This is a weird one, after blogging for a while about porting Banished to Linux (and Mac), the developer seems to have given up on it.
I'm sad, because it's a game I still haven't played and was really looking forward to a Linux version. I find it strange, because they previously blogged about the process and everything seemed to be going so well. They even said the game was actually running on both platforms back in February.
That's changed, since the latest blog post where they said:
This will likely be the last update of Banished, except for any major bug fixes. The OSX and Linux versions development has stopped, and won’t be released. Going forward I’ll be focusing on new games and projects.
It's possible it was just taking too much time. It's also possible that sales of this early-2014 title have dropped off, making the developer reassess what they're doing. Shame to see all their work go to waste and for us to get no game.
Hopefully Icculus, or someone else can pick up the port and finish it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
cRaZy-bisCuiT 14 Sep 2017
I'm a bit sad since the game is supposed to be fun when a few mods. The game itself has not enough content.
The problem about the port was the engine was self-written without any usage of SDL whatsoever. It's pretty hard to manage rendering, I/O and stuff without anything like SDL, especially if the code should run on at least 3 different OS.
Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 14 Sep 2017 at 1:26 am UTC
Crazy Penguin 14 Sep 2017
Played the game a bit on Windows back when it launched, and honestly, it's kind of dissapointing. Intriguing at first, but with very dissapointing end-game and very little replay value. Gets booring really fast.Exactly! Never understood the hype around that game.
Actually I expected this to happen a few years ago already. It was pretty damn clear there won't be any port since it got postponed all the time.This. I remember some dev blogs talking about all the X issues and stuff. I guess reinventing the wheel tool a lot of time. There's a reason why libs like SDL are used by many devs. It eases so much pain.
I'm a bit sad since the game is supposed to be fun when a few mods. The game itself has not enough content.
The problem about the port was the engine was self-written without any usage of SDL whatsoever. It's pretty hard to manage rendering, I/O and stuff without anything like SDL, especially if the code should run on at least 3 different OS.
leillo1975 14 Sep 2017
Removed from my wishlist... :(
Idem
I've wanted to play this for a long time, and was actually given it as a Christmas present two years ago. But alas, for me it's utterly unplayable in Wine so I guess I never will.
Sir_Diealot 15 Sep 2017
I've played it in wine and while it's OK it does not have a lot going on. You run out of buildings to build very quickly and it has a fair amount of bugs. He could have spent more time working on the actual game if he worked at a higher level. Porting would likely also be easier and quicker.
AFAIK it uses OpenGL, so the graphics side shouldn't require much effort, but pretty much everything else likely does. I'm not surprised. These kinds of projects rarely work out. Stardew Valley is a similar case, but there different and more people took on porting to various platforms and work on multiplayer. The original dev wouldn't have been able to do it in an acceptable timeframe.
NovenTheHero 15 Sep 2017
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