Thanks to me getting in touch with the Starbound developers, it seems a Valve rep has taken to reddit to explain what's going on with games having their SteamOS icon removed.
You can see the conversation here, but for those who cannot access reddit it is copied below.
When asked about the SteamOS icon for Starbound on reddit, a Starbound developer said this:
Thankfully, a Valve rep has replied to it directly with this:
This makes the situation much more clear, and should help both desktop Linux and SteamOS look better for everyone to play games.
The icing on the cake here for me in particular:
Glad to see a Valve rep in the wild, and helping with developers and users concerns. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
You can see the conversation here, but for those who cannot access reddit it is copied below.
When asked about the SteamOS icon for Starbound on reddit, a Starbound developer said this:
QuoteTo my knowledge we've not yet had official communication with Valve about this, we've e-mailed them asking wtf, but we haven't gotten a response and probably won't until at least Monday. This is our best guess to the problem. Who knows, it might be the launcher. I just can't say it's necessarily the launcher yet.
Thankfully, a Valve rep has replied to it directly with this:
QuoteWe've been removing the store bit from games that cannot run against just the Steam Runtime, without additional dependencies on the host system. Games that fail this are impossible to support reliably across multiple distributions, and will not be publicly advertised on the Store as supporting Linux going forward.
All concerned games are still purchasable, installable and playable on Linux.
To my knowledge all developers have been made aware as we were doing this, let's chat on Monday.
This makes the situation much more clear, and should help both desktop Linux and SteamOS look better for everyone to play games.
The icing on the cake here for me in particular:
QuoteThanks for the clarification on exactly what is going on. Do you have a VM image or other test environment that we can use to determine if our game passes muster? (Also, Valve employee in the wild, how awesome is that?)
"To my knowledge all developers have been made aware as we were doing this, let's chat on Monday."
We found out due to someone from GamingOnLinux contacting our community manager about it. It kind of took us all by surprise. Though it is possible you contacted us at some point and we may have simply missed it?
Glad to see a Valve rep in the wild, and helping with developers and users concerns. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: GuestQuoting: liamdaweValve have needed to standardise something for a while, I see this as a step in the right direction for anyone using Steam on Linux. Things were a mess before, and now a little less so.
Did you report all your bugs to their github?
It's a known problem. It afflicts Mesa in particular:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-runtime/issues/13
Relying on particular libs is not without its flaws, but I can't personally think of a way around it. The nature of GNU/Linux means there isn't one set to rule them all. It's part of what makes this tricky. I don't know the answer, but I don't like this situation either.
One answer could be http://nixos.org/ (or the package-manager nix)... but it's not an ideal solution, granted.
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Quoting: GuestValve should compromise though and add a tux logo for Linux games, especially since Gabe himself publicly stated that he believes Valves future lies with Linux.
I think you'll find he meant supporting Linux ensures they have a future, not that it is the future. (It's about having a plan B.)
The automated testing they seem to be doing for the SteamOS logo is great though. It ensures that everyone is using the same base libraries and if they aren't packaged with the steam environment that the developer is ensuring it's uniform across all their users. The heterogeneity of libraries on Linux was always a problem. The Steam runtime has turned that on it's head, and it should make SteamOS and Steam on Linux much easier to support than targeting Ubuntu (or whatever).
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I realy hope that leads to all dev's using SDL2 for input. And this action includes all the unity i do my own thing build's. Oh Oddworld , it was a good time while you had an steam icon and ignored the fact that all none xbox360 user couldn't play your game.... could Name so many more.
Last edited by Glog78 on 18 October 2015 at 11:05 am UTC
Last edited by Glog78 on 18 October 2015 at 11:05 am UTC
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lucifertdark Oct 18, 2015
Quoting: MaelraneYou know, one can automate some processes with a programming language of your choice.For a Linux user that might be realistic, but when you're trying to attract Windows users, who on the whole, wouldn't know one end of a programming command from the other, it's just not going to happen.
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Quoting: lucifertdarkQuoting: MaelraneYou know, one can automate some processes with a programming language of your choice.For a Linux user that might be realistic, but when you're trying to attract Windows users, who on the whole, wouldn't know one end of a programming command from the other, it's just not going to happen.
I actually meant the devs @valve, who could automate the most common dependencies on their OS.
Regarding sdl... it's funny cause the Steam-Controller uses it's own proprietary lib...
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QuoteQuoting: MaelraneGuess what, a Java game (for example) has an additional dependency on Windows as well, namely Java.
How would you install Java (or anything other outside lib) on SteamOS with a Steam Controller? You don't. It would require adding in a mouse and keyboard, going to desktop mode and generally not a good experience.
actually I found yesterday that not going to desktop on SteamOS the steam controller still works acting as a mouse and the experience has become quite easier. For things installable through a GUI packet manager you only have to type the password, and a two thumbs virtual keyboard popups just when you need it.
Last edited by nullzero on 18 October 2015 at 1:19 pm UTC
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LinuxGamesTV Oct 18, 2015
Quoting: Maelrane...
Of course, one difference is, that on Windows you could just tell the .exe that it needs to install that dependency, without having admin-rights or so... but that's the only difference I can think of spontaneously.
...
Häääää???? You are wrong. read the bold text from you again. You need admin-rights to install any kind of software on Windows.
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Quoting: ky0Good guy Liam :)The icon removal isn't about the bigpicture mode.
Honestly, based on what I just read, Steam should re-introduce a penguin icon and a steamOS icon.
Penguin for the obvious gnu/linux and steamOS for saying, optimized for big picture/steam machine.
The steamruntime holds some libraries and dependencies for its own (in the beginning, those were ubuntu 12.04 libraries, but I believe they moved over to those versions installed on SteamOS.
They just removed icons to those games, that require ADDITIONAL dependencies outside the steamruntime.
To me, this is a smart move by Valve, as they force developers to secure compatibility across all distributions :)
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Crazy Penguin Oct 18, 2015
Quoting: MaelraneHow can one defend that stupid practice? It's like starting to act before you even thought about what you want to achieve.
Exactly! This was a very stupid move from Valve!
1) It defintely hurts the sales for Linux/SteamOS of the affected games
2) We will get more problems on DRM-Free platforms, where we miss some Linux-Ports already on GOG because of the Steam-Dependencies, e.g. Metro Redux!
Also why hasn't that been communicated before Valve removes the SteamOS-Icon and Linux-Systemrequirements?
I have asked several publishers/developers what is going on, but they have been surprised as I'm. At least the responded that they will continue to support Linux :)
Not to mention the confused Customers, we have several threads where people asking about the Linux support. If it is discontinued now. Some have flamed already against some developers for it. Well done, Valve! Well done!
Sure there should be a standard for to earn the SteamOS-Logo, but NOT THIS WAY!!!
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Quoting: Crazy PenguinI have asked several publishers/developers what is going on, but they have been surprised as I'm. At least the responded that they will continue to support Linux :)
Not to mention the confused Customers, we have several threads where people asking about the Linux support. If it is discontinued now. Some have flamed already against some developers for it. Well done, Valve! Well done!
Come on now. When has Valve ever done anything in a way that didn't confuse customers and developers? It's how they roll. Remember the whole "Witcher 3 Coming to SteamOS; oh oops, maybe not" fiasco? I'm convinced the whole company is run by 4 nerds in a basement, but somehow in the end, it all works out just fine. This issue probably will too.
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