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.
slaapliedje Jun 3
It just proves what I always say: Platform support as a KS stretch goal just makes no sense whatsoever, as it is not a flat amount of money to be paid and then it's done, but it is a constant maintenance, which WILL add up to more than the meager amount almost always asked in these goals.That's why it would be nice for companies to do more 'Linux first' development, and ports to other platforms. That seems to me that it'd be the easiest path anyhow. Apparently Valheim is that way. The gnarly thing is, the mod community don't support it as if it were a Linux game ported to others though, since it's Unity, people just compile their mods for Windows...
A lot of people say they don't like Linux because they can't play their games. Then devs do this stuff and nobody complains. Game development is hard work and I sympathize with any dev who needs to make a full experience from the ground up. But come on. You make a promise to get money and then break it because you will lose money is just pure wrong. Also, developers have been making cross-platform software for decades, if you're making a promise like this keep cross-platform practices in mind and maybe you won't have to worry so much about "market share".
they probably cant do that because nowadays developers dont control the full software stack, they rely on game engines to do the job for then, and more often than not those are proprietary and dont have proper linux support.
you dont need to be an good programer to be a good game designer, who knows maybe they are great game designers but suck at code, at least with modern engines they can do something.
That's very true. Still, I'm pretty sure most game engines provide builds for linux, although I know unity used to have some issues with linux builds in the past.
that is the point, those issues might not be fixable by the game developer.A lot of people say they don't like Linux because they can't play their games. Then devs do this stuff and nobody complains. Game development is hard work and I sympathize with any dev who needs to make a full experience from the ground up. But come on. You make a promise to get money and then break it because you will lose money is just pure wrong. Also, developers have been making cross-platform software for decades, if you're making a promise like this keep cross-platform practices in mind and maybe you won't have to worry so much about "market share".
they probably cant do that because nowadays developers dont control the full software stack, they rely on game engines to do the job for then, and more often than not those are proprietary and dont have proper linux support.
you dont need to be an good programer to be a good game designer, who knows maybe they are great game designers but suck at code, at least with modern engines they can do something.
That's very true. Still, I'm pretty sure most game engines provide builds for linux, although I know unity used to have some issues with linux builds in the past.
if someone develop an game using an engine that promisses they support linux, then turns out the support is incomplete and you cant really deliver it, nor change the code to make it work , can we blame the developers?
not to mention sometimes they use some midleware that promisse the samething and the midleware cant deliver an proper support, but its essential to make the game work.
if they chose to not finish the game for everyone instead of just us, it would be much worse for everyone, at least we can run it on proton and get the refund wich is the bare minimum, even better if we can keep our keys, so we get the best of both words, unoficial support with proton (wich often is better than official support anyway) and the game for free.
Last edited by elmapul on 5 June 2024 at 12:50 am UTC
that is the point, those issues might not be fixable by the game developer.
if someone develop an game using an engine that promisses they support linux, then turns out the support is incomplete and you cant really deliver it, nor change the code to make it work , can we blame the developers?
not to mention sometimes they use some midleware that promisse the samething and the midleware cant deliver an proper support, but its essential to make the game work.
if they chose to not finish the game for everyone instead of just us, it would be much worse for everyone, at least we can run it on proton and get the refund wich is the bare minimum, even better if we can keep our keys, so we get the best of both words, unoficial support with proton (wich often is better than official support anyway) and the game for free.
I agree, it's an unfortunate situation and some of the blame most certainly falls onto the developers of the tools game devs use. But they're still developers, using linux as a selling point for donations to develop their paid game, they should at the very least be informed about this, if you're going to make a game in which the kickstarter mentions Linux as a supported platform, you should build the game from the ground up with all platforms in mind. It's also unfair to all the devs who DO provide linux support, to pretend like it's not a possibility. There are plenty of Unity games with Native Linux support that work great.
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