As Michael mentioned, I’ve been involved in Linux gaming for many many years, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. Games have always been a passion of mine and working on and with them possibly more so. I’m so excited to be at the helm of a company that I’ve loved for so very long and a company whose future I’m certain is bright.

I’ve delayed posting this greeting message for a few days, because one of the most common remarks I have noticed since Michael and I began discussing this transition is that LGP hasn’t given enough feedback to the community. I wanted to see the responses to Michael’s resignation and of course the announcement of my arrival so that I can answer questions I saw being posted on various forums, news sites and this very blog.

I have great plans for Linux Game Publishing. Since some of them coincide with queries that people have posed either directly to me in our IRC channel or in comments online, I will respond to them now:-

Regarding Michael: He is not disappearing completely, but will be working with me for some time in an advisory capacity – his knowledge and experience in the Linux gaming world is unparalleled as I’m sure you’d all agree. As well as working with me, Michael will occasionally be contributing to new and old titles. Linux games are still a huge passion of his and I don’t think we’d be able to keep him away from the code, even if we were crazy enough to want to ;)

Digital distribution channels: This medium certainly has a strong future and is only going to grow. I personally have accounts at online stores such as Steam, GOG, Desura, Gamer’s Gate, Gameolith and others. Expanding digital distribution is definitely a priority for me. I have already had tentative discussions, begun setting up and getting ready to distribute through a few big names in Linux digital distribution.

Our current shipping of physical CDs and DVDs: We’ve admittedly had problems with this and it’s something I’ve been working on in the background since Michael and I started having discussions around his handover. Once our new distribution channels are in place, those of you that have seen delays in delivery shouldn’t ever experience that again.

We’re going through a period of transition at the moment and as much as I’d love everything to happen “right now”, there’s a lot of work to be done. I’m very aware that there are unhappy people out there – you are my primary focus right now. Linux Game Publishing is a great company, with massive potential and I’m truly excited to be a part of its history in the making.

As for new games: Yes, we have some in the pipeline! With all that has happened, there have obviously been delays. We have two announced titles that everyone is aware of, namely Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy and Bandits: Phoenix Rising. I’m happy to say that there will be an announcement regarding one of them soon. There are also other unannounced titles we’re working on and I’m really looking forward to reaching the point where we can announce those to you.

LGP has a strong team of great programmers, that have stood with Michael and worked with him through the years. Some have been around for a while and we also have some new faces. I am incredibly grateful to our team for the hard work that they have put in, contributing towards what we currently have and will be producing going forward.

Keep a keen eye on us here at LGP, you won’t be disappointed ;)

Clive Crous
CEO – Linux Game Publishing

There is only really one new common issue this month:

Sacred – problem starting a new game on Open Internet multiplayer option

This problem seems to affect people with certain network setups that are designed to block network traffic, such as symmetric NAT or Firewall systems.

You can find out your current setup’s networking facilities by downloading our Test Tool and checking that the networking section. If it says that networking is only available via TURN, then you are going to experience this problem.

The way around this problem for the moment, simply, is patience. The game will connect in the end, although it can take between 30 and 60 seconds to negotiate its way past your network security systems. We are working on a way to speed this up, and we hope to have a patch out soon which will address this problem.

Welcome to a new monthly report for the LGP Blog. Here, I’m going to run though the common problems people have reported over the last month here at the customer services team, and report on how these have been resolved, or how to work around the problems. We are not addressing all the issues, just the top two or three that lots of people have had problems with, those that we think it would be helpful for people to be able to read up on!

X3: Reunion – Problems on a number of ATI cards – Patch Available

This problem manifests itself with the game crashing after the loading screen when starting a new game on a small number of ATI based graphics cards.

Finally after weeks of trying, we have managed to reproduce the error on one of our test servers. Our technical team have finished working on the solution and the patch is now available for everyone to download in our updates section.

X3: Reunion – Problem with the game not starting

This problem is one reported by a number of people who have been trying to run X3 using open source drivers for their graphics cards. Unfortunately, at this point in time, neither the ATI or Nvidia open source graphics drivers are capable of running X3, due to the requirement of Shader Model 3.

You can find out if your current setup can run X3 by downloading our Test Tool and checking that the Shader Level reported by the test tool is at least 3.0, and that Direct Rendering is possible.