While I don't care in the slightest about the VR gimmick, I agree with @Fictionbrain that the port is at the very least incomplete. If they plan to add that support to their Linux version (if possible with their engine & libs), given that they are still in early access, then I don't see much of a problem with it for the moment, though.

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Damn capitalists striking at our games again!

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This looks like it could rock my boat starship. Not usually going for early access titles, though, so this will have to wait a bit.

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Quoting: dannielloI asked politely one of developers of very broken Linux port (Istanbul: Digital Edition) if they cannot support Linux - maybe they should remove it, because Windows version of the game is working great via Steam Proton. As an answer I received free code for Android version...

Ouch. I'd feel insulted...

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Did not expect that, already wishlisted in hopes that it would run on Steam Play. Oh well, all the better.

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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
I was planning to play WH:TW 2 over the holidays.

What ever am I going to do now?! :'(

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Quoting: flesk

Quoting: F.Ultra

Quoting: TheSHEEEPIf I ever make a game of my own, I'll only actually distribute a launcher to each platform. That launcher will then take care of actually downloading/patching the game. Sure, it would mean having to maintain my own server(s), but I've been using Amazon S3 & AWS (and other providers) for quite a while now... it's not that difficult.

Seems to be the only way to prevent having to maintain different builds across the various platforms, each with their own uploading, etc.
Also has the added benefit of being able to serve as a built-in mod-manager.

Or perhaps why not create a cross-distribution build platform that can build and handle the distribution to steam, gog, itch.io and so on. Could potentially by worth some real money for game devs?!

Such things already exist and is known as continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) in "regular" application development. The idea is that you use software (Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Travis, Circle CI, etc.) to pull code from a repository when you push changes, and then build and deploy to the store fronts you want your game on, eg. whenever you version tag a commit. For this to work, however, the stores must have an API or software that makes it possible to automate the process. Itch has Butler, GameJolt has a similar tool that's in beta, and Steam has SteamCMD, though I've not used the latter.

Which is a very large amount of work to set up and maintain. You have to do configurations per distribution platform per OS per version per <possible other configuration>.
And then you need to react to API changes, etc.
In large companies, you have people who just maintain the CIs as their main job, because while it does make things easier, it is still far from easy. I've been using a few of those at work and none of them are easy to use if you need to do some more configurations.
And then you still have to upload every single build to the distribution platforms without such an API. So you have to do it anyway if you are on more places than just Steam.
Then you have to make a news post on all the platforms as well, etc.

It might still be in total less work than writing a launcher yourself, but a launcher comes with a LOT of added benefits: News posting within the launcher, version management, mod management, crash reporting (can be done inside the application as well, but is MUCH easier to do in an external application), various settings that don't really fit in the game options, etc. And all of that fully independent from the distribution platform...

Of course, such a launcher would then have to be maintained itself per distribution platform per OS, but launchers do not change often once functional.

The biggest downside is likely the cost. After all, you already pay the distributor cut (which WOULD include the traffic cost for your game bytes), and in addition to that you have to pay whatever traffic is needed so people can download/update your game via your launcher. So you likely need a CDN as well. And so the costs rack up.

You'd have to do the math per case, but in the end, it might just be cheaper to not let your launcher do the downloading/patching. That doesn't mean you can't have a launcher anyway, of course (see Paradox games).

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Quoting: GuestAny loss in potential sale by not being on Steam is quite probably worth it to be honest - and indeed, might even be made up for by those people who will now buy it because DRM-free and don't buy through Steam on principle.

Honestly, that is a hopelessly idealistic view on things and has little to do with reality.
Sure, a few will prefer a game if it can be bought somewhere that isn't Steam, and some other few might find it on Steam and then buy it from the homepage as a means to support the dev better. But most gamers won't even bother to look for a game anywhere outside of Steam, and for those, if it isn't on Steam, it doesn't exist.

Almost everyone selling their game not only on Steam can tell you that their own homepage sales are but a minor fraction of overall sales.
The only exceptions are really big ones like Minecraft, etc.

Of course, being on Steam alone is worth nothing these days - not since they opened the store to everyone. Still, not being on Steam is simply a bad business move.

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If I ever make a game of my own, I'll only actually distribute a launcher to each platform. That launcher will then take care of actually downloading/patching the game. Sure, it would mean having to maintain my own server(s), but I've been using Amazon S3 & AWS (and other providers) for quite a while now... it's not that difficult.

Seems to be the only way to prevent having to maintain different builds across the various platforms, each with their own uploading, etc.
Also has the added benefit of being able to serve as a built-in mod-manager.

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