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Ryan "Icculus" Gordon [Official Site, Twitter], the man responsible for maintaining many development tools like SDL 2 and who ported many games to Linux, is looking for new games to port. The fun thing is, he doesn't require payment since he's funded by his Patreon.

He's had contracts with Valve, Epic Games, Activision, Google, Crytek and plenty more. He has a lot of awesome work under his belt!

From his new post:
Quote[…]If there's a developer that you think would be interested in getting a Linux port done by a guy that they don't have to pay, let me know. Hell, let them know about me! Let's see if we can get some conversations going with some developers that are sitting on the fence!


This is a pretty interesting way to get Linux ports done. Ryan has hit over $750 a month on Patreon now, so any ports he does as a result of this directly, will be funded by his Patreon, not the original game developer.

I've seen the discussion of crowdfunding Linux ports come up here and there, but this is one of the times that it might work. So, if you know any, send the developer to him and we may see more Linux games get ported as a result.

Will be very fun to see what comes out of this. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Misc
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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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143 comments
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s8as8a Aug 21, 2017
Personally, I'd like Batman: Arkham Knight to be re-considered. :)
artvandelay440 Aug 21, 2017
Quoting: Keyrock
Quoting: artvandelay440Well, I mean if we're shooting for the stars here, I'd knock on CDPR's door with a whole big box of apology and ask/beg is there's any way they'd consider The Witcher 3 being ported to Linux by this fine fellow.
I'm not about to apologize to CDPR or VP for anything, I didn't threaten anyone and all my feedback (to VP) was respectful and meant to help fix issues. I won't presume to speak on behalf of the bad eggs.

As for games I'd like ported, Nier: Automata will always be right at the top of my list until it does get ported.

Of course you aren't responsible, neither am I. But rule 1 of management is share the praise and own the mistakes. Approach the company on behalf of all the apples in the barrel, good and bad. Ask respectfully, as you personally always have, but don't start with 'I'm not apologizing for the bad ones'. That doesn't work. Own the mistakes of the community at large, and make your request. I respect those that own mistakes, even when i know damn well they didn't make them.
Xzyl Aug 21, 2017
hellblade it's unreal 4 engine right? idk.
seamoose Aug 21, 2017
QuoteI would like to see "Banished" (Shining Rock Software) finished for Linux. When I'm not totally wrong it's the work from a single developer, who never did a OpenGL port before. He could need some help from Icculus for sure.

Especially small teams which don't have the manpower/resources to make a linux port come to my mind. Maybe Liam could help here out with a kind of list. He contacted so much developers to ask for a port but they sometimes refused because of the lack of manpower or OpenGL knowledge.

Legends of Grimrock 2 for example is one of that.

This is exactly what what he/we should be looking out for! Folks who are requesting ports of modern AAA games apparently don't understand the amount of coding effort *and* QA *and* ongoing support required to do this. Some games maybe slightly easier (for example, if they use Unreal 4) but there's also numerous middleware and so on to deal with. Even worse for older AAA games that pretty much everyone has already played under Windows or Wine so not many people would buy if they were ported to Linux. Porting recent and popular smaller or indie titles are the ideal vehicle for increasing the Linux game count with "worthy" (or at least popular) games. It's much better to end up with four smaller ports in a year than one big one - more bang for the buck!

I'll be supporting Ryan on Patreon. I see that his monthly support has already gone up from ~$750 to $950 and rising!


Last edited by seamoose on 21 August 2017 at 8:08 pm UTC
johndoe Aug 21, 2017
Quoting: seamooseThis is exactly what what he/we should be looking out for! Folks who are requesting ports of modern AAA games apparently don't understand the amount of coding effort *and* QA *and* ongoing support required to do this. Some games maybe slightly easier (for example, if they use Unreal 4) but there's also numerous middleware and so on to deal with. Even worse for older AAA games that pretty much everyone has already played under Windows or Wine so not many people would buy if they were ported to Linux. Porting recent and popular smaller or indie titles are the ideal vehicle for increasing the Linux game count with "worthy" (or at least popular) games. It's much better to end up with four smaller ports in a year than one big one - more bang for the buck!

I'll be supporting Ryan on Patreon. I see that his monthly support has already gone up from ~$750 to $950 and rising!

You did absolutely hit the point!!!
jgacas Aug 21, 2017
I'll love to see Subnautica ported to Linux, maybe this kind of project could be a good fit for Mr Gordon.
Shugyousha Aug 21, 2017
Another fighting game would be great. He could either port Street Fighter 5 (which was supposed to come out for Linux a long time ago) or Guilty Gear Xrd Rev2 (works quite well with Wine and uses OpenGL so it shouldn't be too hard) or KOF XIV which uses SDL already.
Luke_Nukem Aug 21, 2017
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: Luke_Nukem
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: dorronI'd go with The Witcher 3 and GTA V (maybe even Red Dead Redemption, but guess that's impossible).

Save Red Dead Redemption for RPCS3 ^_^

Doom 2016 would be good if we are talking about AAA's but let's be realistic , Ryan Gordon talks about indie games for sure.

AAA port would be so hard for one man.

Yo know he's ported a heap of AAA already, right?
Doom 2016 (why the fuck didn't they call it Doom 4) with vulkan and idtech is probably the easier end of the scale.

If only permission from id would be enough , then yeah. He could. But with Bethesda involved it has no chance.

Vulkan is there , you are right. But did you know that Doom 2016 uses a compability profile for Vulkan and most important ; Vulkan open source driver radv is not there yet.

So with that conclusion , it would still be a pain in the ass.

You can't play that game with Mesa Vulkan , you will Amd Gpu Pro.

On Nvidia side , you are cool. No one is using Nouveau for gaming anyway.

I was going to say you're preaching to the choir... But actually, this must be what mansplaining feels like to women.
STiAT Aug 21, 2017
If he could just do a port of the Blizzard Engine... and convince them to support it :-).
johndoe Aug 21, 2017
Something off topic but interesting...

Icculus did ports for Activition and EA. Read here > Icculus homepage.
Some Call of Duty series "Server" and Medal of Honor series "Server" for Linux. But he was not contracted to do the Client ports.

No wonder! Windows would not be able to work out the load compared to Linux:D
As always... Linux makes the job but is not allowed/worth it to play:(


Last edited by johndoe on 21 August 2017 at 9:22 pm UTC
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