Linux users show their love for indie game

Vryali · September 14, 2009 at 10:33

Windows gamers tend to get their games for free quite often as well, unless it’s an MMO or pay-to-play game, by nature of the fact that pirating anything in windows is just second nature at this point. The expectation for just about any application, indi or otherwise, from even the not-computer-saavy at this point is that everything is just so expensive, you can always ask your ‘computer friend’ to find you a copy (and this attitude tends to, in my opinion, stem from the cost of basic software in a windows world).

Mac I can’t comment on, as I’m not very positive about Mac at all.

Linux however, people are used to paying nothing for excellent things, but one realm that many many people, espicially those that just tinker with linux on, would love to see improvement on is the game aspect. So already you’re in a decent spot, because there just aren’t as many games, unless you use wine – in which case it’s how many game ports, that people have access too. Linux folks tend to also be much more friendly with the idea of spending money (This is a statement from very limited experience, as I can only think of myself and my friends) because everything is naturally free, and it’s easy to hit the ‘donate’ button and send a few dollars someone’s way when a product is outstanding.

This could be totally off kilter, but it was just my brief thought, and I figured I’d add the comment as well 🙂 We’ll see if I’m a buyer after I get a chance to play the demo.

Arch Linux – running Chakra/KDE4.2, though I did download your app/will be trying it on Win7 Enterprise Ed., simply because I’d devoted my day to tinkering with it anyway 🙂

anonymous · September 14, 2009 at 17:20

I took a peak at the game site and it does look like an interesting game. Thanks for making it available for gnu/linux !

What are the requirements for gnu/linux ?

sims · September 14, 2009 at 18:38

Even though there are a lot of free loaders that use FOSS, I think many of them, myself included, enjoy paying for well written software. You see, in many ways FOSS is like a rebellion. Many times it’s some programmers saying “Why am I paying for this crap! I can do better!”. So, those same people are probably pleased when they use well written software. Games are somewhat of an art piece. I can make tools and machines and logical things, but art is enjoyable and I’m not all together that artistic. So I appreciate it when someone else does a fantastic job.

I’m not a gamer. So I could be way off. Good luck with your game(s)!

Rob · September 15, 2009 at 01:06

Get in touch with the developers of “World of Goo”. I believe they did very well when they released their game to run natively under Linux.

I agree totally with Florian Sievers’s comment re the atttitiude that users would have to the inclusion of any DRM into games (or indeed any software) available to be run natively under Linux.

I’m not a gamer, but I *do* appreciate well written software and have paid for commercial software for Linux previously…

ethana2 · September 15, 2009 at 10:57

It’d be interesting to see what happens to your sales if you get this game into the Ubuntu Software Store.

stefk · September 15, 2009 at 23:10

In case you would like to convince investors to invest their money in your company (so that you can make more Linux games), you may like to quote the book Blue Ocean Strategy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ocean_Strategy Linux definitely is a blue ocean for commercial games! 🙂

Myk · September 16, 2009 at 10:48

I found the only requirement that I didn’t already have installed was sdl-ttf. A quick installation later (emerge sdl-ttf in Gentoo) and the game was ready to go.

re: rich; Instructions:
tar xzf mysticminedemo.tar.gz
cd mysticminedemo_1.2.0
./mysticmine

greenmanwitch · September 25, 2009 at 14:59

I’d say Mac OS X and Linux simply have more buyers per viewers because those users are more supportive of their growing game markets. Windows users have nothing to worry about there.
Another thing is, Windows users have loads of on the shelf titles with several million dollar productions. I’m not saying that instantly makes a game better, but it’s at least more appealing to the masses just from looking at the box. We Linux (and Mac) users are more likely to be excited to see a game on our platform at all, do a bit more reading and then judge that, well yes, it’s an indie game, but it still looks like a good one.

kids spelling · July 28, 2010 at 23:03

Let’s face Linux users like myself understand that some of the best products don’t come from the big studios their made with usability in mind, and in this case playability. I love indie, and I love Linux.

Gonzalo Oviedo L · September 17, 2014 at 22:32

I fight almost every day with linux and every day that i learn something i realize that Windows Sucks in every possible WAY!. Yes, it’s true, linux has too many distributions, too many Windows Manager, etc, but, the core is the same and when you stick with a good distribution like Gentoo, in my case Arch you’ll notice that is fantastic and i cry and i said: WHY the games are not in this platform, god why?????. Linux is almost twice most faster than windows, twice more power in your hands that windows, twice more security in certains aspect and almost NO VIRUS and stupid annoying background programs, twice more free software that windows, the console is a fantastic tool… When big games are on linux… I’m sure that Windows will die!!!.