What do Linux users want in a Linux game/application?

[SuperAdventureHunter]

Hi! I probably haven’t talked about this much, but I do dabble in game/app development. I haven’t exactly published anything yet but I hope to do that in the future. Point aside, I have been moved by this community to develop something in Unity for Linux.

Say I, or many of the developers out there are making a Linux port of whatever they are building. Sure, they can just switch their platform and release a build, but what do Linux users really want from the apps? The software to be [GNU] free? Just a plain as day port? I’m mainly posting this thread for the sake of discussion and I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Moderators, if this is more appropriate elsewhere go ahead and move this. I couldn’t exactly find a category that fits this post perfectly so I posted here.

 

[SpongebobFan1994]

Obviously, it'd be nice to have a series of Linux game franchises that could actually rival PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and even Windows and Mac, because then it would show that Linux could have a place in the gaming market share, and therefore a place in the desktop market share. While Steam has ported over 5,000 games to Linux, and Proton has helped get Windows-only games transferred over to Linux, the problem is Linux itself will never have a sizable market share in gaming, or on the desktop, due to how many distros it has (and all of the complications that comes with it), and the fact that's it not made for the average computer user.

Had Linux been a software cooperative where each distro was it's own OS, but was still sold under the banner name, then it wouldn't have the incompatibility and fragmentation problems, and each distro probably would've had somewhat more of a chance at getting the attention of game developers (had they marketed themselves in the process). Obviously and unfortunately, that never happened. However, the only way it could happen is major distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Redhat, etc) had independent forks made, and while there were attempts to fork them and swap the kernel with a BSD one, I haven't found any information about if they were intended to be independent forks or not.

I don't mind a number of indie game developers catering only to the Linux community, because if they want to serve a niche, more power to them. Anything other than that won't work.

 

[gvisoc]

I think that we want what everybody else does: stability, performance in whatever the app does, leverage my system correctly (software and hardware), ease to use and a nice, consistent with the environment user experience.

And by the last two things (ease of use and fancy UX) what I mean is that the reality is that no one wants to be fixing things and boiling the ocean to make a software work, or lear/unlearn things to get our heads around a broken user experience. Even if we know how to do all that, a different thing is whether we want to be burning time in doing so.

 

[KGIII]

Unity sounds like overkill. The most needed app for Linux is a GUI app that will let you customize your keyboard layout beyond just selecting a keyboard layout.

 

[Linuxembourg]

I can't really comment on games, but for applications it isn't too bad really. I am personally only missing Foobar2000 and Ableton (plus I suspect VST support). If a linux version of Foobar2000 was made available, I'd want it to work the same as Windows version. Pretty simple, but that's all.

My main message to developers (from a relative layman and probably ignorant pov) would be to please make your application available in some form. Don't give me instructions on how to build a package, or like Chromium make it a sort of 'insiders' application for people who read the tutorials of @KGIII

 

[LorenDB]

Unity sounds like overkill. The most needed app for Linux is a GUI app that will let you customize your keyboard layout beyond just selecting a keyboard layout.

Says the guy who was going to build one...

My offer for helping with it still stands!

 

[SpongebobFan1994]

Says the guy who was going to build one...

Shots fired!

 

[KGIII]

Says the guy who was going to build one...

LOL I am gonna find time someday! I still haven't found the time to dig into it. I need to just say screw it and start finding the time - or con someone else into doing it for the community.

It'd be one of the most useful apps out there. So many people want to customize their layouts and it's currently an advanced task for many people.

 

[SuperAdventureHunter]

Unity sounds like overkill.

Makes sense. I've been working on chopping down an Android application I was building for fun. I got it down to 15mb but that might still be a bit bloated.

 

[SuperAdventureHunter]

Don't give me instructions on how to build a package, or like Chromium make it a sort of 'insiders' application for people who read the tutorials of @KGIII

Yeah. Usually when I create GitHub repos I contain source code and a built version. I don't exactly have any specific application in mind at the moment, but once I create something moderately useful I'll definately put it out there!

 

[KGIII]

Makes sense. I've been working on chopping down an Android application I was building for fun. I got it down to 15mb but that might still be a bit bloated.

I suspect that an app that let you graphically edit your keyboard layout, if well done, would be extremely popular.

 

[SuperAdventureHunter]

I suspect that an app that let you graphically edit your keyboard layout, if well done, would be extremely popular.

I don't think I have the skill to make that, but I will look into it! Judging by your previous posts it looks like something you would want to make. If you'd like to collaborate that would be fun! @LorenDB has made the same offer (presumably more than once).

 

[KGIII]

I don't think I have the skill to make that,

Me either! LOL I know how to do it manually. I'd have to really brush up on my Python.

Many years ago, I did a whole lot of programming. I was effective at it, but slow and really not very good. I eventually had enough business so that I could hire programmers. I haven't done much coding since, other than on an 'as-needed' basis.

 

[Linuxembourg]

Me either! LOL I know how to do it manually. I'd have to really brush up on my Python.

What kind of customisations do you make to the keyboard layout? I can't think of anything you'd need to do unless you are writing in a foreign language or some 'fancy' maths.

 

[KGIII]

I don't. I do use a different keyboard layout. It lets my type things like 2³ or ½ or even µ and ©.

I know how to do it because other people need help with it and they use customizations. I just use one of the AltGr layouts with dead keys.

 

[gvisoc]

More than the language that I also use it for (lógicamente para el Español) I need to use the AltGr with dead keys even to refer to "façade" at work and often to type correctly the name sof some of my coworkers. There are a lot of professional jargon and situations that uses foreign characters.

Having more flexibility in assigning specific symbols to "free" or "emtpy" modified keys in the current layout would be useful for many reasons.

 

[KGIII]

I need to use the AltGr with dead keys

Yup. How else can I be expected to type 'niño' or 'über'?

I use the "English (Intl, with AltGr dead keys)" layout.

I'm surprised that so few people do use alternative layouts. What if I want to signal a new paragraph (¶)? What if I want to indicate that they should use 12.5°?

 

[gvisoc]

Yeah the degrees one is pretty basic!

 

[Linuxembourg]

I'm surprised that so few people do use alternative layouts. What if I want to signal a new paragraph (¶)? What if I want to indicate that they should use 12.5°?

I think it's about need. I have no idea where you'd need/want to use that paragraph symbol that I only know from MS word. And I can't think of a time I've used degrees since leaving school. For all the time most people need it, they could just take an extra second to write out degrees.

A large number of people don't even bother with apostrophes, commas, and the basic symbols that are on the normal layout.

 

[KGIII]

Maybe if they knew how to use an alternative keyboard, they'd be able to say it's 72° instead of just dropping the symbol or typing out degrees. The list goes on.