Yeah, I still don't see the Linux community making a big impact on our "success". I think there'll be a big enough PC and Mac audience. I don't think the Linux audience would make up a large chunk of that.
Battle of Wesnoth is also freeware. It makes a lot more sense to release freeware games on all platforms. But if you think about the Linux community, they don't want to pay for their OS or much of the software that they use. Why are they going to want to pay for games?
Ultimately, there's no way we'd delay the PC + Mac version just so we could release a Linux version at the same time.
Let me introduce myself : I'm an old gamer of 31 summers. I'm one of those guys who played on Atari VCS 2600 when I was 4 !
I'm using linux for 6 years now, as full replacement for Windows. I'm not a developper, i'm an accounting manager and I have worked 6 years as IT project leader, so I have to be considered as a final user (or power-user if you wish, but no developer).
I've seen the video of your game, it's awesome. I'm VERY glad that some people are using nowadays technologies to write games that I have played 15 years ago (remember Xenon2 on atari 520 ST/SE, "Shadow of the Beast", Amiga 500/Atari ST, or, more recently (10 years ?), "Shadows of Darkness" ??).
I thought I could never play again to quality 2D games, as 3D games are now the rules when writing the Third chapter of 2 previous versions of a game that was engineered for 2D action (they 3D'd games like Mario !?! WTF !)
I was impressed by the art-work of your game. I think, that, like me, a lot of "old-gamers" would be pleased to buy that game for their child (mine will come soon on next january !!
) as those kind of games are not violent and are easy to handle for a child.
As nostalgia, I could even buy your game for playing it myself, but I don't think that you will hit big markets shares with that game. Why ? Simply because hard-core games wants 3D, and, MOST OF ALL, multi-players capabilities.
If you don't have that, you are out of the biggest part of the game market. Perhaps not with a Nintendo DS version, but with only a desktop computer version, you are out.
I don't mean you won't sell anything, I just say you are like Linux users, you are on a very limited part of the market (on which, I've to admit, you don't have any serious competitor, as big studios prefer developing the next blockbuster "UT3-QuakeWars gets trouble in Super-Commander of Warcraft"...).
But you are proposing a high quality game, with no competition as most players are now used to 3D games, not 2D.
Let's talk again about past things, to understand little more the nowadays market.
I used to play in 1993 at a game which was fairly "simple", was made "shareware" so you could play a single level without paying and getting more if you payed only a few bucks.
This game was a simple Pinball (I don't remember the name of the game yet), made by a little development studio named "Epic Games". They were probably 2 to write that game.
Next years, they issued a battle game, named "One Must Fall", which was a "shareware copy" of the blockbuster "Street Fighter".
They have made all their game release as sharewares. I think we can say that all the people all over the world to use shareware were "a community" which was rather out of the "big game market". I also think that today, those sharewares users have become Linux users, as shareware is not as far as Open-Source/Linux spirit.
I'm talking about the same EPIC of today, the one that is developing Unreal Tournament 3 (and the one that has said that a linux version will be made available).
Another little game development studio was hitting the shareware community in 1993 with a shareware called "Doom". You know what happened next.
Well, ID got a success because they made a game completely different, a breaking innovation. But they started also with "simple" 2D games (Commander Keen, another Shareware).
So, please, don't tell the community won't help you in your success.
But, I can understand, that you can have difficulties to port your game to Linux.
So, let me continue.
As I said earlier, your game is "out of the market" because you don't have big 3D and no multi-player mode.
For that, I think that the code of your game is rather simple (no offense in that, I wouldn't be able to even write a single line of a game program). For that, I think that if you should have difficulties in coding, you simply open-source your code, as no-one will care about stolen your code to write another game like the one you are preparing.
Your added value lies in the art-work, not in the code. So, don't lose time coding something that others can do for you, and open-source your project.
With that open, Linux community will carry the port for you, help you fixing the last bugs that you should have on Mac/OS and Windows versions, and, mostly, the impact of open-sourcing, will that you'll be able to issue your game earlier than planned or issue a game with better quality as most extensively tested over much more users. Why not release a beta to do that ?
Open-sourcing your code don't mean "open sourcing the entire game", as you must keep a copyright on all the art-work. Open-source allows you also to sell your game.
Because, I think that linux users are ready to pay for what they use, since they want more linux support in that windows world. I also think that linux users are rather old like me than young, have jobs and understand that developing a game is long and costing task, and that we must pay for that.
I think linux users are "mature", know that piracy is theft and are waiting the opportunities to show to any game studio that a "still small but growing" market is waiting.
And, as mature people, they also can understand that the linux client could be issued later than the Windows client, as Windows is 80% of the market and that we understand you want to hit first the market with the biggest OS.
For my case, I buy all the games I've played on Linux (UT2004, Quake3 and Quake4, Doom3), and I buy those games on "Tuxgames.com" as I want to increase the sales statistics for Linux ports. I could have found that games cheaper in stores, or even cheaper on X-mule...
Finally, I think you have more to win than to lose at supporting the linux community. Epic and ID won't betray what I've said I think.
I hope that will make change your mind.
Cheers.
Luc VERNEREY, France.
(Sorry for my English)
