Thanks to me getting in touch with the Starbound developers, it seems a Valve rep has taken to reddit to explain what's going on with games having their SteamOS icon removed.
You can see the conversation here, but for those who cannot access reddit it is copied below.
When asked about the SteamOS icon for Starbound on reddit, a Starbound developer said this:
Thankfully, a Valve rep has replied to it directly with this:
This makes the situation much more clear, and should help both desktop Linux and SteamOS look better for everyone to play games.
The icing on the cake here for me in particular:
Glad to see a Valve rep in the wild, and helping with developers and users concerns. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
You can see the conversation here, but for those who cannot access reddit it is copied below.
When asked about the SteamOS icon for Starbound on reddit, a Starbound developer said this:
QuoteTo my knowledge we've not yet had official communication with Valve about this, we've e-mailed them asking wtf, but we haven't gotten a response and probably won't until at least Monday. This is our best guess to the problem. Who knows, it might be the launcher. I just can't say it's necessarily the launcher yet.
Thankfully, a Valve rep has replied to it directly with this:
QuoteWe've been removing the store bit from games that cannot run against just the Steam Runtime, without additional dependencies on the host system. Games that fail this are impossible to support reliably across multiple distributions, and will not be publicly advertised on the Store as supporting Linux going forward.
All concerned games are still purchasable, installable and playable on Linux.
To my knowledge all developers have been made aware as we were doing this, let's chat on Monday.
This makes the situation much more clear, and should help both desktop Linux and SteamOS look better for everyone to play games.
The icing on the cake here for me in particular:
QuoteThanks for the clarification on exactly what is going on. Do you have a VM image or other test environment that we can use to determine if our game passes muster? (Also, Valve employee in the wild, how awesome is that?)
"To my knowledge all developers have been made aware as we were doing this, let's chat on Monday."
We found out due to someone from GamingOnLinux contacting our community manager about it. It kind of took us all by surprise. Though it is possible you contacted us at some point and we may have simply missed it?
Glad to see a Valve rep in the wild, and helping with developers and users concerns. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Ya, well, for me it doesn't really matter, I always get rid of all steamlibs, it's just... well, doesn't matter, really. As said, there is a multitude of solutions, if that works for the majority, so be it.
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Mountain Man Oct 19, 2015
Valve's explanation actually seems rather reasonable. If they're selling a Linux game through Steam then they want to ensure that it will work on any version of Linux that's running Steam, which means linking against the Steam libraries. I don't have a problem with that.
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Quoting: Mountain ManValve's explanation actually seems rather reasonable. If they're selling a Linux game through Steam then they want to ensure that it will work on any version of Linux that's running Steam, which means linking against the Steam libraries. I don't have a problem with that.
So any java game that runs on linux is not going to work then... *sighs* doesn't only hit java though.
(inb4 argument for/against java)
No jme-games on steam anymore :(
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Quoting: MaelraneQuoting: Mountain ManValve's explanation actually seems rather reasonable. If they're selling a Linux game through Steam then they want to ensure that it will work on any version of Linux that's running Steam, which means linking against the Steam libraries. I don't have a problem with that.
So any java game that runs on linux is not going to work then... *sighs* doesn't only hit java though.
(inb4 argument for/against java)
No jme-games on steam anymore :(
Well I won't miss them :D. But if we talk seriously then as I read this thread then
a) you will need to get licence permission from Orcle to use they're java and bundle it with game (it sounds pain in the ass and quite expensive)
b) you can use OpenJDK and bundle it with game (I hope not to big licencing issues)
c) valve gets java licence from Oracle and puts it in they're allowed libs (android runs on java so it should be theoretically possible for valve to do it right)
Last edited by Imants on 19 October 2015 at 1:23 pm UTC
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Quoting: MaelraneSo any java game that runs on linux is not going to work then... *sighs* doesn't only hit java though.No. The game just needs to bundle any external dependencies. Many games bundle a local Java runtime on Windows and Mac (apparently). This should work on Linux as well. This is also perfectly legal as long as any relevant EULAs and licenses are properly displayed. Not ideal but that's third party runtimes for you. It's a hassle no matter the platform.
(inb4 argument for/against java)
No jme-games on steam anymore :(
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: ImantsWell I won't miss them :D. But if we talk seriously then as I read this thread then
a) you will need to get licence permission from Orcle to use they're java and bundle it with game (it sounds pain in the ass and quite expensive)
b) you can use OpenJDK and bundle it with game (I hope not to big licencing issues)
c) valve gets java licence from Oracle and puts it in they're allowed libs (android runs on java so it should be theoretically possible for valve to do it right)
Once again, openJDK is the base for all (desktop) java versions nowadays. I see no reason why one would need proprietary software if there is free, open-sourced software to do the task.
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Quoting: tuubiQuoting: MaelraneSo any java game that runs on linux is not going to work then... *sighs* doesn't only hit java though.No. The game just needs to bundle any external dependencies. Many games bundle a local Java runtime on Windows and Mac (apparently). This should work on Linux as well. This is also perfectly legal as long as any relevant EULAs and licenses are properly displayed. Not ideal but that's third party runtimes for you. It's a hassle no matter the platform.
(inb4 argument for/against java)
No jme-games on steam anymore :(
And does said game get a Linux-icon then? :)
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Quoting: Ser Eduardo MogambroAnd does said game get a Linux-icon then? :)It should, as long as it runs out of the box. AFAIK Valve hasn't actually announced that Java games won't be accepted on SteamOS, just that games should not have external dependencies not included in the Steam Runtime. I assume this does not exclude software or libraries bundled with the game.
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