Aaron Melcher stops by to chat about porting games to Linux and our hosts have a discussion about Steam refunds

Introduction

• 00:00:19 Tele (Tele42) introduces @ValiantCheese, bean (@beansmyname) and special guest, @aaron_melcher

Our Gaming

• 00:00:40 bean (@beansmyname)
• Destroyed wave after wave of malfunctioning robots in Assault Android Cactus [http://store.steampowered.com/app/250110/]
• Wished for human combatants while pummelling bots in top-down Q3/UT-inspired arena shooter, Daedalus - No Escape [http://store.steampowered.com/app/315830/]
• Got his steampunk fix in the team-focused multiplayer airship combat game Guns of Icarus Online [http://store.steampowered.com/app/209080/]
• Relived his driving exam by exploding and being exploded in the action racer BlazeRush [http://store.steampowered.com/app/302710/]
• Led a conga line of RPG characters into the arena for the honor of #SteamLUG in Nimble Quest [http://store.steampowered.com/app/259780/]
• Avenged the death of the last human in twin-stick shooter Ultratron [http://store.steampowered.com/app/219190/]
• 00:03:16 @ValiantCheese
• Shifted between the worlds of light and dark to defeat the forces of chaos in the 2D puzzle platformer Outland [http://store.steampowered.com/app/305050/]
• Destroyed some evil robots for killing off mankind in Ultratron [http://store.steampowered.com/app/219190/]
• Raced against the clock, other racers and death by rolling grindy rock in BlazeRush [http://store.steampowered.com/app/302710/]
• Stared in awe at MASSIVE CHALICE and created some fanart for the game [http://store.steampowered.com/app/246110/] [http://twolofbees.com/artwork.php?iid=1318]
• 00:06:24 Tele (Tele42)
• Took to the skies to fight enemy airships for the glory of SteamLUG in the semi-weekly Guns of Icarus Online practice events [http://store.steampowered.com/app/209080/]
• Cracked some skulls, stalked some minions as the Dark Knight in Batman: Arkham Asylum [http://store.steampowered.com/app/35140/]
• 00:06:57 @aaron_melcher
• Relaxed after porting Shadow Warrior with the ultra-violent, ultra-stylish action of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number [http://store.steampowered.com/app/274170/]
• Wandered the world as a bowman with a single arrow, slaying giant bosses in the stylish Titan Souls [http://store.steampowered.com/app/297130/]

Chat with Special Guest Aaron Melcher (@aaron_melcher)

• 00:07:31 @aaron_melcher's background [http://knockoutgames.co/] [http://resolveaswontfix.blogspot.com/]
• Attended Full Sail University
• Went to work for AMI, manufacturers of bartop video games porting titles like Luxor and Chainz to a custom Red Hat distribution [https://www.amientertainment.com/]
• Moved to Boston and found work with DoubleTap porting between various platforms, console and desktop [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoubleTap_Games]
• Worked at Turbine, Inc. porting Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online to Mac [http://turbine.com]
• Left Turbine to branch out on his own as a contractor, worked on HOARD for Humble Bundle [http://store.steampowered.com/app/63000/]
• 00:17:01 Was part of the Boston Chapter of the IGDA [http://www.bostonpostmortem.org/] [http://igda.org/]
• 00:17:59 Porting HOARD to Linux was first solo porting experience and first to Linux
• 00:19:43 Discussion of responsibility for post-release support of ports
• 00:21:25 After HOARD, some engine and renderer work for Snapshot [http://store.steampowered.com/app/204220/]
• 00:24:20 La-Mulana is second port started for Linux, ported from Japanese codebase [http://store.steampowered.com/app/230700/]
• 00:26:48 After porting Democracy 3 to iOS, began porting Braid to multiple platforms [http://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/]
• 00:28:07 Ported Outland from consoles to Windows, Mac and Linux including adding Steamworks integration [http://store.steampowered.com/app/305050/]
• 00:29:00 @flibitijibibo asks about the inclusion of the XNA Effects Framework in Outland [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.xna.framework.graphics.effect.aspx]
• 00:31:18 Super Splatters was made easier to port to Linux due to the foundational work of the original developer [http://spikysnail.com/about/] [http://store.steampowered.com/app/95000]
• 00:31:52 Next big port is Shadow Warrior, home to the best codebase Aaron has seen [http://store.steampowered.com/app/233130/]
• 00:34:52 The porting work for Quadrilateral Cowboy has already been done [http://blendogames.com/qc/]
• 00:35:45 Mighty No. 9 confirmed for Linux [http://store.steampowered.com/app/314710/]
• 00:37:47 SOMA is also being ported to Linux [http://somagame.com/]
• 00:39:18 @aaron_melcher has something to say about your code and it's not elegant [http://knockoutgames.co/talks/your_code_sucks_lightning.pdf] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIbXifb8WGY]
• 00:41:52 Vessel is a good example of elegant code [http://overbyte.com.au/index.php/overbyte-blog/entry/vessel-common-performance-issues]
• 00:44:46 What game would @aaron_melcher port if he had the chance? Age of Empires II HD [http://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/]
• 00:46:35 What platform do you primarily work on? What benefits do you derive from it?
• 00:48:05 What does your Linux environment look like?
• 00:50:29 The benefits of early testing on a variety of hardware

SteamLUG Community Stuff

• 00:52:53 Past Events
• Fistful of Frags [https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617233828]
• Battleblock Theater [https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617236075]
• Awesomenauts [https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/205257840577787309]
• 00:56:26 Upcoming Events
• Outland [https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/205258472583536432]
• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel [https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/2052584087079408]

Steam/Valve News

• 00:57:19 "Does anyone have an opinion on Steam Refunds?" [http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds]
• Indie developers provide their reactions to the new policy
• Puppy Games [http://www.puppygames.net/blog/?p=1708]
• Retro Remakes [http://robf.punchingrobots.club/index.php/page/157]
• Peter Moorhead [http://petermoorhead.tumblr.com/post/120969484727/steam-refunds-policy]
• Licensing can be tricky and some games may lend themselves to performance licenses [http://www.ascap.com/licensing/licensefinder]
• 01:22:47 Dota 2 Source 2 DLC depots [https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/605418262294343680]
• 01:25:35 Steam Hardware now available for preorder [http://store.steampowered.com/hardware]
• 01:27:45 Valve is shipping the HTC Vive Developer Edition [http://steamcommunity.com//games/250820/announcements/detail/155718876679273412] [http://steamcommunity.com/games/250820/announcements/detail/155718876690619251]

Tech News

• 01:28:48 SDL2 2.0.4 release approaches [https://bugzilla.libsdl.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=WAITING&bug_status=RESPONDED&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&keywords=target-2.0.4&keywords_type=allwords&list_id=12321&query_format=advanced]
• 01:30:35 Unreal Engine 4 native Linux editor marked as "complete" on trello [https://trello.com/c/vjPubFHt/111-linux-native-editor-done-4-8]
• It is "ready for early access" and they are asking for users to help test [https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Linux_Support]

• UE4Linux on freenode IRC

• 01:32:25 Unreal Engine 4.8 released with tons of fixes and new features [https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/unreal-engine-48-released]
• Experimental "desktop" target platform which exports Win/Mac/Linux in a single directory
• Speedtree is now useable on Linux
• 01:33:32 RAD game tools never cause issues on Linux [http://www.radgametools.com/]
• 01:34:54 Aaron Melcher is having difficulty porting something using the Play First SDK [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayFirst#Playground_SDK]
• 01:37:20 GOG.com has added Cyberia 2 Resurrection: [http://www.gog.com/game/cyberia_2_resurrection]
• See the latest Linux games on GOG by sorting by date added [http://www.gog.com/games##sort=date&system=lin_mint,lin_ubuntu&page=1]
• 01:37:50 Blender Game Asset Creation video tutorial on Steam [http://store.steampowered.com/app/373020/]
• Also available on Blender Cloud [https://cloud.blender.org/p/game-asset-creation]
• 01:38:27 XCOM 2 announced for November, Linux port by Feral [https://twitter.com/feralgames/status/605662319083962368] [http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/06/01/xcom-2-announced-ign-first] [http://xcom.com/news/en-xcom-2-announced20]
• 01:39:37 Massive Chalice released [http://store.steampowered.com/app/246110] [https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/massivechalice_storefront] [https://www.gog.com/game/massive_chalice]
• With documentary, Massive Knowledge [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd4r9w-ko8BkqFfUSBT1Wz4Y]
• 01:46:00 Steel Storm: Burning Retribution receives beta updates [http://steamcommunity.com/app/96200/discussions/0/618463738384400912/]
• 01:47:02 Humble Indie Bundle: All-Stars
• World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Dustforce DX. BTA: Dungeon Defenders Collection, LIMBO, Braid. BTA + $1: Risk of Rain, Antichamber
• 01:47:32 Shadow Warrior 2 lists Linux system requirements [http://store.steampowered.com/app/324800]
• 01:48:27 Wizorb, Wyv and Keep released on Steam [https://plus.google.com/+flibitijibibo/posts/CtcZZEjRSQG] [http://store.steampowered.com/app/263960/] [http://store.steampowered.com/app/207420/]

Crowdfunding

• 01:54:17 Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night]
• Koji Igarashi, spiritual successor to Castlevania
• Funded within hours
• 01:56:03 The Bard's Tale IV [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv]
• 01:57:48 Perception [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/perceptiongame/perception-3]
• Horror game as a blind woman, with a sonar-like vision
• Linux/Mac as a stretch goal, $175,000
• 01:59:39 Power Drive 2000 met its goal [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1420158244/power-drive-2000]

Sign-off