have gone out of business had the Kickstarter for Pillars of Eternity not been fulfilled, it stings a little. Thankfully, not only did the project surpass its initial funding goals to raise $4,163,208 but it also delivered an experience that lived up to the games that inspired it.

Many critics praised Pillars of Eternity for its mechanics and how it honored the likes of Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment while attracting a new fan base. Achieving this feat in an industry that still views new fantasy RPG IPs in light of Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dragon Age: Inquisition is all the more impressive, especially when you consider that it only released on PC, Linux and Mac OS X.

Currently, Obsidian is working on an expansion pack for Pillars of Eternity which will be similar to Tales of the Sword Coast, a sizeable expansion for the first Baldur’s Gate.

Backers of Double Fine Productions’ Broken Age: Act 2 can rejoice – it’s now available ahead of the game’s general release on April 28th, thus ending a saga which began with Double Fine taking to Kickstarter for financial backing.

Broken Age was the result of Double Fine seeking Kickstarter for new financing methods and was a massive success in terms of reception. Its original funding goal was $400,000 and the project ended up garnering more than $3.45 million from fans. Double Fine’s Kickstarter is credited with starting the trend for devs to seek funding on a public platform rather than through traditional publishers.

Of course, controversy hit the project when its development costs were re-evaluated in light of the Kickstarter funds and proceeded to skyrocket. This resulted in Broken Age being split into games, Act 1 and Act 2, with sales of the first game being used to fund the second game’s development.

Regardless, Broken Age is now complete and you can play it on Steam later today if you bought the Complete Adventure. It’s expected to go live on PS4 and PS Vita as well so keep an eye on that. What are your thoughts on the conclusion of Broken Age and what Double Fine could have in store next? Let us know in the comments.

Remember when Double Fine Productions was funding Broken Age on Kickstarter and revealed that it’d be making a behind the scenes documentary detailing development? The first episode of the documentary, dubbed “Double Fine Adventure”, is out now. Watch it above.

As of now, three episodes of the documentary are available for free viewing on YouTube. Though initially only for Kickstarter backers, Double Fine will be releasing all 18 episodes of the documentary for free. Stay tuned every Tuesday and Thursday for a new episode. Those who want to pay for the documentary and net various special features along with 1080p quality downloads can also do so if they wish.

Meanwhile, Broken Age: Act 2 will be out early this year with principal development more or less wrapped up. Stay tuned for more information on the thrilling conclusion and let us know what you think of the Double Fine documentary in the comments below.

Double Fine’s newest game, the crowdfunded Broken Age, will be getting a retail release this Spring, thanks to a publishing partnership with Nordic Games, they announced today. The game, which saw the release of its first part exactly a year ago, will be coming to stores, with all three versions- PC, Mac, and Linux- available.

“I am very excited about the retail version of Broken Age,” Double Fine President and CEO Tim Schafer said in a press release. “And also relieved, as having a widely distributed, physical copy of the game will make it more safe from solar flares and EMP bombs and stuff like that. As long as people store their disks in fire proof safes. People do that, right?”

“Not really” replied COO Justin Bailey. “But people who purchase the physical copy can get to playing the exciting conclusion without having to wait for the game to download!”

So… yep, that’s a thing.

The second part of Broken Age, Broken Age Act 2, is due out some time early this year as well.

Double Fine Productions has had a strong pedigree with adventure games, with the occasional off-beat title like Brutal Legend. But while founder Tim Schafer enjoys making games like the recently released Broken Age, he recently stated to GamesTM that his next project would be the complete opposite of that.

On being asked whether he still wants to make a LucasArts-style adventure game, Schafer answered, “Yes and no. Now that we have this engine and this pipeline, it would be a shame not to make another one. But the whole reason a lot of games we make are different than the previous game is that I get this urge to try something different every time.

“Even if you look at the difference between Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle, and then the difference between Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, you can see that there’s always this pleasure…I’m going to do the complete opposite of what I did last.”

Double Fine’s next title Massive Chalice is a tactical RPG that will be directed by Brad Muir, and that’s as different from Broken Age as you can get. But it’ll be interesting to see what Schafer’s mind cooks up next.

Game Overview:

Broken Age Act 1 is a point and click adventure video game. It is developed by Double Fine Productions, the team responsible behind last year’s The Cave and Dropchord. Broken Age Act 1 features two playable characters with the game allowing to switch between them at anytime.

Broken Age Act 1 is developed and published by Double Fine Productions. The game is now available for the PC, Ouya, Android, iOS, Linux and MAC platforms.

Check out the video walkthrough of Broken Age Act 1 below and let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below.

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