Jupiter Hell Classic is a 'demake of a remake of a roguelike unmake' now on Steam

A demake of a remake of a roguelike unmake. It's okay to be confused, but Jupiter Hell Classic is a cool roguelike now in Early Access on Steam. Disclosure: the developer provided GamingOnLinux a key.

To clear things up a bit though, because initially it warped my brain too, here's what it all means. It's based on DRL (DoomRL / Doom the Roguelike) which had to change it's name when lawyers got involved, but updated for their newer world created with Jupiter Hell. I'm a sucker for Jupiter Hell, as it has one of the absolute slickest turn-based movement systems ever.

It's not just the classic DRL updated for the Jupiter Hell universe though, they're adding in all sorts of upgrades.

What to expect from Jupiter Hell Classic:

• Classic, unforgiving, top-down, grid-based roguelike gameplay.
• Fast and fluid ranged based tactical combat.
• Control via keyboard only, mouse + keyboard or gamepad.
• Diagonal movement along movement based tactics.
• Environmental destruction and interaction.
• 4 episodes, almost 200 items, 25+ enemies.
• 30+ crafting assemblies, 3 classes with 5 master traits each (subclasses).
• Steam Workshop support for all your nostalgia modding needs!

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Unlike the original, this does not have a Native Linux version. Speaking with the developer about it, they told me they had a "horrible experience with JH - where the libc situation broke our Linux build, and the Steam Deck build at the same time during a crucial time for JH" and that there "was there was no way to make Steam Deck run on Proton if there was a Linux version present, so we had to temporarily nuke it, and even that didn't help".

They're talking about Valve's Steam Deck verification system, which forcibly picks either the Native Linux build or the Windows build to run through Proton. Game developers don't get a choice in that. And so they didn't want to risk breakages due to Native Linux dependencies for this launch "especially that it flawlessly runs on Proton on the Deck".