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PayPalSupraland, the colourful and inviting first-person puzzle game from Supra Games is now going to be removed from game store GOG after less than a year being there.
Looking at the dates: it released on Steam in April 2019, then came to Linux in July that same year and then onto GOG in that same month. Today, June 9 in 2020 the GOG team posted on their forum that Supraland will be delisted from their store at the developer's request but it will stay in your GOG library. That's not long to be on a store to then ask for it to be removed, so why?
The developer has been quite vocal about it all, as it turns out. Back in July 2019, we posted an article about the developer saying some strange stuff about both GOG and Linux and it seems their opinion didn't change after being live on GOG for some time, as they said on Steam in May this year:
Going onto GOG I expected maybe something like 10% of Steam, but it's more like 1%. Same with releasing a Linux version. It's all worth so little for us that it's rather annoying to have to do the extra work all the time and carry that weight around. I wouldn't do it again.
Sounds like a case of heavily inflated expectations, mixed with some naivety. Still, it's better to request removal than to leave it up and not support it at all, so it sounds like they're doing the right thing overall.
In other posts they also mentioned how in relation to DRM-free gaming that "98-99% of players don't care" and that if there's any "crying about DRM stuff in the gamer scene, it must come from a really vocal but tiny minority. 1-2% tiny". That's some pretty tough words for the DRM-free crowd.
As for the Linux build of Supraland, it appears to have been suffering a few issues lately as posts on Steam will show and the developer isn't sure what they will do so the Linux build may be pulled too see: #1 and #2. They've never been particularly confident about it either as they said before a few times, and it appears they don't know how to support the Linux version. If they do announce a decision on that bit, we will let you know.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: redshiftWhat do you mean by that? It doesn't update installed games, does it?
It updates installed games, when you run it with proper parameters. It's not automatic (i.e. something that runs without your intervention).
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 June 2020 at 8:55 pm UTC
Quoting: DesumThis dev aside, I tend to shy away from GOG even though I am highly sympathetic do DRM-free gaming. The reasons are that, as a Linux gamer, GOG is simply a bigger hassle than Steam. I have to sort out libfoo problems with 70% of the games in my library that have native support (frankly, I have less problems running ancient Win32 games in Wine often enough). GOG should also be looking to, at the very least, piggy back off of Valve and Codeweaver's work with Proton. But nothing has even been mentioned there.
And all of GOG's recent moves point to a deemphasizing of the DRM-free stance of the platform. We already have games like Granda 2 phoning home, for example.
This isn't about Linux though. He's removing the game from GOG. Completely.
But yeah, from a Linux perspective, GOG is just worse for everything. Worse support (do they refund?), no client, no Linux target for Devs, no multiplayer framework, no chat, no achievements, no trading platform...
It's just, worse. But hey kids, it's DRM free!
As minority (Linux gamers) of a minority (anti-DRM gamers) we'll be waiting a looooooooooong ass time for 'Good Old Games' to give a shit about us, let alone some lone developer who didn't do his research for his niche, if pretty, first person puzzler.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 June 2020 at 10:05 pm UTC
Quoting: kuhpunktQuoting: CyrilI was thinking of buying it, it was on my wishlist since the GOG release, and then I thought the game would be on sale on the GOG Summer sale, but no....
If you've got Humble Monthly... you get it for $1.
The Humble Bundle version is not DRM-Free. And I don't get any Humble Monthly anyway.
Quoting: ShmerlQuoting: slaapliedjeI also get annoyed at the many games on GOG that elsewhere have Linux versions, but they don't provide one themselves.
Yeah, that's a mess. The worst cases are major games which are missing ports from Feral for instance.
Does GOG have the infrastructure to split sales between multiple publishers, depending on the platform a game is downloaded to? If not, that could explain why.
Quoting: fleskDoes GOG have the infrastructure to split sales between multiple publishers, depending on the platform a game is downloaded to? If not, that could explain why.
They have the infrastructure (such as they gather download statistics), but I'm not sure how exactly they are handling it in regards to payments to developers. There is some problem in that whole process, but what it is exactly no one explained.
Feral aren't the only porting company though, so it's them in particular who somehow are affected by this issue, no one else seems to have it.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 June 2020 at 10:44 pm UTC
no_information_here Jun 9, 2020
I care about DRM-free but agree with the comments about GOG being a pain. Linux has always been an afterthought for them. The dev dropping linux is a bigger deal for me. I found out that he did the end credit music with his crazy band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlLbcViQ-sU&feature=emb_title
(The dev plays the instruments in the video). Talented guy - unfortunate that he has some distorted views regarding linux.
FutureSuture Jun 9, 2020
Quoting: scaineBut yeah, from a Linux perspective, GOG is just worse for everything. Worse support (do they refund?), no client, no Linux target for Devs, no multiplayer framework, no chat, no achievements, no trading platform...Then again, it's nice not having achievements and game time tracking forced upon me. I wish Steam would make those optional...
Quoting: FutureSutureQuoting: scaineBut yeah, from a Linux perspective, GOG is just worse for everything. Worse support (do they refund?), no client, no Linux target for Devs, no multiplayer framework, no chat, no achievements, no trading platform...Then again, it's nice not having achievements and game time tracking forced upon me. I wish Steam would make those optional...
To be fair, Steam doesn't force that on you, the developer does. There are plenty of games on Steam, including many of Valve's games, that will run without the Steam client running. Supraland is one of these, when it runs. Currently, I get a segmentation fault on Supraland, but it used to run well, even without the Steam client running.
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