It seems Puppy Games the developers behind fun games like Revenge of the Titans have expressed their concern about Linux sales.
They took to twitter to say this:
LINUX GAMERS! To date we've made just **$12,000** from Linux games in total for all time for all four of our games! This will not do!
— Puppygames (@puppygames) September 8, 2014
Linux is a small, but growing market we know that, but some developers aren't in it for fun and only see the numbers. They said in another tweet that a factor of 10 would make it more attractive.
Personally I doubt any single developer has made a figure of $120,000 (factor of 10 on their lifetime Linux sales) from a Linux game alone yet, and hell the vast majority of indie games coming out probably won't make that in their entire lifetime.
They have four games and three employees to maintain, so I can understand where they are coming from, but with a market that's still small developers shouldn't expect too much from it yet.
UPDATE
@gamingonlinux just Steam over the last 2 years. We only otherwise sell through Humble these days but that's so little money it's irrelevant
— Puppygames (@puppygames) September 8, 2014
It seems they are only counting Steam, so their original tweet seems a little baiting to get a reaction and more sales. Not a bad thing to try to get more sales, but maybe they should actively engage with the Linux community like some other developers do?
Take it with a grain of salt too, as tweets are hard to get the message across and it's probably more friendly than it seems at first glance.
They aren't counting their own Humble Weekly Bundle which actually gave them revenue from Linux gamers at a mark around $14,000 (not counting charity) which is more than Steam, so they actually made a fair bit more from Linux than they have mentioned it seems.
They confirmed in a comment later it's around the $8,000 mark. That nearly doubled the figure in their original tweet.
They were in a Humble Bundle as well which they aren't counting, and to quote someone from reddit on the matter:
QuoteI'm curious what the breakdown by platforms was from them in the Humble Bundles. Based on this site HiB2 made $361214.76 from Linux users.
Assuming that all of them gave half to charity (leaving $180607.38) and split the non-charitable potion evenly 12 way between the 5 HiB2 games, the 6 HiB games that got pulled in and the tip for Wolfire, they should have gotten $15050.
I would also be interested to know how much they say they got from that Humble Bundle. I am pretty sure they used to do direct sales at one point too, so again a fair bit they don't seem to be counting.
Puppy Games have noted they aren't about to stop supporting Linux, but they see it as unprofitable:
@shadowrabbit64 @fdgonthier we've supported Linux for 11 years, not about to stop now. Just remarking that it is incredibly unprofitable
Puppygames (@puppygames) September 9, 2014
What do you make of all this? It's interesting to see.
If you want to support them consider buying their games on Steam. Looks like they could do with some more love from Linux gamers don't you think?
Galaxyfist Sep 9, 2014
Color me surprised.
Not.
These guys need to go away. Like, ASAP.
Quoting: HyeronOh, you mean ANOTHER demeaning comment from the SAME devs that complained about their customers being basically worthless pieces of s... about two weeks ago? The SAME devs that belittled and mocked Kot in Action a few years back?
Color me surprised.
Not.
These guys need to go away. Like, ASAP.
Like... whateva! :)
Did you read the blog post about customers being worthless? Because it's really not what he says. Well, he does, but he has good, extremely valid reasons for saying so (spoiler - it's true. Individually, we're worth pennies - mouthy, aggresive, self-entitled pennies at that).
And for people saying that their games are bland and worthless - that's not tue and not quite what I said. The first (on Steam anyway) was Revenge of the Titans, and it's excellent. It's just that it's been overtaken a bit by modern tower defence. The others are extremely high quality, but just not my cup of tea. The world didn't need a Space Invaders clone, for example, no matter how wonderfully colourful and slick it is.
They're great devs, with some lovely work, but the model hasn't worked for them. Fair enough. They still seem to love doing it, they've retained a (dry) sense of humour about it and they're still committed to bringing the Linux Love.
I think they should be cut some slack.
And I think they should reduce the base cost of their games. Or something. Because they don't seem to be making money right now.
Quoting: scaineLike... whateva! :)I did read it. And guess what? I tend to get mouthy, aggressive and self-entitled when the guy *I* gave money *to* gets mouthy, aggressive and self-entitled towards me. So I'm worth a penny? Good. I sincerely hope he converted ten thousand pennies like me to zilch. Now THAT I'd get a laugh out of.
Did you read the blog post about customers being worthless? Because it's really not what he says. Well, he does, but he has good, extremely valid reasons for saying so (spoiler - it's true. Individually, we're worth pennies - mouthy, aggresive, self-entitled pennies at that).
And for people saying that their games are bland and worthless - that's not tue and not quite what I said. The first (on Steam anyway) was Revenge of the Titans, and it's excellent. It's just that it's been overtaken a bit by modern tower defence. The others are extremely high quality, but just not my cup of tea. The world didn't need a Space Invaders clone, for example, no matter how wonderfully colourful and slick it is.
They're great devs, with some lovely work, but the model hasn't worked for them. Fair enough. They still seem to love doing it, they've retained a (dry) sense of humour about it and they're still committed to bringing the Linux Love.
I think they should be cut some slack.
And I think they should reduce the base cost of their games. Or something. Because they don't seem to be making money right now.
I usually try to pay my games full price (albeit on Steam as often as possible, convenience > DRM in this particular case, as far as I'm concerned - as in, if it weren't for Steam, I couldn't buy a tenth of what I do, what with me not having a credit card and being EXTREMELY wary of Paypal).
I, as an individual who took the time and money to support his game(s), may not be worth much, indeed. But that's no way to treat a goddamn customer.
I never, ever bother a dev with problems unless I have a reason to, either - as in, workarounds, early warnings on release day, sane bug reports and the like. And I keep friendly. But not with people who treat me like s...
Tell you what. Next client/colleague who comes into your office/store/whatever, tell him to sod off, he's worthless to you as an individual anyway, plus he's asking you to give him a bit of your time, the mouthy, aggressive, self-entitled donkey.
Guess what happens next?
He has no reason. No excuse. It's part of the job. I've done tech support for six years. I never, EVER complained about a customer to his face, and ONCE about a customer who was the incarnation of stupidity AND bad faith. Guess why.
Rule #1 in business?
Client. Is. King.
I hope he learns that lesson. The hard, harsh, brutal, financial way.
I hope they do stick around and keep porting like they say they will.
That blog post that came up is full of truths, we are worth bugger all to any company when we pay so little and expect so much.
Galaxyfist Sep 9, 2014
The new games releases. We are really starting to get some good
Titles by big devs for around the 10-50 dollar range. If I see nothing in the new section I often search the older titles. Now on the linux steam platform the older titles are often indie titles. Nothing wrong with that but most are 8 bit art styles and or simple game play. Again nothing wrong there. Most of these titles can be found cheap like 5 dollars or so. Then there are puppy games mixed in for 10 dollars. No bear with me here what incentive should I seek to buy your game over any other indie title priced less then your offering similar game play or graphical style....
Quoting: Hyeron<snip>
But that's no way to treat a goddamn customer.
He didn't. He (they) treated their customers as best they could. And it didn't work out for them. After the fact, this blog post explains why.
Quoting: HyeronI hope he learns that lesson. The hard, harsh, brutal, financial way.
Your hope is granted, but the lesson wasn't "client is king" or "the customer is always right". The lesson was simply that the games he loved making didn't resonate with the available markets.
He was talking plainly in that blog post and I appreciate that. He wasn't attacking us subjectively, he was laying down how the industry screwed him over very objectively. I hope he has learned from that and comes back even stronger. I just hope the next game isn't a Joust clone...
Perhaps we'll stop bothering with Linux support after all; it seems that the financials are backed up by general opinion, no?
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