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

Back in the day, 1999, around august time to be exact, I was working for a fairly horrible company in London. I had been a beta tester on Loki’s Civilisation: Call to Power, but I couldn’t easily buy a copy from anywhere in the UK. Finally, a friend and I ordered it from the states. We waited weeks for the delivery, and finally a month or so after ordering, it arrived.

While I was waiting, I muttered and grumbled while at work about how I didn’t like waiting for weeks for a game, and someone in the office said to me ‘hey, why don’t you start up a company in England then, selling games for Linux.

I thought about it for a bit, and that evening, I registered tuxgames.com

I spent the next few months writing the website. It was a very basic website (some people accuse the current site of being basic, the old one was much much worse). I spent about £300 buying 5 copies each of the 4 Loki games that were available at that time.

Then I was ready, and at 10 seconds past midnight, Jan 1st 2000, the site launched, making us probably the first new company of the new millennium. I wasn’t there to watch it launch, I set up a crontab to remove the pre-launch index.html, and I was up at Colchester Castle watching the millennium fireworks {:-) I got back a couple of hours later and found that it had launched, so I sat back to wait for the orders to come rolling in.

It took days, and I admit I was getting a bit fidgety waiting to see if anyone would order. Mon, 03 Jan 2000 23:42:44 GMT is the timestamp in the database of the first order. For privacy reasons I will not name the individual who was the first to order, but if you ordered then, and you are in Morcambe, Lancs, England, you were our first order. He only ever ordered twice…

I used to run Tux Games more as a sideline while I kept up my day job, it didn’t sell too many copies, but there was a steady flow, and I was enjoying it. We sold mostly Loki titles, but a few others came along occasionally, games like Theocracy, or Reel Deal Slots, or the games from BlackHoleSun. The guys over at linuxgames.com and the Linux Game Tome had both spotted the domain before launch (how they found it, I do not know), and they gave us some great publicity, and really helped us get going.

Throughout 2000, we forged a close relationship with Loki, helping them out with their beta tests (we handled their beta test preorders, as their store was not set up to do it), and we had advance access to most of their releases.

During 2001, Tux Games grew quite quickly, there were three of us doing part time work on the company, and I was set to quit my day job to start on it full time. I had arranged to do that, when Loki started to hit the financial troubles that were to prove its downfall.

Loki almost took Tux Games down with them, when they withdrew our credit line, because they needed the money from us immediately, and we were left needing to find a LOT of money for games that we had sold in preorders, but our credit card processor had not sent us the money for yet. Thanks to a couple of friends who trusted me to max out their credit cards for a couple of weeks, we survived. My friends got their money back, and Tux Games stayed in business. I was fairly annoyed at Loki for breaking their word and putting us in the position though.

Although we never had advance notice that Loki was about to declare bankruptcy, we could kindof feel it in the air. At that point I had quit my job and was working full time on Tux Games, and the horrible thought crossed my mind that, if Loki went under, Tux Games would have nothing left to sell, and I would have to go and get myself a new job! I didn’t like the sound of that at all!

I had heard of a few games that Loki had been talking about maybe porting, and so I got in contact with Creature Labs, and Cyberlore, who were both really quite helpful. We got our first 2 publishing deals, and I launched Linux Game Publishing on Oct 15th 2001, and announced our first title on 12th of November, Creatures: Internet Edition.

LGP was officially in business.

Shadowgrounds is a third person sci-fi RPG shooter set in the late 21st century. An alien race has devastated the colony on Ganymede, leaving few survivors. The story picks up a few hours after the attack, with you playing a lone survivor struggling to survive.

The game is the first commercial game on Linux to take advantage of Nvidia’s PhysX engine, giving the ability to do the high intensity number crunching needed for physics calculations on the graphics card, leading to a highly realistic and deformable environment.

The game has been in internal testing at LGP for several months and is now considered  ready for beta. We will be making the announcement on our main website on how to apply for the Beta within the next few hours.

Shadowgrounds Survivor was originally developed for Windows by FrozenByte, a Helsinki based development company.