Personally I'm pretty strongly of the opinion that crowdfunding is almost always a terrible idea and almost always used incorrectly.

The normal way to do business, would be to start small, make a few small games, then gradually work up to larger projects off the back of the smaller ones.

If a game developer is crowdfunding, it means that first of all, they're likely taking on something of a much larger scope than they're probably ready for, that's warning flag number 1.

The second thing it means, is that they likely weren't able to find financial backing from any publisher or bank or anyone, which means no one wanted to invest the idea, that's warning flag number 2.

Crowdfunding comes with no strings attached or certainty at all that the game will even be made, so you can potentially throw your money at something that goes no where, which is very wrong, YOU should not be asked to take on that kind of risk, that risk should be taken on by the game developer. Because if the game is a success, it's the developer who will receive all the spoils of victory, and have a product to sell over and over again. You just get the opportunity to basically pre order a game. When it's the developer who gets the 'reward' then it's the developer should take on the 'risk' for that reward. And they likely would, if they themselves had any confidence in their project, which means they likely don't if they're using crowdfunding, that's warning flag number 3.

If none of those above statements apply to a crowdfunding project, because it's being made by a very capable team of people who have made very large games before and have an established game development studio and plenty of funds, and who wouldn't struggle to find a publisher for their project, and it's being made by people who are confident they can produce the final product, and that it will sell well.. then it means the company views crowdfunding as essentially just an interest free loan from people who are too generous with their money. They don't need the crowdfunding, they just want the cash, that's warning flag number 4.

There's a time and place for crowdfunding, and in my view, it's for projects that benefit a community. Funding the creation of a product that a company will own and sell, is not one of those in my opinion. A better use of crowdfunding would be crowdfunding the creation of FOSS licensed games for example, because then at least the people taking on the risks (the backers) are the ones who would receive the reward (a foss licensed game).

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Quoting: MunkBefore everyone takes offense, hear him (Henri Verbeet) out. I'm not taking sides, but here's the "elaborate explanation" he's referring to in the post linked to the article: https://www.winehq.org/pipermail/wine-devel/2019-January/138023.html [External Link]

Personally, I don't think he was as tactful as he possibly could have been in his recent comments, but far more than he could have been. I don't really mind the odd off-color comment from developers. Even Linus himself is known to express frustration with less than cordial responses. It seems that he's frustrated and might have let that affect his tone ever so slightly. I don't see a need to jump down his throat.

Have to say, after having read that.. That doesn't change my opinion.

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At this point I think it's fairer to call WineD3D a dead end, since that project has been going on for much longer and is no where near DXVK and D9VK's level, and is coded in a much less modern language and older tool..

The particular Wine dev in question who made that comment, would do well to remember the old wise words always uttered for programming and that never cease to be relevant: "Never re-invent the wheel".

He or she would do well to consider maybe just accepting that the Wine project team doesn't need to create every component of Wine themselves, that they could just embrace the tactic Valve has used of just integrating multiple components together like puzzle pieces in order to make a larger more complete package, like Valve have done by integrating Wine, DXVK, FAudio, etc.. all together into one package and calling it 'Proton'.

There are many areas Wine is still lacking for which there are currently no fixes available, areas which would be better use of their time than recreating an existing highly successful solution. It is still not possible even with Wine 4.10 to run some common and much desired applications (off the top of my head, Adobe Illustrator is still unusable for example) that could be focused on instead.

It would also be worth considering.. perhaps not referring to a very successful project filling a crucial gap left by Wine, as a 'deadend'. A better (and more respectful) choice of words would have been nice.

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Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: gradyvuckovic

Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: gradyvuckovicFor Linux (& Mac) gamers, that would mean all those games currently not playable on Linux, the 40% or so of Steam that isn't quite there yet with Proton, would suddenly immediately become playable via an alternative solution, ie: streaming from a Valve server. Effectively bringing all Steam games to Linux.

The Valve servers would have to run on Windows, though and I highly doubt Valve would want to pay for those licenses.

Valve could limit the feature to just what they call "SteamOS + Linux" initially. Which would really give a huge incentive for developers to support Linux. They could also include with Steamworks an API for telling games when they are launching in Streaming mode in the same way they have an API right now for telling developers when Steam is in Big Picture mode. So developers know to launch in fullscreen and stay in that mode for the best possible streaming experience. There could be even a flag for knowing what kind of device is being streamed to, like PC/Mobile, to present different UI options.

That would certainly give Linux a push. Valve saying "want your games to work the best on it? Port it"

And many would, since they're already porting their game for Stadia, it would be almost the exact same software! But, with the advantage of that Linux build being playable locally on Linux distros as well! And with Vulkan! =D

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Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: gradyvuckovicFor Linux (& Mac) gamers, that would mean all those games currently not playable on Linux, the 40% or so of Steam that isn't quite there yet with Proton, would suddenly immediately become playable via an alternative solution, ie: streaming from a Valve server. Effectively bringing all Steam games to Linux.

The Valve servers would have to run on Windows, though and I highly doubt Valve would want to pay for those licenses.

Valve could limit the feature to just what they call "SteamOS + Linux" initially. Which would really give a huge incentive for developers to support Linux. They could also include with Steamworks an API for telling games when they are launching in Streaming mode in the same way they have an API right now for telling developers when Steam is in Big Picture mode. So developers know to launch in fullscreen and stay in that mode for the best possible streaming experience. There could be even a flag for knowing what kind of device is being streamed to, like PC/Mobile, to present different UI options.

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All Valve has to do now is offer some kind of option to run your own remote instance of a gaming PC on a Valve server, and connect direct to it, and they'll have an alternative to Stadia. Buy your game on Steam, download it to play it locally, or stream it to any PC or phone/tablet or TV. Stream it from your PC or stream it from a Valve server. All your workshop mods, your cloud saves, your Steam friends, etc, take them all with you anywhere you go.

Buy Portal 2 and download/install it locally to play on your PC, then stream it from your PC to your TV and play it with any controller you want, then stream it from a Valve server to your phone and play it on the train.

If Valve offered that service for free, (which they probably could because the overwhelming majority of users would prefer local gaming so it wouldn't be a commonly used option), Stadia would be dead on arrival.

For Linux (& Mac) gamers, that would mean all those games currently not playable on Linux, the 40% or so of Steam that isn't quite there yet with Proton, would suddenly immediately become playable via an alternative solution, ie: streaming from a Valve server. Effectively bringing all Steam games to Linux.

Boom, no need to ever install Windows for any game on Steam. No need to buy games on Google's or iOS's app store even, just buy it on Steam and stream it to your phone!

I'm calling it, this is what Valve is working towards. Valve is going to make it happen.

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Quoting: timgarbosDeveloper here. Totally get your concerns, but we are not trying to keep anything secret. Of course, we care about our backers and that's why we tell them the news before the general public. The news will be more public and is already publicly being discussed on our Discord.

Anyways, thanks for keeping up to date. I'll let you know once we have Linux news.

I think you should be careful with what you're doing. If these keys you're talking about giving backers allows them to play the game, which has NEVER been available for pre order or sale on Steam, and which won't be available for sale at any time in the near future, you are possibly breaking Valve's rules.

Steamworks page regarding keys [External Link]

Note these relevant parts:

Valve provides the same free bandwidth and services to customers activating a Steam key that it provides to customers buying a license on Steam. We ask you to treat Steam customers no worse than customers buying Steam keys outside of Steam.

Types of Keys
Keys can be associated with the following package types:

Standard
This is the most common type of key on Steam, which is usually tied to a store or Steam Key package. These keys are appropriate for retail boxes or sales on other sites. These keys will unlock the product once it has been released and marked as playable on Steam.
Release Override
These keys are used to grant access to a product prior to its release on Steam. Release Override keys are intended for small beta tests and press/influencer access. We will look at each request on a case by case basis, and in general less than 1000 keys work well for this purpose. It is never OK to sell release-override beta keys.

You should use keys to sell your game on other stores in a similar way to how you sell your game on Steam. It is important that you don't give Steam customers a worse deal.

We reserve the right to deny requests for keys or revoke key requesting privileges for partners that are abusing them or disadvantaging Steam customers.

If we detect that you have requested an extreme number of keys and you aren't offering Steam customers a good value, we may deny your request.

We reserve the right to remove key requesting privileges from any partner whose sole business is selling Steam keys and not providing value or a fair deal to Steam customers.

Crowdfunding.
Keys can be used to fulfill crowdfunding rewards and grant backers access to your product. Providing backers with beta testing keys prior to release is also OK, but only backers should receive those keys --they shouldn’t be sold outside of the crowdfunding campaign unless your beta is also available for sale via Steam.

Steam keys can only be promoted as a reward for products that have already confirmed Steam distribution --

I would say WTG is at bare minimum, skirting close to the boundaries of the rules, and possibly breaking them, if you offer Steam keys to backers to play the game a year early without offering the same option to Steam customers to buy the game.

It would be prudent to contact Valve and confirm that what you're doing is not breaking the rules, unless you want to risk having your key generating privileges revoked.. Food for thought.

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Nupe, too late Unity, already using Godot*! :P

(*Which is awesome by the way. There's a Vulkan renderer coming soon too!)

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Quoting: iwantlinuxgames

Initial support for installing Plug and Play drivers.

anyone who can explain what this means?

Likewise would love to know what this implies.

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