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PayPalStudio 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.
Arehandoro Mar 30, 2021
The game looks amazing, but they can piss off.
Quoting: TermyDouchebag moves like this drove people like me away from crowdfunding - so good job in making future indie titles less likely to succeed!
Exactly my sentiment. I contributed to the Funding Crowd articles on here for years and was very bought into the idea of both Kickstarter and IndieGogo. I saw them as a way to promote Linux gaming at a grassroot level. But while (as Liam notes) it worked for a majority of titles, more and more I saw fraudsters emerging, announcing multi-platform support during the campaign, then immediately caveating it on successful completion, or removing it entirely.
Honestly, if Kickstarter had any integrity, they would be following on this fraud legally. But they have their money, so it's left to the punter to lose out. So yeah, tough time for the more honest indies these days.
I expected better in this case - Team 17 have had patchy Linux support over the years, but they've never been outright hostile to launching on our platform. So I suspect it really is just gross incompetence by the developer. I'll wish them well regardless, but they'll never get my money unless they support my platform.
Quoting: Liam DaweOr it is the point right now?Quoting: Luke_NukemIt will more than likely work fine in Proton.Not the point though, is it.
I mean, at least give backers support for Proton!
Take a proton build, verify it works, say it will work on linux with that proton version, profit.
Last edited by kokoko3k on 30 March 2021 at 12:40 pm UTC
Quoting: PrzmkThen why the hell put Linux as a stretch goal if you're not going to respect it anyway?I want to trust them,
And how can you not know that demand for Linux games is not very big unless you've been living in cave for the past 5 years?
I'm sure it wasn't malicious but they sure didn't do a single bit of research.
* BE OPTIMISTIC! *
This means their game is so bad, they don't expect to sell so much.
Quoting: emphySo they got to profit from the extra media attention and support from linux users without wanting to spend on the obligation that got them into.Even if they give a full refund to the linux backers that doesn't repay the benefits they received.
Soon and one of these days somebody is going to file a class action suit against this kind of thing, win and set a precedent.
I will not be disappointed when this happens. Even if it means we get less crowdfunded indie games on Linux. At least you know that when the precedent is set for 'false advertising based on a crowdfunded project' you won't have people in this situation disappointed, out of pocket and having wasted their own energy with free marketing for these companies.
Because in the end no product at all is better than a lie.
Quoting: GuestI just watched the trailer and noticed the Xbox, PS4 Logos and Switch Logos ... according to their Kickstarter they did not even reached that tier but now dropping Linux support!?
This is shady...
Well to be honest there is where the purchasing power is, which also makes it so strange that games have those as stretch goals.
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.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 30 March 2021 at 6:27 pm UTC
Quoting: Luke_NukemIt will more than likely work fine in Proton.Well yeah but its not the point is it people were worried proton would become the default i would argue it already is. Feral have smartly become a publisher using old partnerships C&A to bring out their first offering multi platform.
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