Never saw the Steam OS. Don’t see a reason even to figure out what that is. And surely I won’t install that.

Yes, a native version is always welcome. Wine/proton/dosbox/whatever sometimes work, sometimes not. Mostly just a pile of bugs.

Native is always better, but Proton (what’s used by steam OS to run windows games) has worked for me for every title I’ve tried… Sometimes graphics settings can be inconsistent, but I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet if you’re using an established engine it will just work with Proton

Steam Deck and Linux desktop user here.

I wouldn’t prioritize a native Linux binary if I were you. For some of my games that have a native Linux version, I still run the Proton compatibility version instead because it runs better. Proton is insanely well-optimized and adapted to Linux desktops, your own code will have a hard time competing with that.

Just make sure to pick an engine / tech stack that works well with Proton and find one or more testers who run SteamOS or another Linux distribution.

I prefer a working Proton build over a untested broken native build. If you can’t afford the time to test the Linux builds, go ahead and just rely on Proton.

Testing on Steam Deck so it can be verified probably does make sense from a marketing standpoint though. Mostly checking that controls work, graphic settings are not too demanding by default and font scaling works properly.

I’ve heard that Steam provides some guidelines to get your games to work well with Proton. I’m not able to find them but maybe they’re behind a developer portal or something.

Should Vale release a general Steam OS and folk move away from Windows en masse it’s probably going to be worth it. Proton does a great job but a tested and supported Linux build will be better. Some solos do it, but I think it is more based in ideology rather than necessity.

Your time and effort as a solo is going to be limited though, testing and supporting a Linux build is going to be work, and if you want to keep things closed source you are not going to be able to leverage the community in the way open software does.

There might be steps you can take to be more compatible with Proton and/or Steam Deck, which probably would be a good idea, and give you much more effect for your time spend.

I personally am fine with Proton, the native Linux build usually doesn’t work as well as the Windows one because devs don’t usually care because of smaller market share (or don’t have the time as is often the case with indie studios).

What’s the name of the game? I’ll add it to my wishlist if it sounds like something I’d enjoy.

Also, if I may ask, do a GOG release, I do 90% of my gaming there.

Nowadays I view Windows as a gaming layer that has been bolted on the great Borg mothership that is Linux in the form of Wine or Proton in route to the goal of Total World Domination.

A bit like Embrace, Extend, Extinguish but in reverse, if you will. So it’s fine.

Linux native games are great as long as the engine is open source. If it’s closed source, it will eventually stop running on up-to-date distros some time after the developer stops updating it. For closed source games, it would be better to develop for excellent wine/proton compatibility so the game will continue to be playable long after it stops getting updates.

Will you only publish it on steam? It would be great to have games available on other platforms like GoG too.

Id love a native Linux binary, but if you aren’t going to maintain it long term after release so something like a glibc update doesn’t break it then proton compatibility is probably better. What tends to happen with native games is they get released and sit basically unsupported until they just stop working.

Are brains still needed, or is a pocket calculator good enough?

I think the only big benefits that come from having a native Linux port is performance, and compatability (in case running through wine / proton didn’t work.) Other than that I can’t think if anything else.

The days/weeks/months it would take me to add it and fix all the probable bugs it entails could be used to improve the game itself

Making a game multi-platform is improving the game. Massively.

The high level of skill required to write multi-platform games is why most studios don’t bother: Windows developers are a dime a dozen but skilled multi-platform developers are rare. Have you got what it takes? Do you have the cojones to step up your programming game? Or are you happy to wallow in the slop with the rest of the Windows game developers?

Also, remember that Linux isn’t the only POSIX OS. If you do your porting right, you get to support a shed load of other OSes for very little.

I find that native clients are almost always a worse experience than running through Proton. Cursors not hiding or not appearing, inability to adjust certain graphics/display settings, and, rarely, worse performance than through Proton (including not actually managing to init).

That said, Proton has its own irritating quirks. Try turning off mouse acceleration in Skyrim on Linux for instance. Have to use protontricks to find the appid, then you have to nav to it in any of the locations that it could be found (depending on flatpak, native, etc.), and then you have to sift through the prefix to find the bloody INI that has the setting to toggle.

But as an indie dev, you should do whatever makes less work for you so you can do more with your time. If supporting native Linux will increase your workload and detract from work on the game itself, then simply don’t support it. Just make sure that your Windows builds work via Proton.

If you yourself use/are familiar with Linux and willing to actually test and polish your Linux version to the same standard as your Windows version, then a native Linux version is always appreciated.

However these days, it’s probably not necessary and a lazy afterthought Linux version is like a bad console port, and because we DO have the option to run the Windows version, it’s probably worse than no Linux version at all.

So it really depends on your personal feelings towards Linux, and nobody’s going to judge you for not providing a native version you can’t personally test and support. That’s why we have Proton.

Yes. It’s still needed. Mostly because not everyone using Linux is using a controller or other peripheral input device that just works natively (look at non-steam os handhelds and Bazzite for instance). On smaller screened devices, menus and keyboard specific options can be problematic regardless of other compatibility features.

Please publish to GoG as well. I want to support sites that are DRM free. Also I think it’s smart to give native Linux support to show the industry that Linux is important rather than rely on compatibility tools that may or may not work well for any given game or setup.

Sigh… this is exactly the sort of developer decision people were worried about when Proton first came out, and why some Linux users were opposed to it. Obviously in retrospect the benefits of Proton have been worth it, but those folks wouldn’t be wrong to say “I told you so.”

My take on it is that if you’re not developing Xbox-first (which would imply using DirectX etc.) you should pick libraries that give you cross-platform compatibility “for free” to begin with. It has to be part of the plan from the beginning (and integrated into your build/test pipeline, etc.); writing the whole game for Windows first and then trying to add Linux support after the fact is a fool’s errand.

if a bug arises from using proton, it would cause the same issue for users that are forced to use proton.

just click the button that builds for linux. buuld for as many platforms as you can. if you cant fix all of the bugs due to time, then you’ll become a better programmer for your next game and not make thise same mistakes <3

Its about practicality.

Even big studios cant handle supporting a native linux version and having it run well while supporting windows versions… which usually ends up with people running the windows version via proton over the native version (Looking at you, Cities Skylines, Truck Simulator games, and more)

So I would say take the easy route and develop for windows with checks to make sure it runs okay in proton, probably a lot less headache and effort than trying to create a seperate native linux codebase.

I only purchase native titles, because native support means support.

Ideally you should be writing your code to be as portable as possible, in an engine that offers top-notch cross-platform support.