Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

What Can You Do For Linux Gaming?

By - | Views: 26,022
There's been some bad news about Linux games lately like Super Win the Game which sold only fifty copies for Linux and hasn't been worth the cost, "financially and emotionally", to support the platform.

Then we had news that Legend Of Grimrock 2 won't get a port, so we can guess the first one was not worth the cost.

Frozen Synapse Prime doesn't seem to be getting a port either. The company says that they had only 1% of Linux sales for a previous title and that a port, including "GPU driver performance issues, all the nuances full screen and controllers and all of the standard system stuff, [...] a full test" and QA would cost £30,000.

So, what could we do about it? Of course, sit and complain, talk about the games not being good, or wait for SteamOS. I guess it won't help much, but what else could you you do?

Of course buying games for Linux directly will help. Buy them using Linux and play them on Linux. Do not buy games that don't have a nice smiling penguin icon. In my humble opinion, this prohibits pre-ordering as well. We should be sure that a purchase is counted for Linux!

Consider not waiting for a sale. We are used to extremely cheap games. You can easily buy 100 hours of fun with a game made last year for 5 bucks, but if you think a game is worth its full price, consider paying that instead of waiting for the 66% account. But if you can't afford, of course buying cheap is better than not buying at all.

This is all known, I guess, so now to the main reason for this article: Keep the price for Linux ports low. Of course, you cannot change the price of porting itself, but if it is emotionally draining to port to Linux and if supporting all those Linux set-ups is that expensive, you should try to lower that cost; Be a low profile customer.

The best customer is the one who delivers his money, writes a review, adds to a big "Thank you!" thread and is never to be heard of again. I'm not saying that you do not deserve customer support, but try the very best to a) avoid needing it and b) try to give support to fellow Linux gamers, so they do not need it from the company. We keep seeing developers state support and Q&A as being expensive for Linux.

If you're using anything but a very standard installation, consider a second partition with, say, Ubuntu (What Steam officially supports!). Most of us are used to dual booting. If it needs to be done, dual boot between your Linux distributions. Try a closed source driver, even if you don't like closed source to make sure it's not a driver issue. Some adventure games don't work with high polling-rate shooter mice, so go and use an old mouse or adjust the rate yourself. Try to solve problems on your own or by doing a little searching.

And if you find a solution, share it. Others will be able to solve their problems with your hints, and hopefully developers will see less Linux support topics on the same issues, and it will cost them less time.

Always remain polite. When helping others, when saying thank you, and, if need be, when asking about bugs or support. Remember you are talking to actual living people. Humans like being treated nice. We have already seen developers slow ports down due to Linux users' attitudes.

Again, I'm not asking you to give up your customer rights. I'm asking you to do what Linux gamers are expected to do well; be tech-savy, friendly people who help each other. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial
0 Likes
The comments on this article are closed.
35 comments
Page: «4/4
  Go to:

tuxisagamer Nov 24, 2014
Quoting: tmtvlIf we have to select a distro to be the "default", I'd like to suggest Gentoo. We tend to be more aware of what can cause problems on our systems and how to fix it compared to people who run, say, Ubuntu and don't know half of what's installed on their machines.

There are a copuple problems with that. One is that each individual Gentoo user can set different USE flags so software may be at the same version but be compiled with completely different options. Another is that you want to officially support the consumer version of the OS. Game companies support Windows Professional and Home not server. Same concept.
Mohandevir Nov 24, 2014
Quoting: tuxisagamer
Quoting: tmtvlIf we have to select a distro to be the "default", I'd like to suggest Gentoo. We tend to be more aware of what can cause problems on our systems and how to fix it compared to people who run, say, Ubuntu and don't know half of what's installed on their machines.
There are a copuple problems with that. One is that each individual Gentoo user can set different USE flags so software may be at the same version but be compiled with completely different options. Another is that you want to officially support the consumer version of the OS. Game companies support Windows Professional and Home not server. Same concept.

Anyway, the choice is not ours. It's already been taken out of our hands. If you want a ready to go gaming experience, better stick with Ubuntu, as supported by Valve, and change the desktop UI if you mind. KDE, Unity, Xfce, Lxde, Gnome, to name a few, are all available and you still have the full Steam support.

There is Mint too that is quite near to Ubuntu, from what I understand, and Debian that is the base for SteamOS, Ubuntu and Mint... Btw, why isn't it officialy supported by Valve?

Personnaly, I stick with Ubuntu-Unity because it's the best "out of the box" experience for my 42" HDTV.

Unless gaming is not your priority...

That's the way I see it, at least.
wit_as_a_riddle Nov 25, 2014
Super Win the Game is on my wish list!
amckinnon Nov 26, 2014
I don't believe it is all about what we can do as Linux gamers. Sure, I agree we should not be buying and playing games that do not have a native Linux version but any developer who complains about not making enough from Linux sales should have foreseen that when they already had a Windows version released.

If a developer wants to make sure their game is going to bring in the money from Linux, they need to make their games cross platform right from the start instead of focusing on Windows only programming then a year later convert the game so it can run on Linux.

In my opinion, it is plain stupidity to create your software using code that can only work on one platform. Granted I am no programmer but to me at least, it makes more sense to create your game with cross platform code from the start to maximize your potential sales without the extra time/cost of having to recode for each platform.
Eike Nov 26, 2014
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: amckinnonI don't believe it is all about what we can do as Linux gamers. Sure, I agree we should not be buying and playing games that do not have a native Linux version but any developer who complains about not making enough from Linux sales should have foreseen that when they already had a Windows version released.

If a developer wants to make sure their game is going to bring in the money from Linux, they need to make their games cross platform right from the start instead of focusing on Windows only programming then a year later convert the game so it can run on Linux.

The potential porters of Frozen synapse Prime said they thought the same, tried it and it didn't work out for them...
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.