Developer Pixel Rats emailed in about their stealthy platformer that now has a Playtest available on Steam, and they're requesting backup from Linux players to see how it runs across different systems.
More about it: "Sneak, fight and sabotage an evil bunny corporation in this stealthy platformer. Join a resistance group of animals trying to get their home planet back from the paws of evil rabbits. Master stealth, swing with ninja ropes, crack tricky puzzles and enjoy satirical humour!"
The developer mentioned they wrote their game engine from scratch, so it's vital they get as many people as possible to give it a go to ensure the eventual release works well. Check out the trailer showcase below:
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Direct Link
Direct Link
Game Features (from Steam):
- Semi-open overworld.
- A complex story with a narrative alluding to real-life societal issues.
- Stealth gameplay.
- Dynamic lights and shadows that influence the gameplay.
- Enemy AI that responds to visual, audio and environmental inputs (important while sneaking).
- Physics-based ninja rope and archery.
- Original synthwave soundtrack and immersive audio design.
- Proprietary engine.
- Pole dancing.
You can join the Playtest on Steam. Just scroll down to the banner when logged in to request access.
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First test done on a i7 6700, 16GB, NVIDIA 4060ti. Fedora 39 KDE spin. No issues. Left my feedback in game.
Next test will be on my AMD 6800XT system.
Next test will be on my AMD 6800XT system.
1 Likes, Who?
all they needed - and what someone experienced with community management would do - is just give a "thanks for testing our game, you guys are great!" and maybe some blurb about how great the game is and how they made it.Hm, yes, if there's one thing people here love it's corporate-approved platitudes that don't address their feedback.
You must be reading mitridas's posts in a vastly different tone than I am, because from here it looks like you are grossly overreacting. Their initial question may have been somewhat tone deaf, but to be fair, we do have people here who only play libre games.
3 Likes, Who?
First test done on a i7 6700, 16GB, NVIDIA 4060ti. Fedora 39 KDE spin. No issues. Left my feedback in game.
Next test will be on my AMD 6800XT system.
Cheers, I received both of your in-game feedbacks. A bit puzzling that with the 6800XT it slows down - it runs pretty smoothly on my 6500XT which is supposed to be slower :/
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Second test done on a i7 6700k, 32GB, AMD Radeon 6800XT 16GB. Fedora 39 KDE spin. No issues starting the game. Do experience a slow down after 57 seconds. Its not an FPS drop. The rendering just gradually slows down. Also the timer slows with the same pace. Left my feedback in game.
Next test will be on my Steam Deck OLED.
Next test will be on my Steam Deck OLED.
1 Likes, Who?
Hi all: please remember to read the rules and remain polite to each other. There's no need to get silly about such simple things. Let's calm it down a bit.
4 Likes, Who?
First test done on a i7 6700, 16GB, NVIDIA 4060ti. Fedora 39 KDE spin. No issues. Left my feedback in game.
Next test will be on my AMD 6800XT system.
Cheers, I received both of your in-game feedbacks. A bit puzzling that with the 6800XT it slows down - it runs pretty smoothly on my 6500XT which is supposed to be slower :/
Yes. First time I experienced this on my system. Switching RSync off doesn't fix it. I'll do a quick search for similar issues with games. Maybe its something obvious.
Edit: oh yeah, And when loading a new section, for a split second I see the last frame being displayed.
Edit 2: Sound did sound better, that was a problem on my end. I quickly connected headphones via an audio extension cable and that didn't do the sound quality any good.
Last edited by tfk on 26 Feb 2024 at 9:09 pm UTC
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Steam Deck (OLED) time. Did not launch. But I know why. The game needs three libraries which are not available on SteamOS by default.
Best option is to include these three `.so` files in the root of the game. The `ldd` command says that the rest of the libraries are there.
Edit:
Not seen the game on screen yet, but a few pointers towards Steam Deck verified status.
1. Readability. The game has text balloons, key indicators and train station names which are referred to, which the player has to follow. My initial feeling is that these texts need to be bigger to be readable on smaller screens. The main menu is OK as far as I can gather.
2. The Steam Deck Controls need to work. It is possible to map buttons to in game key presses, but I think Valve has a section in their SDK to properly support the Steam Deck controls.
3. I didn't see any places where text input was needed, other than the feedback box and the numerical input fields for the sound volume. The latter should really be replaced by sliders so a user can navigate via the d-pad, select with A and use the d-pad again to change the values.
Last edited by tfk on 26 Feb 2024 at 9:47 pm UTC
libc.so.6: version: GLIBC_2.38
libm.so.6: version: GLIBC_2.38
libstdc++.so.6: version: GLIBCXX_3.4.32Best option is to include these three `.so` files in the root of the game. The `ldd` command says that the rest of the libraries are there.
Edit:
Not seen the game on screen yet, but a few pointers towards Steam Deck verified status.
1. Readability. The game has text balloons, key indicators and train station names which are referred to, which the player has to follow. My initial feeling is that these texts need to be bigger to be readable on smaller screens. The main menu is OK as far as I can gather.
2. The Steam Deck Controls need to work. It is possible to map buttons to in game key presses, but I think Valve has a section in their SDK to properly support the Steam Deck controls.
3. I didn't see any places where text input was needed, other than the feedback box and the numerical input fields for the sound volume. The latter should really be replaced by sliders so a user can navigate via the d-pad, select with A and use the d-pad again to change the values.
Last edited by tfk on 26 Feb 2024 at 9:47 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Schattenspiegel 26 Feb 2024
GLIBC version is also a problem for everything based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (they ship with version 2.35)
Did a quick test with Proton Experimental instead: ran nicely until the game slowed down to a crawl reproducible by the sneak section in the training area CPU usage goes through the roof.
Textboxes need definitely an increase in size - especially button prompts are hard to decipher on 24'.
Very nice intro, though! ;-)
Did a quick test with Proton Experimental instead: ran nicely until the game slowed down to a crawl reproducible by the sneak section in the training area CPU usage goes through the roof.
Textboxes need definitely an increase in size - especially button prompts are hard to decipher on 24'.
Very nice intro, though! ;-)
0 Likes
Thanks everybody, this is precisely the type of feedback we were looking for! Keep it coming :D
Sounds like GLIBC compatibility is the main problem at the moment (silly of me to overlook it).
We'll definitely improve the readability of text/icons on smaller screens, and regarding the Steam Deck Controls / Joypads in general, I'm working on Steam Input integration as we speak.
Sounds like GLIBC compatibility is the main problem at the moment (silly of me to overlook it).
We'll definitely improve the readability of text/icons on smaller screens, and regarding the Steam Deck Controls / Joypads in general, I'm working on Steam Input integration as we speak.
1 Likes, Who?
Nice! I think that shipping the libs in the game directory works. I copy over libs from the Ubuntu dirs of my Steam install to games which miss libs. That works too.
1 Likes, Who?
I think it's more that just saying it's a "Proprietary engine" by itself isn't really a selling point, it doesn't really explain anything and to most people it won't really mean anything.
And no, no one expects games or the game engine to be open source at all.
Yeah, I guess it's true that to most people it wouldn't mean anything, but to other gamedev nerds like me it will :)
We might reword it to "Custom engine", and move it to a different section of the description to make it clearer.
...
May I suggest the term "in-house engine"?
That would properly convey that you made this "engine" thingy yourself (with the implication that many others don't), even to the most clueless of clueless. Custom could still be a modified third party engine, after all.
As for the play-test, just obtained access and I may even find the time tonight to take a peek ^_^
Last edited by emphy on 27 Feb 2024 at 2:29 am UTC
5 Likes, Who?
I think it's more that just saying it's a "Proprietary engine" by itself isn't really a selling point, it doesn't really explain anything and to most people it won't really mean anything.
And no, no one expects games or the game engine to be open source at all.
Yeah, I guess it's true that to most people it wouldn't mean anything, but to other gamedev nerds like me it will :)
We might reword it to "Custom engine", and move it to a different section of the description to make it clearer.
...
May I suggest the term "in-house engine"?
That would properly convey that you made this "engine" thingy yourself (with the implication that many others don't), even to the most clueless of clueless. Custom could still be a modified third party engine, after all.
As for the play-test, just obtained access and I may even find the time tonight to take a peek ^_^
+1 to in-house, that's the right term!
1 Likes, Who?
I think it's more that just saying it's a "Proprietary engine" by itself isn't really a selling point, it doesn't really explain anything and to most people it won't really mean anything.
And no, no one expects games or the game engine to be open source at all.
Yeah, I guess it's true that to most people it wouldn't mean anything, but to other gamedev nerds like me it will :)
We might reword it to "Custom engine", and move it to a different section of the description to make it clearer.
...
May I suggest the term "in-house engine"?
That would properly convey that you made this "engine" thingy yourself (with the implication that many others don't), even to the most clueless of clueless. Custom could still be a modified third party engine, after all.
As for the play-test, just obtained access and I may even find the time tonight to take a peek ^_^
+1 to in-house, that's the right term!
"Bespoke engine" sounds fancier!
Good luck with the game @mitridas! It looks fun. Thanks for supporting Linux.
3 Likes, Who?
I'm not really a platformer person, but watching the trailer there is definitely something about this, the rhythm or the way the movement flows or something, that does feel different from most of them. So it didn't surprise me that they did their own engine.
2 Likes, Who?
"Bespoke" and "In-house" are both very good.
What about "Handcrafted"? Might sound more wholesome to non-technical people.
Stay tuned, I'm planning to push an update to Steam today with a bunch of fixes/improvements that hopefully will solve most of the problems you guys reported!
What about "Handcrafted"? Might sound more wholesome to non-technical people.
Stay tuned, I'm planning to push an update to Steam today with a bunch of fixes/improvements that hopefully will solve most of the problems you guys reported!
2 Likes, Who?
Something like "Our own engine, handcrafted in-house".
The slowdown, could that be a Wayland thing? I can test this theory this evening. I realized that the NVIDIA machine runs on X11 and the AMD machine on Wayland.
The slowdown, could that be a Wayland thing? I can test this theory this evening. I realized that the NVIDIA machine runs on X11 and the AMD machine on Wayland.
1 Likes, Who?
"Bespoke" and "In-house" are both very good.
What about "Handcrafted"? Might sound more wholesome to non-technical people.
Stay tuned, I'm planning to push an update to Steam today with a bunch of fixes/improvements that hopefully will solve most of the problems you guys reported!
Or a bit more tongue-in-cheek: "traditionally handcrafted" or "home-made" ^_^
Not sure how well that would be received, though. One never knows nowadays, over the internet.
Last edited by emphy on 27 Feb 2024 at 10:16 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
"Bespoke" and "In-house" are both very good.
What about "Handcrafted"? Might sound more wholesome to non-technical people.
Stay tuned, I'm planning to push an update to Steam today with a bunch of fixes/improvements that hopefully will solve most of the problems you guys reported!
Or a bit more tongue-in-cheek: "traditionally handcrafted" or "home-made" ^_^
Not sure how well that would be received, though. One never knows nowadays, over the internet.
"DIY"? ;)
But seriously, love "handcrafted".
1 Likes, Who?
I put a request in. 
0 Likes
I put a request in.
If you mean a support request/feedback, I can't see anything - where did you send it?
Cool to have a Gentoo tester!
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