Support us on Patreon
PayPalUpdate: Mentions of a Linux version have now been removed from the Steam store. According to the developer, they will not remove the Linux version and people on Linux did buy a "completed game" but it won't see any more support going forward (source). They also said the Linux version will see updates "but Linux specific bugs won't be addressed" however "gameplay balance, graphical bugs, most game crashes, etc will be fixed regardless of what your OS is" (source).
How about a kick in the teeth with your coffee this Friday morning? Well, that's what I've got for you. Developer HopFrog has announced they will be removing Linux support for Forager and Mac is no longer coming. Forager only released in April this year too.
Buried in their Q&A post on Steam was this:
Unfortunately, both Linux and Mac have proven very difficult for us to work with. Forager will no longer be available for Mac and Linux moving forward. Any plans to bring the game to Mac have now officially been canceled. This is a very difficult choice I had to make, and if you are interested in knowing why I and hundreds of other game developers are ditching Mac/Linux, take a look at this article!
I'm particularly annoyed about this one, since I consider it to be a fantastic game and gave it a very positive look. Not just that but to announce it in such an almost casual way, feels pretty uncaring about all the people that have already purchased and played it on Linux.
To get into what they linked to, it's an article talking about problems with supporting Mac due to a bunch of changes Apple are doing. It doesn't really touch on Linux and HopFrog bundling Linux into this feels quite wrong because no, hundreds of game developers are not ditching Linux that's just false.
What the linked article shows is an image from the developer Robotality for their 2014 strategy game Halfway, showing Linux at 2% sales/Mac at 4% with support requests for Linux at 30%/Mac at 50%. Sales around that mark for Linux are quite normal, any developer expecting more must have done no research. I would like to point out that Robotality themselves do continue to support Linux, with Pathway releasing in April this year.
Now onto the support requests bit. Looking over the Forager forum, the main issues on Linux seem to be the game running too fast and no gamepad support. The first issue was already solved and was a problem in Game Maker, the second is another Game Maker engine problem as YoYo Games seem to be reinventing the wheel rather than just using something like SDL 2 to get awesome gamepad support (and lots of other things not just for Linux). If you release a game on a platform that has two issues you would see if you booted it up even once, you're clearly not testing.
I've reached out to HopFrog to ask about their plans for refunds since it was not mentioned.
Additionally, I've reached out to Valve to see what they have to say about this repeating situation since that's Rust, Natural Selection 2 and now Forager that have all decided to dump Linux support after release. Not a lot of course but even one removing support is not a good look and doesn't look great on Valve either if they do nothing to help their customers out. You can argue "Steam Play" but to go over my previous point on this, the question of actual support arises once again there too and people purchased this on Linux because the developer supported the platform.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I built my engine myself and had to port my game manually to Linux and macOSX and its not really the hassle the developer makes it out to be? Also, the macOSX notarization process can be automated from the command line, you can just add it to your Makefile and get the notarized build back. Its still going to be a huge confusing hassle, but you're doing it for your playerbase?
(How to notarize an app package, binary, or ZIP file)
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/notarizing_your_app_before_distribution/customizing_the_notarization_workflow#3087734
What game did you make ?
Or what engine ?
If i may ask.
https://twitter.com/_HopFrog/status/1180171064141209600?s=19
It's been added to our wiki list of games that removed Linux.
Article updated.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 4 Oct 2019 at 6:41 pm UTC
linuxjacques 4 Oct 2019
I already bought the PC version because it supported Linux.
I don't like the way this was handled at all.
Chronarius 4 Oct 2019
I think it's really insulting that the developer dragged Linux into the “Apple hates developers and end users” mess deliberately giving a wrong impression.
Yeah, and calls others "disrespectful" for telling him "Welcome on the ignore list!"
BTW: What has the publisher also known as Humble Bundle to say to this?
I think it's really insulting that the developer dragged Linux into the “Apple hates developers and end users” mess deliberately giving a wrong impression.
Yeah, and calls others "disrespectful" for telling him "Welcome on the ignore list!"
BTW: What has the publisher also known as Humble Bundle to say to this?
Reading lots of feedback and opinions by devs you'll see many being very closed-minded and prejudiced against the Linux ecosystem. Still. After all the years with great dev tools and environments they're still supporting each others opinion that Linux is a hell to support and not worth it (market share).
Moreover, those are typically the same devs that are very thin-skinned when it comes to criticism.
Waiting for this dev to call "us" ungrateful. That's usually the final step in the escalation. :)
I'll start with this line, quoted from the Steam forum:
"You bought a completed game and that is what you got, it's yours forever!"
The problem I have there is that although not labelled as early access, it's clearly not a completed game. Digital distribution services have made it easy now to release a game for money now, patch in features later to "complete" the game. By and large this is a good thing, but there are some gotchas mostly centered around the game originally bought is no longer the game that is available.
Some of this the digital distribution service could help with. Some of it the developer must directly have a hand in. An update breaks the game? Oh, sorry, we don't support the game (which was paid for) anymore, too bad - and there's no way to obtain the original working game. That's really not customer friendly, even if it's unintentional.
There is a simpler way of putting it: if the game is "completed", why would you ever release an update/patch?
And does any developer actually want a model where the first version they release is definitive, with no chance to ever fix any bugs found? Are they capable of doing enough QA for that to work?
For a long time now, post-release support is an integral part of any software. It is expected and necessary. No, an outdated build of the game is not enough. No, "it works in Proton" is not the same.
Avehicle7887 5 Oct 2019
Their game: Mac and Linux versions never released on GOG since day 1.
I fully understand releasing on GOG won't be a magic bullet but that statement contradicts itself. How is that % going to rise up if you don't sell it in the first place.
rustybroomhandle 5 Oct 2019
The dev: "very few players use Linux"
Their game: Mac and Linux versions never released on GOG since day 1.
I fully understand releasing on GOG won't be a magic bullet but that statement contradicts itself. How is that % going to rise up if you don't sell it in the first place.
A developer can't just release a game on GoG. They have to submit it to them and hope that whomever reviews it likes it enough to want it there.
Some high rated and popular games have actually been rejected by GoG in the past.
(…)A developer can't just release a game on GoG. They have to submit it to them and hope that whomever reviews it likes it enough to want it there. (…)So you imply that GOG rejected the Linux version (because “it's too niche”) while they liked the Windows versions enough to release it?
I don't think GOG can reject platform releases. Just entire games and what platform they release on is up to the developer.(…)A developer can't just release a game on GoG. They have to submit it to them and hope that whomever reviews it likes it enough to want it there. (…)So you imply that GOG rejected the Linux version (because “it's too niche”) while they liked the Windows versions enough to release it?
Avehicle7887 5 Oct 2019
The dev: "very few players use Linux"
Their game: Mac and Linux versions never released on GOG since day 1.
I fully understand releasing on GOG won't be a magic bullet but that statement contradicts itself. How is that % going to rise up if you don't sell it in the first place.
A developer can't just release a game on GoG. They have to submit it to them and hope that whomever reviews it likes it enough to want it there.
Some high rated and popular games have actually been rejected by GoG in the past.
I don't think liking it is the case here since the Windows version was released, however you reminded me of a past experience where GOG didn't release the Linux versions of Metro 2033 / Last Light due to stability issues (they didn't go into specifics).
It's either that or the dev simply thought - 2 platforms / 6 builds = no deal, which is also known to occur (Age of Wonders 3).
rustybroomhandle 5 Oct 2019
The dev: "very few players use Linux"
Their game: Mac and Linux versions never released on GOG since day 1.
I fully understand releasing on GOG won't be a magic bullet but that statement contradicts itself. How is that % going to rise up if you don't sell it in the first place.
A developer can't just release a game on GoG. They have to submit it to them and hope that whomever reviews it likes it enough to want it there.
Some high rated and popular games have actually been rejected by GoG in the past.
I don't think liking it is the case here since the Windows version was released, however you reminded me of a past experience where GOG didn't release the Linux versions of Metro 2033 / Last Light due to stability issues (they didn't go into specifics).
Ah, so they did have the Windows version on there. Gotcha.
RichardYao 6 Oct 2019
Also, in this case, the game developer admitted that he is not a very good programmer, which likely makes things worse. In the case of the bug in the game engine, he might spent a fair amount of time trying to track it down thinking that it was a bug in his code, rather than the game engine.
I hope that he will at least keep an eye open for Proton.
It's messed up!
I hope that he will at least keep an eye open for Proton.
Yeah, I hope they would be able to utilise Proton to aid their games on Linux.
Originally posted by HopFrog:
Hey everyone!
Apologies for the delay in response, it's been a busy couple of weeks with the game updates and events we are working on. This issue has been a great learning experience for me, so I thought I would stop by to let you know what I learned from this and what's going to happen moving forward.
I am very sorry that Linux support had to be dropped for this title. Forager is my first game and I completely underestimated how difficult programming cross-platform would be. I wanted to make the game available for as many people as possible but now I see that providing an inferior experience is possibly worse than not providing anything at all!
In the future I will make sure I can 100% fully commit to supporting new platforms before developing for them (either for Forager or other games I make).
The way it was announced and handled on my end was very poor as well. In the future, I will make sure to properly make an announcement post detailing this type of news instead of casually mentioning it on a Q&A.
There were 14 players playing Forager on Linux during the Combat Update weekend. This is after we dropped Linux support, and it's the most concurrent Linux players we have had since the game launched back in April. Forager is obviously still working very well for some people. If they are handling it through Proton or similar services I am not sure, but the game definitely works in some capacity! That said, one of the main reasons I decided to drop Linux support for this game is that we couldn't get 3.0 to work for it. This is partly an engine problem but it is also our fault. We are not capable of properly launching new content for Linux with our current resources. It pains me to admit this but there is no guarantee that new updates will ever come to Linux anymore.
Even though the game works on Linux (up to 2.0), I have removed the Linux compatibility tag from the Steam store as to not confuse new players hoping to get content that is not currently available to them.
I spoke with Valve support about refunds and they told me to refer customers to this link. Please understand developers do not have anything to do with refunds at all, and if devs had influence in the past with Steam (like the case of Rust) is probably because they are massive productions that bring in millions for Valve/Steam. We are a small team and do not have that kind of leverage. That said, if your request gets denied I am personally willing to manually refund the cost of the game through PayPal or similar services if you email me at [email protected] with proof of purchase in your Linux OS.
Again, I am very sorry for the way this turned out and I promise I will do better in the future with whatever games I make next
How to set, change and reset your SteamOS / Steam Deck desktop sudo password
How to set up Decky Loader on Steam Deck / SteamOS for easy plugins
See more from me