The games look like they have potential so I bought it. I'll probably wait with playing them until they're a bit more complete, but they look like they could be good when they're done.

God, I hope the music in Towns is a placeholder... I have no problem with the composition, but the guitar is so damn out of tune! The engineering isn't so great either...

I turned off all the sounds. They seem superfluous, and it's a good game to play while I watch TV.

I bet that below the definition of cheapskate was printed a screenshot of my 500 games library, all averaging $5 to $10 each game.

Now serious, it's not expensive. I bought it for $5 myself.

I was just saying that most bundles out there don't charge a minimum of $4 or $5... and considering this is a bundle of alpha versions, it's like gambling money on what the final product will be... I personally never heard of the three games before this bundle. So considering they are alphas and the minimum other bundles do charge, rounding it nicely to $3 for 3 would be *cute*.

Towns is a pretty interesting games - I've been following it on the DF forums for a bit but hadn't bitten yet (I did just get the bundle, though). The developers are active and work hard to add content and keep on top of any problems.

I've heard of 3079 - it's not really interesting to me, but since it comes with Towns what-the-heck. Haven't heard of the third one, I may get around to seeing what it's like at some point.

IDK about Towns, but FTR 3079 has a storyline to it. If this were to be the final release, I'd say it's not worth the price, but the developer Phr00t is constantly adding in new content. Heck, he just added cities, and my understanding is that the addition of military bases is high on his priority list too.
Weird. 3079 actually runs a lot better than Minecraft for me - I mean, Minecraft was clunky and jerky (mmmm jerky...), but 3079 ran without a hitch, until the final quest when there were like Neanders, demons and Humoids blowing stuff up everywhere. Only problem was the initial load times. What graphics card are you using?

To tell you the truth, I still don't know. It's an integrated card that came with my (sorta) new Dell Inspiron 560. I thought 3079 was made to play in a sort of odd slow-motion until I happened to look towards the ground and suddenly everything moved quickly -.-

You win!

...and potentially business-crippling since they never actually widely sold them full-price (unlike the typical bundle members, who are long past their widescale sale phase).

I saw this on Twitter and thought of your issue. The developer found out about an issue with Intel HD cards, and is actively soliciting help fixing the issue. So hopefully it's just a code problem and it'll be fixed soon.

Hey, thanks very much! That's reassuring :D

As an alpha developer myself, this kind of attitude bothers me greatly. I spend a lot of time and personal money into my game, am I "greedy" in wanting to just break even, or use the extra money into adding new features in my game? Artwork/sounds are not free, and are often expensive.

$5 gets you a burger combo at most fast food places, which you consume in under 30 minutes and provides maybe several hours of nourishment. Or a cheap movie ticket that gives you two hours of entertainment. While $5 in this case gives you many hours of entertainment. I'd say that it's $5 well spent.

By the way as a proof, and in case anyone's interested, the alpha game I'm working on? Beyond Beyaan, a 4X TBS space strategy game.

I win?! That's good, right? Better than being a pirate and paying $0, right? Better buying 500, than pirating 500 right?

Indeed I didn't thought deeply about this because it is none of my business, I am not the organizer and not even the developer. I am just a customer who paid the $5 it asks for.

Read that calmly, Sir., Please.

I was talking about the organizers of IndieRoyale, who charge a minimum way higher than other bundles out there. That's it. I didn't say a word about you the developers... Actually just the other day here, in the deals thread I was trying to purchase a product in a way not to comply with regional pricing imposed by the publisher, not to give $7 more to the publisher just because I am on a region of the planet they do dislike me. And I got bashed for doing that, really?! If I know the $7 is going to the devs then yes I'll pay the extra; but if I know it is going to the publisher/organizer/middle-man/whatever then no I won't pay more for their greed.

I was very happy the other day to see two recent cases of success... Dear Esther and Alan Wake, who as you said did "break even", turned to a profit in just like two days on PC. Guess what the price of Dear Esther is? $9.99.

Am I seriously the only person out there that is purchasing games from $1 to $20 only? Am I alone in this? I am a worhtless gamer if I am not paying $59.95 for games?

I don't even had the time to reply this, but since you say yourself are a developer I just wanted to contribute my opinion better than the 2 or 3 lines I originally posted without wasting much time typing it in 20 paragraphs for the naysayers who would hit the negative button for me.

I agree with you on the time/price. I am transitioning myself to this model of purchase, calculating how much fun time I might have per dollar. How do you plan to sell your game? just donations for now?

Ah I see. I wasn't really angry, just bothered. I'm in the same boat as you, buying only $1 to $20 games, because of two things: They usually have fun/innovative gameplay, and are within my budget. The last time I spent $60 was on Starcraft 2, a game that I rarely plays now.

Yes, I'd prefer to support the developers themselves, rather than the publishers. So I sympathize with you there.

As for my game, I'm hoping to have it hosted on Desura, as a way for the people to buy the game and get automatic updates. I'm in talks with them, which I hope will work out in a few weeks.

I really, really don't know what bothers/angies people about me saying that my games are budgeted between $1 to $20, usually averaging $5. I am still paying nonetheless.

You should try indievania.com they are very open too, like Desura.

I read your posts on this and as a indie developer I disagree on your statement that alphas should get less money. The reasons we post alphas for sale is multi-faceted. In our case, we're trying to get more funds to complete the game faster. You get Speed, Price and Quality and only get two. If we don't have money, then things are slow (we've just finished our 4th year of development), but the quality can still be good. With things like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Alphame the entire point is to put money into something, because you want to see it exist. In all honesty do you expect the game to launch at $20 when it's a sprite based retro brawler? No. Of course not. But you are getting to put your two cents into a production, get listed in the credits and in some cases even help the direction of the games development.
Buying an alpha shouldn't be in the same mind set as buying a game retail, or looking for a bargain, it should be driven by your wish to help an artistic endeavor reach fruition. Your wish to be part of a project, to have your name attached to something or to be a small part of something bigger. It's almost like a entrepreneurial charity, small teams, low on funds, but big on drive, trying to do a startup and get their vision realized. You should know that you aren't getting the best price compared to those who get it after you, but you are part of the design process, get to see the steps as it works its way to completion and in some cases without your help the game may never have seen the light of day.