Ah, nothing screams "edgy teenager" quite as much as games trying to look "adult" by adding grimdark themes to silly premises. xD

Still, it looks pretty enough, might check it out (though this kind of game is very hit or miss with me).

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Quoting: ShmerlUsing VPN is like traveling to another country, but in virtual sense. If digital stores want to use physical market analogy and segment the market in virtual space, why are they against people using the physical analogy of travel in the same virtual space? Do they charge foreigners more when they come to a physical store in another country? If they do, that would be considered some weird discrimination. So why are they OK with it in virtual case?

I personally don't shop like that, but if something is only available through VPN, I don't see an issue.

Then you'd have to go through customs and pay import fees, and there might be strict restrictions on how long you can use the VPN and what activities you can do (such as working), it might require background checks and proof of income, and you might be denied a visa and deported... better not to dig this hole until we tackle the much bigger injustices in border control. :wink:

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Quoting: WorMzyMy opinion is that the price should be the price, and that should be converted to the real-time equivalent for the currency you're buying in.

So game = £10. At time of writing:

• UK: £10


• USA: $13.15


• Japan: ¥1386


• Europe: €11.12

etc. Then apply whatever local tax applies (which is probably where most of the pressure on Valve comes from, taxperson always wants their cut...).

This looks like you never had to deal with currency exchange. Exchange rates fluctuate wildly, and it is just not feasible to have prices jump around that much. Checking prices daily to see if something is cheaper, not being able to wait for a sale because who knows how much it will cost by then, speculating about the economy to know if it will go up or down in the next few months... nothing works like this. It would be better to just leave the prices in the original currency and let people "import" stuff.

And this is just for the "real-time" part. Exchange rates are not at all a good representation of how much things cost in different countries. Wages aren't proportional, cost of living isn't proportional, the cost of other products is not proportional. People aren't going to pay half their monthly wages for a dumb game that costs USD40, just because geopolitical concerns about the oil industry devalued their currency in the last year. They will buy other things instead, the things that have normal prices. It isn't even about "being nice to people in poor countries" - it is supply and demand; there isn't enough demand for games at this price point, so it is only rational to decrease the price. (See the post by x_wing for a better discussion)

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Ok, so are people really going to play Celeste on a remote server?

It's not a heavy game, most laptops and probably even some smartphones can run it. But from all I know, it is a very precise and fast platformer, the kind of thing that would be ruined by lag.

I can get that if it is free on the subscription you already have, might as well play instead of getting it elsewhere (regardless of price)... but are people really flexing the stability and bandwidth of their home internet like that? Using their stadia pro to play things that don't push the limits of a high-end computer?

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Quoting: BeamboomTo be honest though - the concept of this game is really, really niche. Like, exceptionally so. Almost so I'd place it in a genre of itself. I have a background in coding and am not "scared" by the concept of writing code, but even I must admit that it's not code writing I'm most in the mood for when I fire up my Steam client.

So how do then the gamers out there with no coding competence (or interest!) see this game?

If I purchased this game it would be simply to test the concept. Not with any intention to invest a lot of time in it. So selling 200 copies a month of a game of this concept, with no marketing power behind it... My honest reaction was that it didn't sound that bad at all.

I have a quite strong coding background, but my work isn't quite in software development (I write code for my research but it's more math and reading than coding). Programming puzzles for me are a way to scratch my programming itch without the boring and frustrating parts of a "real" programming project. But if I was doing actual work in the area, I wouldn't get close to such a game. :P

I think this is more of an exception than the rule, though. There is probably some mix of programmers who aren't burned out and non-programmers that are comfortable enough with some "light" scripting. Programming puzzles are a niche, but somehow a big enough niche to be a genre in itself.

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This is interesting, though the numbers are small enough that we should take care to not extrapolate too much (as the author points out in the blog post). Nice to have a rough idea of what exactly is the scale of this kind of indie (very well done but also super-niche), and it did quite alright on Linux; pity that itch didn't do better, but as we all know reaching 1% of steam numbers is not trivial. xD

I think he is reading too much into the achievements. For puzzle games in particular, I find it normal to not finish games or stop at some point; either because you got stuck, lost interest, or because just that first part was enough. Or because you took a break from the game for other reasons and just picked it back again. It still can be quite satisfactory even if you stop early. And, on top of that, for most games there are the people that just fire up the game and stop without achieving even the most trivial, automatic achievements (kill your first enemy, play for 15 minutes, finish the prologue).

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Hmm, I was a bit confused because I was just browsing the "Summer of Pride" sale on steam. Having two events at the same time and having both named after the season is not the best idea.

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Quoting: EikeDoes that mean there's no such thing as WaitMultipleObjects on Linux? How would a Linux programmer solve that?

My first thought, with no specific knowledge of the details, is that you would use a single event for all the possible sources and pass a parameter to indicate which. For system events, or a non-controlled application, probably set up multiple threads that wait each for a different event and then wakes up the thread you actually want.

But this is, of course, assuming that you are just adapting an existing code. When developing for Linux directly, people would just use a different algorithm that didn't rely on that; I don't think this is a particularly fundamental feature for multi-threaded development.

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Quoting: Zephyros

Quoting: PatolaI just hope it does not turn into an Epic Exclusive too.

I doubt that would happen, as Paradox does also have it's own store and launcher, whilst (I think) an EGS exclusive can not be present on another platform (wouldn't really be exclusive in that case)

Paradox already has a timed Epic exclusive, though - Surviving the Aftermath. And other companies, like Ubisoft, also have made exclusivity deals despite having their own stores. There are also cases of games that are only "exclusive to not-Steam".

However, it does seem unlikely. CK3 is a really huge release for Paradox, it is already on pre-sale elsewhere, they have said that this isn't in their current strategy (which yes, does look to be of setting up their own services and diversifying across multiple platforms), they don't use the Unreal engine (which could create a bigger incentive), and so on. Surviving the Aftermath is a small release and they made sure to clarify that only the early access is exclusive.

It is not impossible, but for from the first concern I would have about the game (How cool will it be? Will it run well on my laptop? Will the Linux version be good and well-supported? What about DLC, updates, prices, mods, tutorials?)

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So, one of the AAA franchises that has been the most friendly to Linux and was now getting simultaneous releases will - at the very least - be delayed by one year. For the same reasons why timed exclusivity matters to Epic (the initial burst of sales and popularity is huge), this is really bad for the port; a few days or weeks is one thing, but months and years really make it less relevant.

It's not directly relevant to me personally, as even though I like the franchise I won't be getting this game for several years (if I ever get this one in particular). But it is a very troubling trend.

Quoting: kuhpunkt"As mentioned, and like others in the industry, a key reason for exploring other digital stores is that we don’t want to be limited just to Steam."

Release it on several stores then. It's not like it's complicated.

Except that Epic has said at least once before to a dev that they are "not interested in non-exclusive titles" or something to that effect - or, in other words, you either make it an exclusive or you don't get in. (Edit: and that's based on the premise that they just want to be on more stores, ignoring the upfront money in sales guarantees and extra revenue due to the larger cut that would also be reasons to be exclusive anyway).

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