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We announced back in February that the developers of Republique were working on a Linux port, but needed some middleware to add Linux support. However it seems like this never happened, and the efforts to bring the game to Linux have been abandoned.
This very promising looking stealth game has an interesting aesthetic and dystopian vibe to it, along with voice acting from the likes of David Hayter so it had me pretty excited. Unfortunately though, according to the developers the port no longer seems feasible:
This is pretty disappointing to say the least, even more so given that the developers themselves seemed pretty enthusiastic. It also goes to show that just because a game is built using Unity 5, porting to Linux is not always as simple as clicking a button.
Criware itself is a Japanese company, and knowing the disdain found for Linux among the Japanese games industry, it hardly seems surprising that the company hasn’t added Linux support to its middleware, and given that the developers seem to have cancelled the port altogether, it doesn’t seem like the company ever will.
I guess all we can do as Linux gamers is try and promote a culture of cross-platform development so this kind of thing doesn’t happen as often in the future. If developers begin their games with the intention of publishing across multiple platforms, using multi-platform tools then the porting process is ultimately easier and cheaper in the long run, and an increased demand for multi-platform support will also push companies like Criware to think about Linux. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
This very promising looking stealth game has an interesting aesthetic and dystopian vibe to it, along with voice acting from the likes of David Hayter so it had me pretty excited. Unfortunately though, according to the developers the port no longer seems feasible:
QuoteUnfortunately, after some recent research, we've determined this can't be done. Republique utilizes several brands of middleware that are incompatible with Linux/SteamOS, including Criware.
This is pretty disappointing to say the least, even more so given that the developers themselves seemed pretty enthusiastic. It also goes to show that just because a game is built using Unity 5, porting to Linux is not always as simple as clicking a button.
Criware itself is a Japanese company, and knowing the disdain found for Linux among the Japanese games industry, it hardly seems surprising that the company hasn’t added Linux support to its middleware, and given that the developers seem to have cancelled the port altogether, it doesn’t seem like the company ever will.
I guess all we can do as Linux gamers is try and promote a culture of cross-platform development so this kind of thing doesn’t happen as often in the future. If developers begin their games with the intention of publishing across multiple platforms, using multi-platform tools then the porting process is ultimately easier and cheaper in the long run, and an increased demand for multi-platform support will also push companies like Criware to think about Linux. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Last edited by s8as8a on 24 December 2015 at 9:41 pm UTC
There's always lots of options and it's always possible to port something if enough work is put in. The problem is in this case since there is a lot of middleware, it probably doesn't make economic sense for a small studio to embark on somehting which is quite complicated - especially in this case the signs show that the developers have no Linux porting experience.
I have no idea what the costs are for using something like eON, but I assume VP would take a healthy chunk of the profits, which might make it not worthwhile.
Is that a thing? Mighty No. 9 is on Linux and the Japanese seem to always get wet over anything american - there's nothing more american than Steam Machines which were created in Central California, USA - Also - there are a lot of Japanese in California so I'm pulling my dafuq Jackie Chan face right now in true curiosity.
As for Republique not havnig a Linux version I'll say it again. Bad Programmers always will say something is "impossible" when it's simply too hard or inconvenient.
Good programmers would have employed Object Oriented Programming and abstracted dependencies on Middle-ware into a Interface Object - they do this with MySQL access in PHP all the time to add comparability with other databases.
But when your code is dank spaghetti that was fandangled by the free Intern and has no OOP yeah I could see how it would be hard. Of course management is always hounding "Get it done Faster" and sometimes making software decisions that they have no business making "Use ZYX Plugin because I read on a blog that it has X feature" and the seasoned coders are like "uhhh...... but....." then because the whole thing is rushed it never is baked right and at the end it's a heap of spaghetti because it was never done right to begin with.
Central California? Has Valve moved out of Washington?
Also, is Capcom still Japanese?
Last edited by Shmerl on 25 December 2015 at 6:10 am UTC
It's a shame the game wont have a Linux release. At least until CriWare provides a linux build. Hopefully the developers will learn from these mistakes in their next game. :)
Japan in general likes to stick to old things/tech/methods and that means software that was first introduced to them has them spoiled. We see this in many bad programming practices and overprotective nonsense when it comes to propietary technologies they cling to. Ownership had made them into obsessed old fogies. That is "most" of Japan, sadly.
You have to thoroughly study their culture and perhaps live there to understand the mentality. I like a lot of things that come out of Japan, but I'm not going to defend this as untrue.
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Unfortunate for the developers and unfortunate for us. No game, no money. Hope one day they will stop using shit middleware from Japan and other proprietary restrictive methods. Capcom seems to get this at least.
Last edited by Keizgon on 25 December 2015 at 9:32 am UTC
Yup. I stick to my statement. You've summed it up in a nutshell. I mean, if you want to take it further you can also say there's a disdain towards PC gaming as opposed to console gaming, so Linux is already pretty far down the pecking order as it is.
Japan is one of the few countries on earth where the majority of the population still use Internet Explorer. Fun fact.
I saw a recent news article about the massive use of cassette tapes, fax machines and other old tech still prevalent in many Japanese companies big and small. Always seems strange that a country so advanced in technology and with such a glut of products sold around the world seems to struggle with accepting new tech internally and always seems to be reporting shaky economic circumstances. Hope to visit one day and find out for myself.
The thing I was referring to was stat counter:
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From June 2015. Apparently. South Korea is the only other country, which is also pretty odd.
Last edited by Segata Sanshiro on 26 December 2015 at 9:41 pm UTC
To me as a software developer, this translates to "We have no idea what we're doing!"
Why not announce the game for Super Nintendo and later say "the system wasn't compatible".
The knowledge was there from day 1. It makes me sad, when people do not think.