Battle Royale game 'Darwin Project' looks like it might actually be coming to Linux

Oh man, I wanna play this game...

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: Patola...finally?
Anyway, 10 players isn't a small amount for a Battle-Royale type game?

If it was the same as PUBG or Fortnite, yes.

But this one seems to be far more focused on actual survival. As in, the environment itself is also your enemy.
I'd expect to see people die from environmental hazards just as often as from other players - of course, I might just be overly optimistic.

This exactly, while it is a BR game, it's quite different to what's already on offer. Not only is it a battle against players, you're battling the environment as well.

On top of that, there's also the Show Director feature, which sees one additional player act as the game master, allowing them to mess with the game in various ways.

To be honest, I think the environment factor (die from freezing etc) looks more like a chore than a valuable addendum.

I might very well be wrong in assuming so, however I really need to see some gameplay to be convinced.

Quoting: Patola

Quoting: liamdaweThis exactly, while it is a BR game, it's quite different to what's already on offer. Not only is it a battle against players, you're battling the environment as well.

If that is so, I would think that is not a good contender for "the year of battle royale on Linux", since it's so different. A better wall-breaker would be a game pretty much like PUBG or Fortnite.

Not really, because who would play that? There's only so much room for games that are exactly like PUBG or Fortnite - and now Radical Heights and Paladins Battle Royale, too.

Any competition has to make itself differ if they want to have at least a small piece of the cake.
And releasing on linux is unfortunately not going to make much of a difference in earnings for anyone on its own.

I'm certainly way more likely to play Darwin Project than any of the others.

Quoting: EikeUnder "deathmatch", I'd understand a game with respawning. IMHO, there's a lot less tension when you just get the death count one up instead of having lost the game immediately.

*edit*
http://www.gamerevolution.com/guides/380633-pubg-war-mode-access-deathmatch-respawns

AFAICR Quake II had "last man standing" checkbox in deathmatch settings (back in 1997). Can't be sure but I think Quake had it as well. It's nothing new.

Quoting: JetriNo respawns, survival aspect, weapon drops.

No respawns: last man standing = permadeath. Old thing.
Weapon drops: all games have some kind of weapon drops, spawns, pickups. Nothing new here either.
Survival aspect: maybe... is it enough to define a genre, though?

Quoting: EhvisFor me personally I associate BR with a bigger scale though. I can't really see the concept working on smaller maps with only 10 people because it doesn't really allow enough time to find you stuff before you've run into everyone.

So, it's a large scale last man standing deathmatch with survival elements... I'm not convinced. I mean all games grow because they can - technical restrictions are less and less, maps are getting bigger, servers and links can handle more and more real-time players with tolerable ping, anti-lag prediction algorithms and tricks are getting better and smarter. And survival aspects + large scale + PvP is what crafting MMOs are all about so it's not "new" per se. IDK about you but I think I got pulled by a PR mumbo jumbo and an artificial hype created around PUBG for a while and now I'm getting my senses back. Is it a successful marketing campaign? Yes. New genre? IMO not enough.

Quoting: cprnIs it a successful marketing campaign? Yes. New genre? IMO not enough.

I understand your doubts if this defines a new genre. Maybe we could call it a sub-genre of shooters?

Anyway, the most important question is: Is it fun? And I'd like to find out.

Quoting: EikeAnyway, the most important question is: Is it fun? And I'd like to find out.

That is the most important question of all.

Given that this is an Early Access title, that needs 10 players per game with a game master type person, I think they're doing quite well so far with a few hundreds players always online. If it is fun, a Linux release could boost that given that it's a kind of shooter we're not currently being served.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 17 April 2018 at 2:55 pm UTC

Quoting: EikeAnyway, the most important question is: Is it fun? And I'd like to find out.

Oh sure, with that I fully agree but I want it to be popular because it's fun, not popular because some marketing campaign says we don't have anything like it.

Quoting: liamdaweit's a kind of shooter we're not currently being served.

You see, that's the part I disagree with. If it's fun, cool as hell - I'm excited to play it too. But not because some media got caught in the hype built around a title and pumped it up saying we supposedly never had anything like it. IMO it's just not true. We have much of that gameplay already. It's barely innovative. It might be well implemented and worthwhile, I'm not saying it's bad game. I'm against repeating terms designed by PR people. Let's just wait and see if it's actually what they promised to deliver instead of saying it's new and awesome and oh-so-original before it actually gets here. Just a point of view to think about.

Quoting: cprnYou see, that's the part I disagree with. If it's fun, cool as hell - I'm excited to play it too. But not because some media got caught in the hype built around a title and pumped it up saying we supposedly never had anything like it. IMO it's just not true. We have much of that gameplay already. It's barely innovative. It might be well implemented and worthwhile, I'm not saying it's bad game. I'm against repeating terms designed by PR people. Let's just wait and see if it's actually what they promised to deliver instead of saying it's new and awesome and oh-so-original before it actually gets here. Just a point of view to think about.

Okay, I'm interested.

Link me some games that spawn you into the game from up high, that start you off with nothing and end with only one person that work natively on Linux that aren't the browser games we've already highlighted :)

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: cprnYou see, that's the part I disagree with. If it's fun, cool as hell - I'm excited to play it too. But not because some media got caught in the hype built around a title and pumped it up saying we supposedly never had anything like it. IMO it's just not true. We have much of that gameplay already. It's barely innovative. It might be well implemented and worthwhile, I'm not saying it's bad game. I'm against repeating terms designed by PR people. Let's just wait and see if it's actually what they promised to deliver instead of saying it's new and awesome and oh-so-original before it actually gets here. Just a point of view to think about.

Okay, I'm interested.

Link me some games that spawn you into the game from up high, that start you off with nothing and end with only one person that work natively on Linux that aren't the browser games we've already highlighted :)

Okay, I'm at work but I can throw some titles from the top of my head - I thought we all have them in mind TBH: Culling works on Linux, Minecraft had Hunger Games mode after the movie came out, my brother was playing Arma 3 and Ark with similar rules - these are either mods or built-in thing (don't know), isn't Rust very similar in concept (it's basically 7 days "battle royale", or however often they reset now, and I think they lately added gameplay mode with shrinking maps)?.

That's not exactly what I meant, though. What I'm trying to say this whole time is the game should speak for itself, not some artificial PR terms.