Our hosts have a chat with game designer Lisa Brown (wertle) followed by lively discussion of Linux gaming

Introduction

  • 00:00:17 @HeroOhOne introduces @ValiantCheese, @Corben78 and special guest, @Wertle

Our Gaming

  • 00:00:35 @HeroOhOne
  • Built a giant base for survival in Rust [http://store.steampowered.com/app/252490/]
  • Gunned his way through some Arms Race on the new US SteamLUG CS:GO server steam://connect/gs5.us.steamlug.org:28006 [http://store.steampowered.com/app/730/]
  • Raced around procedurally-generated tracks in Distance's new Trackmogrify mode [http://store.steampowered.com/app/233610/]
  • 00:00:57 @ValiantCheese
  • Streamed daily challenges for twin-stick shooter Assault Android Cactus and rogue-like rhythm game, Crypt of the Necrodancer [http://hitbox.tv/cheeseness] [http://store.steampowered.com/app/250110] [http://store.steampowered.com/app/247080/]
  • Snuck in some Invisible, Inc. [http://store.steampowered.com/app/243970/]
  • Engaged in some high-speed racing survival in Distance [http://store.steampowered.com/app/233610/]
  • Killed hordes of bugs in Alien Swarm [http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/]
  • Pointed and clicked through the Double Fine Adventure, Broken Age [http://store.steampowered.com/app/232790/]
  • Puzzled through overlapping worlds in Parallax [http://store.steampowered.com/app/325060/]
  • Reached the conclusion of TD/FPS-hybrid Sanctum 2 [http://store.steampowered.com/app/210770/]
  • 00:02:01 @Corben78
  • Completely explored all that FEZ has to offer [http://store.steampowered.com/app/224760/]
  • Learned again how to play Super Meat Boy [http://store.steampowered.com/app/40800/]
  • Managed some mayhem in Dungeons 2 [http://store.steampowered.com/app/262280/]
  • Brought golf clubs to a gunfight in Left 4 Dead 2 [http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/]
  • Took his first steps in to the Crypt of the Necrodancer [http://store.steampowered.com/app/247080/]
  • Was hunter and hunted others in the asymmetrical multiplayer shooter, Evolve [http://store.steampowered.com/app/273350/]
  • Explored the bug-fixed and updated City 17 in Half-Life 2: Update [http://store.steampowered.com/app/290930/]
  • 00:06:39 @Wertle
  • Played a lot of her go-to game: rogue-like early access title from Vlambeer, Nuclear Throne [http://store.steampowered.com/app/242680/]
  • Enjoyed the social aspects of Destiny [http://www.destinythegame.com/]
  • Played some Dark Sector as research for an upcoming stream series on game design [http://store.steampowered.com/app/29900/] [http://twitch.tv/wertle/]
  • Dared to play with unconventional weapons in entries from the recent Ludum Dare game jam [http://itch.io/tag/ludum-dare-32/]
  • Designed melee weapons in @lizardengland's My Little Weapon Creator [http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=22429/]

Chat with Special Guest Lisa Brown (@wertle)

  • 00:10:21 Project Lead and Designer on Slow Down, Bull [http://store.steampowered.com/app/333580/]
  • 00:10:44 @wertle's background [http://www.wertle.com]
  • Game Designer with Insomniac Games - Worked on Resistance 3, Sunset Overdrive and Slow Down, Bull [http://www.insomniacgames.com]
  • Attended Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology school for graduate studies [http://www.etc.cmu.edu/]
  • Participates in game jams and creates personal projects
  • 00:13:05 Slow Down, Bull is the result of an experiment at Insomniac Games [http://www.insomniacgames.com/introducing-slow-down-bull-insomniacs-open-development-experiment/]
  • Open Development model with developer streams of ongoing work [http://www.twitch.tv/insomniacgames/]
  • First Insomniac title for desktop platforms
  • Linux fully supported at launch
  • 00:14:35 Reception to Slow Down, Bull and its theme of stress management
  • 00:16:50 How the theme of stress management became central to Slow Down, Bull
  • 00:19:02 The creation of Slow Down, Bull was a team effort
  • 00:20:10 Partnership with Starlight Children's Foundation [http://www.starlight.org/]
  • 00:23:09 The experience of Open Development and Dev Streaming
  • 00:24:51 Audience make-up of Dev Stream viewers
  • 00:28:04 @wertle is now going indie [https://patreon.com/wertle/]
  • Making games and streaming the dev process
  • Class streams where @wertle plays less-examined titles, viewing them through a design lens and discusses them with an audience
  • Has guest developers and designers from the indie community on weekly streams
  • 00:30:32 @wertle dispenses some useful advice for aspiring indie game developers
  • 00:30:47 One of @wertle's multiple projects in progress involves catching lightning bugs
  • 00:31:12 Another project from the AI Jam involves encouraging a cat to play [http://wertle.itch.io/cat-trick/]
  • 00:31:38 Also working on a project involving eye tracking and Unreal Engine
  • 00:33:46 @wertle offers to provide Linux support for future projects when possible
  • 00:35:10 Be sure to check out @wertle's Dev streams on twitch.tv [https://twitch.tv/wertle/]

SteamLUG Community Stuff

  • 00:35:50 Past Events
  • Team Fortress 2 [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617204699/]
  • Guns of Icarus Online [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617207628/]
  • Left 4 Dead 2 [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617212173/]
  • Crypt of the Necrodancer (SEED: STEAMLUG01) [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617216467/]
  • 00:40:26 Upcoming Events
  • Altitude [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617219073/]
  • Nuclear Dawn [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617222169/]
  • Sanctum 2 [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617225614/]

  • Magicite [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamlug#events/204128765617229119/] Other Community Stuff

  • 00:40:49 @ValiantCheese sat down with another backer/forum mod and talked about Broken Age [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/editorial-a-conversation-about-broken-age.5306]

  • 00:41:42 SteamLUG community member norbert wrote a proper review of Broken Age [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/review-broken-age-on-linux.5325]
  • 00:42:01 Work continues on the SteamLUG website by @johndrinkwater and Tele (Tele42)
  • More work on convenience features for future contributors
  • Cheese suggests badges for community engagement
  • 00:43:29 Double Fine Game Club is playing Broken Age and chatting with developers [http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/17001/]

Steam/Valve News

  • 00:44:23 Update to the Steam beta client frees the UI when performing a game cache validation [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta#announcements/detail/231151632191178599]
  • 00:46:23 A game developer throws out some interesting insight on Greenlight: “The primary goal of Greenlight is not [for users] to find quality games, but [for Valve] to find games that will sell themselves." [http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/35rn5p/steam_greenlight_is_first_and_foremost_a_test_of/]

Tech News

  • 00:48:46 First look at the Oculus Rift [https://www.oculus.com/blog/first-look-at-the-rift-shipping-q1-2016/]
  • 00:50:13 Oculus have released the recommended system specs for the consumer Rift [https://www.oculus.com/blog/the-rifts-recommended-spec-pc-sdk-0-6-released-and-mobile-vr-jam-voting/] [https://www.oculus.com/blog/powering-the-rift/]
  • Linux and Mac support have been put on hold until the Windows experience is complete
  • 00:51:53 Owlchemy Labs sponsored Austin Room Scale VR Jam [http://owlchemylabs.com/austin-room-scale-vr-jam-recap-a-great-success/]
  • Owlchemy "Chief Scientist" Alex Schwartz juggles in VR with the Vive [http://www.roadtovr.com/yes-you-can-juggle-in-vr-with-the-htc-vive/]
  • 00:54:19 SteamOS update 159 released [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse#announcements/detail/205255934343304309/]
  • 00:55:39 AMD discusses future CPU plans [http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/05/amd-admits-it-cant-be-the-cheaper-solution-will-refocus-on-performance/]
  • 00:56:50 CryENGINE making progress to come to Linux [https://twitter.com/cryengine/status/596696907080163328/] [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/cryengine-gets-an-official-linux-support-announcement.5359/]
  • CryENGINE EULA update and next big release [http://cryengine.com/news/update-from-the-team-15-eula-update-and-next-big-release/]
  • Linux hints of Evolve noted on SteamDB [https://steamdb.info/app/273350/history/]
  • 01:01:05 nVidia released 346.59 driver on their "long-lived branch release" [https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/831875/b/t/post/4527427/#4527427/]

General Gaming News

  • 01:01:45 ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS has left Early Access [http://store.steampowered.com/app/289760/]
  • 01:02:27 Star Wars: Battlecry - A UE4 recreation of Star Wars Battlefront [http://www.moddb.com/games/star-wars-battlecry/]
  • 01:02:55 Uber Entertainment developers are looking to tackle Linux-specific bugs in Planetary Annihilation [https://forums.uberent.com/threads/question-for-linux-users.68150/]
  • 01:03:53 GOG.com Galaxy client is now in public beta - Linux version coming soon [http://www.gog.com/galaxy/]
  • 01:06:55 Star Trek games for Linux on GOG.com [http://www.gog.com/game/star_trek_25th_anniversary] [http://www.gog.com/game/star_trek_judgment_rites/]
  • 01:08:43 GoatZ (Goat Simulator Zombie DLC) released [http://store.steampowered.com/app/344450/]
  • 01:10:23 Klei Entertainment has released Invisible, Inc. [http://store.steampowered.com/app/243970/]
  • 01:14:35 Massive Chalice has a release date of June 1st [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublefine/double-fines-massive-chalice/posts/1230422/]
  • 01:15:56 Previous SteamLUG Cast (s01e04) guests Screwy Lightbulb released a status update on the Maker's Eden Act 2 [http://steamcommunity.com/games/313360/announcements/detail/191745561964442220/]
  • 01:16:18 Civilization: Beyond Earth Winter 2015 patch finally live for Linux [http://blog.gameagent.com/civilization-beyond-earth-gets-major-winter-2015-update/]
  • 01:17:28 Two notable Assault Android Cactus updates since last SteamLUG Cast
  • Update 16 brings an art pass to the remaining two non-boss whitebox levels [http://steamcommunity.com/games/250110/announcements/detail/209758898041869066/]
  • Update 16.5 does an art pass on zone 1 and updates a bunch of enemy textures [http://steamcommunity.com/games/250110/announcements/detail/209759533981298852/]
  • 01:20:01 Satellite Reign Linux builds have been updated to 0.6 [http://steamcommunity.com/games/268870/announcements/detail/178234970455767562] [http://steamcommunity.com/games/268870/announcements/detail/178234970451950251/]
  • 01:23:38 Spec Ops: The Line released (port done by VP) [http://steamcommunity.com/games/50300/announcements/detail/155716972325301490] [http://www.vpltd.com/]
  • 01:26:38 Unmechanical Linux beta is on the horizon [http://steamcommunity.com/app/211180/discussions/0/617335934129424655/]
  • 01:26:58 ARK: Survival Evolved coming to Early Access in June [http://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/]

Crowdfunding

  • 01:29:12 Power Drive 2000 - Retro early-80s, sci-fi inspired arcade racing game [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1420158244/power-drive-2000/]
  • 01:31:06 Darkness Anomaly - Open World Horror survival game [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darknessanomaly/darkness-anomaly-open-world-horror/]
  • 01:32:01 Hero-U has launched a second crowdfunding campaign [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/hero-u-adventure-role-playing-game/]

Sign-off

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