Aruma StudiosWith less than two weeks until release, #Linux is just 40 wishlists away from beating Mac in Shadows of the Afterland.
I would be so happy to see Linux in second place.
Let's go #Linuxgaming! Let's beat Mac!
River City Random ☑️@arumastudios point and click adventures really aren't my thing but I have wishlisted it on Steam for the purposes of Linux representation :)
@rivercityrandom Thank you! The difference is now down to 36. Turns out Mac players also wishlisted to maintain their lead over Linux. 😅
@arumastudios as well they should; Mac gaming is a sadly underserved market, and it's a lot harder to run Windows games on Mac than it is on Linux.
@rivercityrandom For developers it's a draw. Mac is a simpler platform to develop for (less variety), but if you want to exit the Steam ecosystem, you have to pay Apple. Linux is harder to develop for outside of Steam, without their runtime making games more portable across distros, but it's free and open source...
@arumastudios I agree. The fragmentation of distros can be hard to plan around unless you want to open-source your code and leave the porting work to fans. Also, Valve is the linchpin holding the entire Linux gaming ecosystem together; I'd hate to think what would happen if they got bought out by, say, Microsoft, or suddenly became evil like every other corporation that's in a monopoly position. It's got to be hard being a Linux game developer in current year.
Esmeralda@arumastudios I don't use Steam, so I can't wishlist. But if you release the game on Gog or itch, I will gladly buy the linux version. 😁
Moni@Esmeralda @arumastudios Yes please. PC could use more alternate options as well. Steam is a monopoly at this point :/
@monilenyan @Esmeralda Gog is super hard to get into. You can't just pay a fee and publish your game there. I'm considering itch, although last time it didn't work great. A lot of work for very few players.
@arumastudios @Esmeralda Oh? As a player, it's very interesting to understand the "why" of these decisions. So I take it GOG has a... process? Itch would be fine alternative from my player pov, but I keep reading how it has very little reach, so I understand it's not popular with devs 🥲
@monilenyan @Esmeralda GoG decides which games they want in their store. It's not our call, unfortunately.
But there is a wishlist, and you can vote our game to increase the chances:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/shadows_of_the_afterland_aruma_studios
@arumastudios
Voted! But gosh, this list is daunting. 10k pages, very well known oldies with thousands of votes. Still, I've seen modern indie games sold on GOG. I wonder how they decide. Hopefully not just nepotism 😬
Voted! But gosh, this list is daunting. 10k pages, very well known oldies with thousands of votes. Still, I've seen modern indie games sold on GOG. I wonder how they decide. Hopefully not just nepotism 😬
@monilenyan @arumastudios
Yeah, I know how picky GoG can be (and reject wonderful games while taking others that seem not worth it), that's why I mentioned itch.io. There is also fireflowergames as store for drm-free narrative games.
By the way, the wishlist of GoG moved to the "Dreamlist" https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/shadows-of-the-afterland-2025
@monilenyan @Esmeralda We decided to release on Steam and Itch simultaneously. It's out now.
@arumastudios @monilenyan
Thank you!!!!! 🤩 And congrats on the release! 🥳
I have trouble finding it on itch with itch's search. Don't know what went wrong there. No problem to find it with google and other search engines though.
@Esmeralda @monilenyan It shows up for me when I search from my account, but if I'm logged out it doesn't. It could be some sort of age filter, since the game touches on sensitive topics.
@arumastudios @monilenyan
yes, it was an age filter. I had the (default?) setting not to show games tagged as "adult".
yes, it was an age filter. I had the (default?) setting not to show games tagged as "adult".
@Esmeralda @monilenyan Ah, I wish there was a more fine-grained filter. Not all adult content is NSFW.
I typed "Afterlands" in the search and it was 4th for me. Maybe it needed some time to get picked up on the listings?
@arumastudios @Esmeralda You are awesome, and you get a sale just for that ^_^ thanks for taking the time and effort!
College Fun Games@arumastudios For our last game, Linux outsold Mac nearly 2:1!
@collegefungames That's amazing!
Matt Lacey@arumastudios Forgive ignorance, but if I wishlist on my Mac that'll count as a mac one I assume? I'll try to remember to do it later on my Linux box (which is where I play games, I just use a Mac for work and it's a handy way to not
@Lacey I honestly don't know how Steam counts wishlists by platform. However, most wishlists are listed as having an unknown platform. Maybe those are from multi-platform users, and yours would be included in that category?
@arumastudios Thinking about it, on my Mac I do it from the browser, maybe those are unknown? Either way, I'll do it from LInux later to make sure it counts where it should (hopefully).