Hello again,
and thanks for the replies; i hadn't found nor seen the video of Aquaria running on Ubuntu prior to my own post.
@Chibi: posting those article links was not intended to imply any doubt concerning the Aquaria developer's competence, it was only intended to persuade them to reconsider the linux port's viability (and when Ryan
"I've ported everything from Google Earth to Second Life to America's Army to etc etc" Gordon writes an article on the whys and hows of porting software, it's certainly worth a glance!).
Also @Chibi: if i understand Alec's reply posts regarding Wine/Aquaria/linux: there is no guarantee that it will work with Wine, no way to identify the purchase as a linux sale (if we don't get counted, how will anyone know that there are linux gamers worth supporting?), no refunds available if it fails to work, and only random users' claims that it works at all (which i've experienced myself with the demo —hats off to the Wine devs—, but that is hardly a guarantee as Xiagan's post shows) . If one were inclined to be severe and/or cynical about it, the stance could be unfairly paraphrased as: "We've decided not to support your platform, but feel free to buy our game anyway!". I hope that there are enough qualifiers in my previous sentence to make it clear that i do not take that view, although i do recognize that someone else might/could take it as such.
Also also @Chibi: thanks for the welcome! Depending on the amount of closure i'm able to get on Bit Blot's linux stance, i'm not sure i'll end up around very much (without closure i'll probably keep popping up to try to persuade them to relight the porting torch!).
To that end, there's was a recent update over at
2D Boy's World of Goo Linux Version blog post which i'll quote here:
Update 4: It’s only been 2 days since the release of the Linux version and it already accounts for 4.6% of the full downloads from our website. Our thanks to everyone who’s playing the game on Linux and spreading the word. Here are a couple of nifty stats:
* About 12% of Linux downloads are of the .rpm package, 30% are of the .tar.gz package, and 57% are of the .deb package.
* More copies of the game were sold via our website on the day the Linux version released than any other day. This day beat the previous record by 40%. There is a market for Linux games after all :)
A, hopefully relevant, note concerning their record linux sales figures upon the official release: they had the linux version in the works for a fair while before it was ready and many people bought it ahead of time and played it under Wine (the point here isn't that they give you all versions for one price, but that their linux release day sales were that high even with many having pre-bought it to play under Wine).
I'm glad Chibi and Xiagan like my student porter idea, though it's just one of many options that Bit Blot has to get an Aquaria linux port with minimal effort, cost, and risk. Other options that spring readily to mind are as follows (i'll repeat the student/volunteer one as that is the most financially beneficial for Bit Blot). A post by the developers detailing any issues/concerns that are blocking a linux port (especially given that it was running on Ubuntu back in 2007) would help with finding a palatable solution —support us so we can support you!
1. Allow university guided computer science students to port Aquaria to linux as part of a group senior project or such; alternately, allow a community volunteer (knowledgable and developer approved, of course) to do the port free of charge (though i don't think giving them a copy for their efforts would be out of line ^_^).
2. Contact
Ryan "icculus" Gordon to inquire as to his availability and pricing for an Aquaria linux port (and be open to his suggestions of alternate porters if he's too busy). Based on Ryan's (or his suggested porter's) pricing, make the port contingent on linux pre-order numbers sufficient to pay the cost of the port itself!
3. Contact
Linux Game Publishing to see if they're interested in licensing the game for a linux port.
4. Release the Aquaria engine source code under a license that would allow the community to port it to linux (and potentially other platforms/architectures, like
Pandora) while keeping the game's data proprietary (as there are potentially 2 Aquaria sequels in the eventual works this might be more or less appealing).
An update on this from Alec would be super.
p.
