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Designed and developed by Bearded Giant Games, Space Mercs is an extreme arcade space combat game like some of the classics and it's out now with Linux support.

As a reminder, Bearded Giant Games have been developing Space Mercs entirely on Linux with the Unity game engine. Working from a low-powered Notebook, they've put a special amount of attention into the optimizations so it should work great across a huge variety of systems. It certainly does look good, with an impressive atmosphere to it!

Feature Highlight:

  • Huge, real-time, space ship battles, with up to hundreds of spaceships on screen at the same time
  • Mission battles range from small (3-10 ships) and scale up into the gigantic sector wide battles (400-500 ships)
  • Single-player campaign where the stakes increase with every mission
  • Thousands of projectiles on screen at every time
  • Consistent graphics and performance even on really low hardware specs
  • Shooter-style control and flight system optimized for Keyboard and Gamepad use
  • Instant battle mode where you are thrown in a procedural generated battle of epic scales
  • Loadout system for ship weaponry and internal systems
  • Coffee-break design where you can pickup and play in short 3 to 10 minute sessions
  • Functional cockpit display

As a surprise feature announced along with the release, Space Mercs includes a Battle Designer. Once you complete the main missions, it will allow you to make custom battles to participate in with up to 4000 ships. The developer provided some interesting screenshots taken from that mode (click to enlarge):

If you enjoy classic arcade space action, Space Mercs should be on your radar. It would be worth reading their release info post, which contains a few extra important bits of info (especially for owners of an AMD Vega GPU). Also, do check out our previous interview with Bearded Giant Games here.

You can find Space Mercs on Steam. With an itch.io release due later.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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PieOrCake Aug 3, 2019
I don't recall hearing of this, and it's not my usual genre... but it's not expensive, has day one Linux support and looks good for a casual pew pew in between other things.

Bought.
Zapa Aug 3, 2019
Hey guys, thank you for your support! For those asking, so far, Linux sales are 30% from the total of 135 since the game released! I hope it stays like that during the first month because I'm looking to write an article on Game development on Linux and for Linux and toot the high number.

The usual number you hear thrown around is 3-5% of the copies sold, and it might be true for really big games. But small indies like me can benefit a ton from supporting Linux!

Edit: Linux is more. What's 54 out of 135? (goes and brews coffee)


Last edited by Zapa on 3 August 2019 at 6:54 am UTC
Liam Dawe Aug 3, 2019
Quoting: ZapaHey guys, thank you for your support! For those asking, so far, Linux sales are 30% from the total of 135 since the game released! I hope it stays like that during the first month because I'm looking to write an article on Game development on Linux and for Linux and toot the high number.

The usual number you hear thrown around is 3-5% of the copies sold, and it might be true for really big games. But small indies like me can benefit a ton from supporting Linux!

Edit: Linux is more. What's 54 out of 135? (goes and brews coffee)
54 sales from Linux in a single night, that's more than some see across a month. Lovely to see.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 3 August 2019 at 8:22 am UTC
herc Aug 3, 2019
I just bought the game and kept failing the first real mission. Took me a few tries to complete it but when I did I was like, "YES!" Usually when I play these sorts of games I fail and quit almost right away, so I'd say that is a sign of a well made game!


Last edited by herc on 3 August 2019 at 8:14 am UTC
Zapa Aug 3, 2019
Quoting: hercI just bought the game and kept failing the first real mission. Took me a few tries to complete it but when I did I was like, "YES!" Usually when I play these sorts of games I fail and quit almost right away, so I'd say that is a sign of a well made game!
Can I quote you on this on twitter? <3!

Best thing I heard all day :D
herc Aug 3, 2019
Quoting: Zapa
Quoting: hercI just bought the game and kept failing the first real mission. Took me a few tries to complete it but when I did I was like, "YES!" Usually when I play these sorts of games I fail and quit almost right away, so I'd say that is a sign of a well made game!
Can I quote you on this on twitter? <3!

Best thing I heard all day :D

Sure thing!
FredO Aug 3, 2019
What a totally fun game. Steam Controller works right away in-game, which is nice. I guess it's planned to add controller support to the menu in the future? Also the sound was set to 0% on the first load, so I thought that there was a problem with the sound at first. Is that intentional?

Nice game - nice price - go get it!
fabertawe Aug 3, 2019
Quoting: Zapa...Edit: Linux is more. What's 54 out of 135? (goes and brews coffee)

Well it's definitely more than 54

I also promised to buy it. Runs great on my GTX970. Very nice ^_^
dpanter Aug 3, 2019
Pro tip - you can nullify incoming fire by shooting it.
libgradev Aug 3, 2019
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: ZapaHey guys, thank you for your support! For those asking, so far, Linux sales are 30% from the total of 135 since the game released! I hope it stays like that during the first month because I'm looking to write an article on Game development on Linux and for Linux and toot the high number.

The usual number you hear thrown around is 3-5% of the copies sold, and it might be true for really big games. But small indies like me can benefit a ton from supporting Linux!

Edit: Linux is more. What's 54 out of 135? (goes and brews coffee)
54 sales from Linux in a single night, that's more than some see across a month. Lovely to see.

Update from Discord:

"So we sold 190 units so far. Linux accounts for 46% of them (GO LINUX)"
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