Why does STEAM offer this game for Linux when it is so buggy and no-one will support it?

[ariane]

STEAM say King Art should provide support, yet they don't. I paid for a Humble Bundle specifically for these 2 Linux games and now have 2 games I cannot play. I'm not even running 64bit Linux, which seems to be causing much of the trouble for others.

I've tried all the suggested workarounds and solutions.

And they want crowdfunding for BOUT 2? I think not.

[sunshinecorp]

My thoughts exactly.

[deca]

Quote from the developers of the game from kickstarter comments:

"As there is no official Linux version of BoUT1 or Critter Chronicles, we don't know what you're talking about in regards to Linux."

[Riggo]

Just so you know, the team that developed The Book of Unwritten Tales and is doing the Kickstarter for The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 does not own the support for the first game. The party that owns the support can be contacted here:

[e-mail]

The publisher is the one responsible for support.

[sunshinecorp]

Even so, someone is to blame for the state of the linux version and its release on Steam. Perhaps the developers need to choose their publishers more wisely. At least I hope they can see the mess and avoid them in the future.

As far as I can tell, looking through this forum and others, people have been trying to email Nordic Games about support on this game, regardless of platform, since its release, and they usually don't respond.

EDIT: To clarify, I apologise for blaming the developers since that's the case, but isn't that grounds for them to avoid using Nordic Games to publish their material? Also, several developers choose to kickstart the games to avoid publisher hell...

[deca]

@sunshinecorp:

I`m pretty sure that KING Art Games tried their best to find a good publisher, but the next problem with this games support is the fact, that Nordic Games is not the first publisher of The Book of Unwritten Tales.

Before, they gone with the publisher HMH, that had an bankruptcy in 2010, so after this point noone was able to do the support or bug fixing, cause first the legal terms had to be clarified, which took 2 more years, when I remember correctly.

Now we have a developer team, that needed to bring out Battle World:Kronos using Kickstarter, cause they only got a lot of debits from the bankruptcy left.

After all this time, they found a new publisher, Nordic Games, for the new project The Book of Unwritten Tales 2, which also publish the old games.

Maybe the new publisher needs time to get into the source code or ... please beg with me that that`s not the case ... they do not even have them.

[sunshinecorp]

The point remains that the developers might lose a lot of support because of the publisher's carelessness/sloth/lack of interest (call it what you want, at this point I have no idea what's really going on so it's all speculation salted with a bit of gamer rage). Which is sad, because I really liked BoUT (the few hours that I got to play before I encountered the game-stopping bug). Also, this should CLEARLY be labelled as BETA for the linux platform!

[deca]

@sunshinecorp:

You`re totally right!

I can`t even think of how this disaster happened and I really hope we will get a statement from nordic games or king art games soon.

[bliss]

it's not Beta. Beta implies they are working towards a final release. Thus, I would expect a beta to get even more intense support than a final release.

[deca]

@xlynx: I think sunshinecorp regarded to the used "Steam Linux Beta". ;)

[ariane]

Agree with sunshinecorp - I've emailed pretty much everyone associated with the development and distribution of the game to no avail. Simply maintaining a stoney silence in the face of considerable dissatisfaction of people whose money you've banked is not acceptable.

I'm fortunate that I have a Windows machine to play the game on but that isn't the point. My Liinux set up has much better graphics and screen which is why I chose to download the Linux version.

Fair enough if they do not want to get the game playable on a platform but they need to make it clear that it's been abandoned on that platform and stop taking money for it.

The latest response i got from nordic games is:

"We will forward your E-mail to our Production department.

Any client request and feedback about our titles are taken seriously and will be debated."

[sunshinecorp]

Yeah, like I said before, I also own the game on GOG, and I only bought it on Steam when it was on sale, but money is not the object here. I bought it on Steam because it advertised a native linux version, because I *thought* I'd be able to play it without having to run WINE (I never boot Windows anymore, I can't stand Windows, never could, but it has gotten worse over time :P). In any case, Windows people are also having quite a few problems, as far as I can see on this forum. Mac too.

And their saying "will be debated" is the opposite of their "taking our feedback seriously". Customer support on a paid product IS NOT DEBATABLE, if they ever want to see our money ever again. Period.

I gave up on "AAA" companies like EA and 2K a long time ago, for not taking customers seriously. Never went back. Never will.

[bliss]

I commend you for that sir. Fortunately there's plenty of competition for action games. There's increasing competition for adventures too, from the likes of Daedalic, Animation Arts, Screen 7, Wadjet Eye and Telltale. For Linux, Gemini Rue, Broken Sword 5 and Broken Age were recently brought to this platform on Steam, with a whole heap more coming via Kickstarter.

I'm pretty sure you can get a refund on Steam on the basis that it doesn't work on your desired platform.

[sunshinecorp]

I agree, there's a lot of good competition. I especially liked Broken Age, one of my all-time favorites, and that's saying a lot since it had to compete with a lot of the good ol' adventure games. Daedalic has some gems too, some coal as well, though! I own some of Wadjet Eye's games, though I have yet to play them. Telltale, well... not sure I'm really into them, but I do enjoy playing some of their games when I have nothing else to do.

Point in case, there are indeed a lot of good games out there, but the game is not in question here. I think I might have liked BoUT a lot, if I got the chance to finish it. It seemed pretty solid to me. Refund is not the point either. I don't miss the 5 euros or so I spent on this.

I'm just sad to see the efforts of good game developers being marred by publishers that are just not up to the task. Or being blamed for the bugs of a version that they don't even officialy support (I myself didn't know that the devs were not at fault here, until someone went ahead and pointed out that the publishers thought it a good idea to release a linux version and then subsequently stop working on it). Also, I cannot stand publishers that keep taking money for something that obviously does not work for a lot of people and all but refuse to fix the problems afterwards. Freeze the sales on this or label it as an unfinished product. Own up to the problems, admit to them, give an answer as to whether they are going to be fixed or not, if they are even being worked on. Let the buyer be aware.

[deca]

We were told from the devs, that we (Riggo and me) should only spread the word and sharing answers from the devs here.

They "would like to handle matters like support" by themselfs.

So hopefully someone will show up here. *sighs*

[bliss]

Pretty sure you can say whatever the hell you like.