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[EatChildren]

So basically the less games we buy the quicker bars go up, so we shouldn't buy any of these indie games until Portal 2 is out.

Theoretically, yes. The alternative to that is the people who buy the games then play them. Unfortunately nobody knows if the value of a new player playing is greater or less than the value of a no new players at all.

This seems like the simplest and most logical explanation, though I don't know what, if any, impact the potatoes have.

The big problem is that the actual release adjustment seems to be based on the man-hour length of each bar, which is why end of the world (and probably kick it in the next hour or two) only lowered the projection by 50 minutes.

Potatoes are a multiplayer also factoring in on how fast the bars fill up. More potatoes = greater value from the CPU count, and thus bars fill up faster.

In terms of the projection, it's really a matter of whichever comes first. For each game bar that is filled, a milestone is met and that chops off a chunk of the time for good. So, as it stands, Portal 2 will absolutely launch 50 minutes earlier. Guarentied.

The alternative is that we finish all of the game bars. Fill them all. We do that, and the game launches then and there.

If people keep switching from game to game, then it's not crazy to assume that by the last stretch Killing Floor will have double to triple it's current cpu. A Monday release seems to be on lock at this point.

This too. As people shift from game to game, the focus will increase. We dont really know how many are legitimately participating though. Remember, those values are also for people generally playing the games.

 

[stuminus3]

- The game-specific bars are based on the number of people playing/idling at that moment. This can be verified by looking at the stats page on the Steam store. Once you reach the simultaneous user requirement, the bar is completed and a bonus amount of time is knocked off the countdown.

This is clearly wrong and doesn't even make any sense. The numbers are # people playing, the bars aren't.

 

[butter_stick]

Did anybody really play that Katamari rip off game for purposes other than to unlock Portal 2? Wow.

 

[Fox318]

93.87%... This is painful. They should have not had this if there was no sense of progress....

 

[snoopeasystreet]

That's what we're doing, here's the priority list:

AaAaAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
RUSH
BIT.TRIP BEAT
Toki Tori
Cogs
The Ball
Audiosurf
Amnesia
Super Meat Boy
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Killing Floor

I'm ignoring Kick It because it'll be done in like 20-30 mins.

Alright, I'll hop on then.

 

[TheExodu5]

Did anybody really play that Katamari rip off game for purposes other than to unlock Portal 2? Wow.

No. It's an awful game. All the games from that developer are pretty awful.

 

[Ozone]

Looks like "1... 2... 3... Kick It!" is almost done.

 

[Jubbly]

This is clearly wrong and doesn't even make any sense. The numbers are # people playing, the bars aren't.

http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/ =

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

 

[theinfinityissue]

Hoo boy I do not like Rush. I can't finish this "carrot" stage with a god damn video walkthrough. Maybe my brain does not handle 3d puzzlers well.

Starting to feel pretty damn jipped on the whole potato thing, this is the fourth game from it I'm never going to play again.

 

[Prophet Steve]

No. It's an awful game. All the games from that developer are pretty awful.

I liked it.

 

[Weenerz]

I wish they released a real Katamari game for the PC.

 

[JaseC]

http://i.imgur.com/h6Jwx.jpg

http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/ =

http://i.imgur.com/Iwpyb.jpg

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

The bars are based on the amount of hours played, not concurrent users.

 

[Campster]

I liked it.

Dejoban has this wonderfully "intentionally awkward/creepy/bad" aesthetic going on, and I love it. They're like the videogame equivalent of Tim and Eric.

While I think 1... 2... 3... Kick it is a bit of a failed prototype AaaaaAaaAAaa is pretty awesome. Wonderful End of the World is a shameless Katamari clone, but given that there's never been a Katamari game released on the PC it's filling a niche so I'll let that slide.

 

[Graphics Horse]

http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/ =

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

Look now, the bar has gone higher, and the number is now lower.

Theoretically, yes. The alternative to that is the people who buy the games then play them. Unfortunately nobody knows if the value of a new player playing is greater or less than the value of a no new players at all.

The target number of hours might have been set at the start of the countdown, which would mean extra purchases don't have a negative effect. That's what I'd expect anyway.

 

[butter_stick]

No. It's an awful game. All the games from that developer are pretty awful.

The only game left I'm mildly interested in is The Ball. The Portal level on YouTube looked pretty cool.

 

[kamspy]

I've stopped fooling with this whole mess. Yeah it's cool, but if I play the games like this I'm gonna grow to dislike them.

 

[Blizzard]

I've stopped fooling with this whole mess. Yeah it's cool, but if I play the games like this I'm gonna grow to dislike them.

There was the same sort of thing with tough challenges in the Treasure Hunt last year. Those challenges were probably easier than the potato ones though. If Valve wanted people to actually like the indie games, you'd think they (or the developers themselves) could make the tasks easier. It's not like MOST people would be disappointed if their potatoes were "too easy", I think. Then we could have had a week-long countdown if they insisted instead of a 3-day long countdown.

 

[JaseC]

The only game left I'm mildly interested in is The Ball. The Portal level on YouTube looked pretty cool.

The test chambers really are great.

 

[TheExodu5]

What Valve should have done:

They should have made it so that the filling rate doubles with every game completed. After the first game finished, everyone's interest would be renewed. The countdown could have ended somewhere early Sunday and people would have been very happy.

Instead, they've done nothing in reaction to the situation. I find it hard to believe that they would have no contingency for a possible poor turnout of people participating in the event.

 

[XeroSauce]

Gonna shift my focus to AAAaaa now, 1 2 3 will finish eventually.

 

[EatChildren]

The target number of hours might have been set at the start of the countdown, which would mean extra purchases don't have a negative effect. That's what I'd expect anyway.

This is a good point and probably true.

What Valve should have done:

They should have made it so that the filling rate doubles with every game completed. After the first game finished, everyone's interest would be renewed. The countdown could have ended somewhere early Sunday and people would have been very happy.

Instead, they've done nothing in reaction to the situation. I find it hard to believe that they would have no contingency for a possible poor turnout of people participating in the event.

They dont really need to do anything. That's why they have the milestones. We fail to properly boot GlaDOS, as in, complete all the game bars, then we still get an hour or two shaved off thanks the milestones from the bars we did complete.

What Valve should have done is make it actually a game. You know, a puzzle, some seriously fucked up trickery, or some kind of involved project that people could work on, even if it were heinously difficult. Instead they told people to go to work. No game, work. It's shit, they dropped the ball, and I hope they hear and respond to the backlash.

I'm down with the ARGs. They're fucking awesome and Valve are great at them. But this is like getting tp the end of a game of chess and finding out to truly win you have to count the grains of sand in the timer.

 

[Red]

What Valve should have done:

They should have made it so that the filling rate doubles with every game completed. After the first game finished, everyone's interest would be renewed. The countdown could have ended somewhere early Sunday and people would have been very happy.

Instead, they've done nothing in reaction to the situation. I find it hard to believe that they would have no contingency for a possible poor turnout of people participating in the event.

I don't get what the point of all this was. The potato hunt has been cool and it's been great following the ARG. I said earlier in the thread it's about the journey, not the destination, but still I was expecting more than a few hours improvement once it was clear we were working toward upping Portal 2's release. What's the point in even continuing now if we're only getting it a few hours earlier? It falls flat.

 

[Baha]

I liked it.

Same, in fact I went back and played through to unlock all the levels and get some achievements. I had more fun with that game than say Cogs.

 

[IceMarker]

I'm not a big fan of Dejobaan Games and their modus operandi either. Looks like Valve is the only one helping them get sales.

 

[butter_stick]

What Valve should have done:

They should have made it so that the filling rate doubles with every game completed. After the first game finished, everyone's interest would be renewed. The countdown could have ended somewhere early Sunday and people would have been very happy.

Instead, they've done nothing in reaction to the situation. I find it hard to believe that they would have no contingency for a possible poor turnout of people participating in the event.

They shouldn't have released Glados@Home until Sunday. If they didn't want the game out significantly early, they should have just put some more clues out over the weekend, got us to this point on Sunday and made the game unlock in 12 hours or so.

 

[Plasma]

Instead, they've done nothing in reaction to the situation. I find it hard to believe that they would have no contingency for a possible poor turnout of people participating in the event.

I don't think it has been a poor turnout, there are like 25,000 people playing these games, I just think Valve might have set the bar too high.

 

[StuBurns]

What I think they should have done was release the Portal potato game content today, The Ball etc, then every potato an individual gets is an hour less they have to wait for Portal 2.

 

[Blizzard]

I get ultra low scores in AAAAAAA, a game I'm bad at anyway. It's so hard to change directions midair, so I guess you have to memorize the levels and predict ahead of time? I don't want to cheat and adjust the air control.

How do you engage spectators/write graffiti/flip them off though? I can fly right past spectators and neither mouse button seems to do anything. I can't find any sort of reference for controls except WASD + mouse clicks.

 

[Zomba13]

Nice... Pretty sure one of the ARG officers just posted an Amnesia spoiler in the steam chat. Thanks idiots...

 

[Fox318]

I don't think it has been a poor turnout, there are like 25,000 people playing these games, I just think Valve might have set the bar too high.

Maybe they thought that everyone playing CS and CS:S would join in.

 

[corn_fest]

How do you engage spectators/write graffiti/flip them off though? I can fly right past spectators and neither mouse button seems to do anything. I can't find any sort of reference for controls except WASD + mouse clicks.

You need to buy the Flip-It Glove and Spray Paint before you can use them in levels.

 

[thefil]

I'm not a big fan of Dejobaan Games and their modus operandi either. Looks like Valve is the only one helping them get sales.

I bought their games because I find them awesome.

I get ultra low scores in AAAAAAA, a game I'm bad at anyway. It's so hard to change directions midair, so I guess you have to memorize the levels and predict ahead of time? I don't want to cheat and adjust the air control.

How do you engage spectators/write graffiti/flip them off though? I can fly right past spectators and neither mouse button seems to do anything. I can't find any sort of reference for controls except WASD + mouse clicks.

There's an aspect of memorization to it, yes. It's sort of like a rhythm/arcade game that way. As for the rest, all I can say is practice makes perfect. It's definitely possible; I have 4/5 stars on all levels in Reckless Disregard.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

They shouldn't have included amnesia. People will be too scared to play it.

 

[Cheech]

God, I'm having a blast just running around and picking up potatoes this afternoon. Played through the Portal challenge in The Ball (worth the $10 by itself, IMO!), and about to go nuts on Defense Grid and grab those potatoes.

Good on ya, Valve. You're not my favorite developer, but you're certainly the best ambassador for indie games out there.

They shouldn't have included amnesia. People will be too scared to play it.

It's the best game in the Potato Sack! I paid $20 for it last year, and it's worth double that. One of my favorite games in 2010.

 

[Fox318]

They shouldn't have included amnesia. People will be too scared to play it.

As somebody who does not enjoy scary games I agree. But I might give it a shot. I just need my teddy bear and blanket.

 

[Baha]

As somebody who does not enjoy scary games I agree. But I might give it a shot. I just need my teddy bear and blanket.

The Justine content is short enough and well worth the pay off imo.

 

[FINALBOSS]

They shouldn't have included amnesia. People will be too scared to play it.

Pretty much the only great game in the bundle.

 

[Fox318]

Pretty much the only great game in the bundle.

Killing Floor and MeatBoy are worth the deal alone.

 

[Lostconfused]

Which games do you need ? If I already own them maybe we could buy the pack together.

I am missing

The Wonderful End of the World
The Ball
Rush
Cogs
Amnesia
Kick It

Not that I am begging for gifts here. I just think its somewhat ridiculous that all those games come to $37 which would be a dollar less than the pack without the portal discount. Out of all those games the only one I would play is Rush. I just think it would be silly to force my self through all those games just to get some potato icons on my community profile and who knows what kind of reward that I probably won't care about.

 

[Nabs]

Pretty much the only great game in the bundle.

super meat boy, audiosurf and toki tori are great games.

 

[WEGGLES]

Pretty much the only great game in the bundle.

What?

Toki Tori is good as well. As is bit trip.

 

[Red]

Pretty much the only great game in the bundle.

What in the hell

Super Meat Boy, Toki Tori, Audiosurf, Bit.Trip, Super Meat Boy, Killing Floor, and Super Meat Boy are all fantastic.

 

[speculawyer]

I tried to do the new Aaaaaaa level . . . holy crap. way too hard.

 

[corn_fest]

I tried to do the new Aaaaaaa level . . . holy crap. way too hard.

Slow the game down with Cheat Engine

 

[EatChildren]

I tried to do the new Aaaaaaa level . . . holy crap. way too hard.

Again, I'm pretty much AaAaAA!!! disabled, and I still go it. I have shamefully low scores on pretty much every level, suck immensely at the game, and still managed to get that tater. The level is short with a very specific pattern that doesn't require much movement. Keep at it and you'll get it.

 

[JaseC]

I tried to do the new Aaaaaaa level . . . holy crap. way too hard.

"Killing you and giving you good advice aren't mutually exclusive."? That level is really short and relatively easy to perfect once you're familiar with the layout.

Edit: Beat-N.

 

[darkpaladinmfc]

super meat boy, audiosurf and toki tori are great games.

No, Super Meat Boy is an AMAZING game.

 

[Stitch]

is it easy to get the potato in amnesia?

don't want to be scared to death without getting a potato for it.

 

[Fireblend]

Pretty much the only great game in the bundle.

Wait, what? Audiosurf, Super Meat Boy, Bit.Trip.Beat. and Rush are all masterpieces.

 

[Nabs]

is it easy to get the potato in amnesia?

don't want to be scared to death without getting a potato for it.

The first one is as easy as making a new profile. The second one requires you actually play the DLC. You'll be scared, but you'll live.