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ESSENCE [Steam, Official Site], a first-person non-violent exploration & adventure game recently released for Linux, with Vulkan support possibly coming.

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It's actually a game our contributor Flesk played and wrote about way back in February last year. It failed one Kickstarter attempt and managed to pull off a second one with a smaller goal.

A few days ago they released the Linux version, but even better is that they plan a Vulkan version too, from the release notes:
QuoteWhile we wanted to bring you the new Vulkan API for Windows and Linux as well, to give especially Linux better performance, we have still some issues we simply could not fix to this point. So we will try our best to release the Vulkan support with the next major update.

About the game
QuoteESSENCE is a surreal and atmospheric first-person exploration game.

This game is as much about exploring the different worlds and collecting lost and cryptic fragments of beautiful landscapes as discovering secret places filled with mysterious messages. Also, it is about learning new abilities that help you proceed further on otherwise hidden paths. The further you will go the more possibilities you will have to interact with the world and its surroundings.

The game has a narration, that will combine messages from different characters with a dense and diverse environmental storytelling. By uncovering all these places and messages you will experience an anomalous story that slowly leads you to one interwoven conclusion.

It doesn't have many reviews yet, but what it does have so far sounds positive enough. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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3 comments

inlinuxdude May 15, 2017
I added it to my wishlist... Is it bad that I have almost as many games on my wishlist as in my inventory??? :D
onurB May 15, 2017
Woow. This looks incredible. Definitly gonna check it out.
Adam_eM May 15, 2017
Damn, it looks like linux is starting to suck again in terms of gaming... I just bought it, and all I get is a black screen with a pointer (and game music in background). I know it says early access, but anyways... It's so frustrating. Worms W.M.D., Robocraft, Dirt Rally and a bit earlier, even the Rocket League stopped working properly... and now, the ESSENCE :(


Game update: AppID 482440 "ESSENCE", ProcID 4761, IP 0.0.0.0:0
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/adam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
>>> Adding process 4761 for game ID 482440
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/adam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
>>> Adding process 4762 for game ID 482440
Found path: /home/adam/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/ESSENCE/ESSENCE_LINUX.x86_64
Mono path[0] = '/home/adam/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/ESSENCE/ESSENCE_LINUX_Data/Managed'
Mono path[1] = '/home/adam/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/ESSENCE/ESSENCE_LINUX_Data/Mono'
Mono config path = '/home/adam/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/ESSENCE/ESSENCE_LINUX_Data/Mono/etc'
Preloaded 'ScreenSelector.so'
Player data archive not found at `/home/adam/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/ESSENCE/ESSENCE_LINUX_Data/data.unity3d`, using local filesystemInstalling breakpad exception handler for appid(gameoverlayui)/version(20170425224519)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(gameoverlayui)/version(1.0)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(gameoverlayui)/version(1.0)
Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(gameoverlayui)/version(1.0)
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The comments on this article are closed.