Yep, it's important to note that we're not asking one or more people to "take on" the TFC article. All we need is one or two people to commit maybe a half hour a week to write one, maybe two projects up. They're already nominated usually and your contribution can be at any point in between the article's "go live" date.

We use a GoL maintained WIKI to write the article, then it gets published by Munts when we agree that it's ready.

This isn't a huge commitment, but as Speedster notes, I do most of the writing now that Munts is deep into his post-graduate and I just find it difficult to write up 5 or 6 projects by myself every couple of weeks.

If you volunteer, all that really happens is that you'll get an email/private message inviting you to the WIKI and any projects you cover will be hugely appreciated.

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Happy memories of this. I did play it again (via emulator) a few years back and found it surprisingly difficult! I'd love to buy the anniversary remake if it lands on Linux.

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Yeah, I owned it (and barely played it) for years. I only played it again (briefly) when it became available for Linux. It's a building block to other people's work though, not really "worth it" on its own. The mod my mates wanted me to buy it for was called... eh... Trouble in Terror Town? Something like that. I couldn't really get into it.

So, yeah, decent figures all things considered. Half as many in the past year, so that's 3 million units sold? 1% of 3 million is 30k units. About right. In fact, surprisingly high when you consider how many Linux people will already own this.

I mean, Linux users are only 1% right? But here's someone who's made 1% sales DESPITE a large portion of the existing 1% already owning it.

I'd love to see how many of us actually did own this for a while. If there were a lot, it would suggest that Linux gamers represent a fair bit more than 1%, or that we've done a heap of re-buying/gifting existing games for our platform to boost figures.

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Multiple sites, including Kotaku covered the Linux port, and their IndieGoGo page put "PC & Linux" as target platforms. Plus, the tweet you highlighted, Liam.

Anyone arguing that "Linux was never promised" is either a fool or an L0 employee. Another Fun Pimps-like debacle.

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Quoting: muntdefems

Quoting: scaineThe only game I don't already own is Gunpoint, so I'll wait until next week to see if it's worth a punt (when the other games are announced).

I own everything except Gunpoint and Luftrausers. Well, and Prison Architect too. I was going to go for it anyway but then I remembered your rant about this particular game, so I'm also waiting till next Tuesday to finally decide.

Well, yeah, but take that rant within the context of which I ranted it - Alpha 13 or 14 maybe. It's (hopefully) come a long way since then.

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The only game I don't already own is Gunpoint, so I'll wait until next week to see if it's worth a punt (when the other games are announced).

Luftrausers is superb. And while it's not for everyone, I loved Gone Home too.

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Quoting: chrisq

Quoting: scaine

Quoting: chrisqThe game is 80% off on gamersgate right now and for 2 more days.

God loves a bargain... but you do no-one except yourself any favours if you buy this before its release. If the developer ported themselves, they'll not see your purchase as a Linux purchase and be disheartened from future development. If the developers outsourced to a thirdparty, that thirdparty is relying on sales AFTER the port is released to make their money.

I am aware of this.
However 80% is quite a bit to pay extra to prove to them that I run linux.
This is an issue with steams identification, they should be lobbied to change their algorithms.

No arguement here, that's for sure. I'm annoyed that I've bought many games in the past that sit in my "to play" list and now I'm fairly certain that they've defaulted to "Windows" because I never got round to playing them. That's pretty weak.

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: liamdaweLinux is a small market, and it is growing, but like others have plainly stated RotT for one has massive competition that it didn't have in the past, as the tower defence market has so many games now it's unreal.

As a TD fan I have to disagree :). For one thing, Revenge of the Titans is not really a tower defence game (because the enemies come from everywhere and don’t follow a path). And then there are not a lot of TD games for Linux ! Fieldrunners 1 & 2, Kingdom Rush… That’s about it? (I know about OTTTD and Sentinel but they aren’t proper TD games either.)

I'd argue your comments that "RotT isn't Tower Defence". You have a base to defend, and a budget to place towers. That's pretty much what it boils down to - the rest is detail. But fair enough. I see Cas himself calls it Strategy, but as he himself states, it's a bit churlish to put stuff in a box like that. I suppose the (infuriating and near-game breaking) "ghosts" in RotT breaks up the notion of "true" Tower Defence, because you have to click like mad when your regular towers ignore them. I hated that aspect personally and it stopped me playing in the end, but I can see how it breaks the mold.

So... whatever.

More importantly, you seem to be missing out on some serious Linux TD love. There's a few titles here and these are only the ones I know about on Steam.

You've already mentioned Fieldrunners, Sentinel and the excellent Kingdom Rush. There's also:

Classic
iBomber Defense
Defense Zone 1 & 2
War in a Box : Paper Tanks
PixelJunk Monsters
Infectionator (Early Access)
Cubemen 1 & 2

Strategy or RPG or "weird"
Rymdkapsel
Defender's Quest
Bad Hotel
Anomoly Defenders (or in reverse, the original Anomoly games)
CreeperWorld3

First Person
Sanctum 2
Dungeon Defenders (& Eternity)
McDroid
Heldric: Legend of the Shoemaker


So, plenty to choose from. I'd personally love to see Sentinel 3 come to Linux, but apparently it's not to be. Shame - I gave up playing it on Android when Origin8 confirmed via email that they had no plans to support Android Play for cloud saves. It meant that the 20 hours I'd poured into the game on my now defunct Transformer tablet was wasted and had to be reproduced on my new Nexus 7. Wasn't gonna happen, and the lack of cloud save on Android is pretty much the primary reason I don't play games on that platform any more.

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Quoting: princecNot really our fault Steam only released on linux a short while back - we've been there since 2002! The context of the tweet was me looking at the last 12 months and wondering why Linux sales make up such a pitiful % of revenue now rather than growing. I'm looking forward to seeing how Basingstoke does.

Shame people have to read Aftermath to understand the Worthless post but I suppose not a lot of people actually try and read anything and comprehend it any more.

And as I say, why would it grow? I doubt Linux users as a base is growing hugely, but even if they were, sorry man, but your games have massive competition now. Massive.

And while I loved RotT, I just couldn't recommend it to a mate when games like Tales of Maj'Eyal are cheaper and offer more hours of game play. I've sunk 100 hours into that and hardly scratched the surface. It costs a fiver. No idea how the dev is doing right enough...

And finally, regarding Worthless, and it's disgusting, shocking reaction, it probably doesn't help that you're deliberately stirring the pot with those tweets.

It's been educational. I'll say that.

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Well, tweets are notorious for lacking context. I'm glad you clarified.

As for not growing, that doesn't sound fair. You don't have anything on Steam that's been launched on day 1 for all three right? So most gamers either already own your IP from other sources, or there was no Steam for Linux at the time. We'll know one when the next game comes along.

And keep writing the blog. Very entertaining. Maybe there really is no such thing as bad press after all. A few thousand people now know the name Puppy Games. I just hope they read Aftermath... Or you're screwed!

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