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The Inner World is a traditional point-and-click adventure game that I've had my eye on since it released for Windows more than a year ago. It's featured in the Humble PC & Android Bundle 12 along with indie classic VVVVVV and the popular Costume Quest and Shadowrun Returns, and three other Linux games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJfPXQzz66o

So far The Inner World is not available for Linux on Steam, but I gave the DRM free version a go. Unfortunately it has several issues, which cut the initial try rather short for me.

The first and most noticeable issue, playing the game on a laptop, was that the game opened up in a window which was too tall for my screen. And as it turned out, there's no option to change window size or make the game fullscreen.

What's more problematic though, is that I'm unable to open up my in-game inventory; something that's essential in a traditional point-and-click adventure like this one. According to the tutorial, touching the bottom of the screen should pop up the inventory, but since my screen unfortunately doesn't respond to the touch of my finger, I'm out of luck. Clicking with the cursor on the bottom does no such thing, even though interactions with hotspots work just fine. The tutorial also mentions that touching the screen should highlight hotspots, but by experimenting a bit, I figured out that this is in fact done by holding down the space bar. I still haven't figured out how to bring up the menu, if at all possible, but the game does seem to autosave every now and then.

Hopefully it won't take long until these initial issues are addressed and fixed.

Other games

Fortunately there are other games that make this bundle worth buying in its current state. Terry Cavanagh's classic VVVVVV is one I'd consider a must-play if you're into challenging exploration platformers, and Swing Swing Submarine's Tetrobot and Co. is one of my all-time favourite puzzle games. Double Fine's Costume Quest is a game that appealed to me as a fan of casual turn-based RPGs. It also has a neat exploration aspect and is full of charm, but it likely has less appeal to hardcore RPG enthusiasts, as the mechanics aren't very deep.

Arcade shooter Titan Attacks! and tactical RPG Shadowrun Returns are both popular with reviewers and Steam users but are not games I, personally, am familiar with. The card-based tactics game Ironclad Tactics by SpaceChem developer Zachtronics has had a more mixed reception, but still has its following.

All of these games are available both DRM free and for Steam as part of Humble PC & Android Bundle 12, with more games to come. Costume Quest and Ironclad Tactics are available if you beat the average donation, while you have to pay at least $10 to get Shadowrun Returns. As usual, the Linux average is higher than the average amount spent by Windows and Mac customers. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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A big fan of platformers, puzzle games, point-and-click adventures and niche indie games.

I run the Hidden Linux Gems group on Steam, where we highlight good indie games for Linux that we feel deserve more attention.
See more from me
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9 comments

Linas Mar 17, 2015
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It is not available on Steam, even though it was indicated on Humble Bundle that it does. They updated the list of Steam platforms to exclude Linux now.
FrasierCrane Mar 17, 2015
That's great. I bought it some time ago in the Humble Store and always wanted to play it. Seems I'm swamped with Linux Advenuters right now (Dreamfall, The Book of Unwritten Tales, Deponia games, ...).

EDIT: Tested The Inner World and it's buggy for me too unfortunately. I could only bring the inventory up with Tab and worse, I somehow suddenly jumped from the the beginnig of the game to some later part. Very puzzling.
flesk Mar 18, 2015
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Quoting: GuestThanks for the test flesk, so it seems this was a rushed port from a tablet version…

It would seem like it, but the game actually released for Windows long before it was available for iOS, and later Android. The game runs on Java, and I think it's likely that they've just messed up a bit in packaging the game for Linux.
Pit Mar 18, 2015
What a pitty. The trailer (of Inner World) looks absolutely beautiful, and I was about to get the bundle although this is the only game I'm interested in (already have tetrobot/vvvvvv/shadowrun). I'll probably do nevertheless and hope for updates.....
wolfyrion Mar 18, 2015
It has been released on SteamOS/Linux as well ^_^
(just missing executable)

edit: showed in my library but I guess it downloaded only the OST
Plintslîcho Mar 18, 2015
Ya, too bad. Grabbed the game immediately when I saw it has become available for Linux (one of the last games I've actually pre-ordered back then). But what a disappointment. No intro/cutscenes, only windowed-mode and no possibility to change that in the settings and I always had to kill the process in order to end the game. I really hope they will fix all these problems.
flesk Mar 19, 2015
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Quoting: FrasierCraneI could only bring the inventory up with Tab

Thanks; I hadn't noticed that, but that makes it playable at least. Tab also brings up the menu at the top, so that it's possible to exit the game a bit more cleanly (you still have to force close the window I think).

I got a reply from the devs on Twitter, and they're apparently looking into these issues:

https://twitter.com/studiofizbin/status/578560488059084800
Pit Mar 19, 2015
So, I bought it nevertheless. Window mode is OK (for me) as you can maximize it to fill the screen. Also took me a while to find the TAB inventory key.
Another issue I dislike is that you have to run the game in the games directory, and it then creates files/directories there, instead of in the users homedirectory. Apart from that it looks fine (though I only finished the first location so far).
tkvso Mar 20, 2015
Hello at all!

QuoteIt has been released on SteamOS/Linux as well
(just missing executable)

edit: showed in my library but I guess it downloaded only the OST

A solution, that works for me, was install the game at first under Steam in Windows and then in Linux. After this all files are downloaded and the game was running in Linux. The hint from Steam about deleting the appcache-folder doesn´t helps.

Sorry for my bad english;-)
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