[Lula] Making games with 'Penguin'

[Shane Liesegang]

Disclaimer: While I work for a game developer, this in no way represents 
their opinions, views, etc. Yadda yadda. All views here are my own.

Clearly, I have an affection for Linux. I'm on this list, I have a 
MythTV system, and I admin a few servers which run Linux. At work and 
home I tend to use either my Mac or another Windows machine. My point 
here is I have no religious affiliation with any particular OS. :-) I 
know I say some things in here that might seem like "flame-bait" but 
please try to understand this is just my rational assessment of the 
goings-on in my industry.

I would love it if more games were available on Linux. But there are 
things holding it back. First off is the market share issue -- it's all 
the problems of developing games for the Mac, but without the nice 
standardization that the Mac offers. Even if we ignore this problem, 
there's the question of tools. Games are insanely complicated pieces of 
software, and things like Anjuta just won't cut the mustard. While 
Visual Studio has it's quirks, it's still pretty much the best IDE there 
is. Combine this with the fact that OpenGL development hasn't been 
keeping pace with DirectX development, and it means that anybody doing 
cutting edge game work is going to be working in Visual Studio on 
Windows if they want the best tools.

A vast digital pipeline is one area where the standardization offered by 
Apple and Microsoft is a good thing. That's why publishing houses and 
offices typically go one-platform. When you have a large workflow of 
dependent steps, every potential hitch can disrupt everyone. Even 
cross-platform software like Maya performs radically differently on Mac 
vs Windows vs Linux, and for a lot of these tools, there simply *aren't* 
versions for other platforms.

How can this be fixed? Better dev tools would be a start. A more 
targetable market share would lead to better dev tools as more people 
tried to exploit it.

It's worth noting that the development environments for the PS2 (and I 
believe the PS3) are Linux-based, so there are Linux-happy game devs in 
the mainstream market. But they won't be releasing for your PC anytime 
soon. While there are companies like id and Bioware that release Linux 
clients for their games (binary only, of course), it's really more a 
public relations move (to get the goodwill of the geek community) than 
it is a money-making act.

And yes, there are Linux game companies. I wish them the best of luck 
and would happily donate my skills to them if my contract didn't have a 
non-compete clause. But I doubt their ability to break into the 
mainstream market anytime in the near future.

I don't wish to seem too pessimistic -- like I said, I would love to see 
Linux be a gaming force. But given the current state of things, it just 
doesn't make financial sense to develop anything more serious than 
FreeCiv and TuxRacer.

	- SJML


David Sipahutar wrote:
> Thx for the links. But are those company leaved the Win$? If they can 
> make great movies under Linux, why they can't make great games under the 
> same OS? Most of them are also a game creator. Why the 'great' games are 
> still run under Win$, they also can run under Linux but using WINE or 
> something like that. Am I rite??? If I'm wrong, how about if I make a 
> little polle about 'great' games which run under Linux without using 
> emulators. So, maybe someday I can build games or 'great' games under 
> Linux or maybe I build game distros from Linux. Wow...:D
>  
>  
> Thx.
> d'dave
> 
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