SteamLUG Cast

Touching Spacebase edited by johndrinkwater

Season 02, Episode 16

Recorded
Published
Hosts
ValiantCheese MimLofBees Nemoder
Special Guests
JP LeBreton

Description

We are joined by game developer/designer and Linux user JP LeBreton of Double Fine to chat about the status of gaming on Linux and the various projects he has worked on (including The Cave and Spacebase DF-9). We then go on to discuss the new Steam client, the appearance of the Source 2 engine, and tons of new games.

Clean language

53.66 MB Ogg 72.87 MB MP3 YOUTUBE

Creative Commons By-Share‐Alike license logo

Shownotes written by HeroOhOne

Introduction

Cheese introduces
Nemoder [source]
Mim
JP LeBreton

Our Gaming

Mim has been playing Don't Starve, The Cave, and Alien Swarm
Mim would like to highlight that she's been playing The Cave since release
Nemoder has been playing Spacebase DF-9, PULSAR: Lost Colony, Guns of Icarus Online
JP has been playing Lovely Planet, Doom, Spacebase DF-9
Cheese has been playing Orbital Gear, Alien Swarm, The Maker's Eden, Guns of Icarus Online, The Fall, Don't Starve, Mark of the Ninja, Crypt of the NecroDancer, and an unannounced title.

Chat With Special Guest JP LeBreton From Double Fine

JP lives in San Francisco and works at Double Fine [source]
14 years of professional game development
Made an exhaustive list of games he has worked on [source]
15 released games, 8 released mods/maps, 6 unreleased professional works, 2 finished but unreleased maps, 13 unfinished games, and 18 unfinished mods/maps
Currently working on Spacebase DF-9 [source]
Previous employers include Human Head Studios [source]
Blue Fang Games [source]
Irrational Games [source] , worked on BioShock [source] as a level designer
2K Marin [source] , worked on BioShock 2 [source] and XCOM: The Bureau [source]
Working on spare-time indie games for 10 years
Cheese misheared XCOM: The Bureau as "XCOM"
UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM: UFO Defense) [source]
XCOM: Enemy Unknown [source]
Massive Chalice [source]
HOFs ("Hour Of Fun") are Double Fine's internal playtesting sessions
JP has been using Ubuntu since 2006, about 8 years
Thoughts on the experience of migrating to Linux
Cheese stopped using Windows in 2006
Thoughts on how things have improved for new Linux users
Microsoft's research highlighting that Doom was widely installed software on MS DOS [source]
Games are helping push Linux performance and driver support forward
Gamers are usually power users, which may positively influence Linux mind share
JP manages some open source projects
Firefox was JP's gateway into open source [source]
His game Purity was his first public project [source]
Uses ioQuake3 [source]
Correction: It appears that Purity was an IGF 2009 entrant [source]
JP posts all his code on Bitbucket [source]
In past year has been making twitter bots
is a bot maintained by JP [source]
Wanting notification should Spelunky ever appear on Linux was a motivator for [source]
Thoughts on the value of SteamDB for Linux gamers
JP noticed a problem with the Spacebase DF-9 Steam Linux depot thanks to SteamDB
Thoughts on Double Fine's growth over the past 3 years
Amnesia Fortnight is Double Fine's internal game jam/prototyping event
Using Kickstarter was a turning point for Double Fine [source]
Double Fine now thinks of PC as Linux, Windows, and OSX
Thoughts on project concurrency at Double Fine
Costume Quest 2 [source] is aimed to release around Halloween 2014
Iron Brigade will be affected by GFWL's closure [source]
Double Fine hired JP to be a designer on The Cave [source]
JP had never worked on a platformer or adventure game before The Cave
The Cave "clown nose honking" details
Spacebase DF-9 [source]
Info on Spacebase DF-9's conception by JP at the first public Amnesia Fortnight [source]
Video pitch [source]
Spacebase was inspired partially by Dwarf Fortress [source]
Tutorials and better progression, including objectives, are big features which will be added to Spacebase DF-9 before it is released
Thoughts on balancing emergent gameplay and crafting a polished gaming experience
JP's Buried Metropolis (Amnesia Fortnight 2014) retrospective
Video pitch [source]
Pitch notes [source]
JP's thoughts on working on Dear Leader (Amnesia Fortnight 2014)
Video pitch [source]
JP would definitely like to exclusively use Linux for work, though he doesn't believe that Double Fine will switch entirely to Linux any time soon
Jeremy Mitchell, Spacebase DF-9's Lead Artist [source]
JP already uses Gimp [source] and Krita [source] for minor art work
The bulk of his other development tools are open source as well
2HB is Double Fine's Moai integrated authoring and debigging tool
Brandon Dillon is also lead developer on Hack 'n' Slash [source]
"...if I ever founded my own game studio someday, not that I really have much of an intention to, you know, I would be using Linux and I would probably make it a priority so that people could [use Linux] in developing whatever kind of games we were making."
JP would like to see Spelunky [source] and Abyss Odyssey [source] on Linux
JP's experiences with Wine [source]
Comments on popular game creation platforms working on Linux
Thoughts on Unreal Engine 4's Linux support
Eldrich [source]
NEON STRUCT: Die Augen der Welt [source]
There's opportunity for Linux communities help with initial ports of games, allowing developers to simply maintain Linux support

SteamLUG Community Stuff

Past events:
XCOM after the last cast [source]
Worms Reloaded [source]
Steel Storm: Burning Retribution [source]
HER0 recorded a video during the Steel Storm event [source]
We had our first Mount & Blade: Warband event [source]
Upcoming events:
Trine 2 after the cast [source]
Team Fortress 2 [source]
Portal 2 Mapping Challenge with Portal mapper and modder Mevious [source]
Fistful of Frags [source]
As well as our regular Guns of Icarus Online events [source]

Steam/Valve News

Beta client update for Steam which introduces new features as well as a new theme, including hiding games in your library [source]
Dota 2 Workshop Tools update uses Valve's Source 2 engine (Windows only for now) [source]
Video of the new Hammer tool in action [source]

General Gaming News

Assault Android Cactus received a large update with infinity mode and new character voice-overs [source]
Crypt of the NecroDancer launched on Steam Early Access [source]
Necrothon raised $25k which was donated to six charities [source]
NecroDancer Soundtrack [source]
XCOM: Enemy Unknown updated with some Linux fixes [source]
Orbital Gear is now available on Steam [source]
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel had a Linux port mentioned in a financial report [source]
The port was confirmed by IGN [source]
Dungeons 2 was announced for Linux [source]
Devinity: Original Sin [source]
Act of Aggression was announced for Linux [source]
Teaser Trailer [source]
Steam releases:
Crawl (mentioned in s02e14) [source]
The Maker's Eden [source]
New batch of Greenlight titles with 28 out of 50 supporting Linux [source]
Rexaura, a Portal mod by Mevious [source]
Absolute Drift, minimalistic top down stunt driving game [source]
Ninja Pizza Girl, interesting platformer [source]
Screencheat beta is on Steam, split screen FPS where everyone is invisible [source]

Crowdfunding News

A Rite From the Stars, an upcoming point and click adventure [source] [source]
Bolt Riley, another point and click adventure with a 7 day Kickstarter campaign (which was successful) [source]

Final Comments

JP was regaining his energy by eating a sandwich
For those interested in GoI Online, we're very welcoming of newcomers in our events [source]

Sign-off

SteamLUG Cast is a casual, fortnightly audiocast which aims to provide interesting news and discussion for the SteamLUG and broader Linux gaming communities.

Visit our site [source] and the cast homepage [source]

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