So we now have Precinct up on Kickstarter, this is from the original creator of Police Quest and it promises to be a good one, that's unless you're on Linux, we clear up why it's not so bad though after a first look.
Linux is a $200,000 Stretch Goal, let me give you a moment....got your breath back? Confusing I know as they are using Unity3D which has a Linux export option! Thankfully we are here as always to try to walk through the smoke and mirrors and find out why. We are ahead of consoles at least.
I had a chat with Precinct Executive Producer, Robert Lindsley
QuoteHello, It's Liam from www.GamingOnLinux.com I am wondering why Linux is set at a 200k Stretch Goal if you wouldn't mind filling us in for a moment before the net explodes about your project.
This article by Cheeseness is a good one for Stretch Goals and Linux support: http://cheesetalks.twolofbees.com/linuxStretchGoals.php
To which Robert first replied with
QuoteHi Liam,
It's great to meet you. My name is Robert Lindsley. I personally run Linux myself (Linux Mint "Olivia") and I am a HUGE fan!
We built the stretch goals the way we did in order of what we thought people would be most passionate about. We believe that providing hours of additional content for the PC/Mac platforms as well as more detail in the art would resonate more than Linux support.
Plus, getting anything running on a new platform takes work as well so we had to account for that as well.
That said, we are absolutely committed to Linux, and if we can hit our stretch goal we are going to provide an amazing experience for that platform!
Also thanks for sending the link. It's good to know that a lot of momentum is building on Linux for gaming -- as I said, I run "Olivia" myself so every new game that comes out on it is exciting.
Thanks,
Robert.
Didn't really give us the info, so I talked on...
QuoteHi Robert thanks for touching base with me!
You say you are absolutely commited to Linux, so will it be done without a stretch goal, is the stretch goal more of a "same day release for Linux" type of goal? Or is it that you actually won't do Linux unless you hit that goal?
I understand you use Unity3D as well, that has a Linux export option which is supposed to work the same for Linux as it does Mac and Windows, what extra work would you have to do for Linux?
Robert again responds...
QuoteHi Liam,
If we hit the stretch goal, the game will release on the same day as the other SKUs. Otherwise we may simply not have the funds to do the work.
Without getting into technical details, it's not as simple as hitting 'save-as.' Even though Unity3D makes it much easier for your project to run on Linux, there are always problems and hiccups that require engineering, testing and art time.
Thanks!
Robert.
So at least if it's hit, it will be a same day release, that's decent, so we are getting there!
QuoteHi again Robert sorry to talk you ear off with stuff.
The problem is the Linux folk tend to dislike being in a stretch goal and it's usually for a good reason (I hope that article I linked to helped).
The big problem I see here is if you just say "technical details" towards Linux as to why it's in a 200 thousand dollar stretch goal when it's using a multiplatform exporter it doesn't look too good unless you explain why, does that make sense?
Can you give me any info at all as to why, as yet you haven't explained any reason behind it other than "Without getting into technical details, it's not as simple as hitting 'save-as.' Even though Unity3D makes it much easier for your project to run on Linux, there are always problems and hiccups that require engineering, testing and art time.".
Now we get the response we needed:
QuoteHi Liam,
No worries -- happy to chat.
When we were building our stretch goals, we tried to prioritize what fans wanted and build those items into the stretch goals. We simply can't do everything for everybody at the $500K level.
With that, we decided that we first wanted to build out our content. Giving people more content and gameplay we felt was priority number one. From there we decided to look at other platforms, which is why Linux is in the second stretch goal.
If we hit our goals we're going to want to dedicate an engineer, a tester and an art person to Linux. This will make sure we don't have any configuration issues, and that the game looks and runs smoothly on the platforms. The worst place we can be is releasing a product that isn't functional or doesn't look or play well, regardless of the platform.
Thanks,
Robert.
Linux would get 3 dedicated members on it, an engineer, a tester and an art person.
Robert has said he will update the page to make this clearer as currently it's as clear as mud!
Now onto the Kickstarter...
About the game
Precinct takes players on a police adventure as officer Maxwell Jones in the corrupt town of Fraser Canyon, CA. Starting out as a rookie and then moving up the ranks, players face adrenaline charged scenarios and conduct real police procedures while solving crimes and arresting perpetrators.
Sounds like it could be pretty awesome, will you be backing this one?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Stretch Goals should be done away with. Replaced by a Poll for Kickstarter backers as to what to add next AFTER the games release.
The new Spaceventure demo level is built on Unity, and is running just fine on linux. Dev said so far they didn't need to do much beyond selecting the build output. LoA team had to do more work, but like I mentioned they were releasing betas when Unity 4 was still quite new.
On the stretch goal topic, I agree that Linux stretch goals are normally problematic, as explained in Cheeseness' fine article. However leaving all the extra funds open to a backer poll would not inspire me to pledge above the base goal; I keep getting voted against on all the Worlds of Magic polls :P
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