Armello, a grim fairy-tale board game from League of Geeks no longer advertises that it supports Linux and macOS due to their new party system that landed with the cross-play update.
In the news post they mention how there's "No Party Functionality (including Private Games) on MacOSX & native Linux. Due to the severity of this one, we've removed any advertising of support for Linux & Mac from Steam (and shortly Humble Bundle), though folks can still purchase and play those versions.".
Giving a little more detail on their official site it mentions how "The service provider we use for Armello’s multiplayer infrastructure has decided to cease support for their party services on MacOSX and Linux. Unfortunately, this means that Party Functionality, including Private Multiplayer, is no longer available in Armello on MacOSX and native Linux platforms." but they don't go on to name whatever company that is.
For the Native Linux and macOS versions, they're still functional and up to date they just don't have the new party system or private matches. For Linux users though you can use Proton to run the Windows version, which fully works. It also has a Steam Deck Playable rating, which uses Proton now too.
This isn't the only game to go a similar route, with ARK: Survival Evolved recently putting the Linux Native version behind a Beta.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
alka.setzer Jul 14, 2022
And in case isn't this why we have Proton? We no longer need native builds, translation overheads and coding for the one true platform (windows, x86[-64] and directx) is easier than solving platform quirks and there is no need to support anything other than Windows (and I'm not even sure if publishers/developers are required to solve problems whenever the issue is while running under Proton).
Is that game still playable without that feature? What if they decide to or need to switch to another party server provider.
We need to find out who this provider is and pressure it into supporting GNU+Linux.
I'm very wary about DirectX / windoze x86-64 being the only platform devs target. On one hand, it's a crusty old platform that Wine handles very well. But, on the other it's one that's likely to have a knife up it's sleeve ready to stab.
Targeting only that, yes, speaks to the power and capability of GNU+Linux, libre software, and the communities around it all but, also shows that it's unnecessary and can nearly be forgotten about.
Edit: Their website says they will continue support GNU+Linux and other affected platforms. Also, yes, it's seems to be a fine single player game.
Last edited by EWG on 15 July 2022 at 6:02 pm UTC
StoneColdSpider Jul 14, 2022
Im not saying this is what happened here as it seems they got blindsided by a service provider... but between this and ARK: Survival Evolved you can see where the future is heading.....
See PR departments, not that hard. Don't insult people, don't imply a platform is less deserving than others, explain the external factors, and show you care about your customers (existing and potential).
Quoting: alka.setzerWell, the Armello developer already had a different version just for GOG.because they dont want to fix it if anything breaks on wine.
And in case isn't this why we have Proton? We no longer need native builds, translation overheads and coding for the one true platform (windows, x86[-64] and directx) is easier than solving platform quirks and there is no need to support anything other than Windows (and I'm not even sure if publishers/developers are required to solve problems whenever the issue is while running under Proton).
plus we have an history of harrassing developers who call their wrapper (wine/virtual programing) version an native build.
Perkeleen_Vittupää Jul 14, 2022
Quoting: StoneColdSpiderThis is going to happen more and more as Proton gets better and better..... Greedy/lazy publishers will use Proton to lower costs as they dont need to make a dedicated Linux port and still get a slice of the Linux user pie.....
Im not saying this is what happened here as it seems they got blindsided by a service provider... but between this and ARK: Survival Evolved you can see where the future is heading.....
what difference it makes if the games run fine? hell, even mods might have an better cross platform compatibility, how is that any different from using multiplatform apis like openGL on windows instead of directx?
i know, its not the same thing, but if steamdeck increasse our marketshare, it wont make a difference our support will be first class no matter if native or proton.
hell proton already gave us better perfomance than native in a few titles.
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