Game Page update: Multiple platforms

[selmiak]

Since multiple platform support is in alpha already I guess it's about time to start adding slots for more links than just windows+mirror when adding a game.

And a windows version should be necessary for the game to be added to the DB, even if the editor is run under linux only and the game is compiled under linux and the author is a linux nerd and windows hater and wants to distribute only a linux version to convert everyone to a linux user

[Crimson Wizard]

And a windows version should be necessary for the game to be added to the DB, even if the editor is run under linux only and the game is compiled under linux and the author is a linux nerd and windows hater and wants to distribute only a linux version to convert everyone to a linux user

Please remember that you can "assemble" desktop (Win or Lin) version yourself by taking game and adding respected engine executable.

[BigMc]

And a linux version should be necessary for the game to be added to the DB, even if the editor is run under windows only and the game is compiled under windows and the author is a windows nerd and linux hater and wants to distribute only a windows version to convert everyone to a windows user

[selmiak]

 
absolutely!

[Crimson Wizard]

A Linux user mentioned this to be a problem that some game entries in database only include Windows installer. This makes it impossible to install game on Linux directly ( not without help of Wine, I guess ).

Is it possible to ensure that every AGS game has an option to download zipped version with only game files inside? Perhaps do this in AGS Archives?

Another request is to add required AGS engine version, and a list of plugins required by the game, because not all plugins were ported to Linux yet.

[Peder 🚀]

These are issues I'm taking into consideration while developing AGS Archives, before compiling a linux version was even added to the editor I had already written a script that would do this to create a linux version of any game uploaded. Now I guess such a feature is not really needed.

Also about windows installers, I'm sure a lot (though maybe some are not) should be extractable as if it was just a zip on a linux os.

[Crimson Wizard]

These are issues I'm taking into consideration while developing AGS Archives, before compiling a linux version was even added to the editor I had already written a script that would do this to create a linux version of any game uploaded. Now I guess such a feature is not really needed.

What about older games?

Also about windows installers, I'm sure a lot (though maybe some are not) should be extractable as if it was just a zip on a linux os.

Well, since the user asked about it, I guess this was a problem for him.

[Peder 🚀]

What about older games?

Hmm, well best way would probably be if I port these games myself (whatever ones are portable), as many old games will likely never even be claimed on AGSA by the respected author for them to update etc those games themselves.
This will however not be a priority until a public beta is launched. I've noted this down though!

(Oh also, atm I'm looking to "force" people to upload their games zipped rather than using installers, but don't feel like putting this restriction once AGSA opens up for directly selling commercial AGS games on the site)

[Crimson Wizard]

Hmm, well best way would probably be if I port these games myself (whatever ones are portable), as many old games will likely never even be claimed on AGSA by the respected author for them to update etc those games themselves.
This will however not be a priority until a public beta is launched. I've noted this down though!

Can you elaborate on what do you mean by "porting the games"?
AGS games usually do not need porting. The only thing that is required is to let people download game files in a simple archive.

[Peder 🚀]

"porting", package the games with the required files to run the game on linux out of the box.

[Crimson Wizard]

Were you going to provide "raw game" download? I know that some Linux users do not like to use prebuild engine executables, and tend to build engine themselves.

[Peder 🚀]

It would include the game files + the linux files needed to launch the game.

[morganw]

I think this will be tricky to manage. I don't think it would be fair for someone who created a game and tested on Windows to receive negative comments and support requests for running the game on another platform. Perhaps there should be the concept of primary platforms per game where a full package is assembled with all the bits that were tested together, and then the data and engine downloads are supplied as extra links for those who want to use them.

Personally, after trying out the Linux engine, I've found I've had to switch to older builds to play an older game, had a new game crash when calling in game functions which are fine on the Windows engine, and had massive CPU usage which caused audio distortion when using some of the graphics filters. I wouldn't like to think that people's games are played on an untested platform and then leave a bad impression with problems such as these.

[Peder 🚀]

Any builds etc not put together by the actual author would clearly state this both on the website and within the game folder itself. But I totally see your concern about it and I've taken note of it

[Crimson Wizard]

That is also another reason why I am suggesting to let download raw game files, without particular port build.
Game may stay the same, while ports will be updated with improvements and bugs fixed.

As a hypothetical question, is it viable to make an automatic assembly of game archive which would combine game data with latest version of the port?

[AGA]

As a hypothetical question, is it viable to make an automatic assembly of game archive which would combine game data with latest version of the port?

Hypothetically, yeah.  PHP can run Linux commands (and indeed Windows on Windows builds), so if someone writes a BASH script to build an archive dynamically it could be triggered by AGS Archives' upload scripts.

But of course there's the ethical (and legal?) question of messing with people's game releases without their say so...

[morganw]

Maybe the uploader can opt in or out of rebuilds at any time? If you opt in then you get download links generated for archives, with milestone builds of the engine, for all platforms. Maybe opt in or out of making your raw game data available too. Just moving to archives instead of installers would be half the battle, and would also help work towards fixing the UAC elevation issues when winsetup.exe needs to write to the config file.

[Peder 🚀]

As a hypothetical question, is it viable to make an automatic assembly of game archive which would combine game data with latest version of the port?

This is exactly just what the script I previously wrote did.