Quoting: muntdefems

Quoting: scaineThe only game I don't already own is Gunpoint, so I'll wait until next week to see if it's worth a punt (when the other games are announced).

I own everything except Gunpoint and Luftrausers. Well, and Prison Architect too. I was going to go for it anyway but then I remembered your rant about this particular game, so I'm also waiting till next Tuesday to finally decide.

Well, yeah, but take that rant within the context of which I ranted it - Alpha 13 or 14 maybe. It's (hopefully) come a long way since then.

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The only game I don't already own is Gunpoint, so I'll wait until next week to see if it's worth a punt (when the other games are announced).

Luftrausers is superb. And while it's not for everyone, I loved Gone Home too.

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Quoting: chrisq

Quoting: scaine

Quoting: chrisqThe game is 80% off on gamersgate right now and for 2 more days.

God loves a bargain... but you do no-one except yourself any favours if you buy this before its release. If the developer ported themselves, they'll not see your purchase as a Linux purchase and be disheartened from future development. If the developers outsourced to a thirdparty, that thirdparty is relying on sales AFTER the port is released to make their money.

I am aware of this.
However 80% is quite a bit to pay extra to prove to them that I run linux.
This is an issue with steams identification, they should be lobbied to change their algorithms.

No arguement here, that's for sure. I'm annoyed that I've bought many games in the past that sit in my "to play" list and now I'm fairly certain that they've defaulted to "Windows" because I never got round to playing them. That's pretty weak.

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: liamdaweLinux is a small market, and it is growing, but like others have plainly stated RotT for one has massive competition that it didn't have in the past, as the tower defence market has so many games now it's unreal.

As a TD fan I have to disagree :). For one thing, Revenge of the Titans is not really a tower defence game (because the enemies come from everywhere and don’t follow a path). And then there are not a lot of TD games for Linux ! Fieldrunners 1 & 2, Kingdom Rush… That’s about it? (I know about OTTTD and Sentinel but they aren’t proper TD games either.)

I'd argue your comments that "RotT isn't Tower Defence". You have a base to defend, and a budget to place towers. That's pretty much what it boils down to - the rest is detail. But fair enough. I see Cas himself calls it Strategy, but as he himself states, it's a bit churlish to put stuff in a box like that. I suppose the (infuriating and near-game breaking) "ghosts" in RotT breaks up the notion of "true" Tower Defence, because you have to click like mad when your regular towers ignore them. I hated that aspect personally and it stopped me playing in the end, but I can see how it breaks the mold.

So... whatever.

More importantly, you seem to be missing out on some serious Linux TD love. There's a few titles here and these are only the ones I know about on Steam.

You've already mentioned Fieldrunners, Sentinel and the excellent Kingdom Rush. There's also:

Classic
iBomber Defense
Defense Zone 1 & 2
War in a Box : Paper Tanks
PixelJunk Monsters
Infectionator (Early Access)
Cubemen 1 & 2

Strategy or RPG or "weird"
Rymdkapsel
Defender's Quest
Bad Hotel
Anomoly Defenders (or in reverse, the original Anomoly games)
CreeperWorld3

First Person
Sanctum 2
Dungeon Defenders (& Eternity)
McDroid
Heldric: Legend of the Shoemaker

So, plenty to choose from. I'd personally love to see Sentinel 3 [External Link] come to Linux, but apparently it's not to be. Shame - I gave up playing it on Android when Origin8 confirmed via email that they had no plans to support Android Play for cloud saves. It meant that the 20 hours I'd poured into the game on my now defunct Transformer tablet was wasted and had to be reproduced on my new Nexus 7. Wasn't gonna happen, and the lack of cloud save on Android is pretty much the primary reason I don't play games on that platform any more.

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Quoting: princecNot really our fault Steam only released on linux a short while back - we've been there since 2002! The context of the tweet was me looking at the last 12 months and wondering why Linux sales make up such a pitiful % of revenue now rather than growing. I'm looking forward to seeing how Basingstoke does.

Shame people have to read Aftermath to understand the Worthless post but I suppose not a lot of people actually try and read anything and comprehend it any more.

And as I say, why would it grow? I doubt Linux users as a base is growing hugely, but even if they were, sorry man, but your games have massive competition now. Massive.

And while I loved RotT, I just couldn't recommend it to a mate when games like Tales of Maj'Eyal are cheaper and offer more hours of game play. I've sunk 100 hours into that and hardly scratched the surface. It costs a fiver. No idea how the dev is doing right enough...

And finally, regarding Worthless, and it's disgusting, shocking reaction, it probably doesn't help that you're deliberately stirring the pot with those tweets.

It's been educational. I'll say that.

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Well, tweets are notorious for lacking context. I'm glad you clarified.

As for not growing, that doesn't sound fair. You don't have anything on Steam that's been launched on day 1 for all three right? So most gamers either already own your IP from other sources, or there was no Steam for Linux at the time. We'll know one when the next game comes along.

And keep writing the blog. Very entertaining. Maybe there really is no such thing as bad press after all. A few thousand people now know the name Puppy Games. I just hope they read Aftermath... Or you're screwed!

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Quoting: princecSame old crap hmm. I get to read this every day - lucky me. You tell people the facts and you get rewarded with vitriol, dismissal, insult, rudeness, genius business insights, and almost pathologically deliberate misunderstanding.

Perhaps we'll stop bothering with Linux support after all; it seems that the financials are backed up by general opinion, no?

Well, Cas, you're good at calling the facts out but you don't seem as eager to hear a few read back to you. The games just aren't worth £7 today.

That's not a 'bad' assessment of the game, it's just how the market has shaped up. There are better ways to spend that kind of money.

As I said earlier, I liked your view point and I loved RotT. I hope it works out for you.

And if you ditch Linux, well that's a hard choice only you can make. But I only use Linux and I want to play your next game. You know, unless it's a Joust remake. :)

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Quoting: Hyeron<snip>
But that's no way to treat a goddamn customer.

He didn't. He (they) treated their customers as best they could. And it didn't work out for them. After the fact, this blog post explains why.

Quoting: HyeronI hope he learns that lesson. The hard, harsh, brutal, financial way.

Your hope is granted, but the lesson wasn't "client is king" or "the customer is always right". The lesson was simply that the games he loved making didn't resonate with the available markets.

He was talking plainly in that blog post and I appreciate that. He wasn't attacking us subjectively, he was laying down how the industry screwed him over very objectively. I hope he has learned from that and comes back even stronger. I just hope the next game isn't a Joust clone...

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Quoting: HyeronOh, you mean ANOTHER demeaning comment from the SAME devs that complained about their customers being basically worthless pieces of s... about two weeks ago? The SAME devs that belittled and mocked Kot in Action a few years back?

Color me surprised.
Not.

These guys need to go away. Like, ASAP.

Like... whateva! :)

Did you read the blog post about customers being worthless? Because it's really not what he says. Well, he does, but he has good, extremely valid reasons for saying so (spoiler - it's true. Individually, we're worth pennies - mouthy, aggresive, self-entitled pennies at that).

And for people saying that their games are bland and worthless - that's not tue and not quite what I said. The first (on Steam anyway) was Revenge of the Titans, and it's excellent. It's just that it's been overtaken a bit by modern tower defence. The others are extremely high quality, but just not my cup of tea. The world didn't need a Space Invaders clone, for example, no matter how wonderfully colourful and slick it is.

They're great devs, with some lovely work, but the model hasn't worked for them. Fair enough. They still seem to love doing it, they've retained a (dry) sense of humour about it and they're still committed to bringing the Linux Love.

I think they should be cut some slack.

And I think they should reduce the base cost of their games. Or something. Because they don't seem to be making money right now.

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Quoting: chrisqThe game is 80% off on gamersgate right now and for 2 more days.

God loves a bargain... but you do no-one except yourself any favours if you buy this before its release. If the developer ported themselves, they'll not see your purchase as a Linux purchase and be disheartened from future development. If the developers outsourced to a thirdparty, that thirdparty is relying on sales AFTER the port is released to make their money.

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