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PayPalJonathan Blow, developer of the hit game Braid has mentioned during one of his coding videos if he will bring 'The Witness' to Linux or not. The answer isn't too great right now, but the future is brighter.
Skip to around 1hr, 41 minutes, 30 seconds
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I've written up his comments to save people time, it’s worth noting he says it’s mostly the same for Mac:
QuoteWe may do Linux, nobody actually buys games on Linux right now, Linux people will tell you that they do, but it's a very very small percentage of game sales, it's a nice thing to do just to support the operating system and stuff, but if it's a hard enough port it's really hard to justify.
The more complicated the game is, the more expensive it is to port, so you could end up losing like $100,000 porting a game to Linux easily. We just have to look at it and see. If we get Vulkan running, and if Linux gets decent Vulkan drivers it will make it a lot easier.
We have relatively complicated shaders and trying to do those in GL in Linux, trying to get those to work consistently would be a nightmare.
I do get where he’s coming from, as if you’re not developing with portability and Linux in mind right from the start, then of course porting is going to cost genuine time and money. Then the added ongoing support cost on top of that needs to be taken into account too.
The comment about game sales wasn't worded in the best way as we do buy games, but our numbers are smaller, so he is right. After doing our sales articles we all know we aren't putting a ton of money in developers pockets.
It’s another reason to begin the Vulkan waiting game, so let’s hope Intel, AMD and Nvidia don’t let us down with their drivers. It’s also another reason to hope that Steam Machines will help push our numbers somewhat.
For those who haven't heard much about The Witness (like me), it seems to be an exploration/puzzle get set on an abandoned island, and I’ve included a trailer below:
Direct Link
I really do hope we can increase our numbers, so developers like Jonathan can support us more. Developers need financial security too, so let’s keep buying those native games. Until then, we do have Aspyr Media and Feral Interactive who take away some of developers worries about porting, and I'm thankful they exist right now.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
ThePartisan Apr 22, 2015
Quoting: sgtGarciaAt least Jonathan is honest, no false promises - I like this.
Indeed, and that's respectable.
Edited after i had some time to think about it.
I take it from comments like that that he had nothing to do with the Braid port then?
Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: sgtGarciaAt least Jonathan is honest, no false promises - I like this.
Indeed, and that's respectable.
I fully agree!
Also, I do like your objective conclusion.
Avehicle7887 Apr 22, 2015
I think if the big companies start supporting Linux, the user base would grow bigger. Jonathan's view seems honest enough , as he didn't simply shove Linux off the way. I hope Vulkan will be good, it might just be the push Linux needs.
Segata Sanshiro Apr 23, 2015
While I don't personally like the guy for the viewpoints he espouses (I find them insufferable and pretentious), I can objectively say that his lack of interest in Linux has never been able to elicit anything other than a mighty yawn from me. Stars will not collapse, nor will galaxies explode if he never makes another game for us (ditto for Team Meat, by the way).
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