Late in the porting of Shadowgrounds Survivor, it became fairly clear that it would be little work to also bring the original Shadowgrounds game to Linux. We discussed it with Igios, who were doing all the hard work, and we decided that we would also release Shadowgrounds.

But, being the sneaky Linux Game Publishing company that we are, we decided to keep it secret. I guess, I just wanted to give everyone a nice surprise, and get a new game out that none of you were expecting. As it has the same game core as Survivor, it didn’t need the extensive beta test, making it one of the few times we would be able to release a game without a beta to let you all know it was on the way.

Later this week we will be releasing Shadowgrounds Survivor, and so we felt that the best thing to do for Shadowgrounds is to make it a budget title on release. We have decided to set the retail price at just £10, partly because it was easier to port and so the price being lower is fair. Also, and I’ll be honest here, I want lots of people to buy it, get hooked on the gameplay, and just feel that urge to buy the higher priced Survivor. I’m not going to claim to be completely altruistic, we ARE a business afterall {:-)

Now, one thing that will disappoint some players is that neither Shadowgrounds, nor Survivor, come with the co-op multiplayer option that Windows has. This is because of a conflict in the game design, and the design of SDL. It is actually technically impossible to provide the multiplayer (which on Windows requires two keyboards and two mice) with the architecture as it stands, and by the time we realised this, it would have required a complete rewrite of the whole game core to get this working.

However, good news, is that the next version of SDL will contain all we need to get co-op into the game, and Igios has committed to releasing a patch to provide this functionality as soon as SDL can do it.

Shadowgrounds has taken a lot of dedication from the guys at Igios, so I’m counting on the community to do their bit, and buy the game, give them some thanks for the long hours of work they have put in to bring this game to you. You can buy it boxed, or it will be available to download, either for purchase or rental.

We expected to have had it ready weeks ago, but some last minute issues caused some unexpected delays. The network layer, Grapple, had an error in how it communicated through certain types of firewalls and NAT routers, which meant that only around 30% of players would be able to access the multiplayer features of the game on the PenguinPlay servers.

But that is all past us now, and the game is in production! The game also has a nice new large map insert being produced with the game, just as a small bonus extra! We are also working on the finalising of the demo, which we hope to have available before stock of the game arrives, so you can try it out before buying.

Jets’n'Guns is just like the old space shooters, like R-Type, that kind of thing, but with modern graphics, and a soundtrack that, well, Ive added the intro music to my playlist on my mp3 player!

We’ve also added an extra bonus over the Windows version, with PenguinPlay highscore tables. For those of you that don’t know what PenguinPlay is, it is our online game matchmaking and highscore service, designed to bring Linux gamers a little closer together.

In Jets’n'Guns you take the part of an ex war-hero with no wars left to fight. Hiring out your services for pay, you must fly your ship through over 40 levels of enemies, some in space, some around planets. Your ship is fully customisable, with dozens of weapons and upgrades. As the game progresses, a storyline unfolds, and by the end, you aren’t just a mercenary, you are saving the whole universe!

But I won’t spoil the ending for you. You’ll just have to play it to find out how it ends!