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Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York for Linux is now uncertain

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Before release, the store pages for Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York very clearly listed Windows, MAC OS, Linux and now it's only available for Windows.

Not to be confused with Bloodlines 2, Coteries of New York is styled like an interactive fiction (a fancy way to say: Visual Novel). It does look good though and it sounded very interesting so we were quite excited to see the mention of Linux support.

Originally, both Steam and GOG listed it as this:

Coteries of New York will be available on PC (Windows, MAC OS, Linux) and Nintendo Switch.

However, shortly before launch that was silently switched with no announcement to this:

Coteries of New York will be available on PC (Windows only! We may add Linux and MAC OS later). The game will launch on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in Q1 2020.

To be confirmed, then suddenly only be a maybe is quite a big change. Frustrating when it's not communicated well either.

Sadly the developer, Draw Distance, never replied to our emails before release. On Steam, their team did reply to a couple of forum posts asking about it. Here's what they said:

Hi guys, let me please explain the lack of Linux support: at launch day the Linux version is not supported unfortunately. We didn't want to release a version, which wasn't tested enough in our opinion. But, we'll look into the case and hopefully we'll be able to add the Linux support as soon as possible! Thank you for your understanding and sorry for inconvenience!
Jacek Głowacki, Draw Distance

If you're interested you can follow it on GOG and Steam. Hopefully they will still support Linux with it, will let you know if the situation changes.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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22 comments
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Beamboom Dec 12, 2019
Quoting: DrMcCoyYes, you are ignorant.

So what genre is technically simpler? Text based adventures?


Last edited by Beamboom on 12 December 2019 at 3:57 pm UTC
DrMcCoy Dec 12, 2019
Quoting: BeamboomSo what genre is technically simpler? Text based adventures?

What's simpler, writing a fantasy story or a biography?
What's simpler, painting a still or a nude?
What's simpler, playing in a jazz band or a metal band?
Ehvis Dec 12, 2019
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Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: DrMcCoyYes, you are ignorant.

So what genre is simpler? Text based adventures?

Quite a number of things I imagine. Visual Novels are most interesting with good writing of complex branching storylines. Getting suitable artwork also requires some talent. I imagine the famous game of Tetris was much easier to write.

Quoting: Eike
Quoting: DrMcCoy...Not really? Interactive Fiction is usually a fancy way to say Text Adventure, but has been applied to things like Twines and Visual Novels as well.

In my humble opinion, text adventure is the opposite of Visual Novel.
After having played a text adventure, it was hard to go back to something less open and interactive.

For me text adventures are the games like they were before graphics became a thing. Where actions and moving through the world was all based on reading and inputting text. This evolved into text with pictures representing the location. I suppose the next step was Sierra On-line which made the navigation visual but kept the text interface. Funny enough, Visual Novels seems to have more in common with old style RPGs which often had a NPC interaction screens that were quite similar. Of course, doing away with most game mechanics, VNs focus on story and character development (if done right).
TheSyldat Dec 12, 2019
Quoting: BeamboomSo what genre is technically simpler? Text based adventures?
If VN and VN/dating sims are more routinely ported over it's not so much because it's a simpler task by nature.
It's because most usually used engines to make them makes it so, that porting to linux tends to be a rather straight forward affair.
Hell Dream Daddy for example is mostly a Visual Novel but because of some of the mini games they opted to make the game on Unity (which is a bit overkill ... but hey that's their choice) made porting the game over to Linux and Mac a little bit less straight forward than if they used RenPy , but had they opted for RenPy lots of the mini games idea would have been discarded.

No game project is an easy one, and often times whether a port happens or not is down to how easy it'll be to do.
orochi_kyo Dec 12, 2019
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: ZeloxThis is why I "hate" proton and wine.

Proton is a dead end anyway, trying to emulate MS APIs is a fool's endeavor...

Those four thousand games reported as Platinum-Gold-Silver on Protondb shows otherwise, even some games that rely heavily on MS Api´s, try harder next time.

Quoting: DrMcCoy
Quoteinteractive fiction (a fancy way to say: Visual Novel)

...Not really? Interactive Fiction is usually a fancy way to say Text Adventure but has been applied to things like Twines and Visual Novels as well.

Quoting: BeamboomI may be ignorant now, but surely the "visual novels" must conceptually be one of the simplest "games" to make?

Yes, you are ignorant.

We got the fax, you felt offended. I like text adventures and visual novels, still, I will not feel offended is someone thinks that technically speaking, they are not demanding.
DrMcCoy Dec 12, 2019
Quoting: orochi_kyoWe got the fax, you felt offended.

Your fax machine seems to be broken, boomer.
Shmerl Dec 12, 2019
"We'll look into" sounds very much like CD Projekt Red answered about TW3 Linux support. It meant "we won't do it".
herrorange Dec 12, 2019
Quoting: TheSyldat
Quoting: Lord_PhoenixI don't know, to be honest, this is barely a mobile game, so will anyone miss it if it won't make it to the platform?
How about you learn to keep your " Gamer™ " snobism to yourself.

Visual Novels are enjoyed by lots of people and are functionally video games versions of a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
Not everything needs to be "for you" you know ...

And yes if they indeed decide to ninja smoke bomb away from porting it on Linux this game will be missed by some.

I know I'll miss it, was very much looking forward to play it.

I was actually genuinely asking and was not trying to sound like a snob. It's obviously a personal preference and I guess I never considered myself as a fan of interactive novels. Again, *maybe* on a mobile platform, but not a desktop/laptop. Good to know there is a market for this type of games.
Beamboom Dec 12, 2019
Quoting: DrMcCoy
Quoting: BeamboomSo what genre is technically simpler? Text based adventures?

What's simpler, writing a fantasy story or a biography?
What's simpler, painting a still or a nude?
What's simpler, playing in a jazz band or a metal band?

This is irrelevant nonsense. Are you just trolling me?
Of course it's more complicated, from a technical point of view, to make one type of game than another. There are obvious, technical reasons why for example so many indie games are 2D or with isometric or birds view perspective. No, it's not just for artistic reasons.

Quoting: EhvisVisual Novels are most interesting with good writing of complex branching storylines. Getting suitable artwork also requires some talent.

Yes obviously but now you talk artistically. I talk technically, because that's the topic here - they didn't skip the Linux and Mac versions because of issues with the storyline or artwork.

But let me just remind you all that I do not (mean to) insult the GENRE here. I just simply point out that of all types/genres of games we have, these games should be amongst the easiest to ensure multi platform compatibility.


Last edited by Beamboom on 13 December 2019 at 3:45 pm UTC
TheSyldat Dec 13, 2019
Quoting: Lord_PhoenixI was actually genuinely asking and was not trying to sound like a snob.
Yet you happily double down anyway... (see below)
Quoting: Lord_PhoenixAgain, *maybe* on a mobile platform, but not a desktop/laptop.
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