Moonray Studios have put out the 1.0 release of Tidal Shock: Off The Hook, a free to play underwater shooter and the update brings full Native Linux and Steam Deck support. The 1.0 release comes after around 5 years in Early Access, along with it becoming to free to play back in early March. So it seems like now is a great time to grab a few friends to pick it up and play together no matter what system you're on.
With the update on top of the Linux / Steam Deck support they also added in newly opened up ship and mine areas, new achievements and a new trophy system to reward the best players in each match.
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Feature Highlight:
- Intense 2-12 Player Multiplayer Arena: Dive into thrilling battles with up to 12 players in expansive underwater arenas.
- Massive Abyssal Arenas: Explore vast, zero-gravity environments offering limitless tactical possibilities.
- Seven Aquatic Weapon Classes: Equip a diverse arsenal: pistols, burst rifles, automatics, shotguns, carpets, sniper rifles, and thumpers, each with five rarity levels.
- Advanced Movement Mechanics: Utilize dashes, deploy blocking walls, and ride your torpedo for high-speed maneuvers.
- Four Dynamic Game Modes: Engage in three-round matches across Reactor Rush, Control, Point2Point, and Deathmatch O₂.
- Progression and Customization: Level up from Guppy to Killer Whale and unlock over 40 skins, shields, and torpedo cosmetics.
- Achievements and Awards: Unlock over 30 achievements (and counting!) and compete for awards to flex on your enemies.
- Team-Based, Tactical Gameplay: Squad up with friends, coordinate strategies, and dominate the competition.
- Zero-Gravity, 360° Combat: Embrace total freedom of movement for unparalleled combat experiences.
Speaking about adding direct Steam Deck support they said "We didn’t design for Deck on day one — but once we saw what this little machine could do, we knew we had to make a build for it." which includes a Native Linux version, full controller support and smooth performance. They also said "If you’re a Steam Deck player, we built this for you. This isn’t just a game that runs — it thrives. And we’re hoping your feedback helps push it toward full Verified status".
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
gradyvuckovic 6 hours ago
I've always said, there was no point in pushing for native builds while we had such small marketshare, that Proton is the solution to building marketshare, and that if the marketshare goes up high enough eventually developers will make native builds.
And my theory is based off the assumption that if the marketshare goes up, developers desire to support the marketshare will go up, and eventually there's a cutoff threshold where Proton makes supporting Linux support harder instead of easier than a native build.
Proton makes life easy if you have no intention of supporting Linux, or only want to provide minimal support, but if you DO want to support Linux and you want to start, for example, debugging performance issues on Linux? It'd be far easier to do that with a native build from a game engine than via Proton, where there's an entire layer of compatibility you're dealing with, and to a certain extent how your game runs on Linux is 'magic' you don't control. Whereas with a native build you do control every little detail.
Perhaps this is an example of exactly that happening? They could have simply relied on Proton, but instead they felt the need to make an optimised build, so they went straight for native. That could be a good sign.
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