I'm a bit torn on this news. It's cool, but as a Linux gamer and user it scares me.

The positive :

1st, now there are two huge company that push gaming on Linux, (i.e Steam and Google), and both of them work from two different angle. Steam, with its Proton aims to make Windows game can be played and distributed easily to Linux, without changing any code in developer side. Meanwhile, Google with its Stadia will brings its own SDK for creating native Linux game. So, Steam is working on compatibility while Google working on native side.

2nd, in Stadia, all games is played real time on Google server [0]. It means, now we don't need a huge beefy PC to play AAA game. In fact, I think what pushed Google to built Stadia is the fact that they have been successfully conquered the cheap laptop space with the Chromebook.

3rd, it's interesting to see what kind of technology that Google will bring for this. It seems Google will support up to 4K at 60 fps at launch, and it’s planning to support up to 8K resolutions and 120 fps in the future [1]. Streaming the video with that resolution is easy with Google, since YouTube already supported that. What interesting is how Google will do it while maintaining low latency from around the world.

The negative :

1st, it's Google. Excluding the privacy issue aside, Google IMHO is not really good at preserving data. For example, with Google+ gone, there are many post and article there that will be gone as well. However, since Google+ is mostly text and video, users can download the data, and Internet Archive is able to archive it. Now, with Stadia, since all game is exist in Google server, there are almost no way for us the user to preserving the game. Sure, it's the same with all DRM game, however DRM eventually can be cracked in future, while Stadia's game might be not, since it's not even exist in our PC.

2nd, it's Google. If you ever publish your app in Play Store, you might know that Google can suspend your account without notice, and there are almost zero chance to contest the decision. Forget human, even the bot might not answer your question. I wonder how it will go with Stadia.

3rd, how the payment method will be. Since the game is stored in Google's server, whether played or not, it will take resources to save. Therefore, one time payment might be not sustainable for this. So, there is possibility that the payment method will be subscription based, or there might be advertisement, or both. No matter which, I hate it.

4th, another new game store with its exclusive title. When Epic Store released, we thought the competition will make gaming world better. We thought Steam will increase portion for developer, cheaper game price, better client, etc. What happened, the new store is hoarding exclusive titles, while the old store doesn't improve at all. I believe this will happen with Stadia as well.

Conclusion

In the end, only time will tell, but I'm pessimistic about Stadia. I'm sure I wont use it though, considering I have small internet bandwidth :(

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19434267 [External Link]
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/18271702/google-stadia-cloud-gaming-service-announcement-gdc-2019 [External Link]

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Quoting: beniwtvFully agree! Godot, Blender, Krita, Tiled, and Gimp are all advancing quickly and growing into really professional tools. I myself couldn't be happier to be using them and be part of it all.

Don't forget about Inkscape :| ! It's great and IMHO it's better than Illustrator for some part (except the lack of CMYK, of course).

While we are taking about Inkscape, you guys might want to check 2dgameartguru [External Link] again. It's active again after long hiatus, with a brand new website.

For you guys who never visit it before, it's one of rare website which teach how to draw 2D game art using Inkscape. What makes this site quite special (for me) are :

• It's one of the oldest Inkscape tutorial site (the one that I know, at least). Its first [External Link] Inkscape tutorial is released back in 2011, so it has been 8 years since then.


• While there are many Inkscape tutorial out there, most of them is released in video format, which is quite heavy for us with slow internet connection. Meanwhile, the tutorial on his site is available mostly in image and text format. This make it easy to access, and can be easily printed and distributed to student.


• Despite being mostly text and image, his tutorial is easy enough to follow, even for non artist

Disclaimer: I'm not related with him at all. I just learned many thing about Inkscape from his site.

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According to forum post and the source on Github [External Link], the Godot engine is planned for 2.0, so it seems all version until then will keep on using the legacy engine.

As a fan of Wesnoth, I'm happy to hear this news. Wesnoth is the first decent open source game that I've played, so even though I haven't play it in a while, it still has a spot in my heart. By moving to new engine, I hope my childhood game will keep on growing, so maybe someday my child will got to experience the same game as me.

Wesnoth also makes me feel humbled as a programmer. To think something like this :



with help of community (and enough time), has grown into this :



I doubt David White from 2003 could imagine his weekend project will keep played and developed 16 years later. It's really amazing to see what a dedicated open source community can do.

BTW, it seems 2019 is a blast for game developer (especially in Linux community) with Godot reaching 3.1 and Blender reaching 2.8.

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Quoting: JiskinOh man you scares me! I'm only 25 hours and I was wondering how far I was from the end...! I bought it 10 USD on Humble Bundle, this game surely worth it.

Don't worry, the normal game play took only around 50 hours. The 150+ hours are me repeating it again and trying to finish all challenge stages like Colosseum, Dream Bosses and Pantheon (final Pantheon is cruel :dizzy:).

The weird thing about HK is this game is hard, but somehow I'm not dying that often. In my initial play through I only really dead once (real dead where all money and souls are lost). It feels balanced I guess, which make it fun and not feels punishing.

Here is hoping the sequel as good as the first.

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Man, this is the first time I feel hyped for a game.

Sometimes I'm worried if Team Cherry is okay financially. I mean, in the first Hollow Knight, I bought it on Steam for merely 5 USD :O, and I got 200+ hours of game play with 5 free DLCs and continuous updates. It puts AAA game developer to shame, and make me feel regret for buying it on sale.

Seriously guys, even if metroidvania is not your favorite genre, try to supports this team. They are one of rare team that loyal to their consumer. Not to mention they put Linux in the same rank as Windows, which shows in they publish it on the same day.

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Guys, you forget the best feature:

Spoiler, click me

Now you can play as animal [External Link].
I might buy this one, just to play as the Emperor of Blessed Dog Empire.

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Between this and Hollow Knight, I really can't wait for August to come :D.

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I love DRM free games, whether it's for Linux or Windows. Nowadays, I find myself playing a lot of old Windows games smoothly using Wine.

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Quoting: Ads20000Looks impressive! Perhaps a game to contend with the FOSS greats (0AD, Xonotic, SuperTuxKart, maybe Teeworlds)?

I agree with you. After all, this game is created by the creator of Frogatto [External Link] and Battle of Wesnoth [External Link], one of the greatest FOSS game ever made.

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