New game site IndieGameStand captures a lot of what players loved about Humble Indie Bundles by offering a curated selection of indie games, for a limited time at discounted prices. Instead of a bundle of games, though, IndieGameStand will showcase just one indie game at a time for 96 hours each. The site officially launches today by offering MagicalTimeBean’s Escape Goat at a suggested $10, or whatever players want to pay. IndieGameStand will offer a stream of indie titles individually at a pay-what-you-want price. Future independent developers planning to showcase games include Spiderweb Software, Cipher Prime, Digital Eel, Headup Games, and Zachtronics Industries.
The site offers a pay-what-you-want option with a suggested price, and the site currently accepts PayPal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments. Also, 10% of the profits of each game’s sales will be donated to a charity of the developer’s choice. After that four-day showcase, the game’s information will remain on the site, with a link to the developer’s site or other methods to purchase the game.
Humble Indie Bundles introduced a lot of niche indies to a wider audience, just as IndieGameStand plans to do. Of course, sometimes a Humble Indie Bundle includes games that an indie game lover already owns, or includes a game a player might not be interested in, or just a bigger purchase than a casual player might like. Offering games singly, with constant variety, is a great distribution method for devoted indie fans and casual players.
The idea for IndieGameStand comes from the staff of The Indie Game Magazine, a print mag and blog devoted to independent games. (Disclosure: These guys are awesome, I’m lucky to call them friends and colleagues, and IGM’s been running my work since 2009.) So IndieGameStand plans to make it easy for developers to submit their games. The site will feature alpha and beta builds for interested players to experience and to give real feedback to developers.