Axiom Verge 2 from Thomas Happ Games has jumped over from the Epic Store to Steam and it comes with Native Linux support and it is also Steam Deck Verified! This was made with Ethan Lee's FNA, so it's another quality port too and uses the Vulkan API.
Direct Link
You may have played Axiom Verge, or heard it referenced as a benchmark for indie action-exploration games. This long awaited sequel expands on the universe with completely new characters, abilities, and gameplay.
Indra, the billionaire behind the worldwide Globe 3 conglomerate, heads to Antarctica to investigate the disappearance of her daughter, but ultimately finds herself in an entirely different reality, infected by parasitic machines that both aid and confound her. Where is she? Who is the mysterious person goading her from the other end of the computer terminal?
Explore an alternate Earth-like world, replete with the ruins of an ancient, high-tech civilization. Hack machines. Battle monsters. Use your remote drone to enter the Breach, a parallel but connected reality that is filled with its own dangers. You’ll want to search every inch for the hidden items and upgrades you need to survive.
The game seems to run quite nicely across Linux desktop and Steam Deck, which is not exactly a surprise. Any modern port that uses FNA tends to run great. It's another title that feels like it was made to play on something like the Steam Deck for sure with some tight gamepad controls.
Overall it might not reach the heights of excitement that the original did (not many sequels manage it…), but it's still a pretty great game. If you usually enjoy platformer-metroidvania exploration, this is a lovely indie game to pick up and put a good few hours into.
Some footage from Steam Deck:
Direct Link
Available to buy on Steam.
Quoting: benstor214Quoting: ExpandingManKind of frustrating: I had tried pretty hard for months to get this game working on Epic (through Heroic and Lutris) but I absolutely could not get it to run. Then it releases on steam and it launches right away. This understandably makes me pretty nervous in general that I won't be able to get non-steam games running, which isn't a great feeling.Hi, my first post here! Hello y’all!
I registered because I felt the urge to add my 2 cents on this…
While I completely agree why one can be wary of valve’s dominance on this segment of the market (linux gamers), I’d like to add the following thought: every single competitor of valve can start tomorrow with building up their support of Linux in a similar way as valve does. Not a single person or entity prevents them from doing so. They actively choose not to support Linux and by doing this, they leave the entire market segment to valve. Can you blame valve to take up the opportunity?
In my humble opinion, the “fault” (if you can speak of a fault) lies with the competition, i.e. GOG, Epic and all the other stores that don’t support Linux.
It’s valve’s competitors that allow valve to be the dominant actor here.
In other words: Linux gamers are customers waiting to be grabbed/served, you just have to support their platform. If you cede these customers over to your competitor, you have only yourself to blame.
Maybe I’m wrong. What do I know? These are just my thoughts on the subject.
Now convince me that it was a mistake to register on this site. Haha :D
Edit: “this” customers *facepalm*
Quoting: benstor214Pretty much this. It's like when I see the user percentage between Macs and Linux, especially when it comes to gaming. I don't understand why companies will still develop for the Mac and not develop for Linux. Apple is rather anti-competitive in any APIs you can use, at one point you could make your engine work in OpenGL and there were libraries for Linux, Mac, and Windows. But Apple wanted to break that by dropping any new versions, and pushing Metal. Not to mention trying to lock down to App Store installs, or making it increasingly annoying to download off of developer's home pages.Quoting: ExpandingManKind of frustrating: I had tried pretty hard for months to get this game working on Epic (through Heroic and Lutris) but I absolutely could not get it to run. Then it releases on steam and it launches right away. This understandably makes me pretty nervous in general that I won't be able to get non-steam games running, which isn't a great feeling.Hi, my first post here! Hello y’all!
I registered because I felt the urge to add my 2 cents on this…
While I completely agree why one can be wary of valve’s dominance on this segment of the market (linux gamers), I’d like to add the following thought: every single competitor of valve can start tomorrow with building up their support of Linux in a similar way as valve does. Not a single person or entity prevents them from doing so. They actively choose not to support Linux and by doing this, they leave the entire market segment to valve. Can you blame valve to take up the opportunity?
In my humble opinion, the “fault” (if you can speak of a fault) lies with the competition, i.e. GOG, Epic and all the other stores that don’t support Linux.
It’s valve’s competitors that allow valve to be the dominant actor here.
In other words: Linux gamers are customers waiting to be grabbed/served, you just have to support their platform. If you cede these customers over to your competitor, you have only yourself to blame.
Maybe I’m wrong. What do I know? These are just my thoughts on the subject.
Now convince me that it was a mistake to register on this site. Haha :D
Edit: “this” customers *facepalm*
Linux more or less has always embraced being able to download and install some things. Granted, a lot of times you still have to read a README.md or maybe even copy/paste some command lines (scary!). But is getting extremely easy to add a new repo / flathub, etc.
But you're 100% right, Valve has more or less cornered the market. Even if GOG, Epic, etc wanted the player base numbers for how many would actually be interested in Linux versions... Gog only sort of can, as they could look at how many of their Linux native bundles are downloaded. But it isn't like Steam where they can easily get the exact numbers of Linux players.
I'm guessing, if the Deck is making enough sales, we'll sooner, rather than later, start getting native builds of the engines for things like Watchdogs, Assassin's Creed, etc. But that largely depends on how well the development tools work within the development organizations.
Following along the Launchbox forum posts, the devs there are convinced that Linux's develop tools are crappy and won't work for them. But I believe this is mostly due to their use of .NET, which has been all sorts of terrible for as long as it's been around.
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