My knowledge of game development is pathetic, so it's always been easy for me to imagine that Proton meant more money for game devs and more games for Linux gamers because devs making Windows games could "simply" make them with an eye towards Proton compatibility and add the Linux market to their profits. Maybe this is already the case. I don't know.

I see it, then, as following that Valve would also benefit by working with devs to make their games to be "platinum" level Proton compatible, much the way Microsoft --- and Gabe Newell himself --- did to get devs to leave MSDOS for DirectX back in the mid-nineties:

Quoting: WikipediaTo get more developers on board DirectX, Microsoft approached id Software's John Carmack and offered to port Doom and Doom 2 from MS-DOS to DirectX, free of charge, with id retaining all publishing rights to the game. Carmack agreed, and Microsoft's Gabe Newell led the porting project. The first game was released as Doom 95 in August 1996, the first published DirectX game. Microsoft promoted the game heavily with Bill Gates appearing in ads for the title.

"Direct X," [External Link] note 5 [External Link]

The upcoming release of the Steam Deck" has me wondering once again why Valve aren't doing something like this for Proton? (Or maybe they have and I'm just unaware of it?) Surely, Valve would do if it would work, wouldn't they? Is there a Proton API or SDK or thingamabob already?

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I've never liked the GoG website, it's always felt like a chore to browse. Perhaps it's because I'm lazy, but having to open a new webpage in my browser every time I want to see anything about a game beyond it's price and a bit of artwork is less like browsing and more like a chore. It's like getting the phone numbers for all the merchants in a village by running to each one of them individually and asking for it.

Steam and itch.io all let me scan game info without leaving the page. That's why I shop there for 99% of my games. The other 1% I get at GoG.

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One of these days Microsoft will acquire Microsoft and we'll all die from the resulting black hole.

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I'm so happy to hear about how well this is doing, and delighted to hear that the dev is a Linux user. Perfect. It's already on my wishlist. I'm just waiting for it to leave Early Access.

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Quoting: GuestIt is also on GOG [External Link]

It's on Itch.io [External Link] too. :)

I caught Samsai's live stream of this today. I was mesmerized. A really rich game.

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I was waiting for this. I didn't know I was waiting for this, but I have, in fact, been waiting for this. I love Steam for many reasons, but I always breath just a little easier knowing I have an alternative somewhere nearby.

Thank you dev, and thank you Liam for spreading the good word. :)

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I bought a bunch of stuff that's been gathering dust on my wishlist.

I got some easy to jump into games for my laptop, arcade-y, casual games I can play without having to remember how to play or where I left off:

...Volo Airsport
...Donut Country
...Bridge Contructor Portal

One AAA title I've wanted to play since it was released, and that's Control Ultimate Edition

Everything else I'll happily play alone, but bought with an eye towards playing with friends:

...Shadow Warrior 2
...Styx Shards of Darkness
...Warhammer Chaosbane
...Journey to the Savage Planet
...Jydge
...Drake Hollow
...Titan Quest Anniversary Edition

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Just wanna give a shout out to Italian author Italo Calvino whose BRILLIANT and FUN novel If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (IOAWNAT) was clearly the near namesake of this game. I'm going to have to play it just to see if the similarities end there. The content as described sounds like it's original to the game, but I'd love to see if any of IOAWNAT's clever structural playfulness was brought over.

Just sayin', it's a really fun, smart read. :)

The sufficiently curious uninitiated can catch a bit of the flavour by looking over some quotes at GoodReads. [External Link]

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Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: Nanobang

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: NanobangI'm a huge fan of what ChimeraOS (nee GamerOS) is doing (even if I'm not an actual COS user) and I see it as another example of the power of Open Source software in action. SteamOS was rushed out undercooked and then abandoned by Valve relatively quickly, and ChimeraOS stepped in, dusted it off, and set about bringing it up-to-date and even expanding functionality beyond anything Valve would have done.

So I offer a hearty skål! to ChimeraOS and its makers.

I don't know if they abandoned it as much as (at least one) of the developers decided he hated Debian's build methods and started looking for a replacement. From some points of view, it does make more sense to run with a rolling release for a game console OS. But for the most part the game console operating systems have been some form of BSD (except xbox, which basically uses Windows from my understanding). Valve made (in my mind) a smarter move and based it on Linux so others could maintain the parts they don't care about :)

If I'm honest, I can't speak to the difficulties of using Debian or BSD or Arch as a basis for SteamOS, but on the face of it, yes, I imagine a rolling release like Arch would be more amenable to dedicated Linux devs updating things with minimal breakage. Do I remember correctly that Debian was chosen for its oft praised stability?

I'll stick with saying SteamOS was abandoned, like a rusting car parked in a field, barely visible among tall grass and brambles, home to nesting mice and wasps, started every so often to keep its engine from seizing up entirely. ;)

Ha, I'm betting if you took the last version of SteamOS and changed the repositories to Debian Buster and then Bullseye it'd update just fine and still work. I may try that if I get bored enough.

Oooooo, that sounds like a cool experiment! Here's hoping you get bored enough soon! XD

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Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: NanobangI'm a huge fan of what ChimeraOS (nee GamerOS) is doing (even if I'm not an actual COS user) and I see it as another example of the power of Open Source software in action. SteamOS was rushed out undercooked and then abandoned by Valve relatively quickly, and ChimeraOS stepped in, dusted it off, and set about bringing it up-to-date and even expanding functionality beyond anything Valve would have done.

So I offer a hearty skål! to ChimeraOS and its makers.

I don't know if they abandoned it as much as (at least one) of the developers decided he hated Debian's build methods and started looking for a replacement. From some points of view, it does make more sense to run with a rolling release for a game console OS. But for the most part the game console operating systems have been some form of BSD (except xbox, which basically uses Windows from my understanding). Valve made (in my mind) a smarter move and based it on Linux so others could maintain the parts they don't care about :)

If I'm honest, I can't speak to the difficulties of using Debian or BSD or Arch as a basis for SteamOS, but on the face of it, yes, I imagine a rolling release like Arch would be more amenable to dedicated Linux devs updating things with minimal breakage. Do I remember correctly that Debian was chosen for its oft praised stability?

I'll stick with saying SteamOS was abandoned, like a rusting car parked in a field, barely visible among tall grass and brambles, home to nesting mice and wasps, started every so often to keep its engine from seizing up entirely. ;)

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