Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion has dropped Linux support (updated)

Oh, I was meaning to pick that up, guess I won't have to now.

Honestly just shows what I've been saying for years:

Game developers suck at software development, despite doing exactly that - usually they only don't if they themselves come from "normal" software development and possess more skills than "how to do X in Unity".
It's the natural conclusion to having too-convenient tools like Unity available, I guess.

"struggle to reliably build and test".... wow, just wow.
Stuff like that wouldn't fly where I work.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 27 August 2021 at 10:39 am UTC

Honestly just shows what I've been saying for years:

Game developers suck at software development, despite doing exactly that - usually they only don't if they themselves come from "normal" software development and possess more skills than "how to do X in Unity".
It's the natural conclusion to having too-convenient tools like Unity available, I guess.

"struggle to reliably build and test".... wow, just wow.
Stuff like that wouldn't fly where I work.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. This smells like laziness or incompetence. Or both. If I told my employer something like that he'd tell me to for a new job.

I'm terrible at programming myself but I don't understand how you could fail at setting up a testing environment.

I hope they at least have the decency to give refunds for those who bought their game in good faith. But I wouldn't hold my breath...

Since developers like this suck so much at customer service, Valve should force them to do better: give automatic refunds to affected customers, to make them whole, and withhold revenue until the cost of that has been recovered. That's what other retailers do. I'm only ever going to buy a handful of games from any particular game dev, but I buy hundreds overall from Steam; my confidence in buying things on Steam becomes less every time a developer pulls this kind of scam, which harms Valve.


Last edited by CatKiller on 27 August 2021 at 12:17 pm UTC

Game developers suck at software development, despite doing exactly that

Well the majority of "game developers" are actually just artists. One-man-army game devs are artists who can code a little.

Even a good majority of professional developers suck at programming (sorry, but that's the truth), can't really expect much from artists.

I notice that the game is still being "recommended" by the GamingOnLinux curator in Steam. Maybe it's time to revisit that?

If they consider it's not profitable, or that they could do something else with that time/effort that's more profitable than it, then it is what it is, that's capitalism, we can't demand charity.

It's not charity if it's a product that's already been sold. We're in the realm of legal obligations and customer expectations now.

I think there's two positions one could take on this:

1. "You paid for the game at the time, you got the game at the time"
2. "You paid for the game like everyone else, you should expect to receive the same product/experience as everyone else"

While I personally lean more toward the sentiment of #2, for a single-player game I think #1 can be a reasonable position to hold. So long as the game doesn't lose functionality for those who bought it on Linux, they essentially still have what they paid for. :/

First Forager, now this. What luck I have, I tell you...

A struggle to build and test? Build and test it on Linux for Pete's sake! Unity's editor works fine now on Linux last I checked; what a cop-out response! If it's a middleware problem, just say so, don't blame the Kernel/OS for someone else's failing.

If itch supported reviews, I'd tell them what I think just like I did with Forager!

Game developers suck at software development, despite doing exactly that - usually they only don't if they themselves come from "normal" software development and possess more skills than "how to do X in Unity".
It's the natural conclusion to having too-convenient tools like Unity available, I guess.

"struggle to reliably build and test".... wow, just wow.
Stuff like that wouldn't fly where I work.

I second that. Many game developers, even the ones writing code and not just the artists, indeed seem to have surprisingly narrow skill sets. They know how to boot Windows and can navigate whatever scripting language their engine of choice is using. The better qualified ones know their way around Visual Studio and DirectX, too. And only a handful ever seemed to have worked with an IDE -not- called Visual Studio, or is aware that DirectX isn't the only API of its kind out there.

If that studio isn't even able to make what really doesn't look like an overly complex piece of software run on a platform their engine is supporting quite well, I really wonder for how long these people have been "software developers".

The more I think about things objectively, I find myself being pushed more towards FOSS games. Who do we usually not need to beg for a Linux port of their game ? FOSS developers. Who do we usually not have to worry about dropping Linux support ? Foss developers. Who always use open source engines and middleware ? FOSS developers. Who don't carve their game up into multiple slices of paid DLC after charging me $80 CAD ? FOSS developers. The tradoff of course are games that lack the graphics; physics; AI; story and other features that closed source games have but I often wonder if that would be the case if Linux gamers took a fraction of the money they spend on close source games and donated it to a FOSS game of their choosing.

Since developers like this suck so much at customer service, Valve should force them to do better: give automatic refunds to affected customers, to make them whole, and withhold revenue until the cost of that has been recovered. That's what other retailers do. I'm only ever going to buy a handful of games from any particular game dev, but I buy hundreds overall from Steam; my confidence in buying things on Steam becomes less every time a developer pulls this kind of scam, which harms Valve.

While I feel your frustration, I do think that such a move would decrease the number of native ports even more since Linux now would become not only a fringe market but also a dangerous one.

Looks like the developer is listening and will be putting up a Beta.

While I feel your frustration, I do think that such a move would decrease the number of native ports even more since Linux now would become not only a fringe market but also a dangerous one.

How so dangerous? That they should give the money back when they don't provide the goods they said they'd give in exchange? I'd want the same thing for Windows users if a dev took their money and then flatly refused to provide the product that had been paid for. Developers need to use their whole arse, and Valve need to maintain customer confidence in their marketplace.

Valve automatically protecting customers from rogue devs is the nice option. Being forced to do it in every country with consumer protection laws is the less nice, and much less easy, option.

Looks like the developer is listening and will be putting up a Beta.

I'd love to check that out, can you provide a link pretty please?

Looks like the developer is listening and will be putting up a Beta.

I'd love to check that out, can you provide a link pretty please?

Have updated the article.

Since developers like this suck so much at customer service, Valve should force them to do better: give automatic refunds to affected customers, to make them whole, and withhold revenue until the cost of that has been recovered. That's what other retailers do. I'm only ever going to buy a handful of games from any particular game dev, but I buy hundreds overall from Steam; my confidence in buying things on Steam becomes less every time a developer pulls this kind of scam, which harms Valve.

...but how would you prove you still want to play that game on that specific, no more supported, platform and not just having enough of it and want to regain the money?

Refunds for everyone asking when one platform is discarded? I see no other way, maybe a partial refund would be a fair compromise, but again, how much?

Edit:
Maybe Valve could put a minimum time devs are enforced to support all the platforms they advertised at launch or refund everyone asking, but i fear that any of the option I listed would simply scare developers and just kill the little market we have today.


Last edited by kokoko3k on 28 August 2021 at 1:49 pm UTC

...but how would you prove you still want to play that game on that specific, no more supported, platform and not just having enough of it and want to regain the money?

Refunds for everyone asking when one platform is discarded?

Valve knows what platform you've been playing on.
If someone asks for a refund who played the game for a while but never on a dropped platform, they don't get the refund.

...but how would you prove you still want to play that game on that specific, no more supported, platform and not just having enough of it and want to regain the money?

Refunds for everyone asking when one platform is discarded?

Valve knows what platform you've been playing on.
If someone asks for a refund who played the game for a while but never on a dropped platform, they don't get the refund.

But it can't read my mind, and doesn't have a clue if I want to continue playing that game or i'm just speculating.


Last edited by kokoko3k on 28 August 2021 at 2:24 pm UTC

But it can't read my mind, and doesn't have a clue if I want to continue playing that game or i'm just speculating.

They don't need to remove it from the user's library. But if they do, the customer can choose to rebuy it if they want to take the risk.

Valve know how to count a sale as for a particular platform. They include that information in their sales reports to developers. If a developer makes sales on false pretences, by lying on their Steam store page, Valve automatically refunds the money that developers shouldn't have taken in the first place.

It's not a punishment, it's just maintaining confidence in the Steam store: if customers are harmed by false statements made on the store page, they'll be made whole again.


Last edited by CatKiller on 28 August 2021 at 7:13 pm UTC

But it can't read my mind, and doesn't have a clue if I want to continue playing that game or i'm just speculating.

If you are asking for a refund via the normal "request refund" on Steam, you don't want to continue playing.
That's pretty much a given.