Or do you keep a few Windows/Mac PCs lying around?
You know, just in case you need to run an app/game that only works perfectly on Windows/Mac and WINE/Proton wouldn’t run it?
Been thinking of Linuxifying my Laptop eversince I enjoyed Linux after defecting to it (from Windows) in my main PC (a Desktop).
Every machine I have runs some flavor of Linux. Thankfully I’m not forced to use software that only works on Windows and all the games I play run fine on Linux. I completely avoid games that don’t work on Linux. IMO there is 0 reason to not also have a working Linux build of your game if you’re an indie game dev. I haven’t touched Windows in years and I’m not planning on changing that, ever. I’m done with the bloated proprietary corporate spyware that bigtech shits out every year.
So, no multiplayer/massively multiplayer games then?
True, but I guess they decide to not do that just because the amount of Linux gamers are of “negligible quantities”. Though I’ll try making and releasing Native Linux versions of my games
provided I ever make one.Same here. There is 0 reason to make new versions of operating systems anyway unless there is a monumental amount of change involved (imagine Windows 1.0 and Windows 98)
There is Veloren which is a FLOSS Cube World clone where people are hosting games that you can join. Not really MMO I know but it’s online multiplayer.
There are also Minetest(Voxel Game engine) and Xonotic (First person Team Deathmatch) both of which have many public Servers that people are hosting. Depending on the hour of the day you can find Minetest Servers with 50+ people playing. Xonotic has less people playing on Servers last time I checked.
I get my multiplayer fix one way or another, should I need one.
Most Indie game devs I’ve seen around do actually release working Linux builds. Toby Fox comes to mind with Undertale (although Deltarune Ch. 1 and 2 are Windows only unfortunately). Even the dev of the Baldi’s Basics games (mystman12) cares and has working linux builds of his games that are on the same level as their Windows counterparts.
Most game devs use a pretty mainstream engine like Unity, Unreal, GameMaker, etc. all of which provide a very easy way of making Linux builds. Yes some of these engines do have plugins/addons/shaders that can be Windows and/or DirectX specific, but for the most part things should be cross compatible. So the only reasons for an indie dev not also releasing a working Linux build of their game is either because:
They only see the monetary side of things. They see the amount of Linux players next to the amount of Windows players and think “Not worth investing”.
Laziness. They just want to do the minimum amount of work or stick to what they’re comfortable with. Linux players often tend to give more detailed bug reports and feedback compared to the average Windows player, which may overwhelm or even annoy the developer.
In either case I don’t want to play their game.
Agreed. The only reason to keep making new “products” is because Capitalism. If you look at all the FLOSS operating systems out there (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonflyBSD, Illumos, HaikuOS, GNU/Linux, etc.) you’ll quickly notice that the only reason that they update at least the Kernel parts from time to time is because they want to add more hardware support, fix bugs and vulnerabilities or improve the codebase. We rarely ever see brand new “hype” features or huge “radical” changes for absolutely no reason.
I’ve heard of MineTest before. It might see more players once Microsoft guts Minecraft well enough.
Or maybe not, because you would have to install many plugins to replicate Minecraft (I know that just installing MineClone 5 would give a similar Minecraft experience, but MineClone 5 - last time I played - didn’t have a way to change your player skin to the skin you want; and you were left with the default two).
I wonder why he didn’t port Deltarune to Linux yet. He didn’t have a problem doing it with Undertale.
Which is what I’ve been saying.
Not the sign of a good developer. Like constructive criticism, devs should be pleased of detailed bug reports/feedbacks. It’s much more useful than anything the average Windows player would provide.
I’ve gotten a custom skin into the game before. Since this is a FLOSS game that isn’t tied to any account all your skins have to be on the Server you’re playing on. I don’t remember the exact process but it is possible. Could probably be improved by somebody who has a plan for decent working system.
I can imagine maybe something local ingame in MineClone 5, like a skin manager. And then when you join a Server your client will upload your skin to the Server and distribute it amongst all the other players. Not sure how possible that would be though in terms of game engine and all. Someone would have to try.
Maybe he first wants to finish all of Deltarune and then think of a Linux port. Since I’ve heard that Ch. 2 was the last “episodic” release and now he’s working until the rest of the game is 100% done.
Btw. others have decompiled Deltarune Ch.2 and recompiled it to make a native Linux version (it’s just Game Maker) that just worked.
Exactly.
What if only you wanted to use that particular skin? Like, a personal skin of some sort.
Is that so? Gonna take some years to bundle all of it up into one game then. (One entire chapter took a year for Toby to make and release, imagine trying to make the remaining 5, bundling it up with the first two and releasing it as a standalone game. To me, it’ll take at least 5-7 years to complete everything. Who knows if the Deltarune Community would even be alive by that point. I’d expect most to grow out of it or be interested in other media/games.)
The skins mod that I had has them all in a directory on the Server side and you can either make them global or if you prefixed them with
player_followed by the player’s name something likeplayer_peter83_coolskin.pngthen only that player (peter83) could use the “coolskin”. The only piece missing here is a mechanism that automates the upload of the skin texture to that directory on the Server and for the Server to name the file appropriately.Maybe. I think by now he probably has most of the assets and game figured out. But who knows. Personally I’m open to it regardless of how much time passes. I feel like even if the community as we know it now ceased to exist by the time the full game is out, then people would probably come back to play it.