Maxis Developer on Linux Game Porting

friedmud wrote in to tell us about a comment from a Maxis developer, Don Hopkins, who did a partial linux port of "The Sims". You can find his post here (3rd one down, comment from Don Hopkins titled "Reality check from a game developer") in a LinuxGames.com forum. I don't know if I agree with his assertion that Wine is the best way to have games happen on Linux but his comments on the economics of Linux games development and especially the costs of keeping versions concurrent on multiple platforms are insightful.

Comments

Re:I just don't get it...

[Amokscience]

I see you glossed over the fine points so let me restate it simply:

Linux is not worth it. Not 5 years ago, not today, not tomorrow, not a year from now. I have a game developer friend, he was enthused with Linux before he had to port his companies game; now he detests it and much of the (Linux gaming) 'community'.

OpenGL develops slowly and requires proprietary extensions for the newest video cards. Hardcore gamers are the last people on Earth who like to wait until their new-fangled video card and sound drivers are supported. Video card companies will support Quake because of it's mindshare. They don't support other companies near as well.

The development and support costs FAR outstrip the benefits of having a native Linux port. The bottom line in a truly cutthroat industry is how much ROI can you get. Last I heard, Q3's linux version didn't do well enough to justify further Linux targeted box sales (late release, blah blah blah, excuses), and the Quake series is probably the biggest, most popular commercial game among the /. crowds.

Re:Where do you get all your incorrect information

[SimHacker]

Time Doctor, you are obviously replying to articles after only having read a few words of them, totally out of context. Please go back and read the entire message. You will realize that you have made a fool of yourself in front of anyone who bothered reading the whole message.

The price for a single player license is $49. There's nothing wrong with charging more for the multi player version of SimCity game, especially after I put literally years of my own original work into designing and implementing it, using my own equipment.

I was not paid for my time, and the only way to recoup my investment of time and effort was through royalties on sales, which didn't come close, believe me.

Remember that this was 1993, and the market for games on Unix workstations was extremely small at the time. The price of Aviator, the only other commercial Unix game I knew of, was $150. Aviator was a multi player game that you could run over the network, and I charged a lot less than Aviator cost for the multi player version of SimCity.

Time Doctor, please realise that the extremely foolish religious fanaticism of people like YOU is the reason that there will never be any successful commercial games developed for Linux.

-Don

PS: Oh, and Time Doctor: for someone who obviously doesn't read messages before he replies to them, you shouldn't go around telling other people to do what you won't bother to:

"Except if you'd bothered to read the parent instead of trolling, you'd see that the poster was previously unaware that such an independent library exists for multi-platform gaming from the start of development." -Time Doctor

That is what I call pure unbridled hypocrisy.

Re:Where do you get all your incorrect information

[SimHacker]

Excuse me but I can't let this slide:

"Congratulations Don, you could have been an innovator in these times of bad sales for Linux ports, and yet you choose to be hurting the market with allowing non-native ports under your nose. Thanks for nothing." -Time Doctor

Imagine John Candy, making the funny "quotation marks" in the air with his finger as he rants and raves:

Thank you for "analysing" my "problem", mister "Time Doctor," sir.

Oh, so I "choose" to be "hurting" the market? Just what am I "doing" that's "causing" so much "damage"?

So I'm "allowing" these "non-native" ports, huh? Oh, really?

"Allowing"? That's not very "active". Maybe I should get off my "passive" ass and do something more?

Would you rather I "prohibit" instead of "allowing"? How do you suggest I go about "prohibiting" other people from running "The Sims" on "Wine"?

Should I have somehow "prohibited" Loki from doing a "native" port, instead of trying to "cooperate" with them?

Or am I the one "responsible" for "allowing" Loki to "fail"?

How could I have "prohibited" Transgaming from getting away with improving Wine? By visciously "attacking" them in public, in spite of all the wonderfully useful work they've done? Is that what you mean?

So "get" to the "point": what exactly have I done to "allow" this "hurting" of the market?

Was it by "porting" The Sims to run "native" on Linux myself?

How did that "allow" Loki to fail? Or "allow" Transgaming to succeed? Is it all really my "fault"?

To cop an attitude from Scott Draeker, "go away kid, you're bothering me".

-Don