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How do you like your eggs in the morning? We love it when we pay extra and then they're thrown at us.

Today's news is sponsored by Radiant Entertainment, who've decided that five years after their Kickstarter that a Linux version of Stonehearth [Official Site] would be "more work than our team can handle". From their post about "Leaving the Nest":

I’m afraid it’s more work than our team can handle at this point. We’re going to cut this feature, and apologies to all of you who backed for this explicit reason. If there is no other way for you to play this game other than on Linux, and you backed for this reason only, please reach out to us via Kickstarter and we’ll see what we can do to make it right.

Linux (and Mac) support was a stretch goal too at $200K (although "only" $20K was specifically for it after the previous goal), so they  took extra money to make it happen, which is why it's quite frustrating. Mac fans aren't being left with egg on their face like us though, since they're still getting a version. They've also said they will cease support for the game as a whole after January 2019.

It comes as no surprise really, since Riot Games (League of Legends) actually acquired Radiant Entertainment back in 2016 and Radiant Entertainment themselves said in the linked post that Stonehearth is "not a priority from Riot’s overall strategic perspective".

We would urge anyone who backed it for Linux support, to act sooner rather than later if you want that refund.

They don't hold the crown for broken promises though, that is firmly on the head of Stainless Games for Carmageddon.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Crowdfunding
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27 comments
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Eike Jul 6, 2018
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Ahh, yes, crowdfunding.
Sounds good, doesn't work.
Just like preorders.

Both worked very well for me - in the very few cases I did it.
I've preordered The Talos Principle, because they had a very good full working demo (and I got Serios Sam BFG for free with it).
And I kickstarted The Journey Down part 3, as they already had shown twice that they are able to do it, and writing a point and click is not the kind of bottomless pit as some other genres.
Liam Dawe Jul 6, 2018
There's a number of times Kickstarter has helped some fantastic games, the amount that screw up like this is still the minority thankfully.
Tuxee Jul 6, 2018
Ahh, yes, crowdfunding.
Sounds good, doesn't work.
Just like preorders.

Depends. I have backed about a dozen games on Kickstarter, which apart from one (Kingdom Come: Deliverance) delivered: Distance, Wasteland 2, Distance, Torment: ToN,... They were never on time, but that's something I've come to expect.
Seegras Jul 6, 2018
There's a rule regarding software projects: First show me the code.

Unless that's there, it does not exist. Because 90% of software projects fail. Of course, most of these projects you won't hear about because they're internal projects of some company or other. But that's where you learn: First show me the code.
rustybroomhandle Jul 6, 2018
Ahh yes, confirmation bias.

No, when a crowdfunded project fails to deliver, it's not a negative on the whole concept. Personally I have had very few crowdfunding disappointments.

That said "We’re going to cut this feature" ?? Seriously, an entire platform for which you had a stretch goal is a "feature"? An fov slider is a feature. A button that spawns a dozen dancing gnomes is a feature. A port is not a "feature".
Teodosio Jul 6, 2018
It's 'caveat emptor' guys, task ownership of your purchase choices.
soulsource Jul 6, 2018
What should I say?
There are two options, basically: Either developers frequently make and test builds for all platforms they are planning to support, or they don't. In the first case they are likely to release for all platforms they were planning, in the latter case those platforms for which they didn't make and test builds frequently will not be supported in the end (unless they invest extra time/money to effectively port their game).
Nanobang Jul 6, 2018
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The recent reviews on steam seem to be a wall of disappointment https://steamcommunity.com/app/253250/reviews/?browsefilter=mostrecent

Huzzah! (Fuck the oath-breakers).

P.S.
How do you like your eggs in the morning? We love it when we pay extra and then they're thrown at us.

Nice turn of phrase, Liam. Puts me in mind of the sort of thing I see on RPS!


Last edited by Nanobang on 6 July 2018 at 11:14 am UTC
afettouhi Jul 6, 2018
Ahh another one to the list of canceled Linux ports. The one that pisses me off still the most is the missing Linux port of Wings Remastered. Funny thing about that is that actually made a Amiga OS port of the game.
razing32 Jul 6, 2018
Glad I did not buy this and just left it on a wishlist.
Narweh Jul 6, 2018
That's why we should never back a project (neither do preorder) unless there is actually at least a demo working on Linux.
That's a shame dev team like this exists, because of them we can't trust kickstarters.
scaine Jul 6, 2018
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Steam's trying to sell games, I get it. But it really annoys me that their "recently posted" section features 9 negative reviews, but the overall rating is "mostly positive"??

Even the positive reviews note game-breaking bugs, performance issues after 20 hours and AI that just doesn't work. Really weird and frustrating when I see such negativity summed up by Steam as mostly positive.
Eike Jul 6, 2018
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Steam's trying to sell games, I get it. But it really annoys me that their "recently posted" section features 9 negative reviews, but the overall rating is "mostly positive"??

Even the positive reviews note game-breaking bugs, performance issues after 20 hours and AI that just doesn't work. Really weird and frustrating when I see such negativity summed up by Steam as mostly positive.

"mostly positive" is "you probably do not want to buy this" in my book.
tonR Jul 6, 2018
Note: This comment is not about Linux.

Ahh... Tcnt done it again. Nuff said. Not everyone (even some Chinese gamers) are big fan with Tcnt.

Don't @ me, search for yourself. So, I'm a bit worried on Paradox.
Tiedemann Jul 6, 2018
I really liked the game (for what it was) when I played it on Windows and I honestly gave up hope for a Linux version a long time ago. It all took too long.

Someone should really start the trend of doing linux port kickstarters only.
Liam Dawe Jul 6, 2018
P.S.
How do you like your eggs in the morning? We love it when we pay extra and then they're thrown at us.

Nice turn of phrase, Liam. Puts me in mind of the sort of thing I see on RPS!
Big RPS fan, love their writing. I was channelling my inner RPS + lack of sleep for this article :P
Alm888 Jul 6, 2018
WOW! Liam being so acrimonious is a rare sight!
The developers had to p*ss him off royally.

Sadly, Kickstarter scams are commonplace nowadays; but what is more infuriating for me is that developers are not so eager to offend Mac users despite their relatively small market share (and overall weak hardware).

There's a rule regarding software projects: First show me the code.
Alas, this also does not guarantee a success.


Last edited by Alm888 on 6 July 2018 at 2:08 pm UTC
Salvatos Jul 6, 2018
Steam's trying to sell games, I get it. But it really annoys me that their "recently posted" section features 9 negative reviews, but the overall rating is "mostly positive"??

Even the positive reviews note game-breaking bugs, performance issues after 20 hours and AI that just doesn't work. Really weird and frustrating when I see such negativity summed up by Steam as mostly positive.
They can't just change the overall rating because of a handful of recent comments. Review bombing is a thing - that's part of why they started differentiating between recent and overall scores in the first place. When the negative reviews become a significant fraction of the whole, the rating will switch on its own.

As for positive reviews mentioning issues, the rating system can't know that. Unless they integrated some very advanced parsing engine into it that I'm not aware of, it's just a statistical comparison of the numbers of 'positive' vs. 'negative' reviews.
neowiz73 Jul 6, 2018
i can't say i didn't see this coming, from watching some of their dev streams on twitch. but it does work fine in wine with steam.
GustyGhost Jul 6, 2018
If your platform is only considered a "stretch goal", I've got bad news for you.
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