A few questions about linux games.

[Feba]

1) Does linux have any native games outside of the Kill-Big-Dragon-With-Sword and Shoot-Bad-Man-In-Face types? I'm talking about the Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright kinda stuff. Heck, do we even have any decent 3D platformers?

2) Does linux have any games with real stories? I mean, from what I've seen, there are games, but they don't even do anything but drop you right into level one and leave you to get to the end. Heck, even Super Tux's plot is basically "Your girlfriend was kidnapped or something. Go find her.", while it MIGHT have some sort of story in later levels I haven't gotten to, it really seems unlikely.

Lastly, are there many major groups trying to make a game, as in more than a few people releasing yet another game we've all seen before? Like the thread on this forum that's working on a gunbound style game.

I'm not meaning to criticize anyone, it just seems like the current linux games are rather bland, and I'd like to see if there are games out there that i'm missing

[shavenlunatic]

don't know if anything here might tickle your fancy

http://www.getdeb.net/category.php?id=3

[Matakoo]

1) Does linux have any native games outside of the Kill-Big-Dragon-With-Sword and Shoot-Bad-Man-In-Face types? I'm talking about the Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright kinda stuff. Heck, do we even have any decent 3D platformers?

2) Does linux have any games with real stories? I mean, from what I've seen, there are games, but they don't even do anything but drop you right into level one and leave you to get to the end. Heck, even Super Tux's plot is basically "Your girlfriend was kidnapped or something. Go find her.", while it MIGHT have some sort of story in later levels I haven't gotten to, it really seems unlikely.

You forgot:

3) Does Linux have native games (well, of the more complex kind anyway. I'm not thinking of things like Frozen Bubble or clones of say Arkanoid here...fun though they can be) that does not require you to connect to some online server? Maybe I'm an old fart, but I've never been into that. If I want multiplayer, I get a couple of friends home. So no, I'm not one of those dying to get WoW or LOTR online to work using Wine ;)

[rocknrolf77]

Here's one for you with a story. Scary one too. http://www.penumbra-overture.com/

The price is really good too :)

Edit : Video > http://gaming.gwos.org/comment.php?comment.news.84

[Feba]

I tried Penumbra, too many bugs.

So that's it?

[ZylGadis]

The trouble (?) with building a Free game is that there is only so much a team of enthusiasts can do. Here is what they can do:
- They can come up with an innovative idea for a game (most, sadly, don't).
- They can hack together the fundamentals of the game, because that is the interesting part.
- They can provide an interface of tremendous complexity to the game. That interface is all substance and little form, because programmers (intelligent people?) generally prefer substance over form. Yes, I am talking about console interfaces (or at most tile-based 2D).

Here is what they cannot (do not want to) do:
- Spend a ridiculous amount of time building an interface that does not bring anything except flashiness to the game.
- Make an effort to "market" the game, whatever that means. This is a drawback (feature?) of Free software in general.

You can easily draw several conclusions from the above list. The first and glaringly obvious one is - if you are firmly entrenched into the 3D camp and must get your eye candy no matter what, well, buy a console. 3D eye candy is generally done by companies who can pay their employees to do dull work. It is not generally done by people who feel like doing that (read: Free software developers), because it is not interesting. Writing a physics / 3D rendering engine can be interesting. Creating all the models, textures, and what not, is boring, and is generally viewed as superfluous. Besides, it requires tremendous amounts of time and, correspondingly, people.

3D eye candy is also generally done by companies who don't have any ideas for substance, in the hope that the eye candy is reason enough for people to buy the game (sadly, it generally is).

Another conclusion you can draw is that there exist Free games that are truly great and innovative. You only have to find them, and appreciate them for the core values of a game - i.e. fun and gameplay, as opposed to elaborate 3D models of Lara's mammary glands.

A valid criticism towards Free games is that they too often try to emulate 10-year-old commercial ones. I, too, would like to see much more people coming up with innovative ideas, as opposed to rehashing old and exhausted themes. The gems do exist, however. You only have to look for them.

[shavenlunatic]

Everquest 1 (and likely Everquest 2 some time in the future) does have a linux installer available and runs natively if actionRPG's tickle your fancy..

My hope is that as more and more mainstream people defect to Macs (and others linux) that more and more games get developed to run natively in OSX (which I expect will be an easier port to the linux system...)

Vista truly is failing, I have read a few reports that developers are starting to make a point of avoiding it.. hopefully this is the time that they start exploring possibilities other than windows (yes, likely to be macOS but its a start!)

EA have declared that all future games will be released mac compatible.. woo for EA! (i don't own a mac, i think they're overpriced and pretentious.. but I'm all for something which will allow developers to broaden their horizons)



And if you are TRULY desperate for some games.. lots will run under wine.. and PC Emulation is getting better and some offer 3D support.... you can usually get your fix through both of those until the magic happens :)

[rocknrolf77]

I don't like what EA is doing. Instead of making openGL games they help in keeping directx as the main 3d renderer, by using cider/cedega. (Cider is cedega for osx) This will just prevent other developers from making native linux and osx games.

OpenGL can do the same that directx can do and more. It's extremely anvanced. I can't understand how it can be easier to develop using directx when you can know 100% how openGL works. OpenGL 3 is coming this fall, and it will make use of the new stuff in the "directx10" cards.

[Malikith]

I don't like what EA is doing. Instead of making openGL games they help in keeping directx as the main 3d renderer, by using cider/cedega. (Cider is cedega for osx) This will just prevent other developers from making native linux and osx games.

OpenGL can do the same that directx can do and more. It's extremely anvanced. I can't understand how it can be easier to develop using directx when you can know 100% how openGL works. OpenGL 3 is coming this fall, and it will make use of the new stuff in the "directx10" cards.

Yeah Directx10 is quite the gimmick isn't it? Opengl has always rocked, and always will. I can't wait for the first game open source or retail, to use opengl 3.0. It might be Unreal Tournament 3, maybe.

[rocknrolf77]

Yeah Directx10 is quite the gimmick isn't it? Opengl has always rocked, and always will. I can't wait for the first game open source or retail, to use opengl 3.0. It might be Unreal Tournament 3, maybe.

I agree. It's a reason why OpenGl is the industry standard for serious heavy graphics :lol:

[Matakoo]

Here's one for you with a story. Scary one too. http://www.penumbra-overture.com/


Now that seems to be a game to my liking! However, the demo doesn't play nice on my computer (: Oh, it runs and is playable but there's something wrong with the sound. It's crackling and well, sounds awful. I saw a post the Penumbra-forum about that, but the fix gives me a core dump instead (:

Anyone who knows how to fix it? If the sound can be fixed, I might have to buy this :)

[shavenlunatic]

I don't like what EA is doing. Instead of making openGL games they help in keeping directx as the main 3d renderer, by using cider/cedega. .

ah, wasn't aware of that.. cheers

*slaps EA*

[rocknrolf77]

ah, wasn't aware of that.. cheers

*slaps EA*

Poor EA. Maybe they don't have enough money to make a couple of games in openGL and release them for more platforms :---)