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Sumoman [Steam] is a brand new and rather hilarious puzzle platformer powered by the UNIGINE engine. It released with day-1 Linux support and I took a look.
Disclosure: Key provided by the developer before the release.
The game is pretty damn funny thanks to the glorious use of physics. It's the simple things like timing a jump wrong and Sumoman falls flat on his face, to rewind time but just not rewind enough to end up doing it again and I really can't help but laugh at it. Take a look at some of my failures in the video below:
I tested it with the Steam Controller and it seemed to be picked up perfectly, without needing Big Picture mode.
If you only looked at the game from the official trailer, you might have been left thinking it would have firmly sat in the crapware pile Steam has been growing, but the truth is I've had way more fun than I thought possible. It's a game that has a weird charm to it and it instantly hooked me with that. The mix of simple puzzles, some tricky platforming with a sprinkle of hilarious physics has actually made a pretty competent and surprisingly good looking platformer.
One part about the games controls does annoy me a lot though! You can only jump forward whilst you're moving. It has tripped me up plenty of times, as jumping without moving only allows you to jump upwards. So you will at times be forced to back track a few steps, just to make a simple jump. A little tuning of the controls to allow jumping forwards without moving and it would be solid.
Issues
The game does not play well with the Linux desktop. You cannot alt+tab at all and if you do the game will lose focus, forcing you to kill it from another TTY session (CTRL+ALT+F2).
OBS doesn't even show it when capturing the entire screen, so the game is doing something strange with the way it renders.
Thankfully it does have a windowed mode, which makes everything work fine. That's the only way I was able to capture a video of it.
Strange bugs aside, it's actually not bad at all. Tricky in places, damn funny at times and certainly something to take a look at if you need some dumb fun. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Disclosure: Key provided by the developer before the release.
The game is pretty damn funny thanks to the glorious use of physics. It's the simple things like timing a jump wrong and Sumoman falls flat on his face, to rewind time but just not rewind enough to end up doing it again and I really can't help but laugh at it. Take a look at some of my failures in the video below:
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Direct Link
Direct Link
If you only looked at the game from the official trailer, you might have been left thinking it would have firmly sat in the crapware pile Steam has been growing, but the truth is I've had way more fun than I thought possible. It's a game that has a weird charm to it and it instantly hooked me with that. The mix of simple puzzles, some tricky platforming with a sprinkle of hilarious physics has actually made a pretty competent and surprisingly good looking platformer.
One part about the games controls does annoy me a lot though! You can only jump forward whilst you're moving. It has tripped me up plenty of times, as jumping without moving only allows you to jump upwards. So you will at times be forced to back track a few steps, just to make a simple jump. A little tuning of the controls to allow jumping forwards without moving and it would be solid.
Issues
The game does not play well with the Linux desktop. You cannot alt+tab at all and if you do the game will lose focus, forcing you to kill it from another TTY session (CTRL+ALT+F2).
OBS doesn't even show it when capturing the entire screen, so the game is doing something strange with the way it renders.
Thankfully it does have a windowed mode, which makes everything work fine. That's the only way I was able to capture a video of it.
Strange bugs aside, it's actually not bad at all. Tricky in places, damn funny at times and certainly something to take a look at if you need some dumb fun. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
The first update has been released for Sumoman, including the humorous last item on the list, "Added Alt-F4 combination for rage quit." ^_^
I was able to discuss some of the issues that I feel are the top of the fix list on the Linux version, including the lockout/freeze we all experienced. I personally think that a patch this quickly only shows good faith from the developer to deliver a quality product that can be happily recommended.
I was able to discuss some of the issues that I feel are the top of the fix list on the Linux version, including the lockout/freeze we all experienced. I personally think that a patch this quickly only shows good faith from the developer to deliver a quality product that can be happily recommended.
0 Likes
It's good that they are updating it, but it doesn't really fix the problem at all.
I agree that it "shows good faith", but from my perspective, they've released something that is alpha quality or worse (at least on my system). Also, it's a reasonably expensive game… and my two week refund window is rapidly approaching.
QuoteWe didn't change anything with system or else. It is just gameplay bugs fixing.
I agree that it "shows good faith", but from my perspective, they've released something that is alpha quality or worse (at least on my system). Also, it's a reasonably expensive game… and my two week refund window is rapidly approaching.
0 Likes
Quoting: PozzuoliIt's good that they are updating it, but it doesn't really fix the problem at all.
QuoteWe didn't change anything with system or else. It is just gameplay bugs fixing.
I agree that it "shows good faith", but from my perspective, they've released something that is alpha quality or worse (at least on my system). Also, it's a reasonably expensive game… and my two week refund window is rapidly approaching.
You're right. I should have tested it before saying anything here, which is now linked as part of our conversation (don't want to attempt url md on my phone lol) Anyone interested can find it in the game reviews.
This patch actually broke the game fore and hasn't launched since. Clock ticking until I send it back. They should have gone through early access, but I guess you can state that it's ready for primetime and it moves forward.
You would hope that Steam had some automated testing for each patch but time, money, etc that's not practical. That's why the community reviews and information is so vital and why I'm appreative of people who leave honest, valid feedback. I try to do the same and won't review until I have time to give it the full attention it deserves. My hope is that it helps at least one person reach a more complete conclusion on their purchase.
I also wish we could roll back patches for breaking builds. Perhaps a button that says, 'It broke!'. Wouldn't be too hard to just keep a version backup in case of regressions. I went from a game working with workarounds to literally one that doesn't do anything. And if steam won't do it the developer should do like others and have a beta devoted to prior release.. this seems basic, or maybe I have high expectations.. who knows :)
1 Likes, Who?
In case anyone happens to run this, and run into the same issues, please see my response to the developer post announcing patch 1 for the changes to the game config. file that have allowed me to finally get level 1 to load and play on Ultra near 400fps (initial launch I was around 300, but more importantly the CPU has calmed down and the system is running cooler).
There were some areas of the config loading 32bit and some 64bit, which seemed to hang either the sound or the level, but it definitely was not loading as everyone in this post experienced.
Feel free to contact me/respond if you have any issues that the developer team/Steam forums doesn't address. Apparently I now have about 2 hours in game (debugging!). I'm leaving my review as not recommended for now until it runs stable for a while.
There were some areas of the config loading 32bit and some 64bit, which seemed to hang either the sound or the level, but it definitely was not loading as everyone in this post experienced.
Feel free to contact me/respond if you have any issues that the developer team/Steam forums doesn't address. Apparently I now have about 2 hours in game (debugging!). I'm leaving my review as not recommended for now until it runs stable for a while.
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Sorry. It may have just been coincidence or maybe it triggered something else? Who knows. I've learned to not mess with it as long as it's working!
Even after reporting the fix and explaining it, they responded with a link to "how to submit a bug report". I don't know why I even bother saying anything to them anymore -- they don't read.
Maybe it's a team of bots that desperately needs some logic update :| It's just frustrating to go through the trouble of hunting down possible fixes, testing it on/off to see if it's reproducible, write up what's been tried and found to work, only to have their side completely ignore it and continue on with the customer support script like it's the telephone company.
Oh well.. life goes on :)
Even after reporting the fix and explaining it, they responded with a link to "how to submit a bug report". I don't know why I even bother saying anything to them anymore -- they don't read.
Maybe it's a team of bots that desperately needs some logic update :| It's just frustrating to go through the trouble of hunting down possible fixes, testing it on/off to see if it's reproducible, write up what's been tried and found to work, only to have their side completely ignore it and continue on with the customer support script like it's the telephone company.
Oh well.. life goes on :)
0 Likes
No worries @saildata. Thanks for trying anyway!
Yes, I agree. The devs don't seem to be listening well. They haven't read my replies properly either, and have made me repeat myself twice now. That would be frustrating enough on an open-source project, but for a paid product… I feel the refund lurking.
Yes, I agree. The devs don't seem to be listening well. They haven't read my replies properly either, and have made me repeat myself twice now. That would be frustrating enough on an open-source project, but for a paid product… I feel the refund lurking.
0 Likes
Quoting: PozzuoliI feel the refund lurking.
Hah, it's not lurking. I get the feeling it's a certainty at this point... what will replace it?? Good luck, and happy hunting :)
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It appears to be working a bit better after the update #3. It has finally loaded for me on my HTPC Debian testing system where before it would just run in the background.
Though I do have a white screen in place of graphics.
The work around for the white screen is to add/create .drirc and add the following.
Next problem is to sort out why it isn't working for the steam controller.
The work around for the white screen is to add/create .drirc and add the following.
<driconf>
<!-- Please always enable app-specific workarounds for all drivers and
screens. -->
<device>
<!-- mesa commit b0ff18bd3441ce7f28354686934440a92826eaf8 -->
<application name="Sumoman 64-bit" executable="sumoman_x64">
<option name="allow_glsl_extension_directive_midshader" value="true" />
</application>
</device>
</driconf>Next problem is to sort out why it isn't working for the steam controller.
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Quoting: stormaIt appears to be working a bit better after the update #3. It has finally loaded for me on my HTPC Debian testing system where before it would just run in the background.
Though I do have a white screen in place of graphics.
The work around for the white screen is to add/create .drirc and add the following.
<driconf>
<!-- Please always enable app-specific workarounds for all drivers and
screens. -->
<device>
<!-- mesa commit b0ff18bd3441ce7f28354686934440a92826eaf8 -->
<application name="Sumoman 64-bit" executable="sumoman_x64">
<option name="allow_glsl_extension_directive_midshader" value="true" />
</application>
</device>
</driconf>
Next problem is to sort out why it isn't working for the steam controller.
Hey Storma, sorry I haven't been online to check my messages. Yeah, I noticed #3 seems to be working for me too. If #4 is also good, then I'll update my review noting the changes.
What gets me the most out of this entire ordeal is the attitude from such a small team (2 people?) I felt like I went out of my way to provide helpful debugging info multiple times. Enough to rack up "2 hours of gameplay" on the Steam odometer without actually playing the game. Only to get s* on by auto-replies. But alas, we have a game that was bought, paid for, and finally loads the first level ;)
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