Company:Linux Game Publishing

From HandWiki
Short description: English game development company


Linux Game Publishing, Ltd.
TypeLimited company
IndustryVideo games
Founded5 September 2001[1]
Defunct3 May 2011[1]
HeadquartersNottingham, United Kingdom
Key people
Clive Crous, CEO (2012 - Present)
Michael Simms, Founder and LGP Business Adviser (CEO: 2001 - 2012)
Frank C. Earl, Senior Developer
Websitewww.linuxgamepublishing.com

Linux Game Publishing (sometimes also referred to as LGP) was a software company based in Nottingham in England . It ported, published and sold video games running on Linux operating systems. As well as porting games, LGP also sponsored the development of Grapple, a free software network library for games. As well as acting as a Linux game porter in of themselves, they also functioned as a publisher for other Linux game developers and porters. The company was dissolved on 3 May 2011.[1]

History

2001-2012

Creatures: Internet Edition was the first game published by LGP

The company was founded on 5 September 2001 by Michael Simms when the similarly oriented Loki Software filed for bankruptcy.[2] Simms had previously founded the Tux Games retailer a few years earlier, and the collapse of Loki would have gravely affected his available stock. Linux Game Publishing had initially tried to pick up the support rights to many of Loki's titles, but in the end it was only able to acquire the rights to MindRover: The Europa Project. It was able, however, to independently pick up the publishing rights to Creatures: Internet Edition as well as the rights to the port of Majesty: Gold Edition which was previously being developed by Tribsoft.[3][4] Empowered by the addition of former Loki employee Mike Phillips, LGP released its first title on 21 December 2001.[5] In 2002 Ryan C. Gordon (a.k.a. icculus, former Loki Software) started porting the puzzle game Candy Cruncher to Linux and he was looking for beta testers. The first Linux version of Candy Cruncher was released in 2002 by Pyrogon (an indie game company founded by former employee of 3dfx and id Software Brian Hook) as a digital download.[6] LGP took interest in publishing Pyrogon games on physical CDs, and on 10 September 2002, LGP and Pyrogon announced a publishing partnership for Pyrogon's Linux titles.[7] Upon learning about the release of Postal 2 in 2003, Ryan decided to contact the developer behind it wondering if they would be interested in him making a port of the game to Linux. Loki had previously ported the original Postal to Linux, and he was interested in keeping the franchise compatible.[8] Running with Scissors agreed, and the finished port was shipped on 14 February 2005, with LGP initially handling the publishing of the Linux version.[9] In 2003, Hyperion Entertainment and Metropolis Software extended their existing license agreement for Gorky 17. Linux gaming developers Steven Fuller and Joe Tennies joined the Hyperion Entertainment game development team and they ported Gorky 17 to Linux, which three years later was published by LGP.[10]

Shadowgrounds Survivor is the latest game published by LGP

David Hedbor, founder and main programmer of Eon Games—an independent game development company specializing in creating games for desktop computers and handheld devices,[11] ported NingPo MahJong and Hyperspace Delivery Boy! to Linux, which later were published by LGP.[12] (the first version of NingPo Mah Jong for Linux, however, was released in 2003 by Pyrogon only as a digital download).[13] Eon Games stopped development and porting of games for Linux and other platforms in 2005 (and later closed in 2010).[14] In 2003, LGP began working with Epic Interactive, a German company specializing in porting and publishing games to alternative platforms.[15] Epic Interactive ported Knights and Merchants and Software Tycoon to Linux.[16] In 2005 Epic Interactive has changed its name to Runesoft Entertainment.[17] In 2005 Czech development studio Mindware Studios released the Linux demo of Cold War.[18] Cold War was the first LGP game published on a DVD disc. LGP gained the publishing rights to several other game titles including Soul Ride, as well as Disciples II. The latter has been described by Michael Simms as "LGP's DNF" and "the game that refused to be ported" and has been said to have been the cause of several resignations from the company, including that of aforementioned employee Mike Phillips.[19] It has still, alongside another long delayed game Bandits, yet to be released.[20][21]

In 2005, LGP announced the opening of their beta test for Linux version of X2.[22]

On 13 March 2008 Finnish game company Frozenbyte announced a partnership with Linux specialist IGIOS Ltd to port and release Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds Survivor on the Linux platform.[23] Both ports were later published by LGP, and LGP was actively involved in developing the Shadowgrounds Survivor port alongside IGIOS.

In December 2008, LGP released X3 and X3: Reunion Special Edition, which were first games using copy protection and the new installer written to use the GTK2 toolkit and support for using XDG menus.[24]

In December 2008, LGP launched PenguinPlay, a new website for Linux gamers, allowing matchmaking for multiplayer games, and social networking.[25]

In June 2009 they began offering downloadable games and game rentals.[26]

In August 2009 they grudgingly dropped support for all PowerPC games, stating that "demand for PPC versions of LGP games has been almost non existent".[27]

On 10 August 2009 Michael Simms confirmed that LGP is working on an original simple game based on Sudoku.[28]

In September 2009 Shadowgrounds (the first LGP game available in Finnish) and Shadowgrounds Survivor were finally released, the latter becoming the first commercial game for Linux using the Nvidia PhysX middleware.[29] In late December 2010 the IGIOS Linux team founded a new Finnish company named Alternative Games, which is focused upon porting games to Linux as well as to Mac OS X.[30] Later they will also port the Linux version of Trine for Frozenbyte without Linux Game Publishing.[31]

In late September 2010 the Linux Game Publishing server suffered a massive hard drive failure which took down all of their online infrastructure, including related websites such as Tux Games and The Linux Game Tome.[32] Various other unforeseen issues caused the recovery not to take place until late November, with partial service being restored on 23 November 2010,[33] with full recovery not being made until 8 December 2010.[34] They have since stated that work is going well on their current project, and that they have a working build of it in internal alpha testing.[35]

2012–2020

On 31 January 2012, after over a decade with the company, Michael Simms announced in a blog post, that he was stepping down as CEO, saying "you can't continue on a high energy rampage for 10 years without something breaking", and handing over control to Clive Crous, citing his "unrestrained enthusiasm for Linux gaming" as his primary qualification.[36] Since August 2012, LGP has started selling their games in stores like Desura, Gameolith and Ubuntu Software Center (USC).[37] However, early information about LGP games in USC had shown up on the Canonical blog two years before.[38] In 2012, they shut down the PenguinPlay website.[39] In 2015, LGP decided to host their website on the Heroku cloud service and they closed their support system hosted on Tender.[40] In 2013, LGP removed several of their resellers from their list e.g. Fun4tux, Ixsoft, Linuxpusher etc.[41] In 2014 - 2015 LGP's resellers stopped offering rentals or eight specific games for download which used LGP copy protection.[citation needed] The website was brought back for archival purposes in 2020.[42]

Games published

Supported

Title Genre Date of Release Available Languages Developer Porter Publisher
Creatures: Internet Edition Simulation 21 December 2001 Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish Creature Labs Creature Labs Linux Game Publishing
MindRover: The Europa Project Strategy 13 December 2002 English CogniToy Loki Software/Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Candy Cruncher Puzzle 6 February 2003 English Pyrogon Ryan C. Gordon Linux Game Publishing
Majesty: Gold Edition Real-time strategy 15 April 2003 English Cyberlore Studios Tribsoft/Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
NingPo MahJong Puzzle 21 January 2004 English Pyrogon Eon Games Linux Game Publishing
Hyperspace Delivery Boy! Puzzle/Action 10 May 2004 English Monkeystone Games Eon Games Linux Game Publishing
Software Tycoon Simulation 10 January 2005 English, German destraX Entertainment Software GbR RuneSoft Linux Game Publishing
Postal²: Share The Pain First-person shooter 4 February 2005 English Running with Scissors Ryan C. Gordon Linux Game Publishing
Soul Ride Sports 24 June 2005 English Slingshot Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Gorky 17 Tactical RPG 15 June 2006 English, German, Spanish, French (Text Only) Metropolis Software Hyperion Entertainment Linux Game Publishing
Cold War Stealth 4 August 2006 English, German, French, Russian, Spanish (text only), Italian (text only), Polish (text only), Czech (text only) Mindware Studios Mindware Studios Linux Game Publishing
Knights and Merchants Real-time strategy 13 March 2007 English, German, Spanish, French Joymania Entertainment RuneSoft/Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Ballistics Racing 7 June 2007 English Grin Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Jets'n'Guns Shoot 'em up 29 January 2009 English RakeInGrass RakeInGrass/Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Sacred: Gold Edition Action role-playing 9 April 2009 English Ascaron Entertainment Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Shadowgrounds Shooter 16 September 2009 English, Finnish Frozenbyte IGIOS/Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Shadowgrounds Survivor Shooter 18 September 2009 English, Finnish Frozenbyte IGIOS/Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing

Unsupported

Title Genre Date of Release Available Languages Developer Porter Publisher
X2 Space simulation 30 May 2006 English, German, French, Italian Egosoft Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
X3 Space simulation 5 December 2008 English, German, French, Italian (text only) Egosoft Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
X3: Reunion - Special Edition Space simulation 5 December 2008 English, German, French, Italian (text only) Egosoft Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing

Upcoming

Title Genre Date of Release Available Languages Developer Porter Publisher
Unknown Title (Original LGP game)[28] Puzzle in development since 2009 ? Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Bandits Racing in development since 2003 English Grin Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing
Disciples II Turn-based strategy in development since 2002 English Strategy First Linux Game Publishing Linux Game Publishing

Technology

Grapple

Grapple was a free software package created in 2006 by Michael Simms for adding multiplayer support to computer games and applications. It used Internet protocols, supporting both TCP/IP and UDP/IP. It was intended to be simple enough that multiplayer features can be added to a game "as little as a dozen lines of code".[43]

Grapple took care of creating, monitoring and closing connections to a server, and allowed support for multiple servers. It was message-oriented, where clients and servers each maintained a message queue, but also permitted relaying messages from client to client. There was also support for a game lobby system.[44] The package was released under the GNU LGPL.

Games using Grapple

  • Ballistics (Linux Version) by Linux Game Publishing
  • Candy Cruncher (Linux Version) by Linux Game Publishing
  • Jets'n'Guns (Linux Version) by Linux Game Publishing
  • Knights and Merchants (Linux Version) by Linux Game Publishing
  • Majesty: Gold Edition (Linux Version) by Linux Game Publishing
  • Sacred: Gold (Linux Version) by Linux Game Publishing

Applications using Grapple

  • PenguinPlay, Multiplayer matchmaker for games.

Copy protection

Linux Game Publishing employs a simple form of digital rights management similar to that employed by Games for Windows – Live. Upon the first run of the game, the user is prompted for a license key, alongside their LGP user name and password.[45]

Some features include:[46]

  • LGP copy protection does not require internet connection to install or play the game.
  • This system does not require user to keep the disc inside the CD drive while playing games.

This system enables users to install the game on multiple systems (as there is not a limited number of activations), while also discouraging sharing by noting that any user who has access to the owner's LGP account credentials could potentially lock the owner out of their own game.

Games published

Currently, LGP has published nine games that contain their DRM technology:

DRM by title
Title Box version Digital version
Ballistics No None
Ballistics (r2) None Yes
Jets'n'Guns Yes Yes
Majesty Gold No None
Majesty Gold (r2) Yes Yes
Sacred: Gold Edition Yes Yes
Shadowgrounds Yes Yes
Shadowgrounds Survivor Yes Yes
X2: The Threat No None
X2: The Threat (r2) None Yes
X3: Reunion Yes Yes
X3: Reunion - Special Edition Yes None

Owners of a game license can transfer the license to someone else, download a replacement disc image and allow people to see that the license is valid if they buy your game. Owners can retrieve lost keys and forgotten passwords. Buyers can check to see if they are buying a game with a valid license.[47]

Open source projects

Besides Grapple, above, LGP released and contributed to several open-source projects. They created several patches for OpenPlay, that fix broken Linux support, bring some functionalities that are present in DirectPlay.[48] They worked on other open source projects such as SDL or OpenAL.[49] LGP worked on GPL'd the Soul Ride engine at SourceForge.[50] Michael Simms also claimed that LGP avoids publishing games similar to popular open source video games.[51]

Canceled projects

LGP canceled Angry-Pixel project, which was sponsor the creation of a new company for the development of games for Linux.[52]

The game Tzar was considered by Linux Game Publishing to be ported to Linux, but it was rejected due to concerns within the company about its gameplay and after hearing negative comments about the game from the Linux gaming community.[53]

On 6 February 2003 LGP released Candy Cruncher to Linux running on computers with Sparc processors, but two years later they removed this information from their website without explanation.[54]

On 24 June 2005 LGP released Soul Ride to Linux running on computers with Alpha and Sparc processors.[51]

On 30 August 2005 Linux Game Publishing cancelled a contract to publish the Linux version of Northland which is the third game in the Cultures real-time strategy series, because technical issues with the game that Runesoft, who were doing the development work on the port, could not resolve to their satisfaction. However, on 25 January 2006 Runesoft released Northland for Linux, but the multiplayer mode is still not supported.[55]

LGP grudgingly dropped support for five PowerPC games.:[56]

  • Candy Cruncher (PowerPC)
  • Gorky 17 (PowerPC)
  • Majesty Gold (PowerPC)
  • NingPo MahJong (PowerPC)
  • Soul Ride (PowerPC)

PenguinPlay was a website for Linux gamers, allowing matchmaking for multiplayer games, and social networking.[57] LGP added PenguinPlay lobby for six games:

  • Ballistics
  • Candy Cruncher
  • Jets'n'Guns
  • Knights and Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom
  • Majesty Gold
  • Sacred: Gold Edition

In October 2012 they informed their customers that the license agreement with Egosoft for X2 and X3 (including Special Edition) had expired and were no longer able to offer these titles to new customers.[58]

Unreleased projects

A Linux client of World of Warcraft was developed, and negotiations with Linux Game Publishing were under way until Blizzard Entertainment cancelled the project without warning or explanation, even though it was functionally complete and ready to go.[59][51]

Since 2004 Frank C. Earl (also known as svartalf) worked on PowerPC and Athlon64 versions of Ballistics and Soul Ride, but these versions of the games were never released.[60] However, he prepared demo version of Soul Ride for Linux x86_64 for GDC 2003, but this demo is not publicly available.[61] Svartalf was also the lead developer of Disciples II: Dark Prophecy and he worked on PowerPC and x86-64 versions of Disciples II, but work on the game still ended and LGP stopped working on games for PowerPC.[62] However, LGP is still working on IA-32 version of Disciples II.[63]

LGP still did not release the demo version of Sacred: Gold and patch 1.08 for Linux version of MindRover: The Europa Project.

Tux Games

Tux Games was one of the earliest online Linux game retailers, founded on 1 January 2000 by Michael Simms, who would later also found Linux Game Publishing. It was originally created in response to Simms being unable to order a version of Loki Software's port of Civilization from any United Kingdom reseller.[64]

Tux Games, being one of the oldest retailers, was one of the few places still selling Loki Software stock.[65][66] It also offered the unique service of selling Linux boxed copies of many games whose ports otherwise require the presence of a Windows boxed version, such as with several id Software products.[67] Doing this had the advantage of guaranteeing it is counted as a Linux sale.[68]

In addition to its services as a games seller, Tux Games has attempted to branch out into other areas, such as selling gaming oriented computer systems,[69] and attempting to open a Donation Center for free software projects.[70] In the end, neither of these were successful, but hosting of old Loki Software demos was met with praise.[71][72]

Tux Games received many requests for sales statistics,[73] which prompted Simms to add a sales information chart to the main website.[74] The overall top five overall sellers were Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Tribes 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Neverwinter Nights, and Majesty Gold.[75]

Towards the end of its run, Tux Games gained some competition from other similarly focused retailers, such as Fun4Tux, Wupra, ixsoft and LinuxPusher.[76] All retailers based in continental Europe, most also served as re-sellers for LGP.[41] It was also competing with the online digital distribution services Gameolith and Desura.[77] It was also occasionally criticized for poor order handling.[78]

On 31 January 2012 after over a decade with the company, Michael Simms announced he was stepping down as CEO and handing over control to Clive Crous.[79] The store went down in 2014.

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "LINUX GAME PUBLISHING LTD. Overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04281799. 
  2. Founder, Creditors Differ as to Loki's Future Course Linux Today, 17 August 2001 (Article by Dennis E. Powell)
  3. LGP History pt 1: How LGP came to be Linux Game Publishing Blog, 15 May 2009 (Article by Michael Simms)
  4. Majesty, Tribsoft, and LGP LinuxGames, 3 January 2002
  5. LGP History pt 2: The Early Days Linux Game Publishing Blog, 23 June 2009 (Article by Michael Simms)
  6. Call for Candy Cruncher Beta Testers LinuxGames, 13 February 2002
  7. Linux Game Publishing and Pyrogon Announcement LinuxGames, 10 September 2002
  8. Interview with Ryan Gordon: Postal2, Unreal & Mac Gaming Macologist, 10 November. 2004
  9. Postal 2 for Linux now shipping! icculus.org, 14 February 2005
  10. Hyperion and Metropolis announce AmigaOS 4 version of Gorky 17 Hyperion Entertainment, 25 December 2003
  11. About Eon Games
  12. Hyperspace Delivery Boy Port LinuxGames, 6 September 2002
  13. Pyrogon Releases NingPo LinuxGames, 18 April 2003
  14. Eon Games 7 January 2010
  15. (Three) New Titles from LGP LinuxGames, 7 November 2003
  16. Software Tycoon Available LinuxGames, 10 January 2005
  17. E.P.I.C. Interactive Becomes Runesoft Entertainment LinuxGames, 8 June 2005
  18. Cold War Linux Demo Released 11 March 2005
  19. LGP History pt 3: The long haul Linux Game Publishing Blog, 25 August 2009 (Article by Michael Simms)
  20. Bandits: Phoenix Rising Proceeds On Linux Phoronix, 15 February 2008 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  21. Bandits: Phoenix Rising Finally Gets A New Beta Phoronix, 7 March 2009 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  22. LGP Opens Beta Test for X2 Slashdot, 2 October 2005
  23. Shadowgrounds Survivor headed to Linux LinuxGames, 14 March 2008
  24. Has A New Linux Game Installer Phoronix, 26 February 2008 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  25. PenguinPlay! LinuxGames, 2 January 2009
  26. LGP Gets Into Game Downloading, Rentals Phoronix, 2 June 2009 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  27. PPC support officially being discontinued for all LGP titles Linux Game Publishing Blog, 5 August 2009 (Article by Michael Simms)
  28. 28.0 28.1 Bringing Windows games to Linux TechRadar, 10 August 2009 (Interview by Graham Morrison)
  29. Shadowgrounds: Survivor Proceeds On Linux Phoronix, 18 February 2009 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  30. Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds Survivor for Mac OS X Frozenbyte Forum, 6 May 2011
  31. Alternative Games Is All About Linux Gaming Phoronix, 14 December 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  32. LGP Has Been Down For A Month And A Half Phoronix, 18 November 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  33. LGP Is Partially Back Online; More Unforeseen Issues Phoronix, 23 November 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  34. Linux Game Publishing Is Back Online Phoronix, 8 December 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  35. Linux Game Publishing...are alive?[yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}] GamingOnLinux, 4 May 2011 (Article by Liam Dawe)
  36. Linux Game Publishing...the return?[yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}] GamingOnLinux, 31 January 2012 (Article by Liam Dawe)
  37. Linux Game Publishing Adds 'Sacred Gold' RPG to Ubuntu Software Center Ubuntu Vibes, 31 August 2012
  38. Canonical announces strong ISV and open source ecosystem support for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Canonical Blog, 27 April 2010
  39. Linux Game Publishing Shuts Down PenguinPlay Phoronix 24 February 2013
  40. Linux Game Publishing Remains Offline, Three Years After The CEO Shakeup Phoronix, 27 January 2015 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  41. 41.0 41.1 Larabel, Michael (2014-04-01). "Linux Game Publishing Remains Dormant". https://www.phoronix.com/news/MTY1MDQ. 
  42. Larabel, Michael (2020-02-29). "Linux Game Publishing Brought Back Online For Archival Purposes". https://www.phoronix.com/news/LGP-Back-Online. 
  43. Grapple home page at linuxgamepublishing.com
  44. README.lobby at grapple.linuxgamepublishing.com
  45. LGP Introduces Linux Game Copy Protection, Rentals Phoronix, 23 June 2008 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  46. Linux Game Copy Protection Linux Game Publishing
  47. Linux Game Publishing Key Server website
  48. Ballistics Advogato Svartalf Blog, 28 September 2003
  49. Open source projects Linux Game Publishing
  50. LGP Announces Three New Titles LinuxGames, 5 January 2003
  51. 51.0 51.1 51.2 Linux Game Publishing: Interview with Michael Simms Linux Gazette, 6 March 2005
  52. Angry Pixels The Linux Game Tome
  53. Tzar related posts LinuxGames
  54. Candy Cruncher Linux Sparc Linux Game Publishing Products, 9 September 2005
  55. Linux Game Publishing Cancels Northland LinuxGames, 30 August 2005
  56. PPC support officially being discontinued for all LGP titles Linux Game Publishing Blog, 5 August 2009 (Article by Michael Simms)
  57. PenguinPlay! LinuxGames, 2 January 2009
  58. X2 & X3 Linux Game Publishing Blog, 6 October 2012 (Article by Clive Crous)
  59. Blizzard Still Has a World of Warcraft Linux Client Phoronix, 25 January 2011 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  60. Frank C. Earl resume Earl Consulting Services
  61. [1] Paradox Interactive Forums, 9 December 2009
  62. Peddling the Penguin: Linux Gaming A Presentation for GDC 2004 (Presentation by Frank Earl)
  63. Greetings Fellow Linux Gamers Linux Game Publishing Blog, 4 February 2012 (Article by Clive Crous)
  64. Linux Game Publishing Blog, LGP History pt 1: How LGP came to be
  65. Loki Stock LinuxGames, 28 January 2002
  66. TuxGames Out of SMAC; Low on Others LinuxGames, 18 March 2003
  67. Retail Linux RTCW at Tux Games LinuxGames, 21 January 2002
  68. Doom 3 Pre-Order at Tux Games LinuxGames, 31 August 2002
  69. TuxGames Offering Computers LinuxGames, 19 December 2006
  70. Donation System at Tux Games LinuxGames, 19 July 2001
  71. Loki Repository from Tux Games and Holarse LinuxGames 25 September 2007
  72. New Loki Games Repository Emerges Phoronix, 25 September 2007 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  73. Tux Games Statistics LinuxGames 14 December 2002
  74. More Tux Games Sales Info LinuxGames, 23 April 2003
  75. Overall Best Sellers TuxGames, Retrieved on 16 March 2011
  76. Dawe, Liam (2011-04-11). "Moar games sales!". https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2011/04/moar-games-sales/. 
  77. Dawe, Liam (21 August 2011). "Interview with Jonathan Prior of Gameolith.com". https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2011/08/interview-with-jonathan-prior-of-gameolithcom/. 
  78. Source for Retail Linux Games? LinuxGames, 22 July 2004
  79. Linux Game Publishing...the return? GamingOnLinux, 31 January 2012 (Article by TheBoss)

External links