Ryan "Icculus" Gordon is looking for new games to port to Linux, pay not required

I'd go with The Witcher 3 and GTA V (maybe even Red Dead Redemption, but guess that's impossible).

Save Red Dead Redemption for RPCS3 ^_^

Doom 2016 would be good if we are talking about AAA's but let's be realistic , Ryan Gordon talks about indie games for sure.

AAA port would be so hard for one man.

Yo know he's ported a heap of AAA already, right?
Doom 2016 (why the fuck didn't they call it Doom 4) with vulkan and idtech is probably the easier end of the scale.

I'm going to toss up:

Any Batman game
Any Final Fantasy Game
Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition
Deus Ex Human Revolution

I'd love to see Spiderweb Software's catalogue (particularly the Avernum remasters and the Avadon series, but ideally the whole thing) ported to Linux. Humble ported Avadon 1, but the creator hasn't shown any interest in doing the rest.

I could really enjoy a Linux port of Path of Exile.

It would be nice to help Grinding Gear Games moving to use Vulkan and SDL, and so open the path to Linux.

I would like to see "Banished" (Shining Rock Software) finished for Linux.
When I'm not totally wrong it's the work from a single developer, who never did a OpenGL port before.
He could need some help from Icculus for sure.

Especially small teams which don't have the manpower/resources to make a linux port come to my mind.
Maybe Liam could help here out with a kind of list.
He contacted so much developers to ask for a port but they sometimes refused because of the lack of manpower or OpenGL knowledge.

Legends of Grimrock 2 for example is one of that.

I'd go with The Witcher 3 and GTA V (maybe even Red Dead Redemption, but guess that's impossible).

Save Red Dead Redemption for RPCS3 ^_^

Doom 2016 would be good if we are talking about AAA's but let's be realistic , Ryan Gordon talks about indie games for sure.

AAA port would be so hard for one man.

Yo know he's ported a heap of AAA already, right?
Doom 2016 (why the fuck didn't they call it Doom 4) with vulkan and idtech is probably the easier end of the scale.

If only permission from id would be enough , then yeah. He could. But with Bethesda involved it has no chance.

Vulkan is there , you are right. But did you know that Doom 2016 uses a compability profile for Vulkan and most important ; Vulkan open source driver radv is not there yet.

So with that conclusion , it would still be a pain in the ass.

You can't play that game with Mesa Vulkan , you will Amd Gpu Pro.

On Nvidia side , you are cool. No one is using Nouveau for gaming anyway.

I would really love to see him help the guys at Harebrained Schemes to bring the port of Battletech to Linux sooner. I tried to play it with Wine and the graphics are really bad right now. I think he would do a great job helping with the port.

maybe drifting off topic but what settings did you use to get it running on wine ?

I would like to see "Banished" (Shining Rock Software) finished for Linux.
When I'm not totally wrong it's the work from a single developer, who never did a OpenGL port before.
He could need some help from Icculus for sure.

Especially small teams which don't have the manpower/resources to make a linux port come to my mind.
Maybe Liam could help here out with a kind of list.
He contacted so much developers to ask for a port but they sometimes refused because of the lack of manpower or OpenGL knowledge.

Legends of Grimrock 2 for example is one of that.

Yeah , Banished would be a reasonable choice.

I think its admirable of him to offer to help support Linux gaming without a fee.

Perhaps for big "bang for buck" if he is looking for projects could be to help Yaakuro who is also on Patreon developing the Unreal Engine and toolset for Linux. Epic is merging Yaakuro's updates into UE4, and lowering the barriers for UE4 Linux porting could be a huge win for getting Unreal Engine games on Linux.

I'd love to see Dodge That Anvil! come to Linux (I dislike linking to my own work, but I have the only Let's Play of it in existence at this point and want to show it [the game, not my work] off :)). It's a one-man indie game from 2006 that isn't even on Steam, and is both incredibly polished and lots of fun, and I think a lot of people would love it if they only knew of its existence. It runs perfectly fine in WINE, but I'd love to see a Linux version as well.


Last edited by Philadelphus on 21 August 2017 at 7:55 pm UTC

Personally, I'd like Batman: Arkham Knight to be re-considered. :)

Well, I mean if we're shooting for the stars here, I'd knock on CDPR's door with a whole big box of apology and ask/beg is there's any way they'd consider The Witcher 3 being ported to Linux by this fine fellow.

I'm not about to apologize to CDPR or VP for anything, I didn't threaten anyone and all my feedback (to VP) was respectful and meant to help fix issues. I won't presume to speak on behalf of the bad eggs.

As for games I'd like ported, Nier: Automata will always be right at the top of my list until it does get ported.

Of course you aren't responsible, neither am I. But rule 1 of management is share the praise and own the mistakes. Approach the company on behalf of all the apples in the barrel, good and bad. Ask respectfully, as you personally always have, but don't start with 'I'm not apologizing for the bad ones'. That doesn't work. Own the mistakes of the community at large, and make your request. I respect those that own mistakes, even when i know damn well they didn't make them.

hellblade it's unreal 4 engine right? idk.

I would like to see "Banished" (Shining Rock Software) finished for Linux. When I'm not totally wrong it's the work from a single developer, who never did a OpenGL port before. He could need some help from Icculus for sure.

Especially small teams which don't have the manpower/resources to make a linux port come to my mind. Maybe Liam could help here out with a kind of list. He contacted so much developers to ask for a port but they sometimes refused because of the lack of manpower or OpenGL knowledge.

Legends of Grimrock 2 for example is one of that.

This is exactly what what he/we should be looking out for! Folks who are requesting ports of modern AAA games apparently don't understand the amount of coding effort *and* QA *and* ongoing support required to do this. Some games maybe slightly easier (for example, if they use Unreal 4) but there's also numerous middleware and so on to deal with. Even worse for older AAA games that pretty much everyone has already played under Windows or Wine so not many people would buy if they were ported to Linux. Porting recent and popular smaller or indie titles are the ideal vehicle for increasing the Linux game count with "worthy" (or at least popular) games. It's much better to end up with four smaller ports in a year than one big one - more bang for the buck!

I'll be supporting Ryan on Patreon. I see that his monthly support has already gone up from ~$750 to $950 and rising!


Last edited by seamoose on 21 August 2017 at 8:08 pm UTC

This is exactly what what he/we should be looking out for! Folks who are requesting ports of modern AAA games apparently don't understand the amount of coding effort *and* QA *and* ongoing support required to do this. Some games maybe slightly easier (for example, if they use Unreal 4) but there's also numerous middleware and so on to deal with. Even worse for older AAA games that pretty much everyone has already played under Windows or Wine so not many people would buy if they were ported to Linux. Porting recent and popular smaller or indie titles are the ideal vehicle for increasing the Linux game count with "worthy" (or at least popular) games. It's much better to end up with four smaller ports in a year than one big one - more bang for the buck!

I'll be supporting Ryan on Patreon. I see that his monthly support has already gone up from ~$750 to $950 and rising!

You did absolutely hit the point!!!

I'll love to see Subnautica ported to Linux, maybe this kind of project could be a good fit for Mr Gordon.

Another fighting game would be great. He could either port Street Fighter 5 (which was supposed to come out for Linux a long time ago) or Guilty Gear Xrd Rev2 (works quite well with Wine and uses OpenGL so it shouldn't be too hard) or KOF XIV which uses SDL already.

I'd go with The Witcher 3 and GTA V (maybe even Red Dead Redemption, but guess that's impossible).

Save Red Dead Redemption for RPCS3 ^_^

Doom 2016 would be good if we are talking about AAA's but let's be realistic , Ryan Gordon talks about indie games for sure.

AAA port would be so hard for one man.

Yo know he's ported a heap of AAA already, right?
Doom 2016 (why the fuck didn't they call it Doom 4) with vulkan and idtech is probably the easier end of the scale.

If only permission from id would be enough , then yeah. He could. But with Bethesda involved it has no chance.

Vulkan is there , you are right. But did you know that Doom 2016 uses a compability profile for Vulkan and most important ; Vulkan open source driver radv is not there yet.

So with that conclusion , it would still be a pain in the ass.

You can't play that game with Mesa Vulkan , you will Amd Gpu Pro.

On Nvidia side , you are cool. No one is using Nouveau for gaming anyway.

I was going to say you're preaching to the choir... But actually, this must be what mansplaining feels like to women.

If he could just do a port of the Blizzard Engine... and convince them to support it :-).

Something off topic but interesting...

Icculus did ports for Activition and EA. Read here > Icculus homepage.
Some Call of Duty series "Server" and Medal of Honor series "Server" for Linux. But he was not contracted to do the Client ports.

No wonder! Windows would not be able to work out the load compared to Linux:D
As always... Linux makes the job but is not allowed/worth it to play:(


Last edited by johndoe on 21 August 2017 at 9:22 pm UTC