Sure, they always mattered. They perform better than emulated or translated (Wine) games. So those who care about performance appreciate this. And performance was kind of always important for games, especially the more complex they got.

Last edited by Shmerl on 9 Aug 2021 at 10:32 pm UTC

Not nearly as much as source available games. If the project cannot be compiled by parties other than the author, it will always remain beholden to special interests.

My games are not very complex but at least they're fully tested and working properly on Linux.

I prefer to have a well-made native Linux version.

The problem is, many native games are poorly-made and offer a worse experience (eg have worse performance) than playing them with a compatibility layer.

So it depends on which case is it with your games.

I'd rather play a native game. If you are developing and testing the linux build all along I think that helps the stability of the game. Errors that work fine in one OS tend to be exposed when working on multiple OSes. However this is time consuming. Economically it might be cheaper to just rely on wine.

For me it's a priority thing. Native takes precedence over non-native. Practically that means I will mostly buy and play native games first. Native games may get bought even though I might not have time to play it immediately (or at all). Practically that means that non-native never happens because I never have time for them or they get picked up from the bargain bin.

Quoting: goob256My games are not very complex but at least they're fully tested and working properly on Linux.

This is the important bit. There are native games where the devs don't bother to test or bugfix; there are non-native games where the devs actually do test in Proton and fix any issues. Announcing right on the store page, by making a native version, your support of your Linux customers is indicative that you actually plan to really support your customers on Linux (and vice versa not showing your support is indicative that you aren't giving any support), but sadly it's not a guarantee.

They matter to me. I'm far more willing to buy a native game than a Windows game and am willing to pay more for it. To me the fact that the develoepr took time and effort to make a native Linux game and also support it means they are more deserving of my money than those who did not.

Quoting: goob256I make native Linux games but does anybody care about these anymore? Thanks.

My first thought...No. If a developer is going to claim that it can run on Linux (native or otherwise), then they should make effort to ensure it does (native or otherwise).I have no issue with how it is implemented (native, port, wine, etc)

My second thought... Yes. If there's no claim of Linux support, I'm not going to buy it because I don't know if it'll run my computer. Yes, I have exceptions, but generally, I'm not going to take that risk with my money when there are so many good, supported games to play.

I forgot to ask before, what Linux games have you made ?

Quoting: PublicNuisanceI forgot to ask before, what Linux games have you made ?

My Linux games are at https://nooskewl.itch.io. All simple RPGs. I'm working on a new one now.

I do think they matter, and as a fellow gamedev (although im more a hobbyist) I think we have power to try to make Linux native builds more of a thing.

Whatever makes it easy to people enjoy my games, I always build for the big three: Win, Mac, Linux.

Quoting: goob256My Linux games are at https://nooskewl.itch.io. All simple RPGs. I'm working on a new one now.

I remember looking at these. You had the source code on github for a while. I still have monster rpg 2 source code on my machine although I haven't had the time to try it.

For new games, you should add achievements. [Gamerzilla](http://identicalsoftware.com/gamerzilla/) is my open source game achievement system.

I definitely prefer native games as the proton / wine stuff lacks compatibility. If if it's gold or platin on protonDB I often have to fiddle with the stuff and find the right proton version. And even then it's not assured that a full playthrough works. So it's always with a bit of insecurity.
OK, a couple of windows-only games also break after updates on Windows and can't be played on newer versions anymore. But I rarely see that for native Linux games. The Linux developers often keep lots of compatibility versions for older essential libraries, so in most cases chances are very high you can have fun with your games/apps for a long time even if they're not actively maintained (my experience).

And I don't pay full price for Windows only games (OK, maybe if it's only a single euro or less), I only buy them when they're on a good sale and have a very positive protonDB rating. Especially if there was a native Linux version announced before (hello Slightly Mad Studios), then they have to be on a huge sale.

Quoting: peta77OK, a couple of windows-only games also break after updates on Windows and can't be played on newer versions anymore. But I rarely see that for native Linux games. The Linux developers often keep lots of compatibility versions for older essential libraries, so in most cases chances are very high you can have fun with your games/apps for a long time even if they're not actively maintained (my experience

I totally agree that native games are playable longer. My oldest native game is from 2001 (Neverwinter Nights), and I was able to get it to run several years ago (took a little work). Impossible for windows.

I think one thing WINE does well is it allows very old games to be played that there is no hope of support, like games from the late 90s era, WIN95/98. Something not possible in Windows by my understanding, no? And maybe even a stretch for Linux native titles (few as they were) from that era.

I just realized I might be making argument against native, which wasn't my starting intention. But I think WINE is due some consideration. I can play games via WINE long after Windows, and eventually Linux, have deprecated support.

Quoting: denyasisI totally agree that native games are playable longer. My oldest native game is from 2001 (Neverwinter Nights), and I was able to get it to run several years ago (took a little work). Impossible for windows.

I think one thing WINE does well is it allows very old games to be played that there is no hope of support, like games from the late 90s era, WIN95/98. Something not possible in Windows by my understanding, no? And maybe even a stretch for Linux native titles (few as they were) from that era.

I just realized I might be making argument against native, which wasn't my starting intention. But I think WINE is due some consideration. I can play games via WINE long after Windows, and eventually Linux, have deprecated support.

That is not at all untrue. Windows will run old software better than Linux but Wine and DOSBox are great. I have a native game that is still running that was built in 2007 on Linux though so it's not terrible. It had one bug that the icon didn't appear on Ubuntu so I fixed it and recompiled it this year.

Last edited by goob256 on 13 Aug 2021 at 6:33 am UTC

Personally I prefer native Linux games as long as it's in a genre I enjoy and offers high quality. I will play Windows only games as long as I can get them to work with one of the Proton versions that ships with the Linux Steam client. I used to try to get them working with Wine but these days I don't feel like trying to manually tweak Wine settings.

So in summary, I prefer:
1: Linux Native
2: Windows games that work with Steam provided Proton settings

Quoting: goob256That is not at all untrue. Windows will run old software better than Linux but Wine and DOSBox are great.

Really? I had always thought the opposite. I thought there were some hard lines set when Windows 7 and Windows 10 came out that made it hard or impossible for some older games to work. Granted most of my deep windows experience ended with XP, so I can only go on what I read online...

Now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense. Windows tries to maintain backwards compatibility for a lot of stuff and I have business software I use at work on a Window 7/10 machine that is at least 20 years old (probably closer to 25)

Weird, I mentally separated Windows games and Windows business software as if they were two different things, but they aren't, at least in the eyes of the OS, lol.

Quoting: denyasis

Quoting: goob256That is not at all untrue. Windows will run old software better than Linux but Wine and DOSBox are great.

Really? I had always thought the opposite. I thought there were some hard lines set when Windows 7 and Windows 10 came out that made it hard or impossible for some older games to work. Granted most of my deep windows experience ended with XP, so I can only go on what I read online...

Now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense. Windows tries to maintain backwards compatibility for a lot of stuff and I have business software I use at work on a Window 7/10 machine that is at least 20 years old (probably closer to 25)

I'm stopped gaming with Windows in XP era too. I used Linux quite long time at work too and might switch back to Linux again as I don't think I have much that won't work in Linux. Could get rid of WSL by doing that.

What I remember though is that Windows has compatibility mode and it still seems to be a thing. So if the application doesn't work by default, it can be used.

Though there's quite many re-released games which bring in compatibility with new Windows versions, so I guess the backwards compatibility is not perfect. Especially for games.

For the DOS games, Windows and Linux are on equal footing as both need DosBox. If you buy game though, game might bundle Windows version of DosBox, so Linux gamers need little bit of fiddling.

On Linux it's balancing act between using native libraries, which means game is doomed to break eventually. Other end of the spectrum is to bundle all the libraries, which means that libraries are missing new features (which might matter now and then) and libraries will accumulate security vulnerabilities over time.

I have pretty old Linux games, but I can't really trust on release date alone. Linux release might have been done years after the initial release. Most realistically oldest Linux builds that I have are from beginnings of Humble Bundle at 2010. I tried few, but didn't have much luck. Might need some fiddling. Game from 2010 worked via Steam though, which means that Valve has given bit more though on backwards compatibility.

So on Linux things seem to be more about developers doing right things and oldest ports are from people who were doing their first Linux port and might not have wanted to spend too much time on it anyway. Most Linux software however is maintained and can be patched and recompiled whenever necessary (which is rare with games). On the core level Linux hasn't dropped much backwards compatibility. You can recompile kernel without 32-bit support if you want though, which will break lot of games.

Quoting: Anza

Quoting: denyasis

Quoting: goob256That is not at all untrue. Windows will run old software better than Linux but Wine and DOSBox are great.

Really? I had always thought the opposite. I thought there were some hard lines set when Windows 7 and Windows 10 came out that made it hard or impossible for some older games to work. Granted most of my deep windows experience ended with XP, so I can only go on what I read online...

Now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense. Windows tries to maintain backwards compatibility for a lot of stuff and I have business software I use at work on a Window 7/10 machine that is at least 20 years old (probably closer to 25)

I'm stopped gaming with Windows in XP era too. I used Linux quite long time at work too and might switch back to Linux again as I don't think I have much that won't work in Linux. Could get rid of WSL by doing that.

What I remember though is that Windows has compatibility mode and it still seems to be a thing. So if the application doesn't work by default, it can be used.

Though there's quite many re-released games which bring in compatibility with new Windows versions, so I guess the backwards compatibility is not perfect. Especially for games.

[...]

I'll second that ; I have stopped using windows at the end of support for Windows 7, and I had a lot of old games on my hard drive, some from back the Windows 98 era, and I could just launch them and play. No re-installation required, no need for compatibility mode, just click and play.

Heck, I even had a music player which was an early beta created for Windows 95, and it worked perfectly up to Windows 7 (fun fact: this player is probably one the program I miss the most after switching to Linux :tongue:).

There are a few games that would not work though, usually they had some DRM based on a drivers, which was only shipped in 32 bit version, so impossible to install on a 64 bit version (hello, StarForce... )