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Linux Game Publishing Remains Offline, Three Years After The CEO Shakeup

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  • #21
    Originally posted by profoundWHALE View Post
    What? This was not even close to the original meaning, which was, "It's better than nothing, and when steam has it on sale, it costs next to nothing."
    It makes as much sense as a Linux user to buy Windows games as it does for an Xbox owner to buy games for another console. Them being on sale is completely irrelevant.

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    • #22
      Originally posted by Kivada View Post
      but the company you got them from is deader then a dinosaur.
      Actually, I know that Tux Games is closed, but I can not say the same thing about LGP because they are still making some changes. I remember that Michael Simms said that he created LGP in order to sell more games for Linux on Tux Games which is now closed.

      Personally, I am not optimistic about availability of steam for Linux because majority of the games for Linux created by Loki is not available on Steam. Unfortunately, I think the same situation will be with many games published by LGP if the company will be closed by Clive Crous.

      Three years ago, the CEO of LGP became a person who was completely anonymous for Linux gamers. I saw his name in the credits of one game published by LGP, and he was not even a programmer, in that case. Probably, LGP's programmers know more about games that he ported to Linux, but after three years everyone knows that LGP has the inappropriate person on the position of the CEO.

      Seriously, I do not want to see in the near future topics on many forums: how to run game created by LGP, or where can I buy games published by LGP?

      I hope that Svartalf or other producers will change this situation. This it quite surprising to me that many users try to not bother about games created by the company which was the most active for eight years (2001 - 2009) if we compare it to companies like e.g. id software, Epic Games, Illwinter Game Design, Introversion Software, Runesoft etc.

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      • #23
        Originally posted by curaga View Post
        "Just buy the PS4 version, I don't care that you only have an Xbox One".
        Bad analogy since the Steam versons run without having to log into Steam.

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        • #24
          Originally posted by random View Post
          And me - though the only game I worked on didn't get released...


          At some point I had a more or less complete Linux port of Discipes II - if you're interested I can check if I still have it (NAS migration went badly and I lost some datas...)
          Very much so, random. I've got the original source tree plus assets. If you've got a mostly completed port, if we get permission, we can run with it.

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          • #25
            Originally posted by gbudny View Post
            When, I wrote this comment I thought only about games that use Wine because the source code of these games were lost, and that is one of the reasons why these games won't be ported to Linux.
            Even with WINE, you need either a WineDev working on it or a GameDev that understands what needs must be done in WINE to make it work right/better. I'm actually okay with that when you don't have the studio, but you have permission to resell in a given configuration by the Publisher. That has been part of the bugaboo for GOG's trying to offer stuff for Linux. They could do the DosBox stuff, but stuff playable in WINE...not as easily. It's a shame they went with the solution they did for Witcher for Linux- one hopes they won't go there for 3.

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            • #26
              Originally posted by gbudny View Post
              Sorry. I have not expected that you will come back to this forum, and I mentioned Ryan Gordon on this short list because he was the only programmer who worked on the Linux version of Postal 2. Now, I think that with Candy Cruncher it is not exactly the same situation because he ported this game to Linux x86, but the unknown programmer ported this games to Linux PPC/Sparc.
              Yeah, there for a while I thought I was drowning in personal woes. It's beginning to look a lot better. Now...if only someone over at Starbreeze can tell me if they know who got IP rights to Grin's stuff and I get a foot in the door with Disciples II, I'd be tickled.

              However, I have to admit that you are one of the few programmers who ported some games for LGP, and you are well-known person among Linux users.


              That will be a long list of programers, and for many years I have always heard that LGP is a small company.
              It always was. Michael intended it to stay mostly that way. It lasted as long as it did on that very premise. Get too big and you either implode like Loki ended up doing, or you end up like EA...where games go to die. Having said this...it also limits you in many ways because they always want an up-front royalty deal on a port. At a crucial size they cut you a bit of slack (or a lot in some cases)- and they never QUITE got there or convinced them that it was better to just simply NDA the company and it's consultants/employees and get slightly more on a per-unit basis. If you got rid of some of the insane crap many studios insisted upon...the pricing becomes real as opposed to the large amounts LGP had to charge to make a modest profit on the stuff. Since many of the titles didn't clear more than 200 or so units sold in many cases, not due to lack of interest, but rather due to people questioning the pricing since they "could buy the game for $5 or less and run it under WINE". If it was priced properly for the title and proportionately to what one could lay hands on it for Windows...you'd have a larger interest on things. Why reboot when you can lay hands on it? Why run it under WINE, when you can get peak framerates and quality results? As it stood, the deck was often stacked against you. The studio would want $25-75k up front just for the privilege to port- and then wanted a royalty structure that forced the higher prices.

              I expected that LGP will publish a digital version of this game because that will be the only way to have a backup copy of Soul Ride for Linux. This game has a music, but I didn't know how to turn on in the game. I know that someone ported this game to AROS:
              It's tied to the ability to play it off of the CD as a CD audio feed. It's something you could take the Windows game CD and insert it into a player and have it play the music. In order to get the assets tied together, you'd have to re-work the sound stuff a little bit, modernizing it. Knowing how messy some of their code was in there...unless we could put a bit more polish on things like the Snowboarder, trees, etc. (effectively making a new game with the old assets, which mainly would be the topo data they imported into the thing...) it is a bit of a debatable thing, all things considered. One could do it. Is it worth it at this time? The reason that there's an AROS port...is that the whole game, sans Assets, is GPLed. That was a sore subject for Michael by the by...he spent a bit of money on that game, only to have them at least partially knock the knees out from underneath him on it.

              I still have a box version of Ballistics, and I think it would be cool if LGP will publish Bandits for Linux.
              Heh... LGP has nobody officially to pay under the deal they have. They can't publish it without doing something like I'm trying to do here- and they'd still need my help to get it out the door. I want to see it go out. I'd love a boxed edition. Realistically, though? It'd be better as an E-sale and priced at $5. Same goes for any future sales of Ballistics, really. IF they're still around, I'm more than happy to work with LGP to see it happen the way I'm describing here. It needs to be just like I'm saying...$5. I could even help the successors in interest provide a new Windows version if needs be. But it still needs to be ~$5. The market is unlikely to support more than that.

              By the way, thank you for buying the copy of Ballistics. It does mean something to me.


              I know that Strategy First was a developer for the Windows version of this game.
              Thank you for that tidbit. I vaguely remember that when I was, for the short time I was working on it, trying to port the thing for LGP- right at the time that their lead dev quit on them and I was initially trying to salvage the whole thing. It'll make it easier to know who to talk to. THAT game might be a win since random may have a port to put just simple spit-polish on and get sign off from Valve on since, ultimately, then, it belongs to them since they own Strategy First.
              Last edited by Svartalf; 31 January 2015, 12:33 AM.

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              • #27
                Originally posted by Kivada View Post
                Bad analogy since the Steam versons run without having to log into Steam.
                Accurate one...that's how the Console and Game industry as a whole actually operates.

                It should be noted that anyone trying to pick this stuff back up or help Valve and others get games out into the world for sale will operate under precisely the same modus operandi.

                I'll try to not be fully that way for the Linux SKUs that did sell and I succeed to re-publish them or resurrect LGP under a lowering of price through Steam/Desura/GoG/etc. But...that's try. No assurances. No promises. It's all dependent on how the royalties deals work on each game.

                The only place I know that you get the privilege of being able to run it on wherever it's available is with the Humble Indie Bundles. And that's because Humble Bundle, Inc. has made arrangements to be able to provide them all as one bundle. Otherwise, it very much is...got it on Windows? Don't care. You want it on PS3...you buy it again.

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                • #28
                  Originally posted by Kivada View Post
                  Most of those games are ON Steam, just not for Linux yet, the best you can do is make a Steam account and accounts on the companie's forums and join those of us asking them to have the ports brought to Steam.
                  Yes and no. Sadly, it comes to whether there's source code or not for the title, whether they are interested to do the work to port it themselves, or if they're willing to allow someone like myself to make the game happen. I can help any studio on Steam to get a Linux/SteamOS Steam version of their title. I'm a Steamworks partner. In fact, I owe two Indie studios ports, to be bluntly honest about it. I've just been...overwhelmed with the trials and tribulations I have had over the last four years...to complete either or do much of anything elset until recently. I thought two and a half years ago that was changing. I was mistaken. This is one of those things where I really, really should've took Valve up on the possible contracting job in Seattle rather than saying yes to the bunch I did- but they were in about 3 weeks too late and I'd given my word to the other bunch.

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                  • #29
                    Valve owns Strategy First? I have never heard that before.

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                    • #30
                      Originally posted by Svartalf View Post
                      Very much so, random. I've got the original source tree plus assets. If you've got a mostly completed port, if we get permission, we can run with it.
                      So, I still have it. It looks complete (source code, assets, various tools and Makefiles) except I'm missing LGP's toolchain.

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