Mac and Linux Status Update

This won't be a popular post, but I really need to know why you would divert production time to these two operating systems with a small development team, their share of the market is virtually non existent, would it not be more beneficial to finish the windows version first, where 95% of your revenue will come, then if feasible, create the Apple and Linux versions?

I ask this not as some Anti Apple or linux troll, just from a business perspective.

Steam statistics:
Windows 95.48% / +0.05%
OSX 3.32% / -0.03%
Linux 1.09% / -0.01%

 

Well a simple part of it is that they've made a promise that they would to people who have already paid. They would have to refund people who purchased early access but did so under the assumption Linux or OS X would be supported. Yes, I believe this is a legal obligation under the doctrine of implicit contract.

Second, just because those are the statistics for Steam as a whole does not mean that this is the demand facing Gaslamp Games specifically as they sell on more markets than just the steam market (and even then, many people using Steam may not even be considering buying what GLG sells). Dungeons of Dredmor supported Linux and OS X and this may have recruited a customer base that is more sensitive to platform support than most (IE, me).

Third, usage statistics don't really reflect how likely people are to actually pay for games given rampant software piracy. One of the motivations for using Linux is, after all, to stay above the law, compared to getting a pirated copy of Windows.

Fourth, you can't actually make an exclusive distribution like this that adds up to 100%. I personally buy games on Steam that have support for both Windows and Linux because I regularly use both. I have windows, but I don't buy windows only games, because I also have Linux and I don't want to be forced to only play a game on my tablet computer.

Finally, you need to consider the costs of making the port, not only the gain. Getting the game to build on Linux or OS X is hard but it isn't that hard, and it provides some easy extra returns. Almost all the source code will be unchanged because you're abstracting over differences like UTF-8 vs UTF-16 or how to initialize a window with cross platform libraries like SDL and GLUT, it's the deployment that gets hard. So long as returns are greater than costs, the decision makes sense, even if the returns are small.

PS: The general way to tell if this is stupid or not is to see if the company keeps doing it. If it is not worth GLG's time from a business perspective, they will eventually stop doing it. Given that they didn't stop doing it after Dungeons of Dredmor, the safe assumption is that it is in fact a sensible decision for them. For now.

 

Been trying my best to get it working anyway by linking it to its dependencies, but apparently there's no 64-bit version of libsteam_api and CE is distributed as a 64-bit binary. Perhaps do what starbound does and distribute a steam-enabled 32-bit binary and a non-steam enabled 64-bit one if the player wants to manually run it?

 

There are other games that have a 64-bit libsteam_api.so ...

I've been waiting to buy until this works on Linux, so I'm really excited that the day is almost here

 

Is there any update to share for Linux, also waiting impatiently for the Linux version to arrive.

 

Any update on Linux? Am currently playing the game fine with a Windows Steam client under wine. Would love to play it natively. Even running it under wine, on the Minimum requirements for CPU, the game runs wonderful except for already reported bugs. Good luck porting it!

 

Friendly bump, hope Linux gamers haven't been forgotten

 

Damn, that's a real shame as I have been looking forward to checking it out during development

 

It will be worth the wait.

 

Other people have run into the same problem with other games. Any way someone from Gaslamp can add the shared object file to the download or can the file be posted somewhere? I don't have any other games for Linux that I can get a copy from. I found the 32bit version on line somewhere else but the 64-bit version is unavailable.

 

What is the current state of the game on Mac? I've been very excited for this game since I first heard about it, but I'm still waiting to hear that it runs well on OS X.

 

Sadly, you have wasted a good many weeks, nay months, of time where you could have been enjoying this game.

 

Oh, so it runs well then currently? I'm on a reasonably powered Macbook Pro. I think I'll buy it and see how it runs =)

 

Currently can't get 41D to launch.

 

If it's not one thing..... well, thanks for the update.

 

One thing I've always wondered, are there certain aspects of the game that in general perform better in one environment compared to the other two? (For example having to handle audio a slightly different way with OS X environments that actually leads to something that doesn't require additional leg work compared to having to cater to all the redundant silliness in a Windows xx environment)

I'd imagine there would be some variation between the average results between environments in cases where platform specific solutions have to be introduced, but is the difference noticeable with the end result or is it mostly subtle?