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Throne of Lies ends support for Linux but it could return in future

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Joining Rust, Natural Selection 2 and Forager this year is Throne of Lies from Imperium42 Game Studio who have decided to end Linux support for their online multiplayer game.

Posted in their Discord today in the Linux channel, which you only see if you've added yourself to a special role, was an announcement about Linux support ending. They've also already removed the SteamOS icon from the Steam store page.

Why? Well, it seems they've been having some issues with hackers recently. They're trying to sort it out but what's not helping is they've been unable to use IL2CPP, a Unity-developed scripting backend, on Mac or Linux:

Hi Penguin friends. We've supported Linux (and Mac) as long as we possibly could, despite the many hurdles (Mac and Linux getting updates/bug fixes/support last, lowest forms of support for dev packages, etc).

Now, we have 2 more major hurdles:

1) The recent hacks
2) I can't build on Linux a special way that keeps most code safe (IL2CPP) and efficient.

Here's the deal

* We have vulnerability fixes for the recent hacks, but not for Linux or Mac.
* We still cannot build in IL2CPP (that special way) on Mac or Linux.

Sadly, Linux support can only be as good as the game engine they build their game with. In this case, their issue is partly similar to what happened with Rust as no IL2CPP support for Linux being one of the reasons. Hopefully the Unity team will be working towards getting that working with Linux so we don't end up seeing more of this for online multiplayer games.

Much like Natural Selection 2, it's a small team struggling to keep a player-base going. It's not exactly a popular game, with it barely able to keep even 100 players online. Given that it needs a minimum of 8 people per game, that's not good. That said, I'm quite sad to see yet another game drop official Linux support.

There's a silver lining though for Linux gamers at least (seems MacOS support will never come back), as the Imperium42 staff member also said:

In the future, I may be able to bring back Linux support (but probably not Mac) since I can emulate Ubuntu significantly easier, but I still lack a build process and Unity doesn't behave well in Linux. I'd like to make a pipeline to upload via my server, but that won't be anytime soon, unfortunately

Hopefully this doesn't end up becoming a trend. Want to make sure it doesn't? Make yourself heard. If you buy a game that supports Linux and you enjoy it: tell friends, tell the developer, write a Steam user review for it and so on. Just don't be silent on it.

Hat tip to Expalphalog.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam, Unity
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About the author -
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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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4 comments

Expalphalog Oct 6, 2019
And a tip of the hat right back to you. I never would have discovered this game that has swallowed 223 hours* of my life if not for you and this site. Thank you.


*and counting. I'm gonna play as much as possible over the next day or two.
Purple Library Guy Oct 6, 2019
What worries me here is not so much the individual game as what this says about the state of Unity Linux support. With Linux having such a small market share, game engines making it easy to support is one of the few things we have going for us, and for Linux support in game engines, Unity seems by a good bit the biggest game in town. They're important to us, and if they let Linux support erode Linux gaming could be in significant trouble.
GustyGhost Oct 7, 2019
QuoteI may be able to bring back Linux support (but probably not Mac) since I can emulate Ubuntu significantly easier,

Anybody whose ever tried to setup an Apple OS virtual machine knows that it's a pain in the ass and undoubtedly deliberate.
Xaero_Vincent Oct 7, 2019
There is some hope here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57971396/cannot-make-a-build-in-linux-because-of-il2cpp

"I can now make IL2CPP Linux builds on Linux with the beta version 2019.3.0b4 of the editor. It don't allow to make Il2CPP Windows builds on Linux but at least I can continue working on Ubuntu. :) – Duolc7 Sep 29 at 20:28"
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