Why the sad face?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Indeed I don't know why they didn't, I wander how long it will take them to sift through all the applicants, probably at least a week? So maybe closed beta end of next week?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Who knows maybe now they proper groups are up on the website it will just be all done there?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Sent mine in, i hope they publish stats on how many people sign up for it that would be very interesting to see.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Keep an eye out on Monday, Valve are talking at Ubuntu Developer Summit
Drew Bliss - Valve

2012-10-29 14:15..14:30 in Auditorium 10+11
Pretty sure that's GMT time.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I have sent this to a few other Linux sites I hope they pick it up.

LXER is the only one so far to say they won't put it up.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

It's all good news and now I project I personally support to the point of gol doing an interview :D

View this comment - View article - View full comments

QuoteCorey Cole says:

I posted it in the FAQ: We definitely want to support Linux, and it's a question of funding. The issue is that our minimum goal is barely enough to support finishing the project in six months. If we don't make any stretch goals, we won't have time to ensure a Linux version is rock-solid. Every penny will go into completing and testing the game. Hopefully we will do better and be able to add Linux support.

What are your target platforms? Will you support Linux?

Initially we will support Windows and Macintosh. We are using the Unity engine, which works on a variety of platforms. However, there are significant costs involved in customizing and testing the game on each additional platform. As our first stretch goal, in addition to content improvements, we plan to support Linux, iPad, and selected additional iOS and Android devices.

So even though it requires no extra effort since they use Unity and I pointed that out to them in the conversation, it's still going to be a stretch goal, very dissapointing and a project i won't be contributing to.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I sent the lead another message asking what happened, not sure what to make of this, first i thought it was a cash grab, then it seemed he was just ill informed...and now nothing has been done...hmmm.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Okay so as promised here is the chat between me and the developer.

Me:

QuoteHow can Linux be a stretch goal when you use Unity, it does the exporting for you? Sounds like a money grab to me.

Cole:

QuoteLinux will be *part* of a stretch goal that also includes paying the team better and adding significantly more content. We want to support Linux, and plan to, but we have to be realistic. Linux is part of the very first stretch goal (not yet announced, but currently I have it budgeted at $550K).
Unity charges $1,500 per seat per target operating system for their development kit. We will need multiple Linux Unity kits to port there. We will also need to test the game on various Linux distributions such as RedHat and Ubuntu to make sure everything works properly.
Frankly, at the $400K minimum goal, the team will be in austerity mode just getting the game out. That will give us the same budget we had for Hero's Quest, a 16-color EGA game, in 1989 when Sierra paid artists $18K/year. Our team members have families, and the cost of living has increased greatly in the meantime. So it isn't just about Linux, it's about making a great game on a shoestring.

Me:

QuoteI just checked and the 1,500 charge includes Linux publishing for Unity3D so its not per operating system? So i don't get what you mean at all.
If you don't already have unity licenses then that would be covered in your initial goal would it not?

Cole:

QuoteYes, that's correct. We are talking with some Linux experts about ways to reduce the cost. We might be able to have a single build machine with the Linux license, and have one person responsible for all Linux builds. We will still need to acquire multiple Linux systems and distributions to do testing, and pay a tester to exhaustively test each build. We'll be able to do some of that by releasing Beta versions to backers in the Linux community, but that's no substitute for professional Quality Assurance.
Other projects in the past have been slammed by Windows users for promising Linux support at the beginning. They feel (somewhat correctly) that resources will be taken away from Windows game development to port and test on Linux. Trust me, we definitely want to find a way to support Linux, but not at the cost of overall game quality.

Me:

QuoteAny machine and any single Unity3D license would support publishing to Linux so the cost of actually putting it onto Linux is what the cost of a distribution - free, unity license 1,500 covered by your initial goal and a computer which you can dual boot anyway with Windows which you would already have.
I just don't see why really it is being made out to be so expensive.
The Linux community LOVE play testing and can easily do a large part of it for you. Using Unity3D you would have nearly your whole codebase the same across Windows, Mac and Linux would you not? So i don't understand how it would take a large amount of Windows development time away.
I appreciate chatting with you like this its good to get a proper insight into what goes on with Unity and game devs.

Cole:

QuoteI admit my information was second-hand from our lead developer. When we started talking with him in April, Unity did not even support Linux. I'll talk with him this evening and see whether we can add it to the base build. Our stretch goal was to include Linux, iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. The rest of those require serious additional work on the graphics, user interface, and testing. Linux is admittedly much easier.
Clearly I will have to add Linux to my system. I used to work on unix back in the early 80's before I got into the game industry. I've had very little contact with Linux.

Me - Note - I of course know many other distros but we all know those two are the most popular.

QuoteWell for Linux Ubuntu and Fedora are the main ones to focus on. Redhat is really for workstations.
Dual booting Linux with Windows is a sinch nowadays.
In Unity Linux publishing is in the initial license but flash, android or ios re the extras.
If you need any other Linux advice give me a shout but since you are Using Unity it won't be hard.

Cole:

QuoteSounds good, thanks for the info. I'm told that Linux is part of Unity 4 - not yet released - but not the previous versions. I'll make sure when I get my license that I get v.4 and Linux support. As soon as I've had a chance to go through this with Andrew, I'll post something to the project (probably late tonight or tomorrow).

So they will be looking to support Linux from the get go now. Luckily in this case the developer is nice enough to chat and just wasn't educated on it at all, he said it himself he hasn't used Linux.

So in future folks if you see a Linux stretch goal...try just having a simple chat with them.

View this comment - View article - View full comments