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?
Cheeseness Sep 11, 2014
Cheeseness Sep 11, 2014
Client support for GNU/Linux isn't special or difficult, most distributions already have Java and installing it independently is no different than Windows or Mac. Training the support staff shouldn't that difficult.
If that's not profitable, no problem, stop porting(???) your games, that would be more wise than blaming us.
Cheeseness Sep 12, 2014
Quoting: berarmaJava is multi-platform, maybe you need to adjust some launcher script and make an installer, these are simple things. Something might break in a system that doesn't break in another, but Mac and GNU/Linux are very alike, and these problems need to be solved just once for all games.
Actually, Java on Mac OS is a nightmare. It's a very different situation to Linux. It's very likely that there's some LWJGL development included in what's been discussed as well, which has some native platform specific stuff.
Quoting: berarmaIf that's not profitable, no problem, stop porting(???) your games, that would be more wise than blaming us.
Hey now, the point that Cas is trying to make here is that he's not blaming us. He's trying to understand/comment on the shape and size of the market.
I did just go back and reread my posts to see if (in anger) I said anything I wanted to apologize for. There isn't, I stand by what I've said. I never attacked any of their games because I have never played them, only saying what I had extrapolated from my (short) research into puppy games and the claims of the initial tweet. As for @princec, sorry bud, even if I "get" you a bit better now, I still think you either need not be "the voice" of puppy games or at least try to think a bit more of the weight of the words you use and how they will appear to those on the outside looking in(ie. The ones like myself and obviously others who just don't/didn't understand your "style" ). I like a lot of the comments coming from @Cheeseness and @liamdawe (and others too), we all seem to be mostly on the same page though they may be a little more tactful than myself.
You called yourself a linux user, and obviously you love games. If that is true, you are in the same boat as the rest of us when it comes to wanting to use our OS of choice to play the games we want to play, even if you don't get to "play" as much because you are creating. Things are getting better for us all, even if it is moving really slowly. Please be a voice FOR it and try not to paint such a bleak picture of it.
@berarma - you maybe don't make commercial B2C software for a living... nothing is ever as simple as it looks on the outside. Especially if you've never done it before. I expect you've been hacking away on Linux for a long time.
We never did it for the profit or we'd never have even started. Remember LWJGL. The sentiment is less relevant to us than it is the other few hundred game devs who support Linux. Without the profits a good % of them will probably have to give up... however I reckon Steambox is the great saviour. It's certainly taking its time appearing though.
Cheeseness Sep 12, 2014
Quoting: EKRboiPlease be a voice FOR it and try not to paint such a bleak picture of it.
There's definitely danger in portraying an unrealistic situation though. If some developer has been told that everything is wonderful and they'll be rich in minutes by supporting Linux, they're going to be disappointed. False expectations aren't good for anybody (users or developers).
There's good discussion to be had about the realities involved, though I don't personally believe that the situation in general is quite as bad as Cas' experiences have lead him to believe.
I don't believe that Steam Machines will really change the shape of the market for the majority of games. People who would be using them for desktop-like games are already doing that with their own computers. The really interesting impact IMO will be in bringing console-like games to the desktop. That's exciting :D
SteamOS itself might improve things and encourage better vendor support/drivers, which will make for better user experiences all round, but I don't think it'll dramatically impact on the growth we're already seeing.
It's titles more than platforms that will be making people feel comfortable shifting (the number of people who hassle me a week telling me that they'll switch to Linux when CS:GO arrives, for example, is enough to feel like it gets in the way of my productivity). Steam Machines may definitely help bring some notable titles to Linux, and we're already seeing developers disappointingly decide to hold off, completely oblivious to the opportunity they have to iron out Linux/SteamOS kinks before Steam Machines hit the market place.
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