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Unity 3D inside the Unity desktop is confusing me. ;)

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I can't even get the site to load >_<

Ah here we go. This loads for me: http://unity3d.com/unity/4/faq#linux

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True. Except that I could easily spend another 3-4 months adding enhancements, tweaking stuff, etc. I've already spent 3+ years working on this game. At some point, I've got to draw the line and say "it's good enough". Otherwise, I'll never finish. :)

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There's nothing wrong with delaying an official release to add in a decent new gameplay mechanic like pushing animations.

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Mark: I definitely want to add pushing animation for Dirk. I like that idea, and it's one of the items on my v1.0 wish list. But it might have to wait until the first update - there's still so much left to do, and I've only 12 days left until release!

Regarding gifting, I'm not familiar with the Humble Bundle system. I'll have to check it out. But there is a gifting option on my BMT Micro shopping cart page. It's a little giftbox icon next to the product in the shopping cart. There's also a checkbox about midway down labeled "Purchase is for someone else".

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KIAze: I actually tried some rotating red alarm lights at one point, but OpenGL only allows 7-8 light sources, so it became a bit of an issue to do that reliably. And there are also outdoor areas where it would be difficult to place such lights. I like the idea of showing/hiding an alarm icon. I like that better than what I've got now! Thanks for the suggestion!

The audio on the 2nd level, 5th floor is a bit of an indicator that there's more there to explore. In fact, there's a pretty sizable hidden area there, where you can actually get up on the roof...

When we implemented the interactive audio engine in v0.6.3, my musician Jesse Hopkins and I spent a lot of time enriching the sfx and adding multiple sound layers (ambient noise, footsteps, ladder sounds, sfx for most moving objects, etc) to help fill the void when music isn't playing. Glad you like it! I think it adds a ton of character to the game...

I'll definitely try to add a level restart option - if not in v1.0, it will be in the first patch. I actually had a hot key that I used for awhile to "abort" a level and return to the level selection screen, so I've already got code for this. Just need to hook it up a bit better.

When using the elevators, I check if there's an enemy in the way, and if so I reset them to their original position - didn't want Dirk coming through the elevator and getting hurt, particularly if the elevator happened to lead into another tile map.

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Hey there my first time posting not first time talking to you :-). I would have to say the game looks great just two issues for myself and that would be it.

1. I have talked to you before about when you are pushing a item there is no animation for him to push the box. It is not a big deal but this kind of takes away from things just saying.

2. You should allow people to gift the game so people can buy the game for people on your site. I am aware that you can buy it then give them the game but it would be nice for a gift system like Humble Bunle has.

Other then these two issues great looking game will be getting soon. Oh and you should look at getting your games on the Ubuntu Software Centre ASAP :-).

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Yes, I can see the red flashing becoming annoying. Two alternatives:
-A simple GUI element showing the alert level (Hitman 2 had a little bar in the top right which increased depending on how suspicious others became of you. But a simple alarm on/off picture would do in your case. Maybe a bell or something like that.)
-Flashing lights ingame on the walls. Since you said you spent a lot of time working on lighting effects in your game, this could even look very nice. :) Of course, it might become just as annoying. The alarm switches on the walls are already some sort of visual indicator, but not that visible.

If you do leave it in as is, I think I would default it to off. Most people play games with sound on.

Another suggestion I forgot:
-The ability to play as agent K or even coop or even switching between characters to solve levels (à la Trine/Lost vikings or even Commandos! :D). But that's a big change and more likely to be something for another game.

Graphically, I also noticed that when jumping close to a wall, the character seems to go through it, but that's really not a big issue.
You did a great job on the sounds. I don't remember hearing all those ladder climbing and jumping on metallic objects sounds last time I tried the game. :)
(and factory sounds in the second level (fifth floor on the left) from the third level?)

edit:
-Additionally to the level restart option: return to level selection screen. I like the ability to save anywhere in games, but for games split into levels, it just makes sense to make it easy to switch between unlocked levels or restart a level. cf Super Meat Boy, Super Mario, and even Half-Life 2 (with its chapters)!

-Using elevators changes the position of some enemies (most of the time they are not in front of the lift anymore). Makes sense if you consider the time it takes for the lift to go up, but is a bit strange sometimes. Minor issue. Also make the game a bit easier. No need to wait for the guard to move before taking the lift.

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Wow, thanks for all the wonderful feedback KIAze!

For #1: I'll have to see why the alarm and ambient sounds are different than all the others... I thought I was turning everything off at a very low level in my code, so it should have worked automatically for everything. By the way, I appreciate your thoroughness in documenting the steps to recreate it - that's invaluable!

I thought I had #2 and #3 fixed at one point. I must have changed something that broke it again. Drat!

Good suggestion regarding the red flashing for the alarm. I had tied it to the sound & music being off, mainly because of personal preference - I play with audio on, and I found the visual feedback annoying after awhile. Making it an option is a good idea. Here's the next question: should I default it to on or off?

(Sorry for bolding - just wanted to make sure my question didn't get lost in the midst of all this text)

I'm still working on the Instruction screens - there's a lot of stuff that's undocumented (characters, moves, stuff Dirk picks up, etc). I knew I was going to redo all the menu graphics at the end, so I didn't want to spend a lot of time working on graphics that I was going to throw away.

I made a note of all your other suggestions. Good stuff! I may not have time to get them into v1.0, so they may have to wait for the first update.

Regarding the alarm lasers blocking the whole path: I should have a switch somewhere that turns them off without having to cross the beams. The only level where the alarm is unavoidable is Chapter 1-7 - and I did that deliberately. It heightens the tension, and from a storytelling perspective, it makes perfect sense that the alarm would be going off during Dirk's escape (since the enemies now know Dirk is there). I did put "N/A" for the Stealth Bonus at the end of that level.

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Tried the demo and found a few bugs:
1) Alarm and ambient sounds don't get turned on or off when turning sound on or off and returning to the game:
To reproduce this bug, simply start a game with game and music on, then press escape, go to the options menu, switch game and music off and return to the game.
Also works the other way around by starting a game with sound and music off, going into options to turn them off and returning to the game.
Music (normal and alarm music), thunder sound and interaction sounds (jumping, etc) all get toggled correctly, but ambient sounds like the rain and especially the alarm sound (intruder alert) remain in the same state as before.

The effect is most noticable when starting a game with sound/music OFF, setting off an alarm, turning sound/music ON and going back into the game.
It then looks as if the alarm is permanently off and even walking into the field of view of a camera doesn't turn it on!
This was actually what I first thought until I did a few more tests.

2) Locked levels remain grey when moving with a mouse over them, but not when using the arrow keys (but they do remain locked).

3) After going into the save menu, selecting a saving slot and cancelling the save, it becomes impossible to select another slot then the one previously selected with the mouse (arrow keys work).

A few suggestions:
-I appreciate the red flashing to show that the alarm is on when playing without sound, but a better and simpler option might be to simply make it an option in the menu.
When I want to play without sound, I usually just turn off the sound in the OS sound control or at the hardware level. But for deaf people, it's definitely a great idea to add visual signals showing the game status.

-The sneaking feature and riot guards are still undocumented in the "Dossiers" section.
-Autosave after finishing a level and getting to the level selection screen would be nice.
-Make disabled menu entries in the main menu grey (ex: "Save" and "Return to game" just after start)
-Add a way to restart a level without having to load a save or kill yourself. (really useful when you are going for a perfect score and don't have any save at the start of the level)
-Add markings to the colored key cards for colorblind people. (game remains playable even without that, but I did mistakenly think I had the right card at one point ^^)
-Add some completion info in the level selection screen (unless gold always means all bonuses obtained (stealth/looting/secure/health/etc)). Perfectionists want feedback on their achievements. :)

Note sure:
Some levels seem to be impossible to finish in stealth mode, notably one with laser triggers blocking the whole path and the only way to access the switch to disable them being through one of those laser barriers.
And in the boss level with the bomber lady, the alarm goes off instantly when starting the "boss fight".
I haven't played through the demo thoroughly enough yet though, so I may be wrong. Only finished the first level with all bonuses.

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Phoronix has written [URL='http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTEyMTA']a piece[/URL] on this as well now. :D

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Looks like Eurogamer Germany has given [URL='http://www.eurogamer.de/articles/2012-06-13-eurogamer-de-fruehstart-13-6-2012']this request[/URL] a mention as well now! It can't be long now. :D

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These indie games are winning me over rather quickly, and they mostly support Linux too. My wallet is ready. :)

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woow nice.
best to play with headset maxed volume and lights off in the room :)

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Well ive purchased this one, although its 32bit deb at moment he is packaging up a 64bit and a tar, Im playing the windows version at the moment through wine, i have to say it seems quite good so far.

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Yes and very good they are to, well worth a purchase!

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Those are finished no ?

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Penumbra ep1/3
http://www.penumbragame.com/ageGate.php

Amnesia the dark descent
http://amnesiagame.com/#main

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What other games ?

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Nice! Rally promising! I'm playing the first game and shitting my pants. Remarcable horror game!

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Quoting: "Hamish, post: 4662, member: 6"You can download games straight from the website if you prefer assuming the developer put up purchased downloads. I am not sure why using their software to update games on their service would be considered unreasonable. And the main difference, the most important difference between Desura and Steam (and I am sure Stallman would agree with me on this one) is that Desura can not remove binaries from your machine. It has no contact with your system. At best they can remove games from your account, but that is it. The binaries are there and can be copied to places separate from their service, and I have in fact done this to give a demo I grabbed from there. So I am not sure exactly what you are upset about.

Add to this the fact that you don't even need the client, they have downloads on their website if the game developers chose to support it so if they don't - it's not down to Desura. As for games downloaded via the client, you can move them out of the Desura folders if you want and remove everything to do with Desura - unlike steam Desura gives you all bits of the game to run outside of the client.

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Yeah it is a pity they chose to use Air.

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Possibly the weirdest game to come out so far this year!

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Here is the final result, if anyone is interested:

QuoteDear Humble Indie Bundle,

As an owner of five of your bundles (and as someone who would have happily supported more if circumstances would have allowed it), including the Humble Indie Bundle V, I ask of you not to think of this as an attack on the Humble Indie Bundle nor, as some have suggested, an action that ignores the positive changes you have done for the Linux game industry. Rather, this is merely a means to try and ensure that these positive changes can continue. We also hope that through this we can help to ensure that both the Linux community and the Humble Indie Bundle can continue to have a positive and meaningful relationship.

Linux users have been supporting the Humble Indie Bundle from the beginning and a relation of mutual trust has grown between the people behind the Bundle and the Linux community. Unfortunately, we feel this trust has been violated by the inclusion of a non-native Linux game in the latest Bundle. This is not merely a complaint about one game included in one Bundle, in this case LIMBO. It sets a horrible precedent for the future, encouraging other developers to merely put out unoptimized Windows binaries of their games running through a WINE or similar layer merely to con Linux users out of their money. We can not allow this to happen, not to the Humble Indie Bundle.

Considering this, and not wanting to boycott the Bundle as many of the developers that were involved were very much deserving of our money as were many of the charities, I tried to think of a constructive way to demonstrate our concerns in an organized and collected manner. A petition was the best means I could find to accomplish this. Over the past few weeks I have collected a total of 543 signatures as of the time of this writing. Each of these signatories had their own views and many added their own commentary alongside their signatures. But we are all agreed that the Bundle went down the wrong path with the inclusion of a non native version of LIMBO.

I have received a variety of responses from the community due to my actions, including praise and support but also criticism and attacks, some of which were very personal. I took these as a demonstration of the amount of feeling people have invested in these Bundles, and with that in mind, analyzed my own feelings on the matter. I came out of it that much surer of why this protest was necessary and why the Humble Indie Bundles must continue to give everyone the most value for their money. There is too much good will invested in it, and Linux users contributed to this in the knowledge that it would help promote the Linux gaming. That is why we did this; we want the Bundle to continue in this purpose.

I have also noticed that you have recently posted that you want to hire more Linux game developers. We appreciate this and hope it will continue to lead everyone in the right direction. A link to the petition is included bellow. Please go through it and read people's comments, and I would appreciate any feedback you could give me on the matter.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hib-native/

Thank you,
Hamish Paul Wilson

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Of all my preorder buys this has been my favourite overgrowth...coming in second. Its been incredible there are already fun builds on Linux essentially a sandbox where you shoot zombies its quite fun. It was pixelated and now they are moving to more 3D models...and it seems to have lost none of its charm in the transition. It even has fairly regular but not routine beta releases.

That said the behind the scenes stuff has made the game a must buy with perhaps the most insane community, make that several communities. The have had problems with payments, burglaries, drunken posts. code editing crisis(someone should have a word with them about open source). I am desperate for the artists who make this game to make lots and lots of money a there is a lot of heart here.

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Quoting: "FutureSuture, post: 4673, member: 204"Guess the Humble Bundle has been quite happy with their success on Linux. Surely this can be used as ammo for even more support soon enough!

I think the success on Linux has been a two way street. They have been incredibly successful at getting so many games ported to Linux.

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It was written by the same person on the previous page in that thread (on GOG forums). The last paragraph.

I think it's not that they believe this likely, but they'd rather be on the safe side.

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Guess the Humble Bundle has been quite happy with their success on Linux. Surely this can be used as ammo for even more support soon enough!

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Quoting: "Anon, post: 4665"And also, this:

Quote... Not to mention publishers coming to us and saying, "It looks an awful lot like you're telling people that your game is supported in Linux. This is funny, because you aren't paying us for Linux distro rights."

I already read the other bit you posted but where on Earth is that from? That sounds pretty bad.

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Hope they finally port Limbo :)

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