Linux and Manifesto's Gaming Revolution

First, let me congratulate Greg and the staff here who dedicate their time here, in hopes for a better market environment for us gamers. Thank you!

I would like to offer a suggestion / a thought about Linux gaming. Manifesto Games should offer more focus and commentary on the Linux gaming scene, especially focusing on their top independent games. While I applaud there being a Linux games section here, there is much more to the rabbit hole that I hope to illuminate.

First, they are a perfect fit to your site. On one hand, Manifesto Games seeks a better indy environment and helping other indy developers improve their methods. Linux caters to this shared knowledge environment. On the other hand, Linux games have few advocates and no marketing. While there are many, many web sites that hype and sell Windows indy and Windows shareware titles, there are very few for Linux. Linux-specific game developers are practically promoted word-of-mouth, by comparison.

Second, it makes good business sense. Let's face it, Manifesto Games is a business. It's got a ".com" in the domain name. The Linux gaming promotion scene is a wide open market. More and more people are adopting Linux as a desktop environment, yet many Linux gaming promotion sites have closed and the others are dreadfully out-dated. Existing sites are still showing creeky-old games (anyone for TuxRacer? anyone?), and they lack the hip format that is present on this site. I know first hand that the payment mechanisms on Linux games is just not there. Game developers would benefit from your promotion experience and payment program, and Manifesto Games would benefit from the limited number of distribution methods available to these developers.

And, let's drop the whole 'Linux-users-just-want-everything-for-free' idea, right now. First, Linux users work harder for their OS than any other types of computer users, they have technical skills that likely have them in high-paying jobs, and, even if the catch-phrase was true at once true for the early adopters of Linux, more and more types people are getting into Linux. With the recent polish, it is used by more of the mainstream.

Lastly, and most importantly, it's the Right Thing to do. We know that one major reasons people do not adopt desktop Linux is because there are few games. Developers do not make games for Linux because there are few adopters. It's a cycle. By promoting the games, helping developers, and increasing distribution of Linux games, that cycle may stop. I firmly believe once a supported Linux-based-client exists for a popular MMORPG, then the gloves will be off for Linux desktop market-share. (Supported, of course, is the key word. Not like Caldera use where World of Warcraft bans your account because they think you are a hacker for using a Windows emulator.) By being a mouthpiece for Linux gaming and a expanding the distribution of Linux games, Manifesto Games would help bring legitimacy to the Linux gaming scene. Maybe enough to get the attention of that next big MMORPG developer.

Plus, encouraging developers to use and expand upon Open Source tools... expands the Open Source tool set... which encourages developers to use and expand upon Open Source tools... In the end, when game developers have improved tools, we *gamers* get better games faster. It ultimately helps everyone, and it eventually delivers better games to you and me in the long term.

Indy game development shares many things with the indy operating system, Linux. Because of Microsoft's support and advocacy, indy developers have moved to Windows. Shouldn't they have an alternative? So many of these Windows-only games on Manifesto Games are simple enough to have been easily re-programmed in Linux. I really think with the right advocacy there could be a fresh market, both profitable and beneficial to developers and distributors! You've already found a couple good titles for Linux, but keep it up. Having one on the front-page and a commentary or two about the Linux scene might just have long-term effects that would position you favorable in the coming revolution. Good luck, comrades. ~MC

Actually, we'd love to have more Linux titles, and are actively looking for them. The installed user base may be small, but we do far better with them than you'd expect, given overall numbers--just as we do pretty well with Mac titles. In general, I think cross-platform development makes a lot of sense for indie developers--the usual rule of thumb is that it increases your development costs by ~20%, but if you're doing a low-budget title in the first instance, that's not a big increase, and since Mac and Linux gamers have fewer products available, it can materially increase your sales.

Greg, you are entirely ignoring your own points about the joys of small team development for indie games.

Small dev teams rarely have the expertise to be able to create cross-platform games, the 20% figure you quote is for development houses, not one or two man shows. When you have 2 guys on your team, the chances that they can do both mac, linux etc? come on. It is wasted.

As normal, you have dreamy vague points for indie devs, with zero practical advice. but again, if you had that, wouldn't you be a successful dev yourself? Oh, that right, of course not, because you keep letting the man keep you down.

To smark, while I hate to see Greg-bashing, I think you make a good point. Indy dev's do not have the luxury of resources. Getting a software title tested and finished is challenge enough. And once through the process, the second title is likely to be developed with the same methods as the first. That is why I think Manifesto Games is in the position to offer advice for indy developers. They can trumpet the increased market of Linux desktops, and they can show indy developers that the indy scene lives on with Linux.

So many indy games are discribed with the words, "would have been a great game if it came out 10 years ago." Linux is the place where older gameplay is still accepted. It is familar to run a simpler game in one of the many windows on your many desktops. While one program indy on Macs, the Mac market share is static - why not write something for a growing marketshare? Why not partner with Manifesto Games to publish, since they are already a presence in that scene?

I'm not saying for Manifesto Games to advocate ports. No, I'm saying they should advocate Linux-specific development! Many of these smaller indy games are just not going to sell when compared side-by-side to "Best Buy" boxed-game competitors. At least, that's what I assume, but I will let Greg make that analysis. Even if Greg isn't doing as great as you would like, you should try very hard not to discourage him, smark. Look at how few resources the indy developer has available, and count your blessings to have another advocate. Best wishes on your endeavors.

I would agree with you on that desertcamel. Games designed for Linux makes sense, and that crowd tends to understand the indy dev constraints a little better than someone sitting on an xp box wondering why the game doesn't look like Call of Duty 3.

Plus, with some of the simpler distros catching on, many people dual boot. Maybe a distro should be advertised here?

While I generally don't post on the game threads, since I work in the industry, I would say that it's not terribly attractive to make games for a community with a big chunk of people who are ideologically opposed to paying for software.

Dear Sarkar, I make my rebuttal in the form of a website. I am devoting myself daily to disproving your off-the-cuff remark. Seriously, you made me realize how much misinformation was present in the game development community, and I will work diligently toward Linux acceptance. Long live the revolution.

Come on. Stop spreading crap about the entire Linux community being ideologically opposed to paying for software. That hasn't been true for so long it's absurd that people are still small-minded enough to believe it. There are a tiny few who still feel they should have a right to everything free. Most of them we call by the fancy name "Pirates" anyway. There are a tiny few who believe all software should be legally freely redistributable. Then there are the vast majority who believe people should be allowed to charge for their contributions to the computing world, and those people's work will then be paid for or left alone, as appropriate. Yes, some people believe all software source should be accessible, but even then, most of those people will pay for software - they just will expect to be able to see how the software works.

There just aren't many Linux users who expect their software to always be free any more. And I know for certain there are many who buy Linux software, provided it is good software, that don't ever use the software but buy it to support vendors who support Linux. I fall into that category and I know others online who do that. So please stop spreading lies about a community of which you are not a part.

Boy, being accused of "spreading crap" and "spreading lies" really makes me want to go right upstairs to my boss and pitch him a Linux game concept. If you want developers to support Linux, I think desertcamel's attitude will prove more productive.

In my experience, my friends who use Linux rarely if ever buy software and games (not that they pirate, they usually just use free open source alternatives for everything), and my friends who use Windows or the Mac are much more likely to buy software.

So just going by my own experience I'll have to agree with Sarkar. While I don't think that the people who use Linux don't believe in paying for software, very few of them actually do. Think about it: how many commercial non-game programs are there for Linux? Not that many. So it's not just games.

I'm not against creating and selling Linux ports, I think that if the developer knows how to do that, they probably should. And if someone uses Linux, creating a game exclusively for Linux isn't a bad idea. But I don't see why people who use Windows as their operating system and prefer it over Linux would choose to develop a Linux-only game.

From desertcamel's website:

"So where is the market for Linux games? … Answer: Making comparable games to Windows, but priced more cheaply."

Is this possible? Sure, if alternative distribution channels like Manifesto, the ones that give more $ per sale to the developer, succeed. Are developers going to take a multi-million-dollar chance on an 18 month development cycle before these alternative distribution channels have shown a track record? Not too likely. After all, even if a developer working through Manifesto gets 10 times the money per title than it would working for a conventional publisher, that still doesn't add up if the sales are less than 10% of what the conventional publisher's marketing and distribution can generate.

You're losing the meaning taking the quote out of context. Plus, there are other articles that talk about leveraging the Open Source solutions for cost reduction. Making developers aware of those solutions is one of the main focuses of the site.

Otherwise, I'm very happy you are reading the site, Sarkar.

So here I am again to check back. I have spent what amounts to a huge amount of time looking at the Linux gaming scene and their commercial games. To summarize, I no longer think the question is whether Linux can survive without today's commercial game developers. No, I think the question is whether today's commercial game developers can survive Linux.

A big reason which commercial games have difficulties selling to Linux gamers has been kept very quiet by those involved. The fact of the matter is that Linux gamers have thousands of good, no-cost "Free Software" games that are maintained by the community. While some are half-hearted attempts, as you would expect, there are some very good titles. Sure none are modern AAA titles, but some are very, very good - and good enough to satisfy most gamers. Ambitious users even help improve the code or game resources, improving them slowly over time. When I consider how far these titles have come with community efforts, I am left wondering how much mileage they have still to go. I question, how good does a game need to be in order to be considered the enjoyable experience demanded by the gamer? Isn't this good enough?

Where does that leave the commercial game developer on Linux? The commercial developer brings with them IP assets, like music, art, and story telling. But low and behold, there is also occurring a new movement of releasing such material into the Public Domain (via Creative Commons licenses). There is a "perfect storm" being created as a backlash to the strict copyright enforcement of recent years, so small, amature, rag-tag development teams are able to put together extraordinarily playable game titles. Plus, there is a drive of everyday gamers to improve these Free Software titles and develop more content through user-generated mods.

As an example, and not even the most impressive example, take a look at Battle of Wesnoth. This is probably the best Turn Based Strategy game I have ever played, and that includes the ones I have purchased from Manifesto. Sorry! Battle of Wesnoth is 100% open source and no-cost. More impressive examples are the Secret Maryo a platform-scroller, The Spring Project a real-time-strategy, and the many intricate FPS games built on public domain Quake engines.
[Edit: In fact, take a look at these links I collected of one gamer's favorite titles.]

Commercial developers have a hard act to follow and it shows. Of my research, no commercial game producer has bothered to develop relationships with a Linux distribution to get included in the distro-supported program installation tools. These tools allow users to pull up a list of 100s of Free Software games, pre-packaged and supported, and merely click on any to install and run them. Furthermore, and most telling, no commercial game title supports 64-bit Linux operating system, while this support is standard and typical for Free Software titles. A Linux distro would not think about releasing a Free Software game title that did not support all the architectures in which the distro supported. Or, was the code written wisely enough to not have issues when compiling for 64-bit architectures? Yet, this whole concept of mass-support is so completely lost on commercial developers who are only looking to sell to the largest architectural markets. What is their excuse? "We only have so many resources, and we can't port the code to all architectures." Yes, well, this lack of resources does not seem to be a problem for the Free Software community. The lack of mass-support only helps expose the commercial developer in the inevitable side-by-side comparison of similar Free Software game titles. If the Linux gamer is not paying for OS-integration or ubiquitous hardware support, then what exactly is he buying, in a purchase of a closed-source commercial game?

I have learned a lot since I wrote that original message starting this thread. Even I was a bit surprised to learn that so many dozens of commercial Linux game titles were released in the last year. I have throughly tracked a few very carefully and corresponded at length with those authors. I tell you indie developers, you should realize what you're up against. Install a copy of Linux and see for yourself. Should Linux catch on mainstream, it is going to change the way you do business. It's not at all rosy for commercial game developers frankly, but there are ways to continue forward. I am watching existing developers slowly, slowly come to an understanding of the new methodologies required to develop on Linux and be commercially viable. There are already a few who are starting to work with Free Software communities rather than trying to restrict and override them. On my site, I am trying to help more to see the picture. (To read those articles - click the Developer Commentary category.) In the long run, I think the new ways are good because they are ultimately about empowering the user and increasing the "public domain" (for lack of better term).

Gentlemen, as you can tell, I've swallowed the red pill since I last posted here, and I am a gaming convert. It is not just an alternative to Windows gaming: I think it is better choice than Windows gaming. You can talk about number of pixels moved or number of AAA titles, but I feel a sense of ownership with my system now and a sense of joy in knowing I am not being held back by copyrights and corporate patents. I jump online and give my thanks to my game's Free Software developers, then I might give a suggestion to my distro maintainer improving integration of that game software. Finally, I see a notice about a new game and check to see it is listed in my distro's software repository --- I am off playing a brand new title. And that is FUN for me - much more fun than the achingly anticipating the next Windows game release, running the install, and being disappointed with the game 2 hours later. Listen, it is great to have choices.
~MC

"I tell you indie developers, you should realize what you're up against."

It's not really a battle (even though people who use Linux tend to like to see it that way). Also, you neglect to mention one of the key points: distribution. Last I checked, only 0.2 to 0.4 percent of people used Linux as their primary operating system. I think that's the main reason that there aren't more commercial Linux games: there aren't more commercial Linux games for the same reason most games aren't translated into Tagalog. There just aren't enough people.

RinkuHero: I think you and I are in agreement for the most part, however, your estimate of users seems off. Whatever the percentage, there are enough users to help create these thousands of Free Software games and there is enough technical support to seamlessly package these games into the many distro operating systems.

Here, I found this good overview and screenshots of games released in the last year for Linux. It shows the commercial and Free Software titles side by side, in what the author calls his favorites of 2007.

Most free software games are created by people using Windows, though. Open Source isn't only done by people on Linux.

0.2 to 0.4 percent of the about 900 million people with PCs is still quite a lot. There may be thousands of games created on Linux, but there are hundreds of thousands of games created on Windows.

But thanks for the overview, it was worth reading. Many of those are playable on Windows though...