CONSCRIPT from Jordan Mochi/ Catchweight Studio and publisher Team17 is a promising looking first world war survival-horror that was crowdfunded back in 2020. Now the developer has cancelled the planned Linux and macOS versions.
"CONSCRIPT is an upcoming survival horror game inspired by classics of the genre - set in 1916 during the Great War. CONSCRIPT will blend all the punishing mechanics of older horror games into a cohesive, tense, and unique experience. In CONSCRIPT, you play as a French soldier searching for his missing-in-action brother during the Battle of Verdun. Will you be able to search twisted trenches, navigate overrun forts, and cross no-mans-land to find him, and ensure a home goes unbroken?"
Since getting a press email about a new demo arriving, and remembering following this along during the Kickstarter, I shot off a message to their PR team a few days ago, and today they got back in touch and the developer has now also published a post directly on Kickstarter where they said:
Linux and Mac Notice
Linux and Mac versions were part of the original Kickstarter campaign, and unfortunately I have to announce that these two platforms will no longer be natively supported. Back during the Kickstarter campaign in 2020 I naively promised things that I had never done before and so I did not realize how much work they were for so little trade off. For me to support these versions, I would likely lose money because the user base is just not there (both of these platforms account for roughly 0.6% of all my Steam wishlists).
Massive apologies for this cancellation, although I hope the announcement of the game on all these other platforms at least softens the blow a little bit.
If you were an original Kickstarter backer who was expecting a Mac or Linux version, feel free to reach out to me via Kickstarter DM and I can organize a refund for you out of pocket.
The wording is a bit odd there with the developer saying it will be "out of pocket". Well, people gave their money to the project for something it's not doing now. So it's only natural to return it. Kickstarter though is very much a gamble on if you like the idea enough.
Sad to see for backers of the project, much like what we saw with Nightdive Studios remaked of System Shock doing the same. We also saw the developer of Blazerush recently announce their ending of Linux and macOS support too. Once again, for macOS it's a bigger loss, since they get nothing, but at least for Linux players (and Steam Deck) it should hopefully be playable with Proton.
Direct Link
CONSCRIPT will be available on GOG and Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
SilverCode May 30
I can organize a refund for you out of pocket.Out of pocket? I had to check the definition of this to make sure it meant what I thought it meant, and it does - "having lost money in a transaction"
They aren't losing money in this transaction, they are just returning it to the person who gave it to them in return for a Linux version.
Back during the Kickstarter campaign in 2020 I naively promised things that I had never done before and so I did not realize how much work they were for so little trade off.
Wow! "Are you kidding me?", It's really shameful. I suspect this is the case for a majority of KS campaigns...
It doesn't mean that they've lost money, it means they're paying the money themselves (rather than accounting for it specifically from Kickstarter funds). Literally taking the money out of their own pocket to pay for it.I can organize a refund for you out of pocket.Out of pocket? I had to check the definition of this to make sure it meant what I thought it meant, and it does - "having lost money in a transaction"
The wording is a bit odd there with the developer saying it will be "out of pocket". Well, people gave their money to the project for something it's not doing now. So it's only natural to return it.
Nothing odd here if he pocketed these funds. ;-)
the developer should've known that macOS and Linux don't have larger player bases like Windows and shouldn't have offered those versions if they've never done it before.
But then they wouldn't have gotten free coverage in linux media and reddit.
Nateman1000 May 30
Gaining a sale under false pretences I would assume is considered illegal behaviour and therefore has broken consumer law.
Someone needs to take this to court as this is happening too frequently and needs to stop. Luckily for me I have never crowd funded anything and certainly would not do so now. All I would say is that the only way to stop this behaviour is to not support the crowdfunding model.
pleasereadthemanual May 30
Another one huh... yeesh. And no comment on Steam Deck or Proton either?I imagine the developer is loathe to make any further promises they can't keep, such as even hinting the game might work in Proton. I'm sure most Linux users can figure that out themselves, anyway.
But then they wouldn't have gotten free coverage in linux media and reddit.That's exactly why they do it - it's the same as how large publishers expect users of certain consoles to port-beg on social-media, thus doing free promotion for them.
They do lose money if they refund the full amount the backer paid, as that amount includes payment processing + KS fees. And Kickstarter themselves don't do refunds.I can organize a refund for you out of pocket.Out of pocket? I had to check the definition of this to make sure it meant what I thought it meant, and it does - "having lost money in a transaction"
They aren't losing money in this transaction, they are just returning it to the person who gave it to them in return for a Linux version.
Some might argue that they still come out ahead due to the benefits of having had that money upfront (and the clout of having those backers onboard), but on a single-transaction basis, they do lose money on each refund.
We should just stop financing crooks and their kickstarters. Show me the product, and I will tell you if I am paying for it or not.
At what point can we just call it "stealing"?
ssj17vegeta May 30
Again? Come on.
At least offering refunds to anyone who expected otherwise is a nice gesture.
It's not nice, it's the bare minimum they can do without outing themselves as complete arse, it's the step just before spitting in your face.
Sadly alot of devs either cancel their Linux ports or put out shoddy ones that are missing features or never updated.
There's been many examples of that with Kickstarter or without.
Back during the Kickstarter campaign in 2020 I naively promised things that I had never done before and so I did not realize how much work they were for so little trade off.
Wow! "Are you kidding me?", It's really shameful. I suspect this is the case for a majority of KS campaigns...
Yeah, if you build a Windows game and expect to just push a few buttons at the end to make it work on Linux or MacOS you're going to have a bad time. If you build from day 1 for it to work on all 3 platforms then it's much easier. Frankly, this just sounds to me like the dev has no clue on how to develop a game and I wouldn't trust his Windows code either. Probably totally un-optimized shit with copy / pasta code chunks all over that he pulled from StackOverflow.
However, KickStarter..not even once. I'll give you my money once you release the game UNLESS you have a decent track record and history of releasing solid Linux support and even then I'll just do the EA version on Steam if it's available.
Last edited by rhavenn on 30 May 2024 at 4:04 pm UTC
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me