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Here's a fresh chance for me to tell you to take a look at the overlooked gem that is Lila's Sky Ark, as it's now on GOG.

What is it? The second game from Monolith of Minds who first gave us the action-adventure Resolutiion. Technically this game is Resolutiion's prequel story, not that you need to know that as it's entirely standalone. Lila's psychedelic world is in grave danger. Help her and her eccentric friends stop the Conductor’s minions from destroying all things musical and magical in this meditative action-adventure game.

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Game Features:

  • Explore Lila's pyschedlic world and get to know her quirky cast of friends, such as the fantastically bespectacled Doctor-Father-Sir and the raven shopkeepers.
  • Search this groovy dreamscape for hidden secrets, recipes, and even new glasses for a certain Sir.
  • Unravel Lila's puzzle-like story, which explores themes such as loss, loneliness, grief, and depression, in this moving prequel to Resolutiion.
  • Battle music-inspired enemies and punishing bosses using an array of strange weapons unlocked through alchemy recipes.

Released originally back in April 2022, amongst many other fantastic titles it was completely overlooked by most with only 67 user reviews on Steam (and only 8 of those gave it a thumbs down).

Now you can grab it on GOG on top of Humble Store and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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19 comments

PublicNuisance Jan 26, 2023
Thanks for the heads up. 2D puzzle games aren't always my thing but this looks interesting enough to go after.
Shmerl Jan 26, 2023
Looks pretty cool with fluid pixel art animation. And developer caring to release it for Linux is good! This seems to become more rare these days.


Last edited by Shmerl on 26 January 2023 at 7:01 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Jan 26, 2023
Looks pretty cool with fluid pixel art animation. And developer caring to release it for Linux is good! This seems to become more rare these days.
More rare based on what? SteamDB clearly shows more Native releases than ever last year.
Shmerl Jan 26, 2023
More rare based on what? SteamDB clearly shows more Native releases than ever last year.

Really? I guess meaning new games I cared about / was interested in then. Just a subjective feeling that less and less Linux games fall into that category, while there were more not so long ago.

I think last native Linux game I bought was Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness.

UPDATE:

To be fair though I have a bunch in the wishlist like new Return to Monkey Island.


Last edited by Shmerl on 26 January 2023 at 8:18 pm UTC
Klaas Jan 26, 2023
I've been disappointed several times last year (and before) with GOG releases without Linux version like Dome Keeper.
whizse Jan 26, 2023
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I was curious what the numbers was for GOG compared to Steam, and there was actually quite a dip for new native releases during the last year:

60 2022
85 2021
112 2020
98 2019
109 2018

Note: This only counts new game releases for a particular year, not titles newly released on GOG.

I think this reflects more on the state of GOG and their lukewarm appreciation of Linux gamers and developers rather than the state of (native) Linux gaming.
Klaas Jan 26, 2023
I was curious what the numbers was for GOG compared to Steam
Excellent timing. Thank you.
Liam Dawe Jan 26, 2023
GOG have weird taste in games too, I’ve seen them completely deny games before on their store for no apparent reason but they will repeatedly put up retro games that largely won’t be sold. GOG doing GOG things.

Still support them and any store doing Linux though, it’s good for Valve to have competition, even small, as it helps consumers.
Klaas Jan 26, 2023
Yes, GOG seems to favour naughty rpg maker games over adventures. And they didn't want to sell Hands of Necromancy for a long time.
Shmerl Jan 26, 2023
I was curious what the numbers was for GOG compared to Steam, and there was actually quite a dip for new native releases during the last year:

60 2022
85 2021
112 2020
98 2019
109 2018

Note: This only counts new game releases for a particular year, not titles newly released on GOG.

I think this reflects more on the state of GOG and their lukewarm appreciation of Linux gamers and developers rather than the state of (native) Linux gaming.

Interesting. How did you crunch the numbers for it?
whizse Jan 26, 2023
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Interesting. How did you crunch the numbers for it?
Just doing manual searches on the GOG page.

I tried GOG Database, but it doesn't really allow any sort of filtering or advanced searches.
Craggles086 Jan 27, 2023
If developers no longer have to target Linux native on the Steam store, then do they put the effort in for Linux Native just on GOG?

Just thinking. If they were targeting both platforms, it would have been far easier in the past if they already had Linux Native on Steam or GOG. Not saying developers are being too slack here, just that GOG cannot get all the blame if this is the case.
Purple Library Guy Jan 27, 2023
If developers no longer have to target Linux native on the Steam store, then do they put the effort in for Linux Native just on GOG?
Huh? I feel like there's at least one and probably two or three premises I'm not getting here.

--Developers never had to target Linux native on the Steam store (or GOG), so there isn't really a "no longer". That's the sadness of tiny market share.

--Contrary to what many (including me) expected, the prevalence of effective (not-an) emulators for non-Linux-native games on Steam does not seem to have led to a reduction in Linux native releases on Steam. Liam just noted that there was actually an increase this year. Perhaps it's because of the buzz for Steam Decks, since everyone knows although they use Proton they're still natively a Linux device and that seems to have driven some Linux interest. So, to the extent there was ever a motivation for targeting Linux native on Steam, it seems there still is.

--Most people using GOG on Linux are I think relatively sophisticated users; I'd bet most of them are able to use emulation software even though GOG doesn't make it easy like Steam does. They just use Lutris or Bottles or whatever. So, any loss of need to release on Linux, caused by Wine, DXVK, Proton, ScummVM etc etc would also apply to GOG even though less obviously; the advance of the technology applies everywhere, not just to Steam.

So yeah: Linux native up on Steam, down on GOG. I don't think you can blame GOG's decrease on Steam.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 27 January 2023 at 2:59 am UTC
Klaas Jan 27, 2023
So yeah: Linux native up on Steam, down on GOG. I don't think you can blame GOG's decrease on Steam.
No, that would be silly. Some of the decrease on GOG might be due to GOG specifically – I've read that they rejected the Hands of Necromancy Linux build.
Cyril Jan 27, 2023
So yeah: Linux native up on Steam, down on GOG. I don't think you can blame GOG's decrease on Steam.
No, that would be silly. Some of the decrease on GOG might be due to GOG specifically – I've read that they rejected the Hands of Necromancy Linux build.
We need the reason, otherwise it's useless.
In fact, part of the answer is here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/hands_of_necromancy/linux_version/post4


Last edited by Cyril on 27 January 2023 at 7:10 pm UTC
nitro322 Jan 27, 2023
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Looks pretty cool with fluid pixel art animation. And developer caring to release it for Linux is good! This seems to become more rare these days.
More rare based on what? SteamDB clearly shows more Native releases than ever last year.

From my perspective, more rare based on drm-free, Linux native games. I don't have any stats to determine whether this is accurate, but it sure feels like native Linux games are in a decline since the mid 2010s now that everyone's happy to just publish on steam or, worst, publish just publish a Windows version that might run on Linux via wine.
whizse Jan 28, 2023
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From my perspective, more rare based on drm-free, Linux native games. I don't have any stats to determine whether this is accurate, but it sure feels like native Linux games are in a decline since the mid 2010s now that everyone's happy to just publish on steam or, worst, publish just publish a Windows version that might run on Linux via wine.
FWIW there were 1424 native Linux games released (on Steam) last year. That's an all time high! 2021 had 1217 new releases.

For comparison with the mid-2010s, 843 in 2015. Much much less if you go back further.

The native Linux game is alive and well! At least on Steam.
whizse Jan 28, 2023
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Another fun little fact:

There are more native Linux games scheduled for release on Steam during 2023 than the total amount published during the year 2013, and we're still only in January...
Shmerl Jan 29, 2023
That's good. But I'd still take quality over quantity. You can ask this question like this - are there more Linux games coming out that you want to actually play than before? In my personal experience - it's less. But I also get that this point can be pretty subjective.


Last edited by Shmerl on 29 January 2023 at 2:49 am UTC
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