After the huge protest from the GNU/Linux community the Shadowrun Return developers decided to support GNU/Linux IF 1Million is pledged.
Currently they have $819,695 which means that we need about $180,400 for a GNU/Linux client.
That sounds like a lot, and it is a lot – but we are not alone as there are many other fans who will donate to Shadowrun Returns and I’m sure that by Apr 29 (17 more days) we will reach the 1Million goal.
It’s obvious that there are a lot of very passionate fans out there who are clamoring for Linux support, and we would love to be able to include everyone in Shadowrun Returns.
As we said over the weekend, we’re being very careful not to over-commit to ideas and features (especially just to get more funding).
When we added the Mac version of the game (thanks to your enthusiastic support), we did it because we have the necessary Mac experience in-house and our development environment already supports PC and Mac. We were confident that we could deliver without over-burdening the overall product.
Linux is a bit of a different story, however. While it’s true that we have a great environment for cross-platform development (how else could we target PC, Mac, iOS, AND Android!), it does not, at this time, include support for Linux. Because of this and because we needed to add Linux to our small studio’s skill-set, we felt that committing to a Linux version was unwise, so we (reluctantly) took it off the table.
Since that time, two important things have happened:
- We reached out to members of the Linux community to better understand the scope and developmental risk that a Linux port would introduce.
- Our partners at Zipline Games (the creators of our dev environment, Moai) have rearranged their development roadmap to support Shadowrun Returns and add Linux to their list of supported platforms.
So here’s the deal: We can now say with confidence that if we hit our $1M stretch goal, we will be able to partner with the right external developer, port Shadowrun Returns to Linux, and deliver it in a reasonable amount of time after the game is released.
We’ll also add it to the $15 reward level (alongside the PC/Mac versions). Now if you’re a Linux-only user, you’ll have to wait for your version, but from what you’ve told us, you’re willing to do that.
Thanks again for all the support, the constructive comments, and for your patience.
Not only will we get a port of the Shadowrun game, but also Zipline Games’ Moai Development Environment. Now we want Unity3D.
And UDK and Torque3D too 😉
$1M? It sound like blackmail to me. I prefer to support Nekro.
Well…you can say it’s more like a pre-order as they will raise the 1Million in 16 days.
And yeah Nekro is very cool and I pledged to it too,
I’ve pledged to 4 projects this month….