On the whole marketing part, I have to say that GoL was the only website to cover it (outside of Jason's interview on L4E that ended up a Forbes Article)! Keep one thing in mind, my sales wouldn't have been even half of what they are if Linux users didn't go for the game.

An interesting thing that I'll try and expand further on is based on how Steam gives visibility to it's games - it's similar to the way an ads network does it. The ad that sells the most get's the most visibility. If they have two ads running, they both get 100 views initially (this is an example). One sells 30 produts and one sells only 5. The one with 30 products get's more visibility.

When the forbes article went up Linux was at 36-37% of the total sales. With the conversation that sparked on r/linux_gaming or r/linux you'd expect Linux to get a higher percentage and up into the 50-60's percentile.

What happened was, although Linux numbers grew (by almost 100) so did the Windows numbers. And I'm mentioning this that, next someone says, linux doesn't matter let this be a lesson. At least for small indies like me, Linux literary allowed me to continue making games without doing any freelancing or going back into the F2P industry!

So thank you Linux! Thank you a ton!
And thanks to Liam for covering the game's release and announcement and Jason of course!
But thank you Linux! You just made a Bearded Giant really really happy!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Holy hell I might just pick it up! Been playing the X series since X2 the threat and X3:Reunion, TC and AP are high up the list for my favorite games.

X-Rebirth left me with a bad taste so I was glad to see Egosoft go back to the X routes for X4. Been holding out on getting it because of well, all the issues people raised, but with this update I won't be able to contain myself!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Finally! Steam visibility nowadays is given by the amount of wishlists you have before launch. You gather them as your page stays up and the closer you are to release - the less people have to click to see your game - the more views you get. The problem is, devs would put a release day, day would come close - they would hog the front page for new releases (pushing actual released games on another page, in the back) and then move it again.

A lot of games would reach release day after months with little to no wishlists because of this while the devs who did it would grow their numbers a ton (and, because of that, even get better visibility in other lists).

I'm. extremely. happy for this. It's good news - thanks Valve!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestWell the 4000 ship battle kind of slows to a crawl for me. I wasn't really expecting anything different. But that would be amazing amounts of fun if I could lob brute force computing power at it.

Have some trouble with IFF on the later levels - enemy ships and targets aren't having indicators displayed. Fortunately, just shoot at whatever looks to be an enemy and it kind of goes ok.

I appreciate the effort that each mission feels different too. Thoroughly enjoyed playing through them all. Now to go back over it and try out the different weapons, and see just how much I can poke at it to get as many ships on screen as I can and still be playable.

Hang on tight, cause yesterday I just prototype the first content update for the game that's going to diversify things a bit! Might go into beta as early as next weekend.

As for 4000 ships battle, yeah, if you're on integrated graphics and/or low spec like me, I think you can go as high as 700 ships. Some more optimizations on my side for the next patches with fixes might kick it up a bit more :)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: hercI just bought the game and kept failing the first real mission. Took me a few tries to complete it but when I did I was like, "YES!" Usually when I play these sorts of games I fail and quit almost right away, so I'd say that is a sign of a well made game!

Can I quote you on this on twitter? <3!

Best thing I heard all day :D

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Hey guys, thank you for your support! For those asking, so far, Linux sales are 30% from the total of 135 since the game released! I hope it stays like that during the first month because I'm looking to write an article on Game development on Linux and for Linux and toot the high number.

The usual number you hear thrown around is 3-5% of the copies sold, and it might be true for really big games. But small indies like me can benefit a ton from supporting Linux!

Edit: Linux is more. What's 54 out of 135? (goes and brews coffee)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: on_en_a_grosDiscovered the game in the last week interview and wishlisted it immediately, it looks nice and fun, and it's made on Linux.
I'm probably going to buy these one day one, full tux, immediate bucks :D.
Do we know something about 21:9 aspect ratio support ?

Sadly, I don't have a screen to test it/try it on so I have no idea. I can fake such an aspect ratio and try my best to get it to be compatible.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

And as usual, as soon as I release a trailer or overhaul the steam page with new shots and stuff, I improve it and take it a step further!

With last night optimization process I got this footage [External Link] to work flawlessly on the Intel HD 4000 (and proof [External Link] footage from my phone).

Going to call a stop on optimizations and graphical improvements for now so I can focus on wrapping up the game's content!

Thanks for covering the new trailer Liam!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestIt would be interesting, if you have time, to give an impression of development on GNU/Linux first and then porting to Windows, any difficulties you face, and what you feel is better this way around rather than Windows first. I think there was something before along similar lines? Anyway, regarding this game and the community responses, just for interest.

I would love too do something like this. I was just now telling Liam on Discord about Meghan's Skate Bird tweet about the Linux demo being late due to having to rebuild the entire unity library (which takes hours) and how that never happened to me on Linux mostly because my middleware (like ReWired) is designed to work cross platform.

Off the top of my head, if someone would ask me for a good reason why to develop on Linux and I couldn't answer with the subjective answers I'd say: Because porting to other platforms won't be a hassle AND because if your middleware works well on Linux they are bound to work really well on Windows and Mac. Vs if it works on Windows it might not have a Linux version available.

I'll do a blog post about this as soon as I'm done with the Betas in the days leading up to launch. My 2cents? Ever since I started developing on Linux I've been moving a ton more faster and I would never trade it for anything!

Quoting: GuestSounds like the demo was well worth the feedback, which is nice to hear read.

That was the point of it :D! Also the Linux beta's are wonderful. Got a few people from the GoL community on Discord and really, most of the changes are due to them!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: RoosterWow, this will be an insta buy for me. I also just became a patreon.

Just saw the pledge and was wondering if it was someone from GoL! Jump onto our discord so we can assign you the patron roll and get access to the other games! Beta 6 (with the stuff in the trailer) will be available this weekend (I hope)!

Quoting: EhvisI remember there being a requirement to have at least a Windows version on Steam.

I did give the demo a quick try with my joystick, but it didn't quite feel right. Need to do some more testing and then give some feedback. It was impressive that it correctly recognised the buttons and axes of my flight stick.

Joystick working really well is the wonderful work of the guys behind ReWired! It's a library I use for gamepad support and the props go to them! Unity's default system is horrible and I wrestled a ton with gamepad support before I discovered Rewired!

Quoting: EikeSo much looking forward for a thread asking for a Windows port. :-D (*)

(*) Yes, it's technically possible to upload a Linux only game on Steam.

The game is developed on Linux and all Betas happen on Linux but I'll have to release it alongside Windows on steam or I'm financially toast :(. If my community and store grows I'll be the first to jump on Linux exclusive games.

On the bright side, ever since Beta 1 a ton of people asked for the windows version :D! Here's a screen [External Link] from when I released the (OUTDATED AS HELL) demo on itch (first comment at the top).

A few more asked on our Discord and on twitter! It feels amazing to be on the other side, even if only for a moment:P

View this comment - View article - View full comments