Humble Indie Bundle V / LONE SURVIVOR for Linux
The title says it all, and you’ve probably heard it from the a million internet streams before this one – Lone Survivor is now a part of Humble Indie Bundle V! I’m incredibly proud to be a part of this incredible collection of games, and once again in awe of the guys over at Humble, Inc.
I did have a good think about whether to accept the offer, for a couple of reasons… not least of which is that I’m feeling a bit burnt out – I really do need a proper break (after 7dfps, anyway…) But I realised in the end that I may never get another chance to reach people in a way like this, and I couldn’t pass that up.
So the game will be given to everyone who bought HIB V before today as thanks for early adoption, regardless of what they paid – which means close to 400,000 people will already be guaranteed a copy! It will also be given to anyone who pays above the average from now until the end of the promotion, so if you’ve held off so far, why not head over to Humble and pick up your tasty bundle?
For those curious about how it’s broken down: Superflat Games will only receive income from the developer’s share of any sales that fall above the average price from today onwards (the developer’s share is determined by the public as you can see on the Humble site.) The rest of the income the bundle generates goes towards helping a couple of great charities and building awareness of the indie scene in general, supporting indie developers such as myself, via the Humble Store and so on. And most importantly of all, with this bundle comes the unique opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of people with my work, and reaching people has always been what drives me. For that reason alone, it really is a dream come true … and my mind is blown to be in the company of such heavyweight games, and … well … TIM SCHAFER!!!!*
LONE SURVIVOR for Linux
The other great news is that the game is now available for your favourite Linux distribution (and included in the bundle, of course) – as a rock-solid Flash Projector, which has been re-coded from scratch – so that you get all the bugfixes and improvements of CODENAME: RED but with the Flash saved game system of the original Mac Projector release (which was a patch for the then non-working AIR build, which now works on all Macs with the Snow Leopard or above.)
So to Linux users, although the Projector version should work identically, you won’t be able to transfer saved games between versions, and you should watch for clearing your Flash cookies as it can delete your saved game in some instances.
I wanted to use AIR for the Linux release, but AIR for Linux was abandoned by Adobe a while back. I do hope they’ll consider getting it back up and running, as there are a lot of successful indie games that are starting to use AIR, and it would be a shame to have to restrict those to Mac and PC only as new AIR features mean Linux becomes harder to back-port. Perhaps Adobe will take notice of the growing interest in AIR on Linux for game developers? I’d love to see a Linux Captive Runtime with AIR 3.3!
Adobe’s support team have been great all through this, once I got their ear – testing builds of LS I’ve had trouble with, and inviting me onto the AIR beta program and so on… they’re really listening to what developers are saying, so if enough developers make noise about an AIR update for Linux, maybe it’ll reach them?
So, the TL:DR version: a lot of technical stuff has had to happen to make this dream come true, but like magic, it should Just Work TM**
It’ll go up as part of the Humble storefront on my own site, which initially will be the only place to purchase the Linux build, so if you are a new customer, you’ll now get three platforms for the price of one!
It’ll also be available for purchase on Linux from this day forth over on Ubuntu Software Centre, who are handling the redemptions for the Humble Indie Bundle V.
And finally…
Once again a massive thankyou to everyone who’s played the game, and shared their analysis, thoughts, personal feelings, images, music, videos, and general humanity via the update request emails. I’ve really loved reading them all!
Things will hopefully start getting a bit calmer soon and I might even announce the new secret project I’ve been working on at some stage after 7dfps, which I’ve been (also) secretly getting ready for, making a special ‘virtual console’ and a basic 3D engine – screenshots to follow on Saturday.
And to my 400,000 new friends: thank you for playing Lone Survivor, and don’t forget if you liked it and want to support Superflat Games in some way, why not head on over to Space Recordings on Bandcamp and give the OST a listen? Either way, I hope you enjoy your adventures with You. Be sure to write and tell me about them!
– Jasper
*(I’m deeply influenced by the Lucasarts adventures, as you’ll see if you track down Keith’s Quest for the Amiga (please don’t.))
**(not my TM.)