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LGP brings back Loki, Kind Of
michaelsimms writes "Linux Game Publishing has announced a publishing deal with Epic Interactive to publish Northland for Linux. What's this about Loki, you ask? Well, Northland is a game featuring the Norse god Loki, and a group of heroes battling to save the world in the time of Odin and the gods of Nordic myth."
Hate me!
Hell, I'd settle for them releasing a 'best of lokisoft' collection. I can't find a damn copy of alpha centauri / alien crossfire other than the used copy selling for $145 on amazon.com.
Anybody got a copy they're not using? Please?
"Linux != commercial games"
Linux does not equal commercial games?
Yeah, that's insightful. Next time you'll be telling us that Linux does not equal tasty fruit.
"Linux != tasty fruit"
Loki is the Norse "Trickster" god. Full fledged greater deity.
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
Had me excited there for a minute...I thought they were going to reserect http://lokigames.com
BUT NNOOOOOooooo!!!!
It's a game featuring the Norse God, Loki...Next time someone pulls a posting stunt like that, they should be drawn and quartered!
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
Although this is obviously a troll, there is a little truth to it (at the very least, truth in the minds of game publishers, where it counts most).
However on the other hand, there are countless thousands of tech-smart gamer kids out there who would not hesitate to give Linux a try if only they could play games on it. So the argument is really invalid, since the demand for Linux games is not constant (presumably too low a constant to justify Linux game production, although this might be arguable too), but in this case directly related to the supply.
And besides, I don't know what this other guy is talking about; Linux is some damn tasty fruit if you ask me.
Not really. He was technically a giant - the giants as you should know were the Aesirs nemises - even though he mingled with the gods in Asgard. Also, I wouldn't exactly call him the Norse "trickster god" since unlike the rest of Asgard's population he wasn't worshipped (being responsible for the greatest betrayal* in the entire mythology and all that)... he was more like the Norse bad guy :)
* the slaying of Balder
The distinction between Norse gods and giants is really blurred. Odin (and his brothers Vili and Ve) were created from a frost giant. Odin went on to become head of the AEsir, Vili and Ve faded away.
:)
Traditionally Loki isn't really a god. He's Odin's blood brother, which is why he's allowed among the gods, even though he will play a central role in their downfall.
And indeed, all gods are actually mortal. At Ragnarok, the gods are killed. Odin by Fenrir, Thor by Jormungand, Tyr by Surt... Balder's already been killed by Hod, although that was really Loki's fault.
But though they're mortal, they can come back from the dead, as Balder will do after Ragnarok. So being immortal isn't as useful as it may seem..
Which begs the question: is it immoral to pirate a game when you can no longer buy it legally? (because the publisher went bankrupt)
And, is it legal? (who's going to come after you for doing it?)
I was looking forward to a flood of game ports to Linux. I guess one more is better than no more. Why companies don't release executables for Linux (like Id for quake(1-3) and Bioware for NWN)? Most of the games today are datafiles anyway (ie. pictures and sound that would work on any platform). Are game companies so locked in to using Microsoft's APIs like DirectX that they can't program a game to be portable anymore?
Electronic arts probably pisses me off the most as they make a few changes to Id's engines (MOHAA) and neglect to release binaries for Linux. Yes, I am aware of the port on icculus.org, but EA could have done a port of MOHAA long ago.
The bootable game CD concept is interesting because of the very high Geek Coolness factor.
Apart from that , however, i don't see it as a viable solution because no LiveCD could ever work flawlessly (3D acceleration and all) on EVERY computer.
Plus, games today often span ultiple CDs and are decompressed on the hard-drive. Even if we could fit the game on a CD with on-the-fly decompression, it would probably be very slow in reading data. Not to mention that when storing data was needed (eg save games), it would prove problematic.
Coolness grade A+ Feasibility: F
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This is a very, very misleadingly titled article. Shame on you editors!
Vote for global prefs bug
IMHO problem was bad set of people and terrible organisation of whole project.
A bad set of people? I think not, the group were a talented bunch. I would not argue that organisation was a problem either, though it is hard to organise a distributed group of people on a major project.
From selected 8 coders only Steve Baker and I were experienced in graphics - and in 3D at all.
Whether or not the group were experienced in graphics or not (I forget who had experience in what), how many developers do you think need to be experience in graphics on a game project? A game's graphics are only it's visual representation and is a very small part of development.
Steve Baker left, when it was clear that LGP wasn't able to give us good artists
I think, although Steve may say differently, that he left due to lack of progress and not lack of good artists.
Then even discussions on mailing list dissapear. And I think it was exact moment of death.
Interesting. I received 1,147 e-mails from the list after Steve left (of a total of 2,809). This wasn't the moment of death, though it didn't help.
In all honesty the project was going to be incredibly difficult to make work due to the lack of regular monetary motivation (as in a wage), which meant maintaining motivation for the project was incredibly difficult.
On the topic of motivation, it didn't help to have a person who is quite possibly the most pessimistic (sic?) and most difficult to work with ever (certainly of all the people that I have ever worked with). Oh, that was Jacek btw.
Oh well, c'est la vie.
It's a combination of things...
Some of it is using Microsoft API's.
Some of it is using things like Bink, which didn't have a version for Linux until recently and it will cost you another $2k or so to provide a Linux version for sale or download (Both of which was the reason there were no in-game cutscenes for NWN...).
Some of it is that they have to provide testing and, at minimum, deal with support calls even if they explicitly state that it is unsupported.
Some of it is that there is a perception that writing to Windows is cross-platform enough since it's "portable" to the X-Box. (Which is flatly wrong...)
Some of it is that there's the perception that writing to just Windows is easier and that writing cross-platform code is more difficult because it requires careful dilligent work to make the game work on all platforms (using the argument that there's different capabilities on each of the same and you have to code for each... Again, all of which, is pretty much wrong...)
With all the obvious and percieved expenses, most of the publishing houses don't really see any profit in producing Linux versions of anything. In the case of Id, Bioware, S2 Games, and Epic (not to be confused with Epic Interactive of the main subject...), they are studios going out on a limb and taking extra risks because they believe in Linux or they think that it's got some potential.
We can't fix the real expenses and risks- the studios and publishers will have to weigh those risks against potential profits and decide if they're going to do the version, let someone like LGP handle it for them, or not do one at all.
I'm endeavoring to talk to the percieved expenses and risks that are opposite to the way things really are. I'm scheduled to be giving a 30-minute talk this month at GDC on the subject.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas