System Shock remake has blasted past the Linux stretch goal, officially coming to Linux

Hopefully they don't suddenly "forget" about Linux during the development process and end up with a massive amount of incompatible Windows-only middleware that destroys all chances of a Linux port in the end.

Hopefully they don't suddenly "forget" about Linux during the development process and end up with a massive amount of incompatible Windows-only middleware that destroys all chances of a Linux port in the end.

Fortunately, they are totally aware of this:
[In Unity, building for those platforms can be done with a click of a button, but unless we have the resources to build on those platforms on a regular basis, supporting those platforms will be incredibly difficult. ](http://steamcommunity.com/app/482400/discussions/0/351660338713339416/?ctp=7#c358417008716066949)


Last edited by Eike on 22 July 2016 at 10:34 am UTC

This will once again boost Linux usage as a gaming platform if done right! Now that the Linux stretch goal has been reached, i expect Nightdive to take the port as seriously and with dedication as the Windows one.

I won't hold my breath. It would be nice to get into this game.


Last edited by Spud13y on 22 July 2016 at 3:26 pm UTC

Title is misspelled. Should be "officially promised to Linux". *scnr* :P

Well, as they already have the Demo on Linux, they know what they are doing.
I think the PS4 announcement helped boosting the funding to reach the first stretch goal a lot sooner than without.

Good News !!!

Hopefully they don't suddenly "forget" about Linux during the development process and end up with a massive amount of incompatible Windows-only middleware that destroys all chances of a Linux port in the end.

Fortunately, they are totally aware of this:
[In Unity, building for those platforms can be done with a click of a button, but unless we have the resources to build on those platforms on a regular basis, supporting those platforms will be incredibly difficult. ](http://steamcommunity.com/app/482400/discussions/0/351660338713339416/?ctp=7#c358417008716066949)

Sigh, this again

We have no choice of course but we shouldn't just be accepting that a developer never even tests the game once on the native platform, especially when it takes only 15mins to install ( drivers all included as per Linux remit ) a side by side installation of Ubuntu for FREE.. so that's a few coffee break lengths throughout the entire year or so development to boot up and run the game a bit. It's lackluster and from a Linux gamer perspective shows a bit of desperation and requires a lot of faith on that big red button.


Im working on a game in Unity and its being developed entirely on Linux for Linux. Obviously, im not testing the game directly on Windows, just going to press the port button and leave it upto the users to report if it works once they have paid money for it

.. See how that sound's the other way round.


Last edited by on 22 July 2016 at 1:04 pm UTC

Hopefully they don't suddenly "forget" about Linux during the development process and end up with a massive amount of incompatible Windows-only middleware that destroys all chances of a Linux port in the end.

Fortunately, they are totally aware of this:
[In Unity, building for those platforms can be done with a click of a button, but unless we have the resources to build on those platforms on a regular basis, supporting those platforms will be incredibly difficult. ](http://steamcommunity.com/app/482400/discussions/0/351660338713339416/?ctp=7#c358417008716066949)

It's still possible to wind up with incompatible modules even when using a cross-platform engine. I'm thinking of Pillars of Eternity with its non-existent capes for Linux and OSX because the developers used a Windows-only plug-in for rendering capes.

Hopefully they don't suddenly "forget" about Linux during the development process and end up with a massive amount of incompatible Windows-only middleware that destroys all chances of a Linux port in the end.

Fortunately, they are totally aware of this:
[In Unity, building for those platforms can be done with a click of a button, but unless we have the resources to build on those platforms on a regular basis, supporting those platforms will be incredibly difficult. ](http://steamcommunity.com/app/482400/discussions/0/351660338713339416/?ctp=7#c358417008716066949)

Sigh, this again

<snip>

Well, the quote was clickable, and you can see when you do so that this quote was before the stretch goal for Linux support was made. In other words, he was qualifying the existence of a Linux demo before they had the resources (stretch goal) to meet the requirements to support Linux. It wasn't a disclaimer on how hard it is to test on multiple platforms, despite how it sounds.

I'm afraid that my crowdfunding days are now over, (mainly thanks to Kickstarter refusing to support PayPal/Amazon payments in the UK, but also because I've been stung a few times). However, they will definitely have my money when they launch. This is really awesome news. Now they just have to deliver.

[In Unity, building for those platforms can be done with a click of a button, but unless we have the resources to build on those platforms on a regular basis, supporting those platforms will be incredibly difficult. ](http://steamcommunity.com/app/482400/discussions/0/351660338713339416/?ctp=7#c358417008716066949)

It's still possible to wind up with incompatible modules even when using a cross-platform engine. I'm thinking of Pillars of Eternity with its non-existent capes for Linux and OSX because the developers used a Windows-only plug-in for rendering capes.

Of course. But if you're continuously building (and testing) all OS' versions, you will find such problems and are able to react immediately. That's what they are planning according to the post I linked in my understanding.

... which is also why I annot understand this reaction:

Sigh, this again

We have no choice of course but we shouldn't just be accepting that a developer never even tests the game once on the native platform, especially when it takes only 15mins to install ( drivers all included as per Linux remit ) a side by side installation of Ubuntu for FREE..

They said "We were only able to perform minimal testing on Linux for the demo". They did test themselves. The "minimal" is due to the stretch goal not yet having been reached at the time of the posting.

[In Unity, building for those platforms can be done with a click of a button, but unless we have the resources to build on those platforms on a regular basis, supporting those platforms will be incredibly difficult. ](http://steamcommunity.com/app/482400/discussions/0/351660338713339416/?ctp=7#c358417008716066949)

It's still possible to wind up with incompatible modules even when using a cross-platform engine. I'm thinking of Pillars of Eternity with its non-existent capes for Linux and OSX because the developers used a Windows-only plug-in for rendering capes.

Of course. But if you're continuously building (and testing) all OS' versions, you will find such problems and are able to react immediately. That's what they are planning according to the post I linked in my understanding.

... which is also why I annot understand this reaction:

Sigh, this again

We have no choice of course but we shouldn't just be accepting that a developer never even tests the game once on the native platform, especially when it takes only 15mins to install ( drivers all included as per Linux remit ) a side by side installation of Ubuntu for FREE..

They said "We were only able to perform minimal testing on Linux for the demo". They did test themselves. The "minimal" is due to the stretch goal not yet having been reached at the time of the posting.

Whats the difference between 'minimal' and full out of interest ? is it 'it gets to the menu' or is it a steam user confirmed it worked on a beta code, via ubuntu. Im not disputing the fact that they will launch on Linux and that's great. Its merely an observation of the trend towards using the 'big red button' to port. That's the best we have, so i get that but having spent many an hour helping devs directly test unity games ported to Linux in the early days i can tell you that none of them even had an inkling as to how to install and use a Linux desktop, it was the big ol' port button again ..

These days the big red button seems to work much, much better which is fantastic news and means we should be getting very decent Unity engine port's. But, its not down to the dev's caring for Linux in most cases as per the quote it's still just down to that it requires almost no effort.


btw i played the demo, it had no sound and it silent quit once, on my second launch but again it only had minimal testing.


Last edited by on 22 July 2016 at 1:53 pm UTC

the demo was good! I hope they manage to get it to Linux, we need games like this

Great news!

We have no choice of course but we shouldn't just be accepting that a developer never even tests the game once on the native platform, especially when it takes only 15mins to install ( drivers all included as per Linux remit ) a side by side installation of Ubuntu for FREE..

They said "We were only able to perform minimal testing on Linux for the demo". They did test themselves. The "minimal" is due to the stretch goal not yet having been reached at the time of the posting.

Whats the difference between 'minimal' and full out of interest ?

In one case, they do have a test machine, in the other, they don't.
In one case, "a developer never even tests the game once on the native platform" does describe the situation, in the other, it does not.

They were creating, testing and handing out a Linux demo before the stretch goal Linux porting was reached. We can be grateful.

i can tell you that none of them even had an inkling as to how to install and use a Linux desktop, it was the big ol' port button again ..

These do. They are able to do ("minimal" ) testing.

btw i played the demo, it had no sound and it silent quit once, on my second launch but again it only had minimal testing.

Is this from you or a quote? Either way, the demo worked very well for me. I had a single small graphical glitch, which is better than to be expected from a pre alpha in my book...


Last edited by Eike on 22 July 2016 at 4:12 pm UTC

I'm so glad I backed this. First kickstarter I backed.

I encourage everyone to try the demo. The demo even runs on Intel Skylake.
It doesn't run very _well_ on that, but it's playable, and it's not as though the postprocessing can be disabled or any such thing.

These do. They are able to do ("minimal" ) testing.

I guess im a skeptic until more devs take an active role in developing on Linux but that is very encouraging. Its great to have lots of games on Linux but im probably not the only one wanting to get as close to or even to beat windows performance in titles.

...a side by side installation of Ubuntu for FREE...

Fuck Ubuntu (or any other distro of that complexity), if they want to support all linux distributins they need to create "minimal distro" (take Arch or Gentoo and cut useless crap) and by minimal I mean SDL, X, kernel, alsa, minimal shell (dash), minimal WM, and libraries only needed to run game and already mentioned stuff; that way game will run on all distros, and wont depend on distro specific bullshit. Also if they are doing dynamic linking ship libraries with game, give us ability to use ones installed on our system and dont use steam-runtime crap which will be outdated very soon; if not link staticall, compile 32 and 64 bit versions with conservative flags and game will run on Linux for decades.

Steam client is big problem also, because it is 32 bit application and pulls bunch of "for some users useless crap" like Pulseaudio, 32bit libs; this situation is more fucked up than WOW64 on Windows, because on F/LOSS backward compatibility means nothing when you have source code and can recompile/relink software when API/ABI breaks. Audio/video libs on linux are develoepd very rapidly, Winte... Wayland is coming and steam-runtime will become complicated mess. Valve could also open source Steam client, it is very bad web browser anyway.

Thanks to everyone who backed it, now I can but it when it comes out after you all are my guinnie's :P
But seriously SS2 was incredible, if they do this right I'll be stoked.

I backed them.