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Supergiant Games, the team behind hits like Bastion and Transistor are turning ten years old as a studio and so they're doing a big sale. HADES will also no longer be exclusive to the Epic Store this year.

First up, the sales!

Over on Steam, you can pick up the entire collection of Bastion, Transistor and Pyre plus soundtracks with 78% off together. An absolutely incredible deal!

All their games are also on sale in a bundle and by themselves on itch.io for those who prefer it.

Some seriously good gaming to be had there for super cheap, don't miss out. Our contributor Scaine was certainly impressed by Transistor. My Son also started playing Bastion recently and he's very much enjoying it too.

Hades? Hades!

After originally releasing Hades as an Epic Store exclusive, Hades from Supergiant Games is going to release on Steam in Early Access. It will arrive there on December 10th! Given how they've supported Linux for so long, I did reach out to Supergiant to ask about Linux support for Hades to which they replied:

Hey Liam, thanks for getting in touch about this. We don't have plans right now to support Linux during Early Access; during Early Access it's really helpful for us to be able to focus on the Windows version. We plan to bring Hades to other platforms at 1.0 (though which aren't confirmed), and appreciate your interest in the meantime.

It's also worth noting that Ethan Lee, the developer who ported their previous games to Linux said on Twitter they have kept in touch about it so here's to hoping!

Taking a quick peek into the Steam forum for Hades and—what a mess. Perhaps we can lighten up their Steam time by showing a little Linux support in this linked Steam forum topic. The developer did say in there "We've been pleased to be able to support Linux on Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre before this, so it's good to hear from you on Hades as well!".

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Caenth Aug 23, 2019
They have been on Epic store for ~9 months now and after their exclusivity deal wears off they going to release with Early Access on Steam? What the hell is wrong with game development nowadays?! A lot, I tell you. I like my indie developers as much as you do, and I fully realize they need to earn their keep, but this smells. There is something called integrity and I don't see it here.


Last edited by Caenth on 23 August 2019 at 11:41 am UTC
Liam Dawe Aug 23, 2019
Quoting: CaenthThey have been on Epic store for ~9 months now and after their exclusivity deal wears off they going to release with Early Access on Steam? What the hell is wrong with game development nowadays?! A lot, I tell you. I like my indie developers as much as you do, and I fully realize they need to earn their keep, but this smells. There is something called integrity and I don't see it here.
I don't get the issue? It's no different than any other game entering Early Access.

The whole idea of Early Access has been warped due to many games entering practically done. Early Access was originally meant for games actually in development.

Taking an exclusive deal doesn't suddenly make game development different.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 23 August 2019 at 11:57 am UTC
Eike Aug 23, 2019
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Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: CaenthThey have been on Epic store for ~9 months now and after their exclusivity deal wears off they going to release with Early Access on Steam? What the hell is wrong with game development nowadays?! A lot, I tell you. I like my indie developers as much as you do, and I fully realize they need to earn their keep, but this smells. There is something called integrity and I don't see it here.
I don't get the issue? It's no different than any other game entering Early Access.

The whole idea of Early Access has been warped due to many games entering practically done. Early Access was originally meant for games actually in development.

Taking an exclusive deal doesn't suddenly make game development different.

So, Epic exclusively had an alpha version?
Liam Dawe Aug 23, 2019
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: CaenthThey have been on Epic store for ~9 months now and after their exclusivity deal wears off they going to release with Early Access on Steam? What the hell is wrong with game development nowadays?! A lot, I tell you. I like my indie developers as much as you do, and I fully realize they need to earn their keep, but this smells. There is something called integrity and I don't see it here.
I don't get the issue? It's no different than any other game entering Early Access.

The whole idea of Early Access has been warped due to many games entering practically done. Early Access was originally meant for games actually in development.

Taking an exclusive deal doesn't suddenly make game development different.

So, Epic exclusively had an alpha version?
Pretty much, except Epic Store doesn't have a special different display model for games in development like Steam/GOG and itch have for Early Access titles. As far as i am aware anyway, don't exactly look at their store often...
Caenth Aug 23, 2019
Quoting: Liam DaweI don't get the issue? It's no different than any other game entering Early Access.

They took the deal for the extra cash and they still need more to finish development? They sold an unfinished game on the Epic store to begin with and the extra money they got by going exclusive wasn't enough to fund to finish it. So they are going to release it with Early Access. They are admitting this way their game is not finished this way.

I doubt this stuff is even allowed, I don't think it was advertised as being unfinished in the Epic Store? With all the hate towards to the store with the exclusive bullshit, they did this one top. It seems they took the deal solely for the money. Nothing else. But with all this money they already got, they still need more to finish the game.

This doesn't give me confidence of them being a good developer or the willingness to play their game. And it bothers me even more you don't see the issue at all. But you are not alone. Sadly.
Liam Dawe Aug 23, 2019
Quoting: Caenth
Quoting: Liam DaweI don't get the issue? It's no different than any other game entering Early Access.

They took the deal for the extra cash and they still need more to finish development? They sold an unfinished game on the Epic store to begin with and the extra money they got by going exclusive wasn't enough to fund to finish it. So they are going to release it with Early Access. They are admitting this way their game is not finished this way.

I doubt this stuff is even allowed, I don't think it was advertised as being unfinished in the Epic Store? With all the hate towards to the store with the exclusive bullshit, they did this one top. It seems they took the deal solely for the money. Nothing else. But with all this money they already got, they still need more to finish the game.

This doesn't give me confidence of them being a good developer or the willingness to play their game. And it bothers me even more you don't see the issue at all. But you are not alone. Sadly.
What's there to understand? Game development, especially for smaller teams is incredibly hard with thousands of games releasing all the time. I don't blame a single developer for taking exclusive deals, it allows them secure funding to continue making great games. It sucks for us when it's Epic, since the only way to then run it is Wine which gives us a subpar experience.

Having some funding means nothing against a game being finished or not.
Eike Aug 23, 2019
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Quoting: Liam DaweWhat's there to understand? Game development, especially for smaller teams is incredibly hard with thousands of games releasing all the time. I don't blame a single developer for taking exclusive deals, it allows them secure funding to continue making great games. It sucks for us when it's Epic, since the only way to then run it is Wine which gives us a subpar experience.

Having some funding means nothing against a game being finished or not.

Have Epic store customers been informed that they've been offered an unfinished product?
scaine Aug 23, 2019
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Really looking forward to Hades, simply because Supergiant games are awesome. I didn't quite love Pyre as much as the others, but I'm hopeful Hades is a return to form (and many people loved Pyre as much as I loved Transistor. Their pedigree is immense.

As for a perceived lack of ethics for going Epic first for a year before EA on Steam - well, there's EA done badly, and there's EA done well. I have complete confidence that this will be the latter and will actually benefit from having had a year on Epic first.

I hate Epic, but I guess sometimes their money will work in our favour. I think this is one of those times.

[Edit: oops, got my formers and latters mixed up!!]


Last edited by scaine on 23 August 2019 at 2:24 pm UTC
Mal Aug 23, 2019
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I really don't get the issue with early access games. The whole point of stuff like kickstarter, patreon, early access and so on is to give indies a way to develop and sell a game without selling their bodies and souls to publishers. There are countless innovative and revolutionary games that have been developed only thanks to early access like minecraft and factorio.
Where publishers would not take the risk, or would not give the money unless the developer ceded all the rights, stuff like early access comes in. It allows to connect gamers potentially interested in a kind of game with developers offering that kind of game. Bypassing the interests of the middleman, which are not how much a game is fun but how much return comes from the investment. Imagine for a second an EA funded Factorio where you have to wait 1 day to build another assembler and you have to buy lootboxes for a chance of obtaining a one of the 23 unique pieces needed to craft a new tech to research.

Guys, really, it would be nice if we lived in a world of infinite resources and money was not an issue. Every dev would be paid to do any game he wants and we would only buy them once ready and bug free. But it's not like that and there is no perfect solution. Early access involves risks ofc. But if we don't take them then publishers have to take them and not only they don't do it for free but they only do it at their conditions.

Regarding Hades I too I'm looking forward to it given how much I liked previous Supergiant games. And I don't blame them for taking Sweeney money during the early phase. They didn't lie to anyone to get money from Kickstarter and they didn't showed the middle finger to their long standing patreon supporters because suddenly Epic gave them shitton of money to not sell their game and they don't need patreons anymore. They did nothing wrong or unfair: they simply accepted to start the early access on EGS for one year. Just because they made a deal with the cancer of PC gaming it doesn't mean that it's a cancerous deal that hurts gamers and devs.

That being said... anyone has any idea if the game is good like the predecessors? Getting reliable feedback from EGS exclusives is... difficult.
Purple Library Guy Aug 23, 2019
I liked Transistor quite a lot; bought it largely because of Scaine's article and have no regrets. Been thinking of going back and playing through again. Thanks Scaine!
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