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Hammerwatch the hack and slash dungeon crawler has been updated for Linux & Mac mainly to provide better stability for us, hooray!

It comes in the form of a beta, you need to opt-in on Steam to try it with a beta code of "hmw-beta-121" which will give you the "beta_1.21" option to opt-into.

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Patch Notes
QuoteMisc:
Flower enemy graphics have been changed and they no longer blog the player when dead
Player progress should now be properly saved

Technical:
Game controllers should now work on Mac
Stabilized the game on Mac and Linux by replacing OpenTK with SDL2
Mac and Linux users no longer need to have Mono installed to play the game (editor still needs it though)

Editor:
Prefabs can now be spawned from scripts
Damage areas can now do 0 damage and apply buffs
Editor can now create and load prefabs via the regular Save/Load dialogs




I've personally tried it and while it has nice graphics and interesting game-play the AI is just too lacking, they seem to do nothing but aim directly for you and that's about it, although it gets tough when they start to swarm you though, I just feel the enemies are lacking somehow.

It's always good to see developers even small ones continue to support their games, don't you think? Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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9 comments

manny Jan 24, 2014
This game is like a 2d diablo, so yea the AI needs to be kinda dumb, so you can kill em in mass.

But yea maybe you should suggest something in that regards for future updates.

anyway seems mono is not that stable, that he had to get rid of it. Thanks for the extra effort!
adolson Jan 24, 2014
This game is like a 2d diablo
That's exactly what it's like, and that's exactly why I love it... Although, the original Diablo was 2D as well. I don't find it as much like Gauntlet, like some people say.

Hopefully this means it runs on SteamOS without prompting to install packages. Yes, I could add Debian repos and such, but I am only interested in keeping my SteamOS install vanilla. A game console shouldn't require things like installing packages from a terminal window.
Pit Jan 24, 2014
So this beta is Steam-only?  :(

Hope that those who bought it via other stores at least get it once it's out of beta....
Jebril Jan 24, 2014
This is one of my favorite games on Linux right now. Played it a ton.
adolson Jan 24, 2014
I can confirm that the beta branch allows the game to launch on SteamOS now. But trying to modify the control settings or gamepad keybindings at all results in a crash, and Steam hangs on a loading screen with the circle loading animation thingy.
abelthorne Jan 24, 2014
So this beta is Steam-only?  :(

Hope that those who bought it via other stores at least get it once it's out of beta....
Beta is Steam-only probably because it's easier to release. It will of course be available to other stores when out of beta.

A lot of games are Steam-only for prerelease (alphas, "early access" betas...) because it's so much simpler for a developer to handle them that way (automatic updates and such).
torham Jan 25, 2014
A lot of games are Steam-only for prerelease (alphas, "early access" betas...) because it's so much simpler for a developer to handle them that way (automatic updates and such).
Is it actually easier to do this on Steam over Desura?  It seems like Desura would handle automatic updates.  Perhaps it has more to do with more people being on Steam and only wanting to prepare a single release.
Liam Dawe Jan 25, 2014
A lot of games are Steam-only for prerelease (alphas, "early access" betas...) because it's so much simpler for a developer to handle them that way (automatic updates and such).
Is it actually easier to do this on Steam over Desura?  It seems like Desura would handle automatic updates.  Perhaps it has more to do with more people being on Steam and only wanting to prepare a single release.
Developers on Steam do it all themselves, Desura seems to need manual update approval.
abelthorne Jan 26, 2014
A lot of games are Steam-only for prerelease (alphas, "early access" betas...) because it's so much simpler for a developer to handle them that way (automatic updates and such).
Is it actually easier to do this on Steam over Desura?  It seems like Desura would handle automatic updates.  Perhaps it has more to do with more people being on Steam and only wanting to prepare a single release.

I'm not sure about Desura. I was rather thinking about Humble Store (which sell the game too) where the developer has to sent a new build to the Humble team and then the buyer has to manually install it. If there are a lot of updates in a few days, people will miss them.
I don't know if you get auto-updates on Desura (but anyway, I don't think it can manage betas in the way that Steam does) but Hammerwatch isn't on sale there, so it's not really relevant. ;)
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