Slashdot Mirror

• MindRover - Publisher: Loki - Robot Programming Puzzle Game
• Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns - Publisher: Loki - Fantasy Real-Time Strategy Game
• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Publisher: Loki - Sci-Fi Colonization/Civilization Turn-Based Strategy Game
• Uplink - Publisher: Introversion - Sci-fi "Hacking" Sim
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Publisher: Activision - Modern remake of the classic 3-D shooter, now with suberb multiplayer

Another note: Linux Game Publishing is shipping a port of Creatures Internet Edition which should reach resellers after Xmas.

• MindRover - Publisher: Loki - Robot Programming Puzzle Game
• Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns - Publisher: Loki - Fantasy Real-Time Strategy Game
• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Publisher: Loki - Sci-Fi Colonization/Civilization Turn-Based Strategy Game
• Uplink - Publisher: Introversion - Sci-fi "Hacking" Sim
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Publisher: Activision - Modern remake of the classic 3-D shooter, now with suberb multiplayer

Another note: Linux Game Publishing is shipping a port of Creatures Internet Edition which should reach resellers after Xmas.

Here is my list:

1. Freeciv - the open source flavor of the epic strategy game. I purchased Civ3 when it came out, but TBHWY, it doesn't provide a compelling reason to reboot into Win-doze, and I still opt to play freeciv. Freeciv is much more customizable and plays quicker, allows multitasking, and was set up specifically for mulitplayer (even if I haven't ventured online to play much MP). I hope the freeciv team is entertaining notions of a Civ3 ruleset, or some variation ...
2. Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns - innovative, evolutionary RTS (real time strategy) game - instead of the "Age of Buildings", clickety-click nature of other RTS games in the genre, Kohan is the wargamer's RTS, with company-based battle, zone of supply, and zone of population constructs, and as opposed to the micromanagement of resource collection, resources are earned/spent on a per minute basis, and constructed companies have a maintenance cost. Plus you have magic wielding units that gain XP and cast some cool spells. Multiplayer with Windows gamers is possible (though with large maps you won't be able to view films after)
3. Pysol - the vastly superior Linux alternative to solitaire
4. Sid Meier Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack - great game, but I have a big beef with the multiplayer support - you can only MP against other Linux users, unlike Kohan. So it gets downgraded to the bottom of the list for that reason.

There are a bunch of good Linux games, but I think I have to go with MindRover being the absolute coolest, most original, most FUN game I've yet seen on Linux... (The all-time winner of that award in my book would be "The Incredible Machine", but unfortunately there's no Linux version of it or any of its sequels, yet...) If you like coding, you'll probably love MindRover... If you like BattleBots, you'll probably love MindRover... You basically build and program your own robotic vehicles to compete in a variety of missions... It's extremely cool... Check it out: The main site, and Loki's product page...

My vote goes to Return to Castle Wolfenstein without a doubt.
Even tho the single-player binaries have not yet been released, the multiplayer part will keep you busy for a while. It's being ported to single player as we speak, and the binaries can be found on iD Software's FTP server...
Support gaming under Linux; buy Return to Castle Wolfenstein from TuxGames!!

I have also enjoyed numerous games ported by LokiGames. Go to their site, and browse thru their catalog.
Titles I have enjoyed in 2001: Rune, Unreal Tourney, FAKK2, Soldier of Fortune, Tribes 2 and Alpha Centauri...

But RTCW [Return to Castle Wolfenstein] is still no. 1 ;-)
Get progress reports on Castle Wolfenstein port on LinuxGames and Christian Antkow's .plan file.

It's been a very good year for gaming in our favourite OS, let's hope it gets even better in 2002!!

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

real weapons

realistic maps

thriving user community

Grab Loki's patch to install Unreal Tournament, then hop over to Strike Force Center to try the mod.

As for the games that were ported over from Windows, Why not just go and check a place like Gamerankings.com and see a good compilation of reviews? All you have to do is check on the games that have been ported to Linux and figure it out from there!

For my money, though, Xbill is excellent :-)

Kohan from Loki is easily the best game I have bought for the past 3 years. Loki's newsgroup is filled with some of the best people from around the world who set up games weekly (or more often) to play online. Kohan is very stable and tons of fun to play, and has easily soaked up more of my time than I really want to admit. Loki even ports the patches so the Linux players can play against the WinSlaves (although there have been a couple of issues with the "sync error" that are mostly cleared up these days).

If you like RTSes, but hate all of the MM, or are just looking for something that isn't yet another Warcraft clone, then I highly recommend checking out Kohan.

Kohan from Loki is easily the best game I have bought for the past 3 years. Loki's newsgroup is filled with some of the best people from around the world who set up games weekly (or more often) to play online. Kohan is very stable and tons of fun to play, and has easily soaked up more of my time than I really want to admit. Loki even ports the patches so the Linux players can play against the WinSlaves (although there have been a couple of issues with the "sync error" that are mostly cleared up these days).

If you like RTSes, but hate all of the MM, or are just looking for something that isn't yet another Warcraft clone, then I highly recommend checking out Kohan.

I mostly play native ports. I buy just about every game Loki releases. I'm a sucker. I even bought SiN even thoiugh it won't work with NVidia cards. I also use Transgaming's WineX. It supports quite a few Win32-only games (like Age of Empires). It won't work with DirectX8 games, however, but support is coming.

I used my PC for games about 60% of the time I was in front of it when it had Windows and Linux on it. Now that Windows is gone, I find myself reading Perlmonks or looking at freshmeat stuff more often than I used to. I'm happy I switched.

-B

Instead I use Linux. It's lightning-quick, has commerical and free apps, and even Windoze Gaming Support along with Native Linux Games and all the office tools I want. Why should I switch back? It's getting worse all the time. ;-)

http://www.timegatestudios.com or http://www.lokigames.com/products/kohan/

This wouldn't be the first time that a game has been developed for Windows and Linux simultaneously.

However, I'm not sure we all appreciated the result much.

Like Fakk2
Kohan
Mindrover
And just about everything here.
There really are plenty of non-FPS games available, like Kohan, and Mindrover.
Mindrover isn't really as silly as it sound either.
For the budding mercenery my recommendation is Jagged Alliance 2

Like Fakk2
Kohan
Mindrover
And just about everything here.
There really are plenty of non-FPS games available, like Kohan, and Mindrover.
Mindrover isn't really as silly as it sound either.
For the budding mercenery my recommendation is Jagged Alliance 2

Like Fakk2
Kohan
Mindrover
And just about everything here.
There really are plenty of non-FPS games available, like Kohan, and Mindrover.
Mindrover isn't really as silly as it sound either.
For the budding mercenery my recommendation is Jagged Alliance 2

Not true at all...

It's very true. From Loki's page:

RAM
64 MB RAM minimum, 128 MB RAM recommended
512 MB combined RAM and swap required)

The review referred to in the original post seems to be somewhat unreachable (it can't be slashdotted yet, can it?), so you may want to try Loki's page for the game
here.

For those that don't know, Alpha Centauri (and it's add-on pack) were ported to Linux by Loki and released earlier this year:

http://www.lokigames.com/products/smac/

I have some native games right now from companies like Loki, and Hyperion, and tribsoft, and the native binaries produced by such companies as id software.
But of course nobody using Linux is gaining anything when we emulate windows api's and then spend money on windows games. You _can_ buy so many titles right now, and we want to ruin that with spending money on windows emulation and adding to the windows sales figures!?
I don't believe companies like Loki have to end this way, we can make a difference right now and we certainly aren't going to help through the purchasing of windows games which is what you are doing when you emulate their API's so you can play these things.

These people are so bloody backwards as to think that near perfect direct x api emulation will gain us native applications. Why this is, I do not know. After having spoken with their coders at LWCE, I doubt they understand what a native binary is, let alone how they can compare api emulation to native binaries. The worst part is when they tell me that SDL is so similar, when it's not. SDL isn't emulating any behaviour, it is an API. It may be similar in some respects to DirectX, but it is not letting you use non-native binaries in Linux. People who want to support microsoft emulation have tried before, succeded in emulation, and then promptly failed as nobody wrote native applications for their operating system (OS/2 anybody?). If you want Linux gaming through companies like Loki (who produce native games) to fail, buy whatever these jokers are going to sell you.

If you want Linux to succede as a desktop so we can be finally free of the shackles we support when we buy into propietary API's like DirectX, and become the gaming platform of choice, buy native games from online stores like tuxgames. Do not spend one dime on what isn't native and you won't be funding the market speak of sales figures against a Linux desktop.

As this page, which includes many demos from Loki, proves, SDL is at least one, fairly easy to learn, free alternative to DirectX. Do we really need DirectX that badly?

port games that are mod-friendly and have a thriving mod community! we already have Q3 and UT. how about Bungie's Myth or Myth II?

Myth2 for Linux has been available for a LONG time (see here), and is currently available for $6.99 from ebgames.com. It's a good game, and Loki has written an OpenGL renderer for it as well (the windows version is either Glide or software, IIRC)

If you're looking for the company that ports games to link, you don't want lokisoft.com, you want lokigames.com

...it's Loki Games.

> (side note- the lokisoft page is down, i dunno
if that is a fluke, if i have the wrong URL, or if they've packed up and left)

Perhaps you are thinking of the Loki games company?
In that case their URL www.lokigames.com is alive
and well.

Don't forget to buy a Loki game this month.

"This util is still too stupid to ask for your root password, so substitute users first. "
It's open source, submit a patch.
"It was running at my desktop res - 1600 x 1200, and needed to be set down to 640 x 480 on my GeForce2MX (tho apparently these requirements will go down, and one of the weapons has a tendency to increase lag dramatically, which might account for my lack of frames)."
The GF2MX hits it's invisible FPS wall at 800x600. I know this because I have one. Not a problem with the game at all.
"The Engineer has TNT to can blow up walls, can disable other peoples TNT, and has pliers which I think might cut through the barbed wire."
Just dynamite so far. Might get extra powers later on, or on maps with different objectives.
" The Soldier has a much wider range of weapons than the other two, including a massive gattling gun and the worlds first realistic video game flamethrower."
Actually, Fakk2 has a very similar flamethrower effect, just a smaller radius.

Loki has 19 good titles. Which isn't bad. Lets see, tuxgames has 17 more actual titles. So we have 36 or so commercial, packaged titles, most of which are released. There will be a RtCW client port, so that's 37, and there are more ports available like Doom 1-2, and Abuse (for which you can even get the data files for free at the Abuse-SDL site.

With several thousand free games available, a couple hundred of which are worth playing, and commercial games on the way which haven't been announced yet I don't think we'll be lacking good titles to play with for a long time.

Loki has 19 good titles. Which isn't bad. Lets see, tuxgames has 17 more actual titles. So we have 36 or so commercial, packaged titles, most of which are released. There will be a RtCW client port, so that's 37, and there are more ports available like Doom 1-2, and Abuse (for which you can even get the data files for free at the Abuse-SDL site.

With several thousand free games available, a couple hundred of which are worth playing, and commercial games on the way which haven't been announced yet I don't think we'll be lacking good titles to play with for a long time.

Loki support

Cognitoy makes an excellent (and engrossing) game called Mindrover, in which you have to design and program a vehicular robot to do certain things (follow waypoints, chase another robot, or destroy the opposing robot).

I don't know if a vehicle-on-vehicle rocket launcher qualifies as 'violence' or not (since these are very clearly toy robots going at it), but it's certainly an awesome game, even apart from it's educational value.

Loki has also ported it to Linux, and thier port is flawless.

Have you seen Mind Rover?

There's even a Linux version available from Loki.

It's a little different than Battle Bots; you construct a robot, and then "wire" it to compete in different arenas. Kind of a cross between Robotica and Lego Mindstorms.

My logic is: Did you ever play Quake III Arena? Maybe you wanted to? If the answer is yes to either, now is a great time to legally own a legit version of Q3Arena at the cheapest price you'll ever find... and as a bonus, you'll be helping out a linux game developer with a good record for quality games. You know that once you have a legal pak0 and CD Key you can run Q3 on any of: linux, win32, macOS 8-9, MacOS X, and um... yeah. See ebgames.com at the low price of $10, why not also get Decent 3? $4 shipping, in stock now, you'll have it in 2 days.

If you're /really/ modivated to help loki, go to their loki store and give them a better profit margin.

Okay that was a bit off topic; maybe if I tossed in a "the devil is in the [code] defects" I'd get a sympathetic funny rating from those who like bad puns. You know who you are...

-Daniel

Getting pedantic on your butt, that's SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer -- thank another Sam for that). Loki also developed an open-source installer and OpenAL. Check out Loki's development page for a complete list.

This is actually not all that uncommon. For example, there exists a steel company by the name of Algoma which filed for the equivalent of Chapter 11 here in Canada, not once, but twice. Back in the '80s it operated for years under creditor protection. They emerged in the mid-90s, and then spent hundreds of millions upgrading their operations. Now, with the recent downturn, they've been driven to bankruptcy, and so they're under creditor protection, again.

The bottom line is that creditor protection (chapter 11) is not always the end of a company. What it does is stop creditors from forcing a company into complete bankruptcy (aka out of business) just to pay the bills. There is also a pecking order for bills to be paid; employees first, then places like banks and other lenders, and other things after that.

While Loki has a very different business than Algoma, it is not the end for them -- yet.

The bottom line is, buy loki games (or if you're in Canada, click on the Canux link below.)

Alright. Let's put the /. affect into action. Each of us order one game from Loki. It is a very simple concept, but it would deepen their pockets all the same.

1. Tribes 2 - Top of the pops intelligent Multiplayer Aktion. The last word in multiplayer gaming.
Play a whole bunch of different Team and FFA Modes in a mixed indoor/outdoor enviroment. A massive arsenal of different special purpose weapons. Be a heavy mortar carrier and have the forward observers on your team mark the distant targets for you so you can >ouch!Or hopp into a freshly produced vehicle such as a flyer. Alone our as team with different tasks such as: Pilot, Rear Gunner, Bombdropper or turret gunopperator.
Get this kick-ass game right now and enjoy intelligent gameplay across the globe via WAN or at home at your next LAN Session with up to 50(!!) players per match. Set up your own deticated server and have your locals join in. This sucker just plain rox!

2. Descent 3 - Don't get sick, sissyboy!
360 by 360 gutwrenching action. The third version of the classic 3D Shooter comes with tons of special effects, an intelligent plotlined singleplayer mission-serial and the brand new fusion engine that gives you fluent and seamless indoors and outdoor gameplay.
Match witts with 'bots that sneak up on you whilst avoiding your line of sight, retreat when damaged to get help, hide and lay await for you and work in teams! D3 offeres the most sopisticated 3D Flightshooter AI available!
Play LAN or WAN based multiplayersessions. Set up your own deticated server and rock the block.
Come and pick up your major asskick with this alltime-allstar 1st rank Actionsmacker in a box.

3. Sid Meiser's Alpha Centauri + Crossfire Extension - The numder one "brains on" Simulation and Startegy Adventure.
Your are not the Fragger-Fraggle type? Very well. Dive into deepest gameplay with this Sci-Fi Space-Epic. Enjoy hours and hours of exploration and build-up startegy gameplay of the finest. Play epic scale multiplayer sessions via LAN our WAN (Flatrate recommended :-) ). Get your special offer bundle of Sid Meier's Award-winning Alpha Centauri plus Crossfire Extension Pack now.

On a more personal note of a gamer: I just ditched Mickeysoft for good the other day and I can't live without games. UT and D3 probably will get boring some day. That's the right time to get myself T2, , Rune & Mindrover. If every Linuxfreak does that within the next few days they're gonna be outa dept in no time.

1. Tribes 2 - Top of the pops intelligent Multiplayer Aktion. The last word in multiplayer gaming.
Play a whole bunch of different Team and FFA Modes in a mixed indoor/outdoor enviroment. A massive arsenal of different special purpose weapons. Be a heavy mortar carrier and have the forward observers on your team mark the distant targets for you so you can >ouch!Or hopp into a freshly produced vehicle such as a flyer. Alone our as team with different tasks such as: Pilot, Rear Gunner, Bombdropper or turret gunopperator.
Get this kick-ass game right now and enjoy intelligent gameplay across the globe via WAN or at home at your next LAN Session with up to 50(!!) players per match. Set up your own deticated server and have your locals join in. This sucker just plain rox!

2. Descent 3 - Don't get sick, sissyboy!
360 by 360 gutwrenching action. The third version of the classic 3D Shooter comes with tons of special effects, an intelligent plotlined singleplayer mission-serial and the brand new fusion engine that gives you fluent and seamless indoors and outdoor gameplay.
Match witts with 'bots that sneak up on you whilst avoiding your line of sight, retreat when damaged to get help, hide and lay await for you and work in teams! D3 offeres the most sopisticated 3D Flightshooter AI available!
Play LAN or WAN based multiplayersessions. Set up your own deticated server and rock the block.
Come and pick up your major asskick with this alltime-allstar 1st rank Actionsmacker in a box.

3. Sid Meiser's Alpha Centauri + Crossfire Extension - The numder one "brains on" Simulation and Startegy Adventure.
Your are not the Fragger-Fraggle type? Very well. Dive into deepest gameplay with this Sci-Fi Space-Epic. Enjoy hours and hours of exploration and build-up startegy gameplay of the finest. Play epic scale multiplayer sessions via LAN our WAN (Flatrate recommended :-) ). Get your special offer bundle of Sid Meier's Award-winning Alpha Centauri plus Crossfire Extension Pack now.

On a more personal note of a gamer: I just ditched Mickeysoft for good the other day and I can't live without games. UT and D3 probably will get boring some day. That's the right time to get myself T2, , Rune & Mindrover. If every Linuxfreak does that within the next few days they're gonna be outa dept in no time.

1. Tribes 2 - Top of the pops intelligent Multiplayer Aktion. The last word in multiplayer gaming.
Play a whole bunch of different Team and FFA Modes in a mixed indoor/outdoor enviroment. A massive arsenal of different special purpose weapons. Be a heavy mortar carrier and have the forward observers on your team mark the distant targets for you so you can >ouch!Or hopp into a freshly produced vehicle such as a flyer. Alone our as team with different tasks such as: Pilot, Rear Gunner, Bombdropper or turret gunopperator.
Get this kick-ass game right now and enjoy intelligent gameplay across the globe via WAN or at home at your next LAN Session with up to 50(!!) players per match. Set up your own deticated server and have your locals join in. This sucker just plain rox!

2. Descent 3 - Don't get sick, sissyboy!
360 by 360 gutwrenching action. The third version of the classic 3D Shooter comes with tons of special effects, an intelligent plotlined singleplayer mission-serial and the brand new fusion engine that gives you fluent and seamless indoors and outdoor gameplay.
Match witts with 'bots that sneak up on you whilst avoiding your line of sight, retreat when damaged to get help, hide and lay await for you and work in teams! D3 offeres the most sopisticated 3D Flightshooter AI available!
Play LAN or WAN based multiplayersessions. Set up your own deticated server and rock the block.
Come and pick up your major asskick with this alltime-allstar 1st rank Actionsmacker in a box.

3. Sid Meiser's Alpha Centauri + Crossfire Extension - The numder one "brains on" Simulation and Startegy Adventure.
Your are not the Fragger-Fraggle type? Very well. Dive into deepest gameplay with this Sci-Fi Space-Epic. Enjoy hours and hours of exploration and build-up startegy gameplay of the finest. Play epic scale multiplayer sessions via LAN our WAN (Flatrate recommended :-) ). Get your special offer bundle of Sid Meier's Award-winning Alpha Centauri plus Crossfire Extension Pack now.

On a more personal note of a gamer: I just ditched Mickeysoft for good the other day and I can't live without games. UT and D3 probably will get boring some day. That's the right time to get myself T2, , Rune & Mindrover. If every Linuxfreak does that within the next few days they're gonna be outa dept in no time.

1. Tribes 2 - Top of the pops intelligent Multiplayer Aktion. The last word in multiplayer gaming.
Play a whole bunch of different Team and FFA Modes in a mixed indoor/outdoor enviroment. A massive arsenal of different special purpose weapons. Be a heavy mortar carrier and have the forward observers on your team mark the distant targets for you so you can >ouch!Or hopp into a freshly produced vehicle such as a flyer. Alone our as team with different tasks such as: Pilot, Rear Gunner, Bombdropper or turret gunopperator.
Get this kick-ass game right now and enjoy intelligent gameplay across the globe via WAN or at home at your next LAN Session with up to 50(!!) players per match. Set up your own deticated server and have your locals join in. This sucker just plain rox!

2. Descent 3 - Don't get sick, sissyboy!
360 by 360 gutwrenching action. The third version of the classic 3D Shooter comes with tons of special effects, an intelligent plotlined singleplayer mission-serial and the brand new fusion engine that gives you fluent and seamless indoors and outdoor gameplay.
Match witts with 'bots that sneak up on you whilst avoiding your line of sight, retreat when damaged to get help, hide and lay await for you and work in teams! D3 offeres the most sopisticated 3D Flightshooter AI available!
Play LAN or WAN based multiplayersessions. Set up your own deticated server and rock the block.
Come and pick up your major asskick with this alltime-allstar 1st rank Actionsmacker in a box.

3. Sid Meiser's Alpha Centauri + Crossfire Extension - The numder one "brains on" Simulation and Startegy Adventure.
Your are not the Fragger-Fraggle type? Very well. Dive into deepest gameplay with this Sci-Fi Space-Epic. Enjoy hours and hours of exploration and build-up startegy gameplay of the finest. Play epic scale multiplayer sessions via LAN our WAN (Flatrate recommended :-) ). Get your special offer bundle of Sid Meier's Award-winning Alpha Centauri plus Crossfire Extension Pack now.

On a more personal note of a gamer: I just ditched Mickeysoft for good the other day and I can't live without games. UT and D3 probably will get boring some day. That's the right time to get myself T2, , Rune & Mindrover. If every Linuxfreak does that within the next few days they're gonna be outa dept in no time.

I hope a miracle happens and Loki is able to pull out of this one. I will make sure to purchase every Loki game I can see at Fry's later on this week.

Why not just go to http://www.lokigames.com and order from them directly? They will probably make more from an order from the website than they do going through a retailer. Demos or movies of the games are available if you want to try out a game first.

If you are a happy customer and want them to say in business, buy something from their website! I did.

Grab a clue. There are plenty of profitable games companies around. There always will be. Just because some can't make a business model work and others are led by idiots you shouldn't conclude that there is no future. Of course, you have to be good.

Other ways you can help are to link from your webpages to Loki or to Tux Games. This will help spread the word, because a surprisingly large number of people DO NOT KNOW about Linux gaming. (Linking via the Tux Games affiliate program can also make you some money).

Whichever you do, do something. Loki has provided us with great games over the last few years, and now its time for us all to pay them back.

Loki has filed chapter 11. This doesn't mean they are dead, but that they are in debt and need a way out. This move will allow them to reorganize, but without our support, they may soon disappear. If you want to save Loki, the best thing you can do is go buy some of their games. So get in there and spend some money. It's the only way to save them.

Also, keep in mind that loosing Loki is especially bad for Linux since there is nobody else to take their place.

Loki has filed chapter 11. This doesn't mean they are dead, but that they are in debt and need a way out. This move will allow them to reorganize, but without our support, they may soon disappear. If you want to save Loki, the best thing you can do is go buy some of their games. So get in there and spend some money. It's the only way to save them.

Also, keep in mind that loosing Loki is especially bad for Linux since there is nobody else to take their place.

Personally, I'm wondering what (if anything) is going to become of Loki's development tools like Simple DirectMedia Layer and smpeg. These projects were originated by Lokipeople (especially Sam Lantinga), and I consider these development tools much more important than a port of [Insert name of 3-D graphical wank-fest here].

Personally, I'm wondering what (if anything) is going to become of Loki's development tools like Simple DirectMedia Layer and smpeg. These projects were originated by Lokipeople (especially Sam Lantinga), and I consider these development tools much more important than a port of [Insert name of 3-D graphical wank-fest here].

This project is a great example of the things open source can accomplish.

This is fine for games like freeciv, where the game is mainly gameplay and not fancy graphics; the goalpost isn't being moved.

But what about things like first-person shooters? These games are always pushing the boundaries of hardware, and so it needs a lot of time and effort just to keep up. Can open source keep up with this?

Another issue is with map design; in a game like Half-Life (for example), a huge amount of effort has to go into designing the story, and you can only play it once, unlike freeciv. This means that there would be have to be a single point where the game would be considered complete and released; otherwise both the designers and the gameplayers would lose interest.

So games like freeciv are fine, but what about the rest of the computer game market? Is it practical for open source development to continue? Or are companies like Loki going to be producing most of our decent games?

I belive this statement is at least year old. Linux and BSD are both used widely in commerce.

Linux is acually "ready for desktop" too, IMHO. Just look at new KDE, GNOME, and at games Loki is releasing.