Steam Now Has Over 700 Linux Games, What A Milestone!

Going to be honest and say most indie games are garbage and that most of those 700 games qualify as indie games. Of course I may only be saying this because an indie developer I invested in let their game become abandonware before it reached a completed state. Remember Legends of Aetherus? Bought it for the beta access, played it a while earnestly and reported several bugs. Decided to take a break and when I come to see how it's progressed I find that the developers haven't issued a single patch in nearly a year and there's radio silence on their forums and Steam pages. It's a shame because it was a decent game even in that incomplete state but could have been much much better.

Anyway, my currently played Linux games: Strife, Team Fortress 2

Games I wish were/will be on Linux but sadly aren't/never will be: Guild Wars 2, ArcheAge, Rift, Everquest Next, Planetside 2, Firefall, Defiance, Ghost Recon Phantoms.

Yeah, some of those I can get to barely run in Wine... but it's a much worse experience than using a Windows installation on the same equipment. My system only counts as mid-range and so any of the above games listed I have to play on absolutely minimum settings in Wine.

We're making progress but please don't kid yourselves into thinking we've even yet to make our way to a state of linux gaming where "gamers" would be happy with the selection.

Very much looking forward to Borderlands: The Pre-sequel though.

Quoting: MadeanaccounttocommentGoing to be honest and say most indie games are garbage and that most of those 700 games qualify as indie games. Of course I may only be saying this because an indie developer I invested in let their game become abandonware before it reached a completed state. Remember Legends of Aetherus?

It seems you're mixing up two things that don't belong together: Early access and indie. In early days of Steam for Linux, when there where very few games, I buyed my first indie games - never did so before on Windows - and was quite surprised of what they could do to me.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Antichamber absorbed me, I've spent more than 200 hours with Frozen Synapse, Gone Home is a great experience IMHO, The Journey Down is beautiful and lovely, The Swapper is atmospheric with tough puzzles, Thomas Was Alone makes you feel with colored squares, Bastion has the flow. Or how about Braid, FTL, Limbo, FEZ, Don't Starve, ...?

Hard to say if most indie games are garbage, as I didn't try out most, but surely indie neither means bad nor unfinished.

Quoting: gbudny

Quoting: AsavarTzethI know English is not the easiest language to everyone. But could people please learn how to use paragraphs and also try to follow common good practices when writing comments, such as proof reading and trying to keep it short (as much info in as little text as possible).

I'm a non-native English speaker, but I try to treat these types of remarks seriously. I made some small changes in my previous comment.

I have to admit that sometimes I can't stand opinions that are formulated in a very critical way about games for Linux.

Nice! I am actually Swedish myself, so I too am non-native if that further encourages you.

Yes, I agree with some that some of the things I stand for (such as this) is an endless battle, that cannot be won. I also agree that it takes more energy than it may be worth. But I will not give in.

If I would simply give up, why would I remain a Linux pusher? Why, is that not just as hard? Why would I insist on educating people about Linux, yet value other knowledge less? I would say, that would make me a hypocrite.

Also, a personal reason I involve myself is because speaking/writing to strangers is a personal difficulty of mine (of the psychological nature). Here I feel welcome, and I am thankful for that.


Regarding Indie games being crap. This is obviously not true. But it is a simple fact that when the tools of today allow almost anyone to create a game and Steam makes it easier to get in, most of those games will be bad, or indeed maybe even "garbage".

Instead of going further into that topic I will end it with the simplest argument. The exact same thing applies to Steam for Windows, if not more so. Linux at least demands you think outside the box, sometimes providing some quality control.

There are some downright awful games on Steam but when you look closely at them you find that most are bad ports of Windows games that weren't up to much to begin with.

Quoting: lucifertdarkThere are some downright awful games on Steam but when you look closely at them you find that most are bad ports of Windows games that weren't up to much to begin with.

My point exactly. Well said.

Quoting: gbudnyYou're just typical user of Windows, who installed Linux, and you probably didn't have a chance to play in games for Linux for the longer period of the time.

Yeah, Im on Gentoo for 10+ years (before that couple years on Slackware which was my first distribution) and I game on Windows more than that, also in my teenage years I played competitive 1.6, CSS AA and some others. I can feel in couple of seconds if mouse pointer is accelerated or when vertical & horizontal speed is not same (most unity3d games have weird mouse feeling). I have 500+ games on steam and most of them are AAA I finished 90% of them so i can compare Linux vs Windows version and all I can say is that they all run better or look better on Windows, even if they run better on Linux it is because they are using no-middleware-OGL3~DX9 on Linux and yes-middleware-OGL4~DX11 on Windows. Also all games on Linux use more RAM then on Windows. Bunch of middle-ware software is striped from Linux versions because there is no Linux version of them.

Root problem for games on Linux is that they are made by not using portable tools and Linux will not be gaming platform until developers start to use portable technology (ATM UE4 is ONLY solution to that problem). If you traitors are happy with ports made with ducktape&WD40 that is fine, whatever floats you boat; but that is not a road to "Linux as a gaming platform".

Quoting: a4360825...
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traitors
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You might have some point. But I wont care about it as long as you're trolling around and don't get to it. Show numbers instead of assertions. Be specific instead of nonsensically generalizing. "All xy are" is a wrong statement in most of the cases.

Ciao,
Eike ( > 15 years of Linux)

Quoting: seven

Quoting: a4360825Please stop circle-jerking!!! There is cca. 15-20 good quality ports

i suggest u give us a list with games have troubles with
personaly, i think you are doing it wrong

And yet it moves (it doesnt work at all)
anodyne (it doesnt work at all)
Limbo (sometimes it stop working)
Little Racers STREET (it doesnt work at all, the dev even told me than he was not going to help me to fix it because he was a Linux noob, maybe someone in the comunity)
Goat simulator (it doesnt work at all, I guess it should work with the last update, havent tried yet)
Half-life 3 (not released yet)

But the others games works great.

Quoting: edo

Quoting: seven

Quoting: a4360825Please stop circle-jerking!!! There is cca. 15-20 good quality ports

i suggest u give us a list with games have troubles with
personaly, i think you are doing it wrong

Half-life 3 (not released yet)

Okay, now you're asking for the moon. :D

But there are wonderful games out there for Linux, and more coming all the time. Like Escape Goat 2, Wakfu, Secrets of Rætikon, Shadowrun Returns, Strata, Mark of the Ninja and Kentucky Route Zero (despite the weird mouse freezes).

Also great games in development and on the way, like Banished, Crea, Maia, Civ V, and a lot more.

It more than makes up in my mind for the ones with problems (Horde, Type:Ryder) or downright suck (Woodle Tree Adventures).

i have 224 Linux games in my library with 95% of them installed.
and i'd say 90% of them work perfectly fine - yes some unity3d games have some framerate and mouse issues but those are not so common anymore as 1-2 years ago