If you’re anything like me, your myriad social media feeds have become a rolling timeline of atrocities to which you feel compelled, uselessly, to bear witness. But here’s an opportunity to do something, however small:
Itch.io is currently hosting Play for Peace – Games for Palestine 2025 Charity Bundle, an enormous 382-game pack that you can pick up for a tiny $8, with proceeds going “directly to Palestine aid and relief.”
The games are, well, literally too many to list here, but would regularly retail for $1,177 altogether. A lot of them are small indie projects you might never have heard of (which isn’t to say they don’t look cool), but there are a few heavy hitters in there.
There’s stuff like chatting-and-coffee-making sim Coffee Talk, Extreme Meatpunks Forever (of PCG-declared “Best videogame name ever” fame), hack-n-slash roguelite Moon Hunters, VVVVVV, and a book (yes) called “I Signed Up To Be The Substitute Familiar Of A Struggling Witch To Pay My Bills And I’m Just Now Realizing What I Got Myself Into,” which I’ve never heard of but I feel very much vibes with PCG’s patented (not actually patented) long headline technology.
And then, you know, a few hundred more games, which aren’t in the main about being gay and destroying capitalism, but which certainly do feature those things prominently as themes, which I think all cool people can endorse. And all for a mere eight bucks.
If you’d like to know the good cause your eight bucks are going to, the bundle’s organisers have partnered with UNRWA USA, “an independent 501c3 nonprofit that supports the work of UNRWA through fundraising, education, and advocacy in the United States.” In essence, the dollars go to UNRWA USA which then passes them on to UNRWA, the official United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
A load of good games—let’s be honest, most of which you may well never get to, being that there are nearly 400 of ’em—and a very good cause. You could do a lot worse with your time and money.
