I'm very pleased to announce that Luminesca is now available for Linux operating systems! You can pre-order it now on Desura to get instant access to the pre-alpha builds.
Important note: Unity3D's Linux support is still in very early stages, so several features simply do not work yet. These are trivial issues for the most part, but please be aware of them before purchasing! I apologise for the shoddy nature of this first release but please remember that it is a work in progress and any issues will be fixed in subsequent builds. Read on for a full list.
Known bugs
- No start-up options menu
This is usually a standard feature of all Unity games, and it looks like this just hasn't been implemented by the Unity team yet. I've tried to mitigate the problem wherever possible but it will still be less than ideal for some players, depending on their hardware.- no resolution settings (defaults to 1024 x 768)
- no fullscreen/windowed option (defaults to windowed mode)
- no graphics settings (defaults to Low quality, but you can change it to Medium and High by pressing Escape in-game to bring up the pause menu)
- no controls settings (most inputs are supported though)
- Fairly low frame rate throughout
Maybe this was just my system, but I was getting about 50-75% of the framerate I got under Windows 7 on the same machine. This may simply be down to a lack of graphics optimisation on Unity's part. I'll be doing optimisations across the board near the end of development anyway, but if it turns out to be a major issue I'll bring that forward in the schedule.
- Progression-blocking bug where spotlight stops working
I experienced a bug where I was unable to turn on my spotlight (right mouse button, after transformation early in Chapter 1). I only experienced this once and was unable to reproduce it, but it meant I could not progress as you need it in several areas. Restarting the game should fix it, but please let me know if you experience it. Any additional information would be very useful!
Update: this appears to be common to all operating systems and will be fixed in the next update!
- Web links do not work
This seems to be another Unity feature than is not yet supported. There are a couple of icons when you start up the game which should take you to a URL in your web browser, but they simply do not work. These icons are the "survey" icon on the main menu, and the "?" on the data tracking confirmation. Again, these should hopefully be fixed in time but if not I'll see what I can do!
If you find any more issues I would appreciate any information you can provide! Email LuminescaGame@gmail.com
Not sure what is going on, but when I try to install the game on Ubuntu 64, I get the error message "There are no available releases for you to play." and then in the next window there is nothing to choose from the dropdown-menu. In other words. I can't install it on Linux.
Sorry to hear that! I'll get in touch with the Desura staff and see if I can find out more for you.
In the mean time, have you tried downloading the standalone version? This will give you a zip file which you can just extract and run.
Further investigation suggests that Desura is failing to find the executable. If the game's installed correctly (which I'm presuming it is) you can just browse to it in your Desura install directory, and then run it manually.
Sorry for the inconvenience though. I'll find out if there's anything I can do to fix the issue.
Hi,
Desura support staff have suggested redownloading and reinstalling Desura. If that does not work you could also try installing the open source version of the application.
Let me know how it goes, and sorry again for the inconvenience!
Wow! This looks very charming, and I do love adventure games on Linux. What really sold me was your post on narrative dialogue, and further, your reply to the "brevity is the soul of with" comment.
While it is true (per your Ico example) that there are cases where "less is more", it is also true that brevity is not necessarily the soul of storytelling. Concise is good, direct, unambiguous. However, in your reply, you graciously accepted the advice, while simultaneously asserting your artistic vision.
I, too, immediately equated "intimidation" with aggression, and found myself disagreeing with the poster. The atmosphere of Luminesca doesn't, in my opinion, lend itself to a feeling of peril. This works in other atmospheric adventures (Amanita Designs has been mentioned in some of these posts; a feeling of peril and fragility acts as a counterpoint during much of Botanicula), but Luminesca evokes a lovely feeling of wonder, which I feel would be (at least partially) squashed by constant threat.
Perhaps a different approach than aggression/oppression (which you're avoiding) would be to work toward a similar feeling of wonder and exploration of dark places experienced while playing NightSky by Nicalis, for example (albeit, a different genre).
Now, regarding what I just purchased... will I receive only the alpha from today, or the full release version of chapter 1, or more than one chapter, or something else entirely?
For what it's worth, I was sent here from the "sales" page on Gamingonlinux.com (which I regularly look at for adventure games). I wish you the best, CrowbarSka!
Thanks for taking the time to write this, I really appreciate the in-depth feedback and it's good to know I'm not talking nonsense :)
The current build contains what I would consider an alpha version of Chapter 1. I'm working on Chapters 2-5, which will be added one at a time as they reach alpha. Not a huge amount will be changed to released chapters if I'm honest, unless there are glaring issues which I feel need to be addressed.
When all 5 are complete, I'll do a final round of polishing and bug-fixing, and then the game will be done!