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Quoting: YulikeI must applaud your work. This isn't your best article, but it was a great read nonetheless.

I really freaked out when I accidentally published that. But in the end I think it's really become a great read, don't you think? :)

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Quoting: Cheesenessyour arguments don't seem to recognise the broader implications that combining Wine usage figures with native Linux usage figures would have for the industry's perception of Linux as a viable gaming platform.

Ok, I'm done trying to reason. It's just not getting through. So let's try this.

You obviously don't like wine, well neither do I. I don't want to have to use it, but it's not like we have any choice at the moment until more native releases come out. So, having the number of people running the OS is what matters, NOT what they're resorting to in order to get games to work. If the industry's perception of linux is that there aren't that many of us, and in fact our numbers are dropping as the article says, then things will only get worse.

All I have ever said, and this isn't some insane idea as you folks keep trying to make it out as: if I'm using linux as my OS, my OS should be reported as linux. Anything else, and that's where you start screwing with the numbers. You're so stuck on the minutea of this, and yet tell me I can't see the broader picture... *sigh* Can't see the forest for the trees, and complains I'm not seeing the whole tree.

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I sincerely hope that Garry gets a pleasant surprise. He's been pretty open about not expecting much to come of Garry's Mod for Linux.

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Quoting: s_dRegarding multiplayer, it is absolutely true, and I've a nice technical explanation from them.  It appears to be an architectural limitation:

http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/9178/

As much as I respect these guys and their work, I think that's a very poor design decision.

Already paid $35. I didn't know much about the games, except for Psychonauts, but they look crazy funny from the trailers.

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I must applaud your work. This isn't your best article, but it was a great read nonetheless.

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Quoting: SabunHahaha, I play games to enjoy them. I know for some, fun = challenging. For me, it's just mucking about and learning the story :)

Yeah, in general I lean that way as well.

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Quoting: Yulike

Quoting: CheesenessCan't wait to see how the rest of this bundle plays out. I've got my fingers crossed that Linux gamers will edge out Mac OS gamers in terms of revenue ^_^

I wouldn't be surprised if we beat them on sales too, it's already pretty close with 12 days left. It leaves me to wonder, will The Cave be added in the second week?

With The Cave being published by Sega, that seems less likely to happen than stuff they wholly control.

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Quoting: berarmaThe issues might be related to the name change, I remember having read about the problems of the name change in the game comments.

Could be, but this game changed names a few weeks ago, as it happens.

Desura's Alphafunding section is weird, the order of the games changes almost daily. This doesn't happen in the store's main section though. :|

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Good to see they keep getting new games, and the HIB doesn't stop neither. That's great.

The issues might be related to the name change, I remember having read about the problems of the name change in the game comments.

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QuoteOn easy? Really?

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Hahaha, I play games to enjoy them. I know for some, fun = challenging. For me, it's just mucking about and learning the story :)

QuotePlayed a little and no problems on Ubuntu 13.04 x86_64 with an HD6950 and catalyst 13.4

Thanks for the info mate, a HD6950 damn nice man :D

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Their developers comment frequently on their Desura pages and tend to answer inquiries.

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Quoting: CheesenessSuper happy to be supporting this one :D

Can't wait to see how the rest of this bundle plays out. I've got my fingers crossed that Linux gamers will edge out Mac OS gamers in terms of revenue ^_^

For anybody who's been wondering what's up with my Humble stats pages, this bundle saw some pretty significant markup changes on Humble's side which I couldn't sort out until I got home from work. Stuff is up now though, and this bundle's climbing rapidly.

I wouldn't be surprised if we beat them on sales too, it's already pretty close with 12 days left. It leaves me to wonder, will The Cave be added in the second week?

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Quoting: AnonymousAh, well that sums it up. You miss the point entirely, and can't even see how you've missed it when notified, because you're thinking on a different scale.

That doesn't mean that anybody who says something else is missing the point you're making, just that they consider the different scale to be more important or relevant.

I can see what it is you're saying, but your arguments don't seem to recognise the broader implications that combining Wine usage figures with native Linux usage figures would have for the industry's perception of Linux as a viable gaming platform.

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Quoting: muntdefemsLockdown Protocol is not really new, it's just the old The Platform Shooter which for some reason has jumped to the top of the newest alphafunding titles.


PS: Fixed a broken link. ;)

*sigh* more Desura website issues it seems then.

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Lockdown Protocol is not really new, it's just the old The Platform Shooter which for some reason has jumped to the top of the newest alphafunding titles.


PS: Fixed a broken link. ;)

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Super happy to be supporting this one :D

Can't wait to see how the rest of this bundle plays out. I've got my fingers crossed that Linux gamers will edge out Mac OS gamers in terms of revenue ^_^

For anybody who's been wondering what's up with my Humble stats pages, this bundle saw some pretty significant markup changes on Humble's side which I couldn't sort out until I got home from work. Stuff is up now though, and this bundle's climbing rapidly.

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Quoting: SabunP.S: Is it true AMD graphics users are having problems with it?

Played a little and no problems on Ubuntu 13.04 x86_64 with an HD6950 and catalyst 13.4

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Quoting: SabunWoohoo! Brutal Legend works amazingly! I was sad when Costume Quest wouldn't run, but man Brutal Legend makes up for it. Never played it before, so this was a new experience. It's a really well done port so far. Check it out running in Ubuntu 13.04 on my machine:

First part of the video is fullscreen, second part around 29:20 is windowed-mode. I haven't tried my 360 controller yet, just been playing with my keyboard & mouse. Just be warned, I enjoy the game so much I didn't notice how much time I spent recording it. It's an hour long video...
P.S: Is it true AMD graphics users are having problems with it?

On easy? Really?

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I'll be buying this one.

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The picture looked like a space craft wreak to me at first. Lol

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Woohoo! Brutal Legend works amazingly! I was sad when Costume Quest wouldn't run, but man Brutal Legend makes up for it. Never played it before, so this was a new experience. It's a really well done port so far. Check it out running in Ubuntu 13.04 on my machine:
View video on youtube.com
First part of the video is fullscreen, second part around 29:20 is windowed-mode. I haven't tried my 360 controller yet, just been playing with my keyboard & mouse. Just be warned, I enjoy the game so much I didn't notice how much time I spent recording it. It's an hour long video...
P.S: Is it true AMD graphics users are having problems with it?

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Quoting: s_d

Quoting: SpeedsterI enjoyed this game, hope someday the sequel gets ported to Linux as well

Yeah, I asked RuneSoft about this, and they said that depending on how well their back catalog does on Desura, they want to bring the Ankh games, as well as games that have never been on Linux before, like Jack Keane and the Fire Within and Ankh 3.


I really hope that works out!

Who do you contact at RuneSoft ? Mr. Steidig ?

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Looks nice and interesting. Maybe a bit similar to other games out there though. :)

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I've always admired all the OSS guys working on good old UFO, however I can't help but feel like they're being cheated by the current copyright owner - and before we jump the gun, I do say all this completely subjectively.

My thoughts go like this: These guys, working for free in their spare time, are doing all the work of keeping this game enjoyable and playable on all (modern) systems, yet the publisher keeps selling the game and getting the royalties. I remember when this title was considered Abandonware, as in there was no distribution and nobody would care when people go and simply download the game to play it. The copyright owner didn't give a damn, the game wasn't patched or maintained (and prolly still isn't), and thus the OSS community pitched in to make it work (i.e. UFO2000). And now, ever since the new XCOM was announced they immediately started caring about whether the game is sold or not. Yet in the end they provide it as-is and you STILL need the OSS reimplementation to run it "normally"? I call foul play. If they're going to sell the game then they should either patch it themselves or support the OpenXcom guys...

Okay, I'm done ranting. Good job on your new release guys! ^_^

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Quoting: OrkultusOmg i want this; but i am so broke right now.

Welcome to the club... :(

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Great bundle! Great company (Double Fine)! Great video! Support for Electronic Frontier Foundation! Tim Schafer is a good guy and totally deserves my $35 alone! 

just bought it for $35 and I recommend everyone else to do the same. Show your support when you can! Money talks and you have the opportunity. This is unprecented times for free open source platforms, so support while you can ;)

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Looks like something i would want to play.

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Omg i want this; but i am so broke right now.

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Oooo, this looks like a proper Humble Bundle to me. Yes, we already have Psychonauts from an earlier HB, and Broken Age from the kickstarter, but I'm happy to see those other games really did get ported to Linux!

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Regarding multiplayer, it is absolutely true, and I've a nice technical explanation from them.  It appears to be an architectural limitation:

http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/9178/

Quoting: Quote from DF NathanBL’s matchmaking is restricted by platform/OS (i.e. 360 vs 360, Win vs Win, Linux vs Linux, etc).
The reason for this is that BL uses a deterministic peer-to-peer multiplayer model. In this model, there is no central/official server that makes all the important decisions and tells everyone else what happened. If there was, cross OS multiplayer would be much more possible. However, in the case of BL (and Iron Brigade), each player basically runs their own server and players only send their input to the other players. It’s as if everyone had their keyboards/mice/controllers plugged into a single machine. Except, they aren’t the same machine, but they have to act as if they are. What this means is that the game must be 100% deterministic, i.e. given the same inputs, each instance of the game must produce the same output. If the games don’t have the same output, then you get what we call a desync, which is sort of a butterfly effect where the games could continue, but each player would have an increasingly divergent version of the game.
In order to produce the exact same outputs, the game’s code needs to execute *exactly* the same on all of the machines involved. Any difference in how the process does, say, floating point math (i.e. PS3’s Cell vs Intel) would break that requirement. Even on machines with the same hardware (i.e. Windows vs Linux), we have to use different compilers and rely on different OSs. These differences in how, say, a compiler optimizes code can introduce subtle changes that will not be deterministic with the same code compiled on another processor.
It is, theoretically, possible to make a windows binary and a linux binary deterministic, but it’s a daunting proposition on a codebase as complex as Brutal Legend. It would require a vast investment of tech and QA, and would probably be quite fragile, easily broken by a subtle change in compiler behavior, OS update, etc.
Anyway, I hope that helps answer your question!

So, there you have it.  Each client sends state deltas to the others, and each client is expected to apply those deltas to the parameter lists of each object in play.  Then, each client's game engine is expected to play the resulting gameplay segment exactly as all the others (units spawn & die at the same time, attacks are issued & land in sync, etc.), and this is highly perturbed by engine variation, even compile-time optimization differences.

I can't say it's a happy result for me, but it's clear that they did not simply dismiss the feature, but did in fact put effort into discovering feasibility.

Beyond that, I'm conflicted... I'm not much of a multi-player kind of guy.  So, it shouldn't be a big deal.  But when I do, the two genres I enjoy are RTS and co-op RPG's (e.g., NWN1).  I've had a chat with some co-workers, regarding the PC release of BL, and they all pretty much agree that the game's RTS mode was not at all appropriate for a console (big surprise), and that the game is most fun to play with a gamepad for the action-adventure segments, and mouse/keyboard for the RTS battles.

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