A Comparison of Game Sites and Clubs

Wiki list of Indie game developers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indie_game_developers


Big Fish Games - Big Fish is the general go-to site for casual gamers. Games for non-members are $9.99 or $19.99 for Collector's Editions. Being a member of the Big Fish Game Club simply means buying one game credit for $6.99 a month. The day of the month you sign up on will be your billing date. For instance, if you sign up on the 20th of the month, each month you will be billed for $6.99 and a new credit (good for any $6.99 game) will be added to your account. You can cancel online at any time.

Benefits of being a Big Fish member:

• All standard edition games are $6.99 each, and Collector's Edition games are $13.99.
  
• Every game you buy will go towards your monthly punch card. 6 punches on your card = 1 free game coupon. Standard games are worth 1 punch each, while the $13.99 Collector's Edition games are worth 3 punches each. Fill as many punch cards per month as you like.
  
• Access to the Daily Deal (DD = one game per day which BF chooses to offer for $2.99 that day only) and Tomorrow's Game Today (TGT = games that won't be released to non-members until the following day).
  
• Access to Live Chat. Customer Service at Big Fish is not hard to contact, but they will sometimes take several days to get back to you (if they are backed up). Being a member means you that can have "instant gratification" and hop right onto a live chat with them.
  

There is a game manager for Big Fish Games. The first time you download a game from them, it will install their Game Manager. All of your games are accessible via this game manager, and you can purchase the game(s) with the click of a button. Doing so will NOT automatically take a game credit, you have the option to pay by other means, and it will take you directly to the purchase page.

Overall, Big Fish is a reliable site that will not give out your e-mail address and is guaranteed ad-ware and virus-free. The game manager does not "get along" with some people's systems, nor with certain games, but there is a free demo for every game on the site except for some of the Large File games. If you do have a problem, Customer Service is quick to offer solutions, and if the solutions don't work, they will send you a replacement coupon.

(originally posted by b00kworm)

Amaranth Games

Amaranth is mostly specialized in RPGs done with the RPG Maker. They
sell their own games (the Aveyond series, some others like Grim Hatchery
or A Gypsy's Tale) as well as games made by other studios. In addition,
they sell some Visual Novels made with the Ren'Py tool and offer the
tools themselves (RPG Maker XP, RPG Maker VX, Ren'Py, Adventure Game
Studio ... the latter two are free downloads).

Amaranth sells games for various prices (depending, I guess, on the
price the developers of a game set), some are even for free. I have not
had to deal with their CS so far (I am quite lucky as far as that is
concerned ... most of the time), but their site offers far more than
just games. You will also find a big community, patches and updates,
goodies, guides and other stuff.

If you have played one of their games from another site (BFG offers the
Aveyond series and most other games they've made), you might want to
take a look at them. The same goes if you like RPGs that look, feel and
play like the classic console RPGs.

GameHouse
- You have three price points to choose from: Non-members pay $9.99
for standard games, and $19.99 for Premium games. The $6.99 "Fun
Ticket" gets you one game credit a month while the "Fun Pass" membership
is $19.99 a month and gives you unlimited play to over 1000 games (PC
users only). Purchased games drop to $6.99 standard and $19.99 Premium
for both Fun Ticket and Fun Pass.

There is a Game Manager, though it is set up differently than the one
from Big Fish. Still, easy enough to figure out if you pay attention to
the tabs at the top.

Some GameHouse exclusives: Mortimer Beckett, Campfire Legends, The Dream Voyager, Delicious - Emily games

Overall, GameHouse is a trusted site, though be aware of the ad-ware-supported "Free" games. Purchased games do not contain adware.

Added by govegirl:

Funpass allows unlimited play of every game on the GameHouse site including premium editions

You can purchase an annual subscription to funpass for $120.

You do not need to be a member to buy the supersavers, just have be registered there

They offer a new free game every day- these free games are sponsored with ads.

The Game Manager is not compulsory.

Gamehouse use a download manager for all their games. By default
additional software is checked to include with your download- Make sure
you uncheck the google chome browser or google toolbar if you do not
wish the software installed.

GameHouse tech support has live chat as well as email and telephone call center support.
Email support response time is usually within 24 hours.


Support Hours
Call Center Hours:
Monday – Friday: 6 am – 6 pm PT
Saturday & Sunday: 7:30 am – 5 pm PT

Chat Hours:
Monday – Friday: 6 am – 2 am PT
Saturday & Sunday: 7 am – 2 am PT

Email:
24 hours, 7 days a week

Posted by govegirl:

Amanita Design

Website: http://amanita-design.net/

Blurb: Makers of the award-winning Machinarium, a fantastic adventure game.
Games: Machinarium, Samorost, Samorost II.
Payment accepted: Some credit cards and Paypal.

Platforms: PC/Mac

Perks: Price includes both PC/Mac/Linux version + Soundtrack.

Customer Safety / Satisfaction rating (5 stars highest): ***** (1 vote)

Posted by govegirl:

Cipher Prime

Website: http://www.cipherprime.com/

Blurb: Makers of two ‘different’ puzzle
games Fractal and Auditorium. From time to time, their store also sells
popular “Indie Love bundles”; a lot of indie games at a ridiculously low
price. It wins.
Games: Fractal, Auditorium, Seasonal bundles.
Payment accepted: Some credit cards and Paypal.

Platforms: PC/Mac

Perks: DRM-Free games, price includes both
PC/Mac version. If you buy a game in a bundle and you already have it,
you can send it to a friend as a gift.

Customer Safety / Satisfaction rating (5 stars highest): ***** (1 vote)

Posted by govegirl:

Runic Games

Website: http://www.runicgames.com

Blurb: Creators of the fantastic action-rpg, Torchlight. It’s like Diablo, with pets.

Games: Torchlight, Torchlight II (coming 2011)

Platforms: PC/Mac

Payment accepted: Paypal/Google Checkout

Customer Safety / Satisfaction rating (5 stars highest) ***** (1 vote)

Perks: None, apart from happy-fuzzy-supporting-the-developer feeling.

Posted by govegirl:

Total Eclipse


Website: http://www.totaleclipsegames.com

Blurb: Creators of The Clockwork Man series. Did you know they are from sunny Greece? :-)
Games: The Clockwork Man, The Clockwork Man: The Hidden World, Fashion Boutique, Bounty:Special Edition, Academy of Magic: Word Spells
Payment accepted: Through Plimus, including all credit cards, Paypal and many more.

Platforms: PC/Mac

Perks: DRM-Free (currently The Clockwork
Man series and Academy of Magic, developers working on removing DRM on
the rest), price includes both PC/Mac version where available.

Playrix Entertainment - http://www.playrix.com/

Playrix is the company responsible for the Fishdom games, Gardenscapes, Cradle of Rome/Persia, Royal Envoy and more.

Games start out at $19.95, though you can save by buying one of their
bundle packs. They also have a buy-more, save-more policy, allowing you
to get any game for as low as $4.99.

2D Boy


Website: http://2dboy.com

Blurb: Creators of the wildly popular game, World of Goo


Games: World of Goo

Platforms: PC/Mac/Linux

Payment accepted: Paypal/Credit Card

Perks: 100% Region-free and DRM-free

Big Finish Games


Website: http://www.bigfinishgames.com/

Blurb: Emphasis on story-based games


Games: 3 Cards to Midnight, 3 Cards to Dead Time

Platforms: WinXP/Vista


Payment accepted: Paypal/Credit Card

Bit Blot


Website: http://www.bit-blot.com/

Blurb: Creator of Award-winning 2-D Platformer, Aquaria


Games: Aquaria

Platforms: PC/Mac


Payment accepted: Credit Cards/wire transfers/money/checks/PayPal


Customer Safety / Satisfaction rating


Perks: SSL-protected purchasing, Support the developer

Posted by b00kworm:

Steam

Originally founded as Valve's online store (if I remember it correctly),
Steam is one of the biggest online game stores around. Steam carries
everything from Oldies for a couple of dollars to the newest mainstream
games for $ 40 or $ 50 or more. There are also a lot of sales events and
usually a couple of games sold at a discount (the biggest discount I
ever found on the site was 75% off a game for one day during the
LucasArts Week recently).
The oldest games I have found on Steam were old LucasArts adventures
(some of them from a time when LucasArts still was Lucasfilm Games).
Steam also carries a lot of indie-games, so a search through the system
can bring up interesting and unexpected results.

Steam accepts all major credit cards and paypal accounts.

You need an account do buy from Steam (and to play their games, see next
paragraph), but you do not automatically become a member of a club or
have to buy regularly.

All games sold over steam need the Steam software to run. They have to
be downloaded through Steam (the software), but you can play most of
them offline (the software can be started in an offline mode).

The CS seems to be quite up to it (have dealt with them only once so
far, yesterday, and they solved the problem in less than 24 hours for
me), but you have to create an additional profile for dealing with them.