After a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2018, developer Eggnut released their post-noir narrative adventure Backbone in June 2021. Sadly, they've decided not to go through with the official Linux support on it.
This is a crowdfunding campaign that did very clearly have Linux down as a platform from the beginning, so it's not the best of looks. Especially to get the announcement that it's no longer planned eight months after the initial launch. What's the reasoning being given? Here's what they said in the Kickstarter announcement:
We're very sorry to announce that we won't be porting Backbone to Linux in the near future. We did our best to do it in-house, but it took immeasurable amount of time and effort, and making it work properly would require creating a dev environment to work in which we don't have the resources for because we're deep in production for our next game. We are not in the financial position to hire another party to do the porting for us. We absolutely understand the frustration these news might bring, and we're ready to offer you these solutions:
For backers, they've offered a key for any other platform or a full refund if you prefer. That is at least a lot better than some, as we've seen plenty of other projects decide not to do Linux after including it in funding and not offer anything. Still, it's a frustrating situation, especially to be told they don't have a development environment set up for it — after being in development overall for multiple years and already being supported on Windows for over half a year.
What about Steam Play Proton, can you run it there? Reports seem mixed on it, although there's not many, with the big problem being cinematics not playing.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Unfortunately, this is not surprising. Especially considering the demo was broken on Linux when I tried it in June-2020.
Also seems like a strange engine choice for a pixel graphics point and click, but what do I know.
Also seems like a strange engine choice for a pixel graphics point and click, but what do I know.
2 Likes, Who?
Arehandoro Feb 10, 2022
Can I get a refund even if I already got my Steam key applied?
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: gradyvuckovicQuoteWe're very sorry to announce that we won't be porting Backbone to Linux in the near future.'Near future'... Just say it, you're not going to do it 'ever'.
QuoteWe did our best to do it in-house, but it took immeasurable amount of time and effort,Your game is made in Unreal Engine 4... was there really no one in your entire team who possesses the ability to handle installing Linux on a PC, downloading and compiling UE4 for Linux following a youtube tutorial to do so, then building your game on it?
Quoteand making it work properly would require creating a dev environment to work in... Yes.. that's generally how game development works.. ?...
Quotewhich we don't have the resources for because we're deep in production for our next game.You don't have the resources to dual boot a PC you already own with a free OS?
QuoteWe are not in the financial position to hire another party to do the porting for us.Not sure why you wouldn't be in a financial position to do so given you ran a kickstarter specifically to raise funding to do exactly what you're saying you don't have the finances to do.
QuoteWe absolutely understand the frustration these news might bring, and we're ready to offer you these solutions:HA-HA-HA.
In summary: "We promised a Linux version just to get a bunch more folks to support our kickstarter to effectively use those people as an interest free loan. Now we've made the game and sold enough copies to repay that loan, we're willing to offer refunds."
Seriously, people, stop funding kickstarters. Just stop doing it. It's even worse than pre ordering a game. There have been maybe a handful of game kickstarter projects that haven't ended up producing a completely rubbish outcome.
For kickstarter, you still can use history of studio as source of trust. If they delivered linux game before, i think we can trust them because they know what they need to do. This is case of Everspace 2 for example.
2 Likes, Who?
This right here is exactly why I will never pre-order a game, nor back one on crowd-funding ever again. Fool me once, shame on you… Ain't gonna happen again.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: cbonesUnfortunately, this is not surprising. Especially considering the demo was broken on Linux when I tried it in June-2020.
Also seems like a strange engine choice for a pixel graphics point and click, but what do I know.
It worked fine for me (don't know when this was).
1 Likes, Who?
MisterPaytwick Feb 10, 2022
PR wise, best move.
Reality? Dick move still.
Promising something, under-delivering it and waving a refund as some basic move to do then? They didn't fucking look up anything, neither before, nor during the development. No literature, no anything. Then they develop on a single platform and hold and behold, it ain't fucking working cross-platform.
What kind of monkeys do it take to type out such a storyline?
No. Wine is, yet again, not a solution, it's a possible temporary fix that'll ship it's own bugs (that the devs can't really address without getting in wine, hence it's worst than native on this side), performances issues and so on.
It's a short term solution that, if it doesn't bring enough people in, may backfire by misplacing efforts when it comes to actual, long-term, healthier and simpler solutions (including for the devs, as native doesn't add in layers of complexity and issues, and organisations)
And real support for a wine port for a company will most likely include a contract with CodeWeavers. And here we go again, the whole "it's expensive, it's slow, yada yada". Funny isn't it how it may actually not be a fix... Because if you don't, you go community support only, pure wine, you may not get the fixes you need when you need them. Another impossible situation for a company.
Let's say Proton too, disregarding the fact Valve may simply take out the version from their platform -yes, and when it happen and the only version that reliably did make a game run smoothly and out of the box is terminated, then you are just screwed... Again, all over again...- And no, compiling for oneself isn't a user task, so again, not pushing the right way to make the whole thing healthier long term...
At the end of the day, the support issue here is shifted and out of control for the devs, but also bring in tons, fucking metric tons of issues that add layers to the mess, Wine isn't, can't be, and will never be a real solution. Period.
This whole "what about wine" now dead in the water as it's supposed to be for anything that promise a native port (because issues all over the place), or going long-term, can we address another issue here: this is a dick move.
I used to know a bit the dev from Song of Myrne, talked to him about the effects of being on Steam's front page and such. Put yourself into his shoes for a minute: he did solo dev a few games, all cross-platform, all 2D just fine. Day 0 Linux support and so on. But all in all, he did the job, from start to finish.
Now imagine any dev of that kind going for kickstarter, opening a project, laying down a game, fully aware of the work of supporting Linux and MacOS, and missing the few backers they need because a more visible project put in the goals a Linux version. At the end of the day, the campaign fails, a bit later, the other project simply ditch the port(s) and claims it's too hard, too expensive, too anything.
Kickstarter may be to blame *a bit* for the whole scams stories (the real fake campaigns), but that kind of dev? No, they are just terrible devs shitting in the other devs meal, and pissing on their backers because they never really cared nor tried to to begin with. Otherwise, honest devs would acknowledge it's too much work, and simply wouldn't claim there will be a Linux port.
It's not simply preordering. Preordering *could* be decent enough to avoid some core issues with those numerous projects claiming they'd support Linux and yet drop it. No, the core of the issue is settling for a refund or anything akin when the devs simply bullshitted us instead of getting mad enough to remind yourself getting bullshitted is not something you accept, disregarding the monetary issue, simply being ethical within your own job. If one deserved to be paid for one's work, it has to be because one's do it well enough without undermining his very own job (and by extension, the people working the same field).
It's hard, it's not fun, it's expensive, but claiming to do something you can't nor won't even look into it before it's too late is simply a dick move. For all parties.
EDIT: Yep, I'm often pissed at that Wine-as-a-solution part, because I did enjoy some games that just weren't supported and a patch borked it on all wine versions I could figure out (ie Synthetik now crash within 30 minutes, a shame for such a game whose run clock at 45minutes), even self-compiled and I'm not exactly a newbie, now picture this for average joes, and you should be able to understand why I see it as a deadend that'll harm the whole thing massively if it's followed as a solution, because it simply *can't* be.
Last edited by MisterPaytwick on 11 February 2022 at 10:10 am UTC
Reality? Dick move still.
Promising something, under-delivering it and waving a refund as some basic move to do then? They didn't fucking look up anything, neither before, nor during the development. No literature, no anything. Then they develop on a single platform and hold and behold, it ain't fucking working cross-platform.
What kind of monkeys do it take to type out such a storyline?
No. Wine is, yet again, not a solution, it's a possible temporary fix that'll ship it's own bugs (that the devs can't really address without getting in wine, hence it's worst than native on this side), performances issues and so on.
It's a short term solution that, if it doesn't bring enough people in, may backfire by misplacing efforts when it comes to actual, long-term, healthier and simpler solutions (including for the devs, as native doesn't add in layers of complexity and issues, and organisations)
And real support for a wine port for a company will most likely include a contract with CodeWeavers. And here we go again, the whole "it's expensive, it's slow, yada yada". Funny isn't it how it may actually not be a fix... Because if you don't, you go community support only, pure wine, you may not get the fixes you need when you need them. Another impossible situation for a company.
Let's say Proton too, disregarding the fact Valve may simply take out the version from their platform -yes, and when it happen and the only version that reliably did make a game run smoothly and out of the box is terminated, then you are just screwed... Again, all over again...- And no, compiling for oneself isn't a user task, so again, not pushing the right way to make the whole thing healthier long term...
At the end of the day, the support issue here is shifted and out of control for the devs, but also bring in tons, fucking metric tons of issues that add layers to the mess, Wine isn't, can't be, and will never be a real solution. Period.
This whole "what about wine" now dead in the water as it's supposed to be for anything that promise a native port (because issues all over the place), or going long-term, can we address another issue here: this is a dick move.
I used to know a bit the dev from Song of Myrne, talked to him about the effects of being on Steam's front page and such. Put yourself into his shoes for a minute: he did solo dev a few games, all cross-platform, all 2D just fine. Day 0 Linux support and so on. But all in all, he did the job, from start to finish.
Now imagine any dev of that kind going for kickstarter, opening a project, laying down a game, fully aware of the work of supporting Linux and MacOS, and missing the few backers they need because a more visible project put in the goals a Linux version. At the end of the day, the campaign fails, a bit later, the other project simply ditch the port(s) and claims it's too hard, too expensive, too anything.
Kickstarter may be to blame *a bit* for the whole scams stories (the real fake campaigns), but that kind of dev? No, they are just terrible devs shitting in the other devs meal, and pissing on their backers because they never really cared nor tried to to begin with. Otherwise, honest devs would acknowledge it's too much work, and simply wouldn't claim there will be a Linux port.
It's not simply preordering. Preordering *could* be decent enough to avoid some core issues with those numerous projects claiming they'd support Linux and yet drop it. No, the core of the issue is settling for a refund or anything akin when the devs simply bullshitted us instead of getting mad enough to remind yourself getting bullshitted is not something you accept, disregarding the monetary issue, simply being ethical within your own job. If one deserved to be paid for one's work, it has to be because one's do it well enough without undermining his very own job (and by extension, the people working the same field).
It's hard, it's not fun, it's expensive, but claiming to do something you can't nor won't even look into it before it's too late is simply a dick move. For all parties.
EDIT: Yep, I'm often pissed at that Wine-as-a-solution part, because I did enjoy some games that just weren't supported and a patch borked it on all wine versions I could figure out (ie Synthetik now crash within 30 minutes, a shame for such a game whose run clock at 45minutes), even self-compiled and I'm not exactly a newbie, now picture this for average joes, and you should be able to understand why I see it as a deadend that'll harm the whole thing massively if it's followed as a solution, because it simply *can't* be.
Last edited by MisterPaytwick on 11 February 2022 at 10:10 am UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: gradyvuckovicSeriously, people, stop funding kickstarters. Just stop doing it. It's even worse than pre ordering a game. There have been maybe a handful of game kickstarter projects that haven't ended up producing a completely rubbish outcome.I don't quite agree here, as a few bad apples don't ruin an entire crop. The reality is that Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general has given us a lot of good games (and our list is far from complete).
10 Likes, Who?
Same old story.
Competent developers needed!
Hire me for 5$/game and i'll package the needed file in a wine bottle; you click start.sh and it works.
It is also funny how they admit that they won't port it to linux because they want to develop the next game instead.
Great move, keep up the good work.
Meh.
Competent developers needed!
Hire me for 5$/game and i'll package the needed file in a wine bottle; you click start.sh and it works.
It is also funny how they admit that they won't port it to linux because they want to develop the next game instead.
Great move, keep up the good work.
Meh.
2 Likes, Who?
muadib1988 Feb 10, 2022
Star Citizen has also promised linux support. everything on the official website has been removed
5 Likes, Who?
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