Some slight bad news here, as the developers of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem [Steam, Official Site] (previously Umbra) have said the game will not be on Linux during alpha or beta, but at least it's not cancelled.
Direct Link
Here's what they said in a Kickstarter update:
Wolcen has proven to be a very challenging game to make and maintain, and we’re all highly motivated to lead it to its release and even more. Despite that passion, we’re facing the real problem of time required by all the corrections and additions we must make to make this game great. Knowing that, having a second version of the game for created content as well as maintenance would present a very high difficulty with our current staff, specially without penalizing the PC version itself. As much as we would like to provide the Alpha and Beta version to Linux users, we must face the fact that this will be more time consuming than productive for the game. Therefore we have decided that the Alpha and Beta version will not be implemented on Linux.
I'm not personally fussed about in-development versions, as long as the end result does come to Linux as promised. However, if they don't get sufficient testing done, the Linux version will likely suffer from numerous issues. I get that testing and supporting more platforms while a game isn't finished can be time consuming, but not getting proper testing done has many times caused a lot of issues.
I do hope any Linux gamers who pledged for access to in-development versions are able to get some money refunded.
Thanks for the tip Cyril!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Still, I really hate announcements like this since there have been so many examples of the linux version being delayed for an extreme amount of time and in some cases even outright cancelled.
This happens when the developers decide that they first need to release the windows version, then focus on patching for several months, then decide that DLC should come before linux version, then decide that too much time has passed and the game did not sell enough to justify making the linux version...
cRaZy-bisCuiT Jan 25, 2018
Unfortunately I did beg the game... if they deliver in the end, I'm totally finde if this is in an appropriate time frame.
EDIT: It looks amazing! Hopefully it will be fun to play and released on Linux!
Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 25 January 2018 at 12:17 pm UTC
I cringe imagining how the children will immediately begin throwing tantrums at the bugs inevitable with a post-alpha/beta release, though. *Shudder*
I have no stake in this game as I haven't backed it(thankfully) so take my opinion as you'd like.
wintermute Jan 25, 2018
Quoting: GuestI hope they at least are making internal builds to test as they go.
I don't think so, the way they talk in the updates implies they actually have no clue what it takes to write cross platform code. I fully expect to discover they've used some middleware that doesn't work on Linux.
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTDid they ever say there'll be an alpha or beta? I'm pretty sure they mentioned in the past already that there'll only be a Linux version AFTER release
It was sort of implied by the title of the Kickstarter project, two platforms on an equal footing. It was only long after they'd taken the money they announced there would be no Linux alpha or beta.
As for the game itself, I keep forgetting that it exists although it originally caught my attention on Kickstarter. I decided not to back because they didn't have enough content to show at the time, I think. The eye candy is nice, but I'll wait for reviews, if and when they get it on Linux.
It's always really sad when the first I hear of a project I'd definitely buy is a GOL article noting that it's on rocky ground to come to Linux.
I'll wishlist it along with Prey, Vermintide 2 and PUBG, but with about as hope as it will arrive...
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