Hi people. As many of you are aware, I've spent the last month or so slaving over hot research for a new article on Humble Bundle stuff.
With the recent non-cross-platform Humble Bundle promotions, now seemed like a good time to try to get a big picture view of cross-platform support across all promotions and see how everything fits together in context.
In this article, I look at platform debuts and existing cross platform titles, internal and external porting, non-cross-platform titles, and post-bundle availability.
If you've ever been interested in comparing the number of Humble Bundle Linux debuts against Mac debuts (58 vs 23), look no farther. If you've ever wanted to know who ported what, you can find that here (no surprises, icculus and urkle are responsible for porting 32 titles between them). If you've ever wanted to know how many Humble Bundle titles were ported internally (over half), that's there too.
http://cheesetalks.twolofbees.com/humbleStats3.php
Enjoy!
Note: This article is over 7,500 words long, so it's small by my standards :D
I try to steer clear of pushing my own opinions, but since almost everybody I've shown this to has asked me what I thought of the THQ bundle, there's also this. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
With the recent non-cross-platform Humble Bundle promotions, now seemed like a good time to try to get a big picture view of cross-platform support across all promotions and see how everything fits together in context.
In this article, I look at platform debuts and existing cross platform titles, internal and external porting, non-cross-platform titles, and post-bundle availability.
If you've ever been interested in comparing the number of Humble Bundle Linux debuts against Mac debuts (58 vs 23), look no farther. If you've ever wanted to know who ported what, you can find that here (no surprises, icculus and urkle are responsible for porting 32 titles between them). If you've ever wanted to know how many Humble Bundle titles were ported internally (over half), that's there too.
http://cheesetalks.twolofbees.com/humbleStats3.php
Enjoy!
Note: This article is over 7,500 words long, so it's small by my standards :D
I try to steer clear of pushing my own opinions, but since almost everybody I've shown this to has asked me what I thought of the THQ bundle, there's also this. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: "Hyeron, post: 7443, member: 223"No idea about Ronimo.
As far as GSB is concerned, to put it bluntly: cliffski doesn't give a hoot.
[URL='http://positech.co.uk/forums/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6842#p53390']Mandatory post in Positech forums.[/URL]
And you're supposed to put up with that and kindly stfu.
Well, he did supposedly help with it. But I can't say I am particularily fond of the GSB devs.
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THIS is the main reason why the THQ bundle was such a shock, because frankly things are becoming a bit of mess, so giving people less of a reason to take us seriously is really distressing. This is not to say that we have not been given a lot, but the half-hearted here are really beginning to give the committed a bad name by association. Not all of this is Humble's fault, but if they were a school there would definitely be concerns about them sending out this amount of delinquents, to coin a phrase...
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Well at least some of the titles are going to be worked on, considering HIB now has a full time Linux porter maybe they will get him to fix up older ones?
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Quoting: "liamdawe, post: 7449, member: 1"Well at least some of the titles are going to be worked on, considering HIB now has a full time Linux porter maybe they will get him to fix up older ones?
Hm, could someone shoot him an email? It'd be nice to know whether his going to fix up older ports or just the ones he said he'll work on. Either way, it will surely be better in the future because of this.
Btw., anyone have any idea what Flibit's lolno is? Or did he drop any hints about it? I'd love to know what is it since he's so secretive about it.
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Cheeseness Jan 2, 2013
I'm liking where this discussion is headed.
PCGamingWiki.com might be a decent place for keeping track of the status of Humble titles. I'd be keen to help get the word out about such a thing (and try to make sure it's noticed by the Humble Bundle guys).
Hamish makes a really important point which I hadn't pushed so strongly in my article - the recent Windows only promotions (moreso the THQ bundle than the AF promotion as that was a) very clearly distinct from other stuff, and b) selling a look at Double Fine's prototyping workflows instead of just games) can be seen to be compound with already outstanding issues.
The other side of the coin is that it's up to the developers to decide whether to look after their Mac/Linux ports or not, and it's obvious that for some devs, once they disembark the Humble money train, Mac and Linux are no longer a priority.
How much pressure/control should Humble try to exert over developers in that sort of situation? Could this be solved through better title selection? Are there ways to just make supporting ports more attractive? Are developers hearing about the problems with their ports? These are all questions that I hope the Humble Bundle guys are continually asking themselves.
The developer pretty much mentioned it on Twitter a month or so back, so if you hunt around, you could probably work it out.
Edit: It may also be worth noting that there seems to be a bit of a correlation between titles that have outstanding issues and developers who didn't respond to me whilst I was researching for the article.
PCGamingWiki.com might be a decent place for keeping track of the status of Humble titles. I'd be keen to help get the word out about such a thing (and try to make sure it's noticed by the Humble Bundle guys).
Hamish makes a really important point which I hadn't pushed so strongly in my article - the recent Windows only promotions (moreso the THQ bundle than the AF promotion as that was a) very clearly distinct from other stuff, and b) selling a look at Double Fine's prototyping workflows instead of just games) can be seen to be compound with already outstanding issues.
The other side of the coin is that it's up to the developers to decide whether to look after their Mac/Linux ports or not, and it's obvious that for some devs, once they disembark the Humble money train, Mac and Linux are no longer a priority.
How much pressure/control should Humble try to exert over developers in that sort of situation? Could this be solved through better title selection? Are there ways to just make supporting ports more attractive? Are developers hearing about the problems with their ports? These are all questions that I hope the Humble Bundle guys are continually asking themselves.
Quoting: "Anon, post: 7450"Btw., anyone have any idea what Flibit's lolno is? Or did he drop any hints about it? I'd love to know what is it since he's so secretive about it.
The developer pretty much mentioned it on Twitter a month or so back, so if you hunt around, you could probably work it out.
Edit: It may also be worth noting that there seems to be a bit of a correlation between titles that have outstanding issues and developers who didn't respond to me whilst I was researching for the article.
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Hm, seems like PCG would be a good idea for this, but what info should we exactly include there? Status of ports, dlc support?
If anyone else is up for this, great, I'm definitely going to have a go at this soon. But there's a different problem entirely first - it doesn't have page for most of those games, so we'll need to do that first as well.
Hm, I can't find it, is it on flibit's twitter or someone else's?
If anyone else is up for this, great, I'm definitely going to have a go at this soon. But there's a different problem entirely first - it doesn't have page for most of those games, so we'll need to do that first as well.
Hm, I can't find it, is it on flibit's twitter or someone else's?
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Interesting info and ideas.
Exactly the same happens on Windows when sales slow down for a title, updates slow down too. Some developers aren't selling their games out of the bundles, so their interest on updating is zero. Even the games being sold after the bundle won't make enough sales to make it count. There are a few devs really committed to their users that will make updates no matter how new sales go, but this happens on any platform, I guess.
Another issue that doesn't get much talk is localization. That's important in some countries. Even if I'd like to get some games for some people, or just hook them up I can't because the web is English-only and the lack of localization on several games.
QuoteHow much pressure/control should Humble try to exert over developers in that sort of situation? Could this be solved through better title selection? Are there ways to just make supporting ports more attractive? Are developers hearing about the problems with their ports? These are all questions that I hope the Humble Bundle guys are continually asking themselves.
Exactly the same happens on Windows when sales slow down for a title, updates slow down too. Some developers aren't selling their games out of the bundles, so their interest on updating is zero. Even the games being sold after the bundle won't make enough sales to make it count. There are a few devs really committed to their users that will make updates no matter how new sales go, but this happens on any platform, I guess.
Another issue that doesn't get much talk is localization. That's important in some countries. Even if I'd like to get some games for some people, or just hook them up I can't because the web is English-only and the lack of localization on several games.
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There's some truth to that... But OTOH
* You have to pay translators
* You can't be sure that they're good
Cost and uncertainty. I've been re-translating here and there for... well, zilch, whereas the devs had paid the original localization (and I won't go into the details or this post is going to become a dictionary of insults).
You can't say you'll find good translators working for cheap or free just by lifting the stone at your feet, unfortunately.
Then, yes, there are devs who aren't interested in that business. At all. Even if it would make perfect sense for them (see Runic).
Then there's the ridiculous kind. See Mojang for the details - where you release your next update when a moron has translated "nether" by "fluffy" in his target language. And I'm not even kidding.
* You have to pay translators
* You can't be sure that they're good
Cost and uncertainty. I've been re-translating here and there for... well, zilch, whereas the devs had paid the original localization (and I won't go into the details or this post is going to become a dictionary of insults).
You can't say you'll find good translators working for cheap or free just by lifting the stone at your feet, unfortunately.
Then, yes, there are devs who aren't interested in that business. At all. Even if it would make perfect sense for them (see Runic).
Then there's the ridiculous kind. See Mojang for the details - where you release your next update when a moron has translated "nether" by "fluffy" in his target language. And I'm not even kidding.
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Cheeseness Jan 2, 2013
Quoting: "Anon, post: 7453"If anyone else is up for this, great, I'm definitely going to have a go at this soon. But there's a different problem entirely first - it doesn't have page for most of those games, so we'll need to do that first as well.
Fantastic. I'd be keen to contribute (and cite it in future writings).
Quoting: "Anon, post: 7453"Hm, I can't find it, is it on flibit's twitter or someone else's?
flibit's tagged in it, but it was the developer who tweeted, I believe. It was also discussed elsewhere (but I can't remember now).
Quoting: "Hyeron, post: 7455, member: 223"There's some truth to that... But OTOH
* You have to pay translators
* You can't be sure that they're good
The thing is though, the Humble Bundle guys are probably in a prime position to assemble a translation team (in house, external, community driven, etc. - whatever method used, the ongoing/regular nature would help bring responsibility/accountability that could ensure decent translations) that they could offer/contract out to bundle participants. It would be pretty neat to see them raise the bar for indie games a bit by encouraging/requiring participants to have a minimum set of translations.
Waveform's translations were crowdsourced and that turned out really well by all reports.
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Can't really say about Waveform, I got it on Steam, and it looks to be English only.
That's usually the first thing I check: the French localization. And it is a very uncommon occurence that I leave it on (without going through it myself if I have the time and the game looks good enough for my daughters). Hopefully they update the game and it is a nice surprise indeed, but I certainly won't bet my life on that... You'd be surprised how people are content with crappy, verbatim translations (and how devs sometimes don't seem to give a hoot when you notify them of a sloppy job).
But I could tell you a truckload of stories. See Harvest: Massive Encounter for example. Over 10 mistakes, typos and horrors (not errors, horrors) just on the title screen.
That's usually the first thing I check: the French localization. And it is a very uncommon occurence that I leave it on (without going through it myself if I have the time and the game looks good enough for my daughters). Hopefully they update the game and it is a nice surprise indeed, but I certainly won't bet my life on that... You'd be surprised how people are content with crappy, verbatim translations (and how devs sometimes don't seem to give a hoot when you notify them of a sloppy job).
But I could tell you a truckload of stories. See Harvest: Massive Encounter for example. Over 10 mistakes, typos and horrors (not errors, horrors) just on the title screen.
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Currently working on Winter's Wake, a first person text adventure thing and its engine Icicle. Also making a little bee themed base builder called Hive Time :)
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