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I suppose I can only speak for myself but I don't see that as an attractive option, and what you're describing is mostly what I did do for the game release I me

I suppose I can only speak for myself but I don't see that as an attractive option, and what you're describing is mostly what I did do for the game release I mentioned. If I sell on Windows (I do) and Mac (I do) then I have to support a certain range of OS versions and ongoing OS releases - even if that means (for example) I have to figure out how to 'notarise' a Mac executable so that a user doesn't have a big scary Security Warning pop-up. Not ideal, but fine. The challenge with Linux is that I would have to communicate against expectations - that I would have to make it clear that when I 'support Linux' it looks different to the support for Windows or Mac. I do genuinely think that 99% of Linux people get this, it's just the 1% that's maybe less forgiving of different standards. For me, just personally and selfishly, passing the buck to Photon or Wine is an easier sell for my business.

stavros 5y ago
Could you say "supports Ubuntu" instead?
- DizzyDoo 5y ago
  Not only did I say that but I also gave the specific Ubuntu version as well!
  - stavros 5y ago
    That's too bad :( As a Linux user, I love it when game studios support Linux and make a point to buy their games more often.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- mdoms 5y ago
  Steam for example has a "SteamOS + Linux" filter so exposing your game as Linux compatible means exposing it to all Linux users.
  - michaelmrose 5y ago
    Almost everything that works on steam works everywhere. Letting the dev specify a supported distro would be a huge misfeature not unlike websites that used check user agens and refuse to work outside of Internet explorer. People would start pretending to be Ubuntu to install games.
- cjohansson 5y ago
  Yes it seems better to whitelist specific explicit Linux-configurations (version, window-manager, sound-setup, etc). Like we officially support this, if you are using something else use the forums to discuss with other users but we will not investigate your issue.
frozenport 5y ago
The emails are likely bug reports?
- bscphil 5y ago
  This is unfairly downvoted IMO, because I think you're actually hitting on a very important point. Linux users tend to be enthusiasts, people who love software, and also primarily interact with a community where the "developer/user" is the most important figure, the one whom everything is designed around. In the Linux community, at least unless a project has a toxic developer (there are a few), bug reports are Always Good. They're how we make the software WE use better on the systems that WE use it on. Even if a report isn't fully actionable (e.g. it's a problem with graphics drivers), the report is often helpful because the bug tracker is probably public and we can try to find workarounds, or at least flag the issue for others. For closed source commercial software, especially cases where a tiny number of developers are working on the code, bug reports are Always Bad. They represent more work, work that you don't want to have to do, because at the end of the day these are people who already bought the game. You've gotten as much out of them as you're going to get out of them. If they're more trouble than they're worth (someone else in this thread claimed 90% of bug reports out of 1% of purchases), then it's obvious you should just ignore them or not port your game to their platform at all. You'd think this attitude would be different for issues that affect a lot of people: a good bug report can help you fix widespread problems that are hurting your players, but actually even this is rare. See the story of this guy fixing a bug causing 6 minute startup times that affected at least thousands of people using reverse engineering, when the developer ignored the problem for years: https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times-by-70/ https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times... So I think you're right, these are mostly people enthusiastic about a piece of computer software instinctively trying to collaboratively improve it for everyone. But because development is so limited (there's only one person reading bug reports and working on the code), those reports are experienced as frustrating rather than helpful. Worse still, because the software is commercial there may be an unspoken feeling that support is owed for the software because the user paid for it.
  - godelski 5y ago
vetinari 5y ago
I wonder - what's wrong with supporting just the Steam runtime and that's it? Why deferring to Photon/Wine at all?
- DizzyDoo 5y ago
  Do you mean just support SteamOS? The biggest problem is, as a few other commenters have mentioned, there's no further break-down in categories other than "SteamOS + Linux" (and the url is .../linux). So you can't tell the Steam Store "I only support distro x, y and not z". I can't hide it for those who I am not actually supporting, Steam will advertise it to them regardless.
  - edgyquant 5y ago
    But Steam only really supports the latest stable Ubuntu. It works on most distros because package maintainers put a bit of work into make it but it isn’t officially supported on them,
    - RussianCow 5y ago
      That doesn't stop people from making support requests, though, which is the entire problem OP is talking about.
      - godelski 5y ago
        TBF isn't this going to happen no matter what? As a linux user I have absolutely no problem with the OP saying "we don't support that distro, sorry" and closing the ticket.
        RussianCow 5y ago
        I don't think so. If Linux isn't natively supported, even if it runs fine via Proton, you're much less likely to receive bug reports directly, because there's less of an expectation that things work without issues. And closing tickets doesn't help with negative reviews—in fact, some users may use that as a reason to give you a "thumbs down" on Steam.
fragileone 5y ago
You're looking for the Steam Runtime, not Ubuntu for future projects - it bundles the dependencies into a container similarly to Docker so that no matter what distribution a user is running it'll work for them.
ekianjo 5y ago
its Proton, not Photon.

stavros 5y ago

Could you say "supports Ubuntu" instead?

DizzyDoo 5y ago
Not only did I say that but I also gave the specific Ubuntu version as well!
- stavros 5y ago
  That's too bad :( As a Linux user, I love it when game studios support Linux and make a point to buy their games more often.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
mdoms 5y ago
Steam for example has a "SteamOS + Linux" filter so exposing your game as Linux compatible means exposing it to all Linux users.
- michaelmrose 5y ago
  Almost everything that works on steam works everywhere. Letting the dev specify a supported distro would be a huge misfeature not unlike websites that used check user agens and refuse to work outside of Internet explorer. People would start pretending to be Ubuntu to install games.
cjohansson 5y ago
Yes it seems better to whitelist specific explicit Linux-configurations (version, window-manager, sound-setup, etc). Like we officially support this, if you are using something else use the forums to discuss with other users but we will not investigate your issue.

frozenport 5y ago

The emails are likely bug reports?

bscphil 5y ago
This is unfairly downvoted IMO, because I think you're actually hitting on a very important point. Linux users tend to be enthusiasts, people who love software, and also primarily interact with a community where the "developer/user" is the most important figure, the one whom everything is designed around. In the Linux community, at least unless a project has a toxic developer (there are a few), bug reports are Always Good. They're how we make the software WE use better on the systems that WE use it on. Even if a report isn't fully actionable (e.g. it's a problem with graphics drivers), the report is often helpful because the bug tracker is probably public and we can try to find workarounds, or at least flag the issue for others. For closed source commercial software, especially cases where a tiny number of developers are working on the code, bug reports are Always Bad. They represent more work, work that you don't want to have to do, because at the end of the day these are people who already bought the game. You've gotten as much out of them as you're going to get out of them. If they're more trouble than they're worth (someone else in this thread claimed 90% of bug reports out of 1% of purchases), then it's obvious you should just ignore them or not port your game to their platform at all. You'd think this attitude would be different for issues that affect a lot of people: a good bug report can help you fix widespread problems that are hurting your players, but actually even this is rare. See the story of this guy fixing a bug causing 6 minute startup times that affected at least thousands of people using reverse engineering, when the developer ignored the problem for years: https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times-by-70/ https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times... So I think you're right, these are mostly people enthusiastic about a piece of computer software instinctively trying to collaboratively improve it for everyone. But because development is so limited (there's only one person reading bug reports and working on the code), those reports are experienced as frustrating rather than helpful. Worse still, because the software is commercial there may be an unspoken feeling that support is owed for the software because the user paid for it.
- godelski 5y ago

vetinari 5y ago

I wonder - what's wrong with supporting just the Steam runtime and that's it? Why deferring to Photon/Wine at all?

DizzyDoo 5y ago
Do you mean just support SteamOS? The biggest problem is, as a few other commenters have mentioned, there's no further break-down in categories other than "SteamOS + Linux" (and the url is .../linux). So you can't tell the Steam Store "I only support distro x, y and not z". I can't hide it for those who I am not actually supporting, Steam will advertise it to them regardless.
- edgyquant 5y ago
  But Steam only really supports the latest stable Ubuntu. It works on most distros because package maintainers put a bit of work into make it but it isn’t officially supported on them,
  - RussianCow 5y ago
    That doesn't stop people from making support requests, though, which is the entire problem OP is talking about.
    - godelski 5y ago
      TBF isn't this going to happen no matter what? As a linux user I have absolutely no problem with the OP saying "we don't support that distro, sorry" and closing the ticket.
      - RussianCow 5y ago
        I don't think so. If Linux isn't natively supported, even if it runs fine via Proton, you're much less likely to receive bug reports directly, because there's less of an expectation that things work without issues. And closing tickets doesn't help with negative reviews—in fact, some users may use that as a reason to give you a "thumbs down" on Steam.

fragileone 5y ago

You're looking for the Steam Runtime, not Ubuntu for future projects - it bundles the dependencies into a container similarly to Docker so that no matter what distribution a user is running it'll work for them.

ekianjo 5y ago

its Proton, not Photon.