LinuxGameCast Weekly 277: Scream Bloody Doritos

Medieval destruction sandbox Besiege adds multiplayer! Steam enables platform-specific wishlisting, PPSSPP 1.5 brings the Vulkan and SOMA gets a “Safe Mode.” Then Valley faces the ChairQAsition. All this plus your hate mail.

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Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam News:

Curator connect
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/curators
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6856357-Linux-Gamecast-Weekly/

They do let you send multiple copies to curators. That was surprising.
- Is there a place to put some BIG HONKING TEXT about key requirements?
Still we’ve already been sent 3 games, and only 1 copy of each.
We also have some stats on our “influence” to drive game page views. No sales numbers.
- https://i.imgur.com/skgCiNl.png
- https://i.imgur.com/O6acAGF.png
  - Kona? Seriously?
We need to make sure to include a link to our Steam curator page in any and all emails sent to devel from now on.

Valve makes games?
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/12/valve-announces-the-return-of-portal-via-bridge-constructor/

Hopefully this’ll be a little more than bridge constructor with portals.
Otherwise it’s gonna be a pretty hard sell.
That trailer does not make a bit of FSM damned sense.

Steam off the Bitcoin
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/12/steam-drops-bitcoin-payment-option-citing-fees-and-volatility/

Honestly, I think VALVe was jelly about another party getting a cut.
Granted, transaction fees are getting a wee out of control.
- Also the power requirements are approaching ZPM level
I would expect other stores to consider doing the same.
Somehow, this is good for Bitcoin.

A Linux Wish
http://steamcommunity.com/games/221410/announcements/detail/1475356649450732547

If you don’t already have SteamOS+Linux set as a filter now is the time.
It will let developers know you not only want the game, but you want it on the Linux.
I’d be interested to see what the actual statistics provided to devs would be.
The steam hardware survey doesn’t really represent an accurate snapshot of linux usage
This is also good targeted data for game devs
I’d like to propose a little exercise, not just to our audience but to the Linux gaming community in general:
- Set your preferences to Linux+SteamOS only (which you should already have done).
- Go and wishlist all the games you want to see come out on Linux.
- Then let’s wait and see what what kind of impact this actually makes.
  - I have a sneaking suspicion this’ll just result in these games getting bought for some folks by do gooder friendos
The cynic in me says it won’t have any but I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong on this one.

Real, shit just got it
http://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=346010

Guess I need to unpack Tipsy Danger.
I hope they realize that it’s make-or-break time for this title.
This will get picked up and go a bit viral on the Tubes and Twitch but if they think it will buy them another few years in Early Access they are sadly mistaken.

Darkest DLC
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-12-05-darkest-dungeons-next-dlc-expansion-is-the-farm-themed-the-color-of-madness

Oh no, here we go again!
More lovecraftian goodness, new quest types and new gear
Looks like if I ever pick up a switch it’ll be a $300 DD and Pokemon machine

Safe SOMA
https://linuxgameconsortium.com/linux-gaming-news/soma-sci-fi-horror-game-launches-safe-mode-ubuntu-linux-games-60799/

Well the Workshop MOD has been around for over a year.
You thought SOMA was already boring?
Yeah, take out the boogie monsters.
To be fair, the monsters don’t really contribute much to the gameplay. Just stuff you have to avoid and really more of a nuisance
- ^
I’m with Jordan on the on the whole monster nuisance thing.
It was, ironically, Frictional’s own fear of stepping out of their comfort zone which saw SOMA getting monsters in the first place.
I still remember the bit in the “vertical boat” with the monsters with glowy heads.
And those are not fond memories.

Poly exists Early Access
http://store.steampowered.com/app/368180/Polyball/

Apparently you just need an ubuntu live CD, a stick of RAM and a flash drive to run it
Finally, a classic ball rolling game.
None of that new-wave ball rolling bullsh*t the kids are on about these days.
It’s multiplayer so there could be a bit of rage platrolling hidden in there.

Gilf /w friends
http://store.steampowered.com/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/2152021858910947928

Fuck this shit
Fuck your level editor
Fuck your lighting and fuck your christmas!

Vulkan tweaks
http://steamcommunity.com/games/564310/announcements/detail/1471978589213349287

Didn’t notice any difference in the BFE benchmark.
Would be nice if they fixed the vulkan herky-jerk on the last level.
WOnder if it also fixed some of the vulkan freezes they had in some of the underground levels
All I can say though is that we got one more level of Serious Cwang, I’m curious if we can Vulkan our way through it

Corpse party
http://steamcommunity.com/games/CorpseParty/announcements/detail/1453964190589469266

Apparently this is a remake/re-imagining of a popular-ish RPG maker game
They did a Clue, with different content in the 3DS and PSP versions
I played this on the PSP.
It was a part of a bunch of games I rented off the local video store after I installed custom firmware on it.

Bad Blood
https://dyinglightgame.com/badblood/

Dying light was a bit of alright.
PVP could be fun but feels like they want some of the PUBG action.

Empires Of Growth
http://store.steampowered.com/app/463530/Empires_of_the_Undergrowth/

Do you want ants? This is how you get ants!
You can also apparently steal ant DNA and become the antzerg!

PArk bound
http://store.steampowered.com/app/611830/Park_Bound/

Human Fall Flat MMO.
Can’t be worse than the last few aftershow bait games that have come out, right?

Yarrrr (beta)
http://steamcommunity.com/games/418180/announcements/detail/1456215673739868228

So a prettier windward.
It has a kraken.
It does look like a more graphically comprehensive Windward from the description.

Open world full of sand and boxes
http://store.steampowered.com/app/655780/Project_5_Sightseer/

I’m all for random explorey games with little else to do.
But the resource acquisition has to not be a complete grindfest.
I think the game that’s done that the best for me was actually Planet Explorers
If this can give me some of that, I say bring it!
I still won’t play it until it’s out of Early Access, though.

Patreon News

If you’re going to hate on Patreon make sure it’s for the right reason.
https://subfictional.com/my-theory-patreon-doesnt-want-to-be-a-money-services-business/

Looks like we’re going to convert to monthly ??
https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005631963

Option #2? (downside, no reward tiers)
https://liberapay.com/LinuxGameCast/

Paypal?
PayPal transactions cost a flat 35c + 2.9%. So same deal.

Hats?
https://hatreon.net/linuxgamecast/

https://twitter.com/FoldableHuman/status/939030624974774272

https://subfictional.com/my-theory-patreon-doesnt-want-to-be-a-money-services-business/

News

Mesa 17.3.0
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/mesa-dev/2017-December/179662.html

Native s3tc without the need for the extra lib
More OpenGL 4.6 support for the opensauce drivers.
And OpenGL 2.1 support for the Vivante GPU in some Rockchip SOCs.
R600 is getting a little bit of love, with some GLES extensions

V
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12135/nvidia-announces-nvidia-titan-Vennvideo-card-gv100-for-3000-dollars

That’s a bit much even for enthusiast.
Yeah, this seems to be the midpoint between the consumer shit and the Telsa compute cards
It’s basically a consumer level Tesla card.
Bandwidth has been neutered at only 653 GB/sec due to the 3,072 bit Memory Bus Width compared to 900 GB/sec of the Tesla V100.
“poor man’s” Tesla V100 built for AI.
The tradeoff is that overall clock speed is higher on the Titan

GOG Tweet
https://twitter.com/linuxvangog

UNIX team?
Neither Linux or OSX is based on UNIX.
- Technically OSX is, what with it being Darwin, which is Freebsd
  - BSD was a variant of the original AT&T Unix.
So, is he in charge of the actual ports or the WINE “ports”?

PPSSPP 1.5 Vulkan
https://ppsspp.org/

I think that does it.
All major emulators on Linux now support the Vulkan.
- But what about gfceu, zsnes and gens? I NEED VULKAN PIXELS!
- Some of those had Glide rendered in the past.
It works and the Vulkan bits make it so you can play with a higher resolution scaling without as big a performance impact as OpenGL had.

Lupis FAQ
https://lutris.net/faq

People seem to like the overwatch TLDR at the bottom
Somebody got tired of answering the same questions over and over.

OpenMW
https://openmw.org/2017/openmw-0-43-0-released/

No shadows of morrowind yet
There’s a whole whack of AI improvements in this release, plus the usual milieu of bug fixes

Nxengine-evo
https://github.com/isage/nxengine-evo

This is a somewhat upgraded/refactored version of nxengine
Cave Story /w SDL2 goodness.
Good on you for listing specific libraries and not just “apt-get blah blah blah”
- Make everyone else hunt for a change

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Valley
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/378610/Valley/
Devel: Blue Isle Studios
Engine: Unity
Price: £14.99 / US$19.99 / CA$21.99

Wazzat: Explore the vast and beautiful world of Valley using the power of the L.E.A.F. suit: a fierce exoskeleton that grants exceptional speed and agility along with the phenomenal ability to manipulate the life and death of all living things.

Makes with the working

Venn –

Thar be spite crashes.
These happen during level transitions and it bit me twice, HARD.
I say hard since there is no real save system so it starts you all the way back at the beginning of the previous zone.
Refuses to launch if Vivaldi or Chromium are running.
60/70 @ 1080
Mid 30’s @ 2160

Jordan –

Thar be inopportune spite crashes
Twice after finishing a level, which made me go back and redo it cuz it didn’t finish saving
That’s a quick way to get jordan to nope

Pedro –

The only thing that didn’t make with the working for me was the subtitles.
It’d show the first line and then be stuck there until the audio-tape was over.

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

Venn –

I like games that prove that Unity can be both performant and pretty.
Valley does these things in spades.
Both indoor and outdoor areas are wicked smooth.
All the environments are coherent.
I do wish the main baddies were something, different?
They didn’t seem to fit the world.
Music is totes outstanding and caught me off guard.
You don’t normally get that from an indie game.
Voice acting was passable+ in the sense they didn’t go with the lowest bidder.

Jordan –

Oh, it’s very pretty
Look what happens when you don’t use stock unity assets!
The soundtrack sounds like a Jethro Tull fever dream

Pedro –

It looks very pretty and the music is frickin’ spot on!
During the running on the electrified rails sequence, that music alone turned it from just being a bit where you run down a corridor to “OMG!!1! Run faster! Jump! Run fast again! Weeeeeeeeee!”
I was smiling like a lunatic throughout the whole thing.
Damn was a good set piece!

Total-

Control

Venn –

Tried to play it with the Steamy controlla since it seemed like a nice fit.
Unfortunately there was some jank with camera movement.
Keyboard and gerbil posed no problems.

Jordan –

Sometimes you get a little too into it and end up overshooting the fuck out of your jumps
Really my only gripe with it. Can’t quite tell where you’re gonna land

Pedro –

It’s a first person running/platforming game.
Why you’d want to play this with a controller, I don’t know.
While physics defying jumps may have made me ding this a chair in other games, in this game it fits.
And this game made me wish I could have more controls than casual jog or superhuman sprint for movement.

Total-

FUN?

Venn –

That was a little shorter than expected but for $5.00 it was an enjoyable romp.
If I had paid the iron price ($19.99) I would have been a bit miffed.
Storytelling and world building is clearly something these motherfu*ckers know how to do.
I honestly thought they were going to pull a gotcha right up until I jumped out of the final tube.
I was all “they want me to think the game is over, but it’s not really over”
…the game was over.
I Venned my way through it in 4 hours.

Jordan –

21 Wet, Sticky Maplebucks is a bit of a big ask for this jolly little jaunt
The game itself is actually pretty shallow, essentially being 3d straight line platformer
That said, it’s execution is spot on
The story is actually pretty decent too, all things considered. Sort of a whodunit
I usually prefer emergent narratives, but credit where credit is due
Crashes added another hour onto the gameplay, and there are hidden goodies you can go collect

Pedro –

The only reason I can’t give it 4 chairs for the fun is because it’s short.
Criminally short!
I was having fun! I was having a lot of fun and the game ended.
It took my fun away from me.
In all seriousness, this is a game with very simple but refined mechanics.
They took movement, something you take for granted in all videogames and they improved it.
They quadrupled down on exploring exactly what it is that can make videogame movement compelling and built a short experience around it.
And they frickin’ nailed it!
I can safely say I never had so much fun running and jumping down a corridor for 5 minutes like I did in Valley.
This I would say is the perfect example of aesthetics and narrative being used solely to further the mechanics… or mechanic, since they really only had the one.
But goddamn, they did it well!
If it had come out this year, it’d be a contender for Linux game of the year 2017.