Indie game made by 2 people out-selling Spore, Left 4 Dead, & Fallout 3 at Amazon

http://2dboy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/amazonnumber2.gif

by jim-greer • 18 years ago

69 34 18 years ago

toby• 18 years ago

That's very cool -- has it been like that for a while or is it temporary spike?

I remember when my book hit #56 on Amazon for one hour, right after it was reviewed by Slashdot. I was so happy to have a screenshot where I was just ahead of Michael Pollan.

henning• 18 years ago

World of Goo has been consistently well on Steam, so I think it's a general trend.

For every World of Goo there are many other indie games that languish in obscurity.

tptacek• 18 years ago

It's World of Goo, right? (The title could be clearer, for those of us who don't play).

Anyone played it? I was thinking about grabbing a copy for the boy.

loire280• 18 years ago

There's a good demo at their site http://2dboy.com/games.php (you can also get it through Steam). The presentation is very slick (atmospheric, with a dark undertone reminiscent of the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and the puzzles are interesting and varied.

DLWormwood2• 18 years ago

> with a dark undertone reminiscent of the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I'm confused... I thought the Burton/Depp version was more recent than the Stuart/Wilder version? Or are you referring to the original novel?

PaddyTheMapper2• 18 years ago

Yeah, it's referring to World of Goo. It was one of the most enjoyable games I've played in years. If you want to try it out before you buy, there's a demo that spans the first chapter/~25% of the game here: http://2dboy.com/games.php

aaronblohowiak2• 18 years ago

It isn't really 25% of the game if measured by playtime.. by a LOT.. or maybe i'm a dullard and spend way too much time trying to get the OCD rewards on the higher levels ;)

msbmsb• 18 years ago

It is World of Goo. I own it and love it, the game idea and environment are very nice, the physics engine makes the game truly interesting and trying to hit the "OCD" bonuses, which are advanced goals like collect 21 goo balls or complete the level under a certain time, are challenging in a thoughtful way.

You can try out the demo first to see if you like it, that's what I'd recommend. It's available on steam as well.

wesley2• 18 years ago

And let's not forget the user shared levels, available at http://goofans.com/ -- extending the playtime immensely.

wesley2• 18 years ago

If you haven't already bought it, you should do so right now. A downloadable, DRM free version is available at 2dboy.com -- support these guys.

Btw, this game was supposed to have a 90% piracy rate.. Though their method of calculation wasn't very scientific.. http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/

aaronblohowiak2• 18 years ago

It is the only game i have on my mac. it is engaging, thoughtful and emotionally engaging. truly superb work of craft.

Dauntless• 18 years ago

If you look carefully you'll notice quite a significant price difference.

lanaer• 18 years ago

The price difference is really small compared to the different amounts of money thrown into the games in that list.

symptic• 18 years ago

The difference is most of those games realistically cost over $100M to develop, and World of Goo most probably cost under $100,000. Just goes to show how stale the gaming industry is; even when a large-scale game like Mirrors Edge is released, it's bashed for not being realistic enough.

azsromej• 18 years ago

i bought the Wii version (it's online in the Wii store or whatever it's called) for $15. It's a lot of fun.

cbarning• 18 years ago

I also bought the Wii version, makes great use of the Wiimote. Lots-O-Fun, Highly recommended.

euccastro• 18 years ago

And this is how it all started:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml

angstrom• 18 years ago

I still have that in my downloads folder. Hopefully we see a shift that brings the focus back to game play and away from vertex crunching/pixel pushing. If i wanted realism I'd go outside. I'm sure that's heresy in the halls of nVidia.

ram1024• 18 years ago

i suggest people buy left4dead to catch it up. because THAT game is funtastic.

you have no idea

Freaky• 18 years ago

Shame it's massively overpriced for what it is. The only reason I bought it was it was sub-£20 from Amazon at the time, and even that's pretty steep unless they're planning some epic free expansions for it.

jamesbritt2• 18 years ago

" ... coming soon for Linux..."

judofyr• 18 years ago

Cheer up! At least it's coming to Linux :-)

jamesbritt2• 18 years ago

This is true, and that's encouraging.

In the meantime, I may just grab it for win32, see if it plays OK under Wine, and if not use it on a VMware image of XP.

DarkShikari• 18 years ago

Shockingly popular indie games aren't really anything new--its just that people seem to be noticing them more, especially in this day and age of extremely high budget games. People are always surprised to see one or two-man projects earning money on the same level as games like Crysis, but it seems to have been going on for quite a while.

See my post at http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=398305 for another example of a very successful indie game developer.

jim-greer• 18 years ago

Update: now it's #1!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/229575/ref=p...

stick_figure• 18 years ago

I feel like Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead are probably moving better through retail and Steam. Amazon isn't exactly the marketplace where gamers go to order games so they can wait a few days to play it. Most games I buy are impulse purchases, and if I can't have it now then I can't be bothered to get it. World of Goo seems like the kind of game that parents and non-gamers would buy, and I would guess that that demographic shops more on Amazon.

nihilocrat• 18 years ago

Rapid-iteration and rapid-prototyping seems to be slowly gaining traction in the gaming industry. The high cost of game development plus high risk makes for an environment where trying out things in small increments and with quick turnaround is very valuable.

This dude talks about it a lot: http://lostgarden.com

st3fan• 18 years ago

Well, I guess they are not Indie anymore!

truebosko• 18 years ago

Is there a mailing list for Linux users who want to be updated when a linux version comes out?

Edit: Nevermind, kind of found it http://2dboy.com/mailman/listinfo/announce_2dboy.com

Indie game made by 2 people out-selling Spore, Left 4 Dead, & Fallout 3 at Amazon

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