Studio Koba crowdfunded the impressive looking pixel-art action platformer back in 2017, along with a very clear advertisement of Linux support but that's no longer happening.
During their Kickstarter campaign that pulled in €160,946, they fully confirmed Linux support and it still has a fancy Linux logo on it even now. Their official website also listed Linux as a platform, as can be seen here but that was updated to remove mentions of Linux just recently.
Direct Link
We've actually been trying to get an official statement on it since they partnered up with Team17 as publisher but only received mixed responses with one from Team17 saying it wasn't planned, another saying to expect news soon and now Studio Koba themselves have posted a comment on Kickstarter to one user to say:
[…] we did what we could to do a Linux version. But, to do so we have had to bear a negative return on investment because of high costs of testing and QA compared to the low demand of Linux […]
It's a shame because it does look genuinely good, but it's also a reminder that even when a Kickstarter campaign mentions Linux support, it's not actually a guarantee and years later things sadly change with some developers. We're tracking a lot of campaigns on our dedicated Crowdfunding Page, with the vast majority succeeding nicely.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
As nobody has yet pointed it out here as such, I'll do the obligatory mention:
Anyone who is suddenly figuring out now that it's too hard to support Linux (on a game done in Unity no less) clearly didn't think about how to make the game run well cross-platform back when they were in the planning stage (if there was a planning stage), didn't pick libraries intelligently and so forth. Now they're stuck because they couldn't be arsed to think about what they were promising back when they were promising it.
I think when they said they tried to make a linux port i think they meant they pressed export it didnt work so they gave up rather than there published excuse of well we realised it would cost money and we werent willing to pay for it.
As mentioned above -- there simply wasn't the ROI that could justify a Linux version this time around. I apologise for the disappointment, the team really wanted to make it happen; this wasn't a case of neglect, at all.
Really sorry folks, I hope you'll have the chance to experience Narita Boy on another platform somewhere down the line.
JSVRamirez Mar 31, 2021
Edit: Hell, ask the backers to test the Linux build? They already paid for it?!
Last edited by JSVRamirez on 31 March 2021 at 10:12 am UTC
Really sorry folks, I hope you'll have the chance to experience Narita Boy on another platform somewhere down the line.
Yeah... that's really not going to happen though is it? Who'd trust a dev team this incompetent, even on another platform? If it ever hits Humble Choice, I might play it, since I get all 12 games anyway. Give them actual money though? Nope.
ripper81358 Mar 31, 2021
Really sorry folks, I hope you'll have the chance to experience Narita Boy on another platform somewhere down the line.
Yeah... that's really not going to happen though is it? Who'd trust a dev team this incompetent, even on another platform? If it ever hits Humble Choice, I might play it, since I get all 12 games anyway. Give them actual money though? Nope.
Sad to see things like that. I thought that Team 17 would be a great company delivering native linuxgames. But after a few supported titles they turned their back on linuxgaming as it seems.
As far as i am concerned i don't want to enjoy a game on another plattform. Linux is my daily driver like Windows is for a windowsuser. Gaming is just one usecase and i will not install another OS or turn to consolegaming because of one certain game or application.
Cheeseness Apr 2, 2021
I'm pretty bummed - normally I'm very careful about who I back, and in general, I'm happy to treat my pledges as supporting people in trying something that may not be successful.
Finding out after release that a Linux version was not only not coming to Linux at launch, but not coming at all (not to mention finding that out second hand and having it confirmed by a publisher representative rather than the people I supported 4 years ago) is just unacceptable.
If this had've been communicated via a backer update 8 months ago, I'd have offered to help and been comfortable wearing the loss if it didn't happen.
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