Muntdefems, something I didn't notice before is that you've mentioned Richard & Alice as AGS games which need the Linux interpreter to run, but you didn't mention that for the Blackwell Chronicles games nor for Primordia, which are in the same situation.

Also, regarding Richard & Alice, I'm contacting the devs to ask them what tool they use to package those installers.

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Sadly, you were correct, Munt :(

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I'm really not sure at all that Munt should change the format.  What is being suggested is to cover more projects (including in-progress updates) with less text.  I'm not at all fond of the idea of a highly tabular version of The Funding Crowd.  Right now, despite his reservations regarding English language usage, his writing has personality and a definite "voice".  Yes, there is the occasional idiosyncratic usage, but this simply adds flavour (if you will) to the article.

I guess I'm saying... I feel it could worsen a pretty awesome regular column.  Also, I said "loose convention", not "guideline".  My intention was not to contribute to the "slump", which we are all too familiar with, rather to encourage in-depth coverage during that period of slow funding.  If someone wants to take a stab at a long-format article, then they should do so.  Armikrog (for example) has put forth all sorts of new and lovely imagery, as well as nifty tidbits from several interviews.  Speedster's introductory article was a good summary (complete with bullet points), but had no graphical content in the article itself, so there's an opportunity for something a bit more detailed.  I suppose... now that I've offered up that idea, it's probably on me to perform a bit of wordsmithing...

Anyway, aside from community assistance (which solves many problems), I'd rather Munt's time be spent less on tracking individual previously-covered projects' status, and instead on continuing to craft the nice summary paragraphs that we've enjoyed on the column.

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Quoting: berarmaBefore that, some developers were saying it was a bad platform for games, now we don't hear that anymore. Money rules when it comes to COMMERCIAL games.

Well, we definitely still hear that from some developers, such as "triple-A" published studios.  There are also indies who are still unhappy with us (Jonathan Blow complains a lot, Tommy Refenes of Team Meat has made pretty insulting statements in the past, and of course, Garry Newman most recently).  But, yeah, it's becoming less vocal.

What really warms the cockles of my heart is when non-Linux users come to our defence. I've recently become close (well, "Internet-close" anyway) to quite a few fellow crowd-funding enthusiasts, and they have pushed for Linux stretch goals on my behalf.  Of course, my obligation, when that happens, is to try to raise hell in our community to show a strong response!

These folks are both Mac gamers, and Windows gamers, and when it comes to crowd-funding, they've seen how passionate and dedicated we are.  Heck, the SpaceVenture and Hero-U campaigns (spiritual successors to Space Quest and Quest for Glory) nearly killed me...

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Quoting: liamdaweDon't get me wrong I know Valve has had an effect on games but I was talking more user base, I still doubt Linux's share has increased much at all from Valve's efforts, I believe it can change and will but not seeing it yet.

Now, that I agree with. It's so difficult to really see what affect Steam on Linux has had on the user base. It's undoubtedly had a far more significant effect on the developers that much of anything else.

How ironic is it that Linux's freedom is a key attractor to closed-source game developers? In this case, it's the freedom to sell a game any way you want without a gatekeeper or official app store. Of course, that is for direct-sales only, but the the other two OS's are (poorly) attempting to discourage side-loading of software. It's incredibly strange for me to even consider the term "side-load" when referring to PC software, yet that is where things are slowly headed, it seems.

Personally I of course hope we keep growing after all GOL's success depends on people using Linux heh. I am hoping our new design will help keep us going since near enough everything will be better on it! Makes us much more up to date that's for sure!

Oh, yes, I totally agree. Recall that one drawback of the current design is deficiencies when rendered on non-tablet mobile devices. The new design is quite slick for small screens, and also attractive for large screens. Of course, there is no design in the world that can compete with great content, so that will need to be the focus!

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Man!  An actual Oddworld game, with a native port... I'm beside myself :D

Mrs. S.D. also really enjoyed this game, back in the Oddysee days, anyway.  I do believe I'll be able to get her playing it with me, eventually.  I've lots of good memories with this title (well, the original), especially playing on the sofa with friends.  I miss that experience!  Though, I do occasionally play Frozen Bubble with my daughter, sitting on the couch (she's getting better at it!), and it's still fun, despite me having played it for over a decade, now.

Quoting: liamdaweI have extreme doubts that Gabe's words have really swayed anyone.

I'm quite certain that Newell has had a strong effect.  You don't have to take my word for it (hence, I didn't say you should be certain as well), and though it may sound somewhat anecdotal, I have corresponded with many, many developers over the years, politely lobbying them to port their games.  During 2012, I've half a dozen or so responses back from developers basically saying "Yep, we'll be doing a port. If Valve thinks it's important, than we do to."  Simple as that.

The thing is, Newell had been complaining about Microsoft for quite some time prior to confirming Steam Linux with Larabel from Phoronix.  I'm inclined to feel that Valve had a vague idea for portability somewhat in-the-works since Steam on Mac OS X, possibly because of of Vista (but who knows for sure).

That said... our Linux message was loud & clear, and I believe it is what convinced Desura, Humble, Gameolith, etc., and brought him onboard after we'd started to make some good progress. Perhaps I do agree with you that it's much less Newell's words versus his actions (through Valve). Those actions have certainly "spoken" far louder than a press release.

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Quoting: muntdefemsHey s_d, thanks for sparing me most of my answer! ^_^

However, I think Speedster's got a point. There are some campaigns, e.g. Armikrog., that could certainly use every bit of help we give to them. And I could definitely put up a couple of lines to update the status of particularly interesting projects that had already been featured.

The main problem is, of course, where to draw the line. Which projects do get to be treated preferentially and which other don't? Because what I'm not going to do is keeping track of every single game I comment on the column. Mmmh... I'll give it a thought.

Sure thing, buddy!

Where to draw the line is perfectly easy!  As much as this is Liam's site, it's also ours (or at least the editors;  I don't believe I am one).  Preferentially treat games we're passionate about.  I, personally, care more for Armikrog than I do for Stonehearth (for example).  Both look good, but my preferences are what make me, and what inspire my writing.  You may be very excited about something else, and Hamish about something, and Liam himself about yet something else.

That said, simply a bump for "hey, this project we said was cool before... is still cool, please to be pledging now" ... is probably disrespectful of the readership (ha!).  It's good to kind of think out "journalistic integrity" before it becomes an issue, and I'd be pleased to offer up for consideration a loose policy for crowd-funding projects;  the editors only permit a follow-on article if it's something worthwhile and relatively detailed.

Anyone can go watch the pitch video and read the main KS/IGG page.  The short paragraph you write in The Funding Crowd is a good introduction and sufficient to introduce a reader to the concept, and encourage them to check it out for themselves.  However, in regards to a project already covered, nothing short of a nice in-depth long-format article is (in my opinion) worth posting an article for.  If one is a very dedicated supporter of a campaign, surely it's not too much work to collate & rephrase information from other press, note any interesting or relevant creator comments on their own KS thread, or perhaps link in some image & video content from updates.  An editor could ask the creator for an interview, for example.  In other words... if one wants to bump a project, they better care enough to make the article worthwhile.  

Exceptions could include an editor saying "But.. but... it's cool and I'm allowed to post articles, so I'm gunna!"

Anyway, I'll propose that as a loose policy, or convention, rather than a hard guideline.  It makes no sense on a small site to make hard and fast rules, when we all (sort of) know each other and basically get along :)

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Hello Speedster!  Actually, Armikrog. was featured in The Funding Crowd Goes Fourth (the previous edition of this column), in The Biggies section.

Muntdefems covers each project of interest twice.  Once to announce it, and once when it succeeds, or fails for some reason (e.g., campaign runs out without funding, cancellation by creator, or suspension by KS).  So, we shouldn't expect to see Armikrog. appear in each Funding Crowd article.

It is a bit different than Kickstarter Katchup over at RPS, in that respect, but it reduces the overhead & time required by Munt to do all the work by himself.

That said, I'm strongly promoting Armikrog., have backed it myself, and would dearly like to see it succeed!

Edit:  Looks like DoE was also featured prominently near the lead of that same Funding Crowd article, as well :)

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Yeah!  I spent a few hours last night playing the beta.  The soundtrack (by @dannyBstyle [External Link] of Meatboy, Binding of Isaac, Canabalt) has the right kind of haunting solitude for a very lonely exploration/trading game like this one.  Anyone who killed weekend playing Wing Commander: Privateer will feel right at home in this one.

In fact, anyone who played that game and was disappointed that it lost replay value, due to feeling fairly static, will be pleased with all the awesome procedural generation in Drifter.  The galaxy, star systems, planets, asteroid fields, and mission list, are all procedurally generated.

In this beta, there are definitely some rough edges, however.  The menus are very spartan, and some features are missing in them (such as a way to display the descriptive text of some equip-able items and cargo-hold contents).  The options menu provides little in the way of performance tweaking for lower power machines. There are no cutscenes/movies at present.  What exists of "story" is largely nonexistent at this point.  Graphically, it is very pretty and serene, with the exception of some fairly severe aliasing (which can be readily seen in moire patterns in planetary rings during movement, in the trailer).

It is a pretty solid demonstration of core mechanics, including combat, asteroid mining, ship customization, upgrade & purchasing, mission acquisition & completion.

The game's prefs file contains some hidden options, including AA, full-screen mode, and resolution selection.  I've tested full-screen mode, at default resolution, and it works great.  Unfortunately, default resolution is smaller than my screen, so the game appears with small letter and pillar boxes.  I'll try monkeying with resolution and AA (which, of course, will kill my poor integrated GPU, I suspect).  In any case, it's a very strong beta, and is already fun to play.

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Yep, same.  Really pleased with this bundle!

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