LinuxGameCast Weekly 378: Squid Based

Steam for Linux adds support for namespaces! WINE gets portable, We Happy Few offers refunds to Kickstarter backers, and DXVK opens a Window. Then Mars Power Industries faces, the CHAIRQASITION!

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Timestamps:
03:51 Steam client update
05:58 Steam adds namespace support
09:57 Volcanoids Automation update
11:52 Supraland 1.9.1
13:31 Raining Fists and Metal
15:15 Wildermyth
18:27 Darkour
20:47 Shameless self promotion
23:59 Wine portable
27:43 Stadia launch titles
33:11 We Happy Few refunds
37:41 DXVK goes native
41:19 CHAIRQASITION: Mars Power Industries Deluxe
52:55 Hate Mail


Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam: News

Weekly client update

  • Looks like a bunch of beta updates finally landed in stable.

  • Now non-beta folks can spare their eyes the horror of 2x UI scaling

  • And hopefully non-beta Linux users can get some Remote Play Together

 

SteamVM

  • So what, Flatpaks?

  • RIP “fragmentation” myth.

    • It won’t die. It’ll never die

  • So this is the plan for when Ubuntu drops their 32 bit stuff

  • Per-game runtimes would bring applications closer in line to what most windows games do

  • Has some interesting consequences for proton deployments as well, giving valve or devs some tighter control on their proton configs

  • No matter what this will help alleviate some of the RNJ.

  • Mix this in with a side of DXVWha? And you might have something.

  • So… VALVe sees both Flatpaks and Snaps and goes: “You know what? Fuck alls yalls!”

  • We’re doing our own thing.


Steam: Game Updates

Volcanoids Automation update

  • New explosives, new tools and tons of new machinery.

  • You can now use boiling water to hack enemy base modules.

 

Supraland 1.9.1

  • Bug Fixes and detecting chests no longer curb-checks your CPU.

  • A couple more hints for the final boss as well. Apparently it was a wee too obtuse

  • A lot more hints and “consistency” added for the sake of the final boss.

  • That must have been something.


Steam: New Games

It’s Raining Fists and Metal

  • Guitar festival brawling.

  • At least is has multiplayer.

  • It definitely looks like this game was something out of a game jam

  • Duck game but with Metal? I’m alright with that!

 

Wildermyth

  • Another game tries to take on the lofty goal of replicating some tabletop RPG experiences

  • I like grid based stuff and fantasy, so I might be inclined to give this a look

  • Plays with some roguelike conventions too involving bringing back dead heroes.

  • The art does sort of look like an early 2000s web comic. I haven’t decided whether I like it or not

  • Whenever a game developer promises choice with consequence, I’m reminded of Telltale games and how they basically lied to people in that respect.

  • It was always the same damn story.

  • I do wonder just how much do decisions really matter with this one.

 

Darkour

  • Comes with a free demo

  • Super meat boy, but you can use darkness as a wall

  • Based on the trailer though, it seems a little inconsistent as to what is and is not a wall

  • Oh, I see.

  • You hold down a button or flip a toggle and the darkness at the edge of the light becomes solid.

  • Reminds me of the jumping puzzles in Guacamelee when you got the world shifting ability.


News:

Portable WINE

  • Winehub minus flatpak

  • It’s a little more flexible, but it doesn’t include every single dependency

  • Could be useful for shipping a game with WINE, no?

  • I can see this being very useful for bringing single executable software to Linux.

  • Would be awesome to have a way to add something like .NET or have separate versions of these portable executables with working .NET, VC, etc.

  • Also allows you to use system libraries if you think your system can do it better than the runtime it bundles.

 

Stadia launch titles

  • Look at all those Linux clients we’ll never get, minus The Tom Braiders

    • I wonder if Feral worked on that one

  • Kinda thin on the old launch titles.

  • Mind you, 10 years from now this is how most games will be played.

  • That is a thoroughly meh line up.

  • I did like the idea of enabling massively multiplayer in games which would never be able to support it if people had to build the PC to handle it.

  • And as I was writing that, a strange idea popped into my head:

    • Star Citizen

 

We happy poo

  • If you’re going to bow out this is about as clean as you can do it.

  • That said, nothing of value was lost.

  • A busted build and a refund isn’t the worst consolation prize

  • At least they admitted that they’re not up to it

  • I don’t understand why they spent a year burning money trying to make it work vs contracting someone to make it work.

    • Sunk Cost

  • Then again, it’s UE4 so making it “work” might be unpossible.

  • At this point I think those 3, possibly 4, people who backed it hoping for Linux and still care will appreciate the gesture.

  • Everyone else has already fucked off and they’re either still pissed or they don’t care anymore.

  • Good on them for giving refunds.

  • That and the honesty goes a long fucking way!

 

DXV Wha?

  • If you decide to not come to linux, sometimes linux decides to come to you

  • Seems like It’s giving SDL the ability to just run DX11/DX9 code

  • Engine code will still need to be updated to support Linux, but at the very least you don’t need to completely rewrite your graphics stack

  • That’s kind of insane but at the same time I feel a bit of relief that someone actually tried and succeeded.


CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies


Game: Mars Power Industries
Devel: 7A Games
Engine: Unity
Price: £2.09 / US$2.99 / CA$3.39

Wazzat: Mystery puzzle game about resource management. All about optimal building placement, order of operations and saturated synth vibes. Chill out and explore what strange devices are up there on Mars! Every puzzle can be solved in 5 moves or less.

Mandatory Disclosure: They Sent us keys



Venn:

Does It Launch

  • Unity scream of mighty nope.

Performance @ 1080

  • 60 gonna 60.

Graphics

  • Looks clean, no glitches.

  • Not much in the way of options.

Control

  • Click, drag, click.



Jordan:

Does It Launch

  • Remember seven years ago you guys?

Performance @ 1080

  • yes

Graphics

  • Visio, the game

Control

  • You use your mouse. If you have a touchscreen on your laptop like I do, you could use that too I guess


Pedro:

Does It Launch

  • The Unity Screen Of Nope doesn’t handle dark themes too well.

Performance @ 1080

  • 144 FerPS

Graphics

  • Simple and effective

Control

  • Draggy, droppy, done.

  • Very hard to screw that up.


QA Score:

Fedora:
Neon:
Debian:


Fun section:

Fun?:

  • Venn:

    • Ohnoes! Another puzzle grame!

    • Yes, its on mobile but also on the Switch and that’s what made me give it a look.

    • Nintendo don’t do shovelware.

    • A good puzzle game has to be two of two things.

    • Simple & hard.

    • It also manages to communicate what’s going on without much in the way of hand holding.

    • Starts simple with connecting power and figuring out how the spike system works.

    • Then it’s onto power distribution and the various ways to cock that right up.

    • Drill babby DRILL!

    • That’s right, somewhere around year 10 oil comes into the equation and things get a bit harder.

    • Then year 18 shows up… fuck year 18.

    • After that you have the tools and skills needed to solve some devilishly clever puzzles.

    • I made it a little past year 20 before I felt the game was mocking me for my small genitalia.

    • Like stephen’s sausage roll it takes something that appears simple and pours a glass of FK you, THAT’S WHY in your face.

    • Turns out I like a good facial.

  • Jordan

    • Ah puzzle games, those things that you play when you want to be reminded really how dumb you are

    • Mars power industries isn’t too bad a puzzler

    • Some of the mechanisms I tend to have disagreements with, but you know what, its your house game

    • There’s a bit of a story too, which gets dropped in bits and pieces and it’s a little cosmic-horrory, so I’m interested

    • Also something about evil nanomachine hologram strawberry things

    • But hey, I sunk about 90 minutes into it idly. It’s a sit back and relax sort of game

  • Pedro

    • For a while, whenever we had to throw chairs at a puzzle game, we used Stephen’s Sausage Roll as an example.

    • Then, Baba Is You comes around and gets 4 chairs across the board.

    • This isn’t Baba Is You level but it is a damn good puzzle game.

    • Like the previous two examples, Mars Power Industries Deluxe does puzzles right.

    • It gives you all the tools and all the information with damn near no text on screen.

    • Then they throw you a curveball, right on the blurb: “all the puzzles can be solved in 5 moves or less”

      • To which I say: yes, but only if you don’t care about the strawberries.

    • And the sole reason I don’t give it 4 chairs for fun is because they pad out the game.

    • Just as you hit level 20, you get these stones in the levels which require all the resources you’re trying to pass along to the buildings.

    • And they add those to the levels you’ve already beaten, too.

    • Honestly, when they did that my reaction was “Really?” and I Alt+F4’ed out.

    • It’s completely optional and I basically kept playing without caring about those.

    • But I’m sure the ending will differ depending on whether or not do all the optional bits too.

Fun Score:

Venn:
Jordan:
Pedro:


Hate Mail:

Vulkan

Budget AMD

Stadia

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