URGENT: Need bandwidth!! (Thomas Words on front page of penny-arcade.com)

[chanon]

We are very proud and thankful that our game is one of the IGF finalists.
And right now Thomas and the Magical Words is on the front page of http://www.penny-arcade.com.

This has resulted in an UNBELIEVABLE amount of downloads. Sales for today has been more than all sales before totalled. Right now every 10 minutes (the time I set PopTray to check mail) I get a few more sales!

I'll have to send them a big thanks and some free licenses!

But right now I'm not sure if my bandwidth will be enough. Only 1 day has resulted in 160GB transferred.

Additional bandwidth at ServInt (where I use) is 1$/GB so FileBurst wouldn't be any help.

Anyone with some spare bandwidth to borrow or for rent at less than 1$/GB for the next few days? I'm not sure how fast it will die down as I've never been featured on the front page of a big site like this.

EDIT: OK we've got enough mirrors. Thanks!!!

Thanks!!

[terin]

Wtg man :)

-Joe

[whisperstorm]

There are a number of free file hosting services - such as:

http://savefile.com/

http://freespace.filefront.com/1

These may not be the only things to use, but it could definitely help take some of the load off... I encourage you to check them out. Every mirror you add can help...

[dxgame]

"Right now every 10 minutes (the time I set PopTray to check mail) I get a few more sales!"

No offense but if you're getting "a few sales" every 10 minutes I think you can afford the $1.00 per gig. ;)

Congrats btw!

[Gmicek]

I got ya. give me a minute to upload the file.

[DrWilloughby]

Also downloading, I'll PM you when it's posted.

[Gmicek]

Ok, the direct link is: http://www.diygames.com/hosted/ThomasWordsSetup.exe

Go ahead and deep link it straight to the file on the demo download button if you like so you don't have to mess with indicating you have mirrors and such. However long you need it on there is just fine, and let me know if you have version updates you want posted and i'll give you a login to do uploads.

If anyone else needs a file hosted just let me know, always happy to help.

[chanon]

Thanks a lot Greg and Andy!
Dustin has also pm-ed me with another mirror.

So I'll randomly send the user to one of these 3 mirrors.

Thanks Guys!!!

[Matthew]

I'll upload in a sec in case you need another mirror (Cyberwurx in Atlanta).

[chanon]

Allright, thats 4 mirrors. Should be enough for now. If the bandwidth is too much for any of you be sure to notify me. I might have to see how it goes for a day or two. If the bandwidth needed is still too much then I might have to get a new host to host downloads.

The traffic is going down right now as the time approaches midnight over at US so it might actually be past the most traffic heavy time.

Andy and Mathew, you two are finalists too so you better watch out yourselves.

Things like this really catch you by surprise.

I'm very thankful again. You guys are so great and response was really fast. It really shows that indie developers are very nice folk!

[DrWilloughby]

Andy and Mathew, you two are finalists too so you better watch out yourselves.

Things like this really catch you by surprise.
I don't actually host my own game files -- Trymedia does the hosting, so I'm in the clear unless everyone starts hotlinking to my screenshots ;)

[chanon]

To show my thanks, I've added links to you guys in an "Our Friends" box to the right of http://www.viquagames.com. They appear on every page of the site. Hope you guys get some visitors.

[Kaos]

glad you got it straightened out!

and sounds great, exposure like this is wonderful!

[DrWilloughby]

Thanks for the link Chanon. FUnny how much a little hive-mindset can really boost a community.

[Pyabo]

I think you've hit on a new niche indie strategy... develop a game specially tailored to the tastes of Gabe and/or Tycho.

I'm gonna go start working on "Grammar Wars" right now! It's a deep sci-fi strategy game where battle outcomes are dependent on your ability to correctly place commas in sentences! But also, you can customize your in-game avatar.

[Savant]

It's a deep sci-fi strategy game where battle outcomes are dependent on your ability to correctly place commas in sentences! But also, you can customize your in-game avatar.
It appears that you've already lost. :P

[BantamCityGames]

I don't really know anything about penny-arcade beside the few mentions I periodically catch on these forums... can anyone give me a little common knowledge about them? Do they have THAT much traffic that the mere mention of a game can obliterate download bandwidth limits? That seems really awesome to me... and congrats chanon btw!!

[Sharpfish]

I don't really know anything about penny-arcade beside the few mentions I periodically catch on these forums... can anyone give me a little common knowledge about them? Do they have THAT much traffic that the mere mention of a game can obliterate download bandwidth limits? That seems really awesome to me... and congrats chanon btw!!

I was wondering - accepting conventional wisdom that banner adds only work "marginally" when placed on smaller sites - has anyone had experience of placing them on penny arcade or slashdot? and are the prices actually this side of $25k ;)

[chanon]

update: Traffic has gone down. Still getting hits from penny-arcade, but it's much more manageable. Sales are still trickling in.

I'm directing the downloads back to my own server now.

Thank you so much guys, I hope I might be able to repay your generosity some day.

[Pyabo]

What technical mechanism did you use to re-direct downloads behind the scenes? Just out of curiosity.

[DFG]

Offer Penny Arcade a percentage of sales to keep it on the front page. Don't let the opportunity slip away!

[chanon]

What technical mechanism did you use to re-direct downloads behind the scenes? Just out of curiosity.

From that version of http://www.viquagames/games/thomas/download/index.php


$mirrornum = rand(0,3);
if ($mirrornum == 0) {
header("Location: http://terragrabba.com/ThomasWordsSetup.exe");
}
else if ($mirrornum == 1) {
header("Location: http://www.wildlifetycoon.com/ThomasWordsSetup.exe");
}
else if ($mirrornum == 2) {
header("Location: http://staff.flashbangstudios.com/mwegner/ThomasWordsSetup.exe");
}
else {
header("Location: http://www.diygames.com/hosted/ThomasWordsSetup.exe");
}