Re: Tools

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Pierre Phaneuf wrote:

> <rant style="blunt declaration">
> Linux sucks for games!
> </rant>
> 
> No, don't try saying it doesn't, because it DOES. ACCEPT IT and DO
> SOMETHING ABOUT IT is what we should do!

I don't know how you can say that when Quake3test appeared on Linux *before*
windoze - and when Loki's games run (as far as I can tell) as well under Linux
as the originals did under Windoze.  That they run that well despite having
been PORTED from Windoze is amazing.  We have yet to see what a professional
game written especially *for* Linux could do...but you have to imagine it
couldn't be any worse than a ported Windoze game.

Now, I can somewhat understand the argument that games are harder to
WRITE on Linux (although I'd argue against that too) - but the game
itself doesn't have to RUN any worse under Linux than under other OS's.

At any rate, this entire argument may be rather pointless.

A company that produces games would be insane to produce *only*
a Linux version.  They have to target Windoze too.

That being the case, they could care less whether the game is
20% faster on one platform or the other.  The Linux version of
a game doesn't have to compete against the Windoze version of
the same game.  It has to compete against other Linux games...
which operate under the same set of restrictions.

You don't need to worry about supporting hardware that Linux
doesn't support - because Linux-only users don't own hardware
that Linux doesn't support.  The only Linux users who own
incompatible hardware are those that still run Windoze - and
they can just as easily get the Windoze version of the game.

The fact is that a games company will want to enter the Linux
market because whilst there are only 13 to 18 million Linux
users (which is a tiny market), you only have to compete against
five (six?) other commercial games...perhaps only one or two of
which are in the same 'genre' as your offering.  For a small
company that kind afford big splashy TV ads - and who can't
compete against the 'big boys', the Linux market is interesting.

Word of any new game spreads by word of mouth and advertising
happens without your help in places like slashdot.  The market
is so hungry for games that even a mid-1990's quality game could
sell to a large fraction of the gamers who use Linux.

Stores like Fry's are beginning to stock Linux games - but you
don't have to compete for shelf space and use flashy packaging
to attract the consumers' attention.  You could put your game in
a brown paper sack with the name hand-written in crayon...every
potential Linux game buyer who enters the store would *still* 
be guaranteed to see it and know what it is.

Hopefully that situation won't last - but for the next two or
three companies who latch on to this, I think there
is money to be made.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1@airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker@hti.com      (work)