Savage to Support Linux

focitrixilous P writes "Gamespot writes about the upcoming hybrid strategy game Savage: The Battle for Neweth, which will provide a full Linux edition on the same disk as the Windows version. The title blends real time strategy with action titles, along one player to act as a general while others do the actual fighting."

Comments

What a good idea!

[James A. A. Joyce]

It's such an obvious idea I'm surprised that no one's thought of it before. With games makers keeping their games sensibly small it's entirely possible for someone to squeeze a version for Windows and Linux on one disk; heck, they already do it for Windows/Macintosh, why not Windows/Linux more often? Maybe now one company's had the balls to actually go ahead and do this others will follow with higher profile games.

Publicity

[steesefactor]

I'm wondering if game companies will start porting games to Linux if just to get the publicity from sites like /.? A minor story about a game I've never heard of gets on the front page just because it's also for Linux. How many other sites report on cross-operating system games like this?

Re:Publicity

[James A. A. Joyce]

Dozens.

I'm quite glad for companies which do this, though. We already do this for other open source and proprietary products, but we've neglected games. If a company we support wants to get a bit of free publicity by submitting a story to Slashdot, they're free to do so. And if more people start hearing about games for Linux, that's one of the trifedecta of reasons for staying with Windows eliminated (the other two being a perceived lack of hardware support and legacy Windows applications). This can really only be a good thing; I can't see anything negative about it, especially considering how many adverts Slashdot already has.

Re:I don't see why this is so difficult.

[sampowers]

It has to do with decisions that the programmers made very early on. If they chose to use ActiveX and take full advantage of all the APIs that Windows as a platform offers, it's going to be very difficult (ie, almost a full rewrite of display, input, and sound code) to port it to another platform.

Smart designers plan for multi-platform use early on. Quake 3 was written portably, and its engine is in use on platforms as exotic as Sega Dreamcast and Playstation 2! And probably many more non-PC type computers. And it's used by a lot of other games too! (Nevermind the fact that those games play almost exactly like Quake 3. I'd like to see an RPG based on the Q3 engine, huh?)

BTW, it must be incredibly painful for anyone who writes a complex 3d graphics engine to hear you say that it's "minor work".

Re:I don't see why this is so difficult.

[chrisd]

For one thing, a number of companies are not rolling thier own graphic front ends anymore. For instance, for renderware and gamebryo, you need to pay your licence per platform. So if you are going to use these kinds of tools, you have to ask yourself, how much will publishing on linux actually make us? If that answer is (as it currently is right now) not much, then that is something that you need to consider. Keep in mind that licencing an engine can save you 1 or 2 years of development depending on your application.

This is not to intimate that there are renderware or gamebryo platform licences available. I'll put it another way, until a signifigant number of gamers say "I will pay 50$ for a game only when it hits linux natively (not transgaming or others)" then is when you will see linux reach parity with the Mac or windows. Currently, our research shows that hard core gamers that use linux are not loathe to reboot into windows or use an emulation technology. Until that changes, the state of linux gaming won't change either.

Also, describing the engine as minor shows you don't understand the state of AAA gaming. The engine would comprise a scenegraph, an interface to the video hardware (either via opengl, directx, console video, or a software renderer like pixomatic), the positional sound or mappings to other libraries like miles, AI connectors, physics or physics tie-ins to havoc, networking, matchmaking, and a variety of other components. Keep in mind that you can make most of this cross platform, but it's not like it just happens magically.

Chris DiBona

...And it's a good game, too!

[elzbal]

I've been in the beta playing Savage for the past few weeks now on my Gentoo Linux box. It's actually a really good game. The combat is very different - it focuses heavily on melee weapons, so you can't just hit everybody from a distance - you eventually have to get into the chaos and get bloody. Performance and graphics are great.

I would recommend Savage to any gamers who run Linux - keep this one on your watch list.