I Am the Cheapest Bastard in Indie Games

Re:I Am the Cheapest Bastard in Indie Games by dllthomas on Monday August 26, 2019 @11:21PM (#20806063)

I am also almost his customer base, along a different axis. I have very fond memories of Exile, and every time I am reminded I go to buy something new and remember that none of it is for Linux, and don't quite manage to check whether it works fine on wine.

This isn't a complaint, really - I have plenty to fill my time - just surfacing my experience. The art has never been an issue.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:I Am the Cheapest Bastard in Indie Games by jorvi on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @09:51AM (#20809542)

Releasing a Linux version is pretty much never economically viable. Planetary Annihilation made a Linux version and despite representing only <0.1% of sales Linux users accounted for >20% of bug reports[0]. That's pretty damning.

[0] https://mobile.twitter.com/bgolus/status/1080213166116597760

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:I Am the Cheapest Bastard in Indie Games by llarsson on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @10:06AM (#20809694)

Whenever a point such as that is brought up, I think it is important to keep in mind that Linux users typically (a) know that bug reports are a thing, and (b) often have the technical skills to give a better description of bugs that "it does not work".

That said, I would not fault the makers of Planetary Annihilation for prioritizing bugs according to the size of their customer bases.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:I Am the Cheapest Bastard in Indie Games by dllthomas on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @11:45AM (#20810870)

> Releasing a Linux version is pretty much never economically viable.

Maybe. And more to the point, even if it were often viable it might not be in a particular case, and the developers likely have a better sense of that then I do. Which is one part of why I'm not complaining.

> Planetary Annihilation made a Linux version and despite representing only <0.1% of sales Linux users accounted for >20% of bug reports[0]. That's pretty damning.

Damning of what?

Daming of the economics? Those numbers could hold despite it being tremendously profitable - it depends on how many bug reports there are relative to sales, how much you're spending per bug report, etc. It's fundamentally looking at the wrong thing. What portion of Linux users had issues? If it's high, maybe that's a big reason you didn't get more Linux sales.

Damning of the platform? Insofar as it's the fault of the platform. It's true that there's fragmentation. It's also true that less effort is often put into the Linux ports, and there are nonetheless plenty of games that I can play without problems.

Damning of Linux gamers? Submitting a bug report is a virtue, not a vice.

Damning of the developers? I don't think that's what you were saying.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:I Am the Cheapest Bastard in Indie Games by eropple on Tuesday August 27, 2019 @12:19AM (#20806303)

All his new games play fine via Proton, FWIW. Haven't tried mainline Wine.

These days, though, I prefer the iPad versions when available.

[ Parent | on HN ]