Hero-U: rogue to redemption

I sent the author a message asking why because it sounds like a money grab since Unity does the exporting for you? No other developer using Unity has stated any extra work for Linux.

wonder what they will say, their FAQ states:

Initially we will support Windows and Macintosh. We are using the Unity engine, which works on a variety of platforms. However, there are significant costs involved in customizing and testing the game on each additional platform. As our first stretch goal, in addition to content improvements, we plan to support Linux, iPad, and selected additional iOS and Android devices.

Seems like a definite cashgrab for them. Win/Mac/Lin is in the standard package, you do not have to pay for it like for iOS and Android. Disappointing...

Add me to the "WTF" crowd. Makes as much sense as making a Flash game and not releasing it for GNU/Linux. Oo

Regarding Flash, VVVVVV wasn't on Linux until it was rewritten in C, because the flash version had some serious problems under Linux. However with Unity, there's literally no reason to say no to Linux, since there are absolutely no issues, and even if, Unity will solve them!

Ahaaaa, I didn't even know VVVVVV used to be Flash. ^^

I am chatting to the developer will put the info up tomorrow.

Great to hear that! I'll be checking back then, in hopes of more info.

Okay so as promised here is the chat between me and the developer.

Me:

How can Linux be a stretch goal when you use Unity, it does the exporting for you? Sounds like a money grab to me.

Cole:

Linux will be *part* of a stretch goal that also includes paying the team better and adding significantly more content. We want to support Linux, and plan to, but we have to be realistic. Linux is part of the very first stretch goal (not yet announced, but currently I have it budgeted at $550K).
Unity charges $1,500 per seat per target operating system for their development kit. We will need multiple Linux Unity kits to port there. We will also need to test the game on various Linux distributions such as RedHat and Ubuntu to make sure everything works properly.
Frankly, at the $400K minimum goal, the team will be in austerity mode just getting the game out. That will give us the same budget we had for Hero's Quest, a 16-color EGA game, in 1989 when Sierra paid artists $18K/year. Our team members have families, and the cost of living has increased greatly in the meantime. So it isn't just about Linux, it's about making a great game on a shoestring.

Me:

I just checked and the 1,500 charge includes Linux publishing for Unity3D so its not per operating system? So i don't get what you mean at all.
If you don't already have unity licenses then that would be covered in your initial goal would it not?

Cole:

Yes, that's correct. We are talking with some Linux experts about ways to reduce the cost. We might be able to have a single build machine with the Linux license, and have one person responsible for all Linux builds. We will still need to acquire multiple Linux systems and distributions to do testing, and pay a tester to exhaustively test each build. We'll be able to do some of that by releasing Beta versions to backers in the Linux community, but that's no substitute for professional Quality Assurance.
Other projects in the past have been slammed by Windows users for promising Linux support at the beginning. They feel (somewhat correctly) that resources will be taken away from Windows game development to port and test on Linux. Trust me, we definitely want to find a way to support Linux, but not at the cost of overall game quality.

Me:

Any machine and any single Unity3D license would support publishing to Linux so the cost of actually putting it onto Linux is what the cost of a distribution - free, unity license 1,500 covered by your initial goal and a computer which you can dual boot anyway with Windows which you would already have.
I just don't see why really it is being made out to be so expensive.
The Linux community LOVE play testing and can easily do a large part of it for you. Using Unity3D you would have nearly your whole codebase the same across Windows, Mac and Linux would you not? So i don't understand how it would take a large amount of Windows development time away.
I appreciate chatting with you like this its good to get a proper insight into what goes on with Unity and game devs.

Cole:

I admit my information was second-hand from our lead developer. When we started talking with him in April, Unity did not even support Linux. I'll talk with him this evening and see whether we can add it to the base build. Our stretch goal was to include Linux, iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. The rest of those require serious additional work on the graphics, user interface, and testing. Linux is admittedly much easier.
Clearly I will have to add Linux to my system. I used to work on unix back in the early 80's before I got into the game industry. I've had very little contact with Linux.

Me - Note - I of course know many other distros but we all know those two are the most popular.

Well for Linux Ubuntu and Fedora are the main ones to focus on. Redhat is really for workstations.
Dual booting Linux with Windows is a sinch nowadays.
In Unity Linux publishing is in the initial license but flash, android or ios re the extras.
If you need any other Linux advice give me a shout but since you are Using Unity it won't be hard.

Cole:

Sounds good, thanks for the info. I'm told that Linux is part of Unity 4 - not yet released - but not the previous versions. I'll make sure when I get my license that I get v.4 and Linux support. As soon as I've had a chance to go through this with Andrew, I'll post something to the project (probably late tonight or tomorrow).

So they will be looking to support Linux from the get go now. Luckily in this case the developer is nice enough to chat and just wasn't educated on it at all, he said it himself he hasn't used Linux.

So in future folks if you see a Linux stretch goal...try just having a simple chat with them.

Thanks for taking the time to chat to them. Good to see they were just uninformed and didn't actually intend to simply make more cash on this. Obviously, they still have to change the info on the Kickstarter page, but it seems that will be fine. Hopefully they reach their goal of 400k as it seems like a nice game.

That was... heroic? Epic? Oh well, have a Like either way. ^^

nice chat you had, although bit of a shame that you (no offence intended) need to make clear to them how it works :)

sadly, nothing has changed :(

I sent the lead another message asking what happened, not sure what to make of this, first i thought it was a cash grab, then it seemed he was just ill informed...and now nothing has been done...hmmm.

Corey Cole says:

I posted it in the FAQ: We definitely want to support Linux, and it's a question of funding. The issue is that our minimum goal is barely enough to support finishing the project in six months. If we don't make any stretch goals, we won't have time to ensure a Linux version is rock-solid. Every penny will go into completing and testing the game. Hopefully we will do better and be able to add Linux support.

What are your target platforms? Will you support Linux?

Initially we will support Windows and Macintosh. We are using the Unity engine, which works on a variety of platforms. However, there are significant costs involved in customizing and testing the game on each additional platform. As our first stretch goal, in addition to content improvements, we plan to support Linux, iPad, and selected additional iOS and Android devices.

So even though it requires no extra effort since they use Unity and I pointed that out to them in the conversation, it's still going to be a stretch goal, very dissapointing and a project i won't be contributing to.

Hero-U is now supporting Linux.

Lori and Corey Cole have finished a rather comprehensive revision of the Kickstarter page to more clearly explain the main ideas behind the game and what to expect. Not of the least, the front page now states that the game will now have a Linux version. They will announce it in the next update.

I hope some of you are still interested. They have some very ambitious goals, especially in the role-playing/story (cause and effect) part of the game.

So even though it requires no extra effort since they use Unity and I pointed that out to them in the conversation, it's still going to be a stretch goal, very dissapointing and a project i won't be contributing to.

Basically the issue was that the Coles' development partner is a hard-core Windows developer who found dealing with Mac issues to be a struggle in previous games, and found Android even worse due to all the variations in hardware, so didn't even want to think about adding another non-windows platform such as Linux. Finally they came to an agreement where Corey Cole will personally handle the Linux port and related bug-fixing, with Linux users among his backers to help out with pre-release testing. I think it is awesome that Corey cares enough about us Linux backers to handle it personally!

"I have decided to personally commit to bringing Hero-U to Linux. Originally we planned this as part of our first stretch goal, but I came up with a new plan. After Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is complete and on the way to our Windows and Mac users, I will personally port the game to Linux and - with the help of some of our passionate Linux friends - make sure the game is rock solid.

See, there's a little part of my history that 5 or 6 of you might not have heard yet. Before I was a game designer, I was a system programmer. My first job at Sierra was to translate the SCI game engine to the Atari ST and port the first four SCI games to the ST. I'll just put on my software engineer hat for this task."

It's all good news and now I project I personally support to the point of gol doing an interview :D

It's all good news and now I project I personally support to the point of gol doing an interview :D

yay the interview is up!

One more week left for Hero U to either reach its funding goal, or poof away as another failed project...

I hope more Linux gamers will jump in on Hero U in this final week and drop by the comments to mention being Linux backers... another demonstration that Indie teams adding Linux support is mutually beneficial (i.e. we are appreciative enough of bringing more good games to Linux to actually do pre-orders, so it helps them get funded)