Linux games :)
 

Just wanted to say thanks to Illwinter and to Shrapnel games for releasing (or soon realesing!) a game that runs natively on Linux!

Will hopefully be pre-ordering soon (but being currently between jobs makes that kinda hard http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif ...).

Will there be more on the way? Or is that entirely up to the developers?

Re: Linux games :)
 

I'm guessing that it depends mostly on the developers. Still, since we're spreading the multi-platform love, I'd like to thank Illwinter/Shrapnel on behalf of the Macintosh community. Dom 2 is just what we needed.

Now if only we could get some of these other great Shrapnel games ported... Pretty please? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Linux games :)
 

Likely not worth the cost of porting them...

Re: Linux games :)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm glad you appreciate the Mac and Linux port. For Dominions it was we at Illwinter who wanted the multi platform support. Dominions I had it and we saw no reason to remove it.

Still Shrapnel deserves a thank for being very positive about the matter and giving the multi platform publishing a shot.

I guess Dominions II will help them decide whether the multi platform support is worth the added marketing and support effort or not. If it is then maybe they will manage to convince one of their developers to make a mac/linux Version too next time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Linux games :)
 

I actually considered porting Interstellar Trader 2 to the Macintosh for a time when I was a private indie (making it a native Mac app, not just a port), but discovered that the Mac games market would be a bit too small to make it worth the extra money, time and effort.

I might consider it at some stage if the effort proves worth it with Dom II. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Linux games :)
 

Thanks for all the answers http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

Went ahead and pre-ordered Dom 2 a few days ago, really quite excited about this title!

Hopefully it will prove wothwhile, so us Mac and Linux Users can add more titles to our collections!

How will you know if Dom 2 is being used on Linux or the Mac? I did not add any comments when I pre-ordered Dom2...

Again, thanks!

StarTux

Re: Linux games :)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Shrapnel games might know something more about this.

However we will release patches later on and they will be seperate downloads for different platforms. So by counting the downloads it should be quite easy to see if a particular OS is used or not.

Re: Linux games :)
 

There will be no way to know. Except we could track trends in specific browsers, but that doesn't really track people that order.

The patch thing makes the most sense.

Re: Linux games :)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Shrapnel games might know something more about this.

However we will release patches later on and they will be seperate downloads for different platforms. So by counting the downloads it should be quite easy to see if a particular OS is used or not. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Just a technical question for you. How are you maintaining interoperability? Is the program made in Java? Or maybe you just use standard C++ or whatever and then have different modules that have the platform specific code?

Re: Linux games :)
 

Dominions II is programmed in pure C with platform specific files for some parts. These parts are for graphics+events, sound and network. The platform specific part is about 2% of the code, so porting to a new platform is a quite quick process.

Re: Linux games :)
 

That must take some effort to make it like that, you have to have good programming discipline to do that. Good stuff.

Re: Linux games :)
 

As far as Mac ports go, I do know that Apple is on top of their PR game right now, and I know that if you make a Mac app that runs on OSX and let Apple know about it, Apple will do at least a little bit of promotion on it on their site, regardless how well-known the developer is. About 2 years ago, their "featured partner" of the month was this little outfit called Ambrosia Software, which still operates as a shareware company.

I also know that in recent months, Ambrosia has worked with at least one other small Windows developer to port a game to the Mac platform. I have zero knowledge of how this worked or what business arrangement they came up with. I just know they worked something out and did it, so it can be done.

Re: Linux games :)
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Great suggestion! I'll call up Jobs right away. ...oops, I forgot he has me blacklisted because I bash Macs so much http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

But it would be great for Macophiles, Shrapnel, Illwinter and the Dominions community if, say, Apple would show off Dom II and post the demo on its main site. Maybe Shrapnel has the clout to be heard by Apple PR people?