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We Happy Few for Linux and Mac being refunded, to get an "unofficial" beta

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After a long road, the waiting on We Happy Few for both Linux and Mac is about to come to an end. Not the happiest of endings either.

Originally funded on Kickstarter back in 2015 for $334,754 CA, Linux and Mac support was then announced for We Happy Few after the campaign had started. In 2017, it was announced that Compulsion Games teamed up with Gearbox Publishing to complete it.

Later in 2017 Compulsion Games announced work had begun on the ports, the whole game then had a delay and then Compulsion Games joined Microsoft in June of 2018 although they did confirmed then a Linux version was still happening.

Yesterday, they finally gave an update on what's been happening. The post on Kickstarter mentions that they "haven't reached a quality level that we are comfortable with" and they will not be selling or advertising a Linux or Mac version. However, they will offer a full refund to Linux/Mac backers and give out an unofficial Beta version as you will get to keep your copy even with the refund. They also said it will likely run slower than the Windows version, although on Linux it was said that Proton/Steam Play might be faster.

This Beta version for Linux was due with the 1.9 update released yesterday, although going by SteamDB it's not clear if that's actually happened yet and they've not said anything on it being released just yet.

After waiting so long, this is a real shame but they've handled this in a vastly better way than most other developers when they've been unable to do what they promised.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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F.Ultra Nov 12, 2019
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Quoting: rustybroomhandleThey could just switch to a "Proton, but supported by us" type model, like with No Man's Sky. As in not a native port, but the devs still care to make sure it works.

That would require that they have the skills to do that.
Purple Library Guy Nov 12, 2019
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: rustybroomhandleThey could just switch to a "Proton, but supported by us" type model, like with No Man's Sky. As in not a native port, but the devs still care to make sure it works.

That would require that they have the skills to do that.
I've certainly gotten the impression through the "We Happy Few" saga that it's a story of people with excellent intentions and really cool ideas about imagery and theme, but not especially great coding and game-writing skills.
Their reach exceeded their grasp, both in terms of the game overall and in terms of the Linux release.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 12 November 2019 at 6:48 pm UTC
mphuZ Nov 12, 2019
Wasteland 3 waiting for the same fate.
Pangaea Nov 12, 2019
Bought by Microsoft, and then Linux support is dropped. We are all shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

...while awaiting the same bad news for all future Obsidian games :'(
Pangaea Nov 12, 2019
Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: BielFPsI think we all hoped for. Bioshock series really neat the whole "dystopian society" theme.

Especially the first game had an amazing atmosphere, man how I loved to explore and unwrap the stories in there.
One of my all time favourites.

Totally agree with this, re: Bioshock. LOVED the first game. Such a marvellous atmosphere, and a good story too. The second game lost a little of the magic, but was still fun. Not played the later games, but that first one was marvellous.

Kinda the same with Mafia. The first game was one of the best games I've ever played. Such a strong story too.

It really seems like something was lost from the games that came out in that era. Late 90 to early 2000s. Thank goodness Kickstarter projects revived my belief in quality games and we got some jewels from it.
Mohandevir Nov 12, 2019
Quoting: Pangaea
Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: BielFPsI think we all hoped for. Bioshock series really neat the whole "dystopian society" theme.

Especially the first game had an amazing atmosphere, man how I loved to explore and unwrap the stories in there.
One of my all time favourites.

Totally agree with this, re: Bioshock. LOVED the first game. Such a marvellous atmosphere, and a good story too. The second game lost a little of the magic, but was still fun. Not played the later games, but that first one was marvellous.

Kinda the same with Mafia. The first game was one of the best games I've ever played. Such a strong story too.

It really seems like something was lost from the games that came out in that era. Late 90 to early 2000s. Thank goodness Kickstarter projects revived my belief in quality games and we got some jewels from it.

Bioshock 2 is not considered Canon. It's just some form of exploitation of the Bioshock "universe". Infinite and the first opus wrap together marvelously in a "complete" story. One being the prequel to the other. Personally I prefered Infinite to the first game, but both are good. It's even more obvious if you play Infinite's DLCs where the last pieces of the puzzle are falling in place.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 12 November 2019 at 9:18 pm UTC
Avehicle7887 Nov 12, 2019
Quoting: kokoko3k
Quoting: EhvisI suspect the "quality" is about something more than just performance. Because UE4 running slower on Mac and Linux is not exactly a surprise.
Since i don't use Windows, can you post some evidence of that?

Regarding the performance part (and possibly a good example):

Supraland has a native version which uses Vulkan on Linux, the performance is half of what I get compared to Wine+DXVK. I'm afraid this game would probably follow suite if the fix has to be done on Epic's side not the Dev's.
Shmerl Feb 11, 2020
Linux version came out on GOG!
Shmerl Feb 12, 2020
Just tested it, and it's too buggy to play. At least intro simply gives some black screen. Not worth it IMHO, since developers aren't likely to continue fixing it. I'll try Windows version in Wine.
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