Stellaris from Paradox Development Studios gets a lot right in how it deals with grand space strategy but some parts of it are still being expanded.

Paradox have continued their regular development diaries on Stellaris for the next big upcoming update. Looks like things are again about to get more interesting, especially when it comes to communication and information gathering on other space civilizations.

Spread across three development diaries ( #1 , #2 , #3 ) they go over changes to First Contact, Fog of War, Intelligence Gathering and Espionage systems that will all see a revamp and expansion. I'm excited for all of this, because Stellaris a good story-teller and expanding on that is a great idea to invite more playthroughs.

For First Contact, there's going to be more options to make it a more engaging process with new First Contact Protocols to pick how you deal with such a huge situation that previous Stellaris made pretty normal. The whole system expands from there, with it being a longer process and much more like the dig site system for relics as it goes through stages. Exciting!

Information gathering becomes hugely more important too. The newer Fog of War system will block out more info on other races, making them that little bit more mysterious. Gathering Intel directly is now a bigger part of exploration in Stellaris, as you will need to do it to get much more details on each race. You get an Intel value from 0 to 100 based on lots of things and Intel will be split into different categories including Government, Military, Diplomatic, Economic, Technology. To go along with that, there will be an Intel Report system, allowing you to gain information in a category over time.

Just as exciting is their new Envoys and Spy Networks system coming, allowing you to put spies to work passively gain intelligence needed due to all the other changes. On top of that you can also give them active roles to work in including:

• Subterfuge - Information gathering and operations that improve the spy network itself
• Sabotage - Ruining things (physical or immaterial)
• Manipulation - Replacing the truth with your own improved version
• Provocations - Don't do these, they're bad

Since empire security can now be a bigger problem Paradox are also giving players and AI new technologies to research, like having telepaths walking around reading the minds of everyone around them or tracking implants to ensure increased local security.

All of the changes make Stellaris sound properly interesting again, and a lot more sci-fi. Looking forward to seeing the full announcement on the next update!

You can buy Stellaris on GOG , Humble Store and Steam .

Edgar - Bokbok in Boulzac, a comedy point and click adventure by La Poule Noire that released in early 2020 has been given a big permanent price cut.

A delightfully silly adventure involved a strange old hermit and his pet chicken, who go on an adventure to save their prized squash crops and end up exploring the bright lights of the big city, Boulzac, where an 800 year old fire rages beneath the surface, and weird things are afoot.

Watch video on YouTube.com

Feature Highlight:

• Explore a strange and comic universe, meeting its unhinged (and unforgettable) inhabitants and discovering ancient secrets.
• Unveil the surreal conspiracy holding Boulzac together. Trek above and below the light city.
• Enjoy whip-smart dialogue, surreal adventures and satire.
• Equal parts whimsical and dark: you’ve not met a cosmic horror like this before.

In my previous post talking about the game, I noted how it was a "unique linear point and click adventure with fun characters, a pleasing style and it's definitely worth playing thanks to the Chicken". Quirky characters, a really odd but fun story and easily worth a look if you love short adventures that will only take you 2-3 hours to finish.

Now you can jump in easier too with the price cut from £14.49 to £5.79.

Find it up on Steam .

The developer of Chiaki, a free and open source Remote Play client that supports both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 has gone out with a bit of a bang.

Chiaki 2.1.0 was just released as the "final release of Chiaki for the time being", with it now going into maintenance mode. So they might return to it at some point but for now the feature support is done. The last release wasn't just bug fixes either though, it pulled in some nice new features.

Here's the highlights:

• Added Motion Support (Linux, Android and Switch only)
• Added Rumble
• Android: Added Touchpad Support
• Android: New L1/L2/R1/R2 Buttons and added L3/R3 Buttons
• Android: Added Touch Button Haptic Feedback
• Android: Extended Touch Areas for Buttons
• Android: Fixed Micro-stuttering
• Prefer fixed local Port for Discovery
• Switch: Fixed audio delay
• Added DualSense to Setsu (requires hid-playstation Linux driver)

As long as your home network is good, Chiaki can give you a really nice experience to stream games from your console hardware to your Linux box. Nice to have as many options as possible, especially when Sony don't support their official bits for it on Linux directly.

You can find it here .

After a brand new visual novel that does a little more than walk you through a story? Lotus Reverie: First Nexus looks like a good option taking inspiration from Devil Survivor and Persona. From the same developer who also created the positively rated One Thousand Lies, early user reviews of it seem pretty good overall.

Quite an intriguing story too which should make for interesting reading involving "the Incident" where nearly everyone vanished. During these time the "tulpas" appeared which look Human enough but "they are born through the subconscious mind of another human called the host, and their lives are linked in several different ways". Sounds like things got pretty wild. Check out the trailer:

Watch video on YouTube.com

What's so different about these tulpas? As the story goes:

• Even though tulpas look human , they cannot die by normal means, but, in exchange, their lifespans are very limited.
• If the human host dies, the tulpa will also die, and vice versa . For this very reason, they are forced to cooperate with each other if they want to stay alive.
• The only way to extend their lifespans is by fighting and killing another tulpa and their host in a duel . This is the only moment where a tulpa loses its immortality and becomes vulnerable.

As for the actual gameplay it mixes in the traditional Visual Novel style storytelling with time management, exploration and there's even some turn-based battles. The battle system uses simultaneous turns, so you and the AI pick your options at the same time. Looks like the battle system is optional though, as the Steam page indicates three different modes of play so if you only want the story you don't need to bother with it.

You can buy it on Steam .

Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight is something of a classic, a game from my childhood and it has returned to GOG to give you an easy way to grab it and GOG are running a huge sale on RPGs .

Created by Rob Anderson and originally released in 1991 for the Amiga (my first gaming love) and Moonstone was later ported over to DOS in 1992. If you're interested, GOG also did an interview with the creator. I have fond memories of it, playing both solo and in co-op with my brother, back then it was probably one of the goriest games we had and the real-time battles were great.

You can grab the classic Moonstone here , which GOG have nicely packaged up for Linux with DOSBox.

If real retro classics aren't your thing, do check out the big RPG sale on GOG too including some good stuff like:

• Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition - 80% off
• Shadowrun Trilogy - 75% off
• The Dwarves - 75% off
• Torment: Tides of Numenera - 70% off
• Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark - 66% off
• Vaporum - 60% off
• Iratus: Lord of the Dead - 50% off
• Pillars of Eternity - 50% off
• Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - 50% off
• Tyranny - 50% off
• Hellpoint - 30% off

Möbius Front '83, the difficult turn-based strategy game from puzzle masters Zachtronics has seen a big free expansion adding in quite a lot.

So far, it seems like possibly the only Zachtronics title that hasn't become some kind of instant classic. However, they're clearly trying to make big improvements to it. Personally, I enjoyed it though and it is good but the challenge was tough and that's what put a fair amount of people off. This update is a nice step towards making it more approachable since you can dive in for a battle against the AI whenever you want to learn more, or against others online.

That's not the only addition. Because your ability to play as the enemy "Americans" is only unlocked when you complete the single-player campaign, they also added a brand new Soviet Army faction with over 20 units, including the T-72 Ural (an old tank but cheap tank that can be used to overwhelm your opponent), the paratrooper team (which can deploy directly to any open hex on your side of the map), and the BM-21 Grad (which launches four artillery attacks at a target in a single turn).

Watch video on YouTube.com

"The year is 1983 and the United States of America must defend itself from an enemy it could have never imagined— an America from an alternate universe that will stop at nothing to seize control of the country’s heartland!"

If you missed it you can buy it on Steam and itch.io (which went live 2 days ago) with the GOG release still tagged as coming "soon".

Odin has finally had enough sacrifices and shall be releasing Valheim from Iron Gate AB will enter Early Access with Linux and Windows support on February 2.

What is it? A brutal multiplayer exploration and survival game set in a procedurally-generated purgatory inspired by viking culture. Battle, build, and conquer your way to a saga worthy of Odin’s patronage! With low-poly artwork and a very flexible building system it looks absolutely brilliant. The early builds they had available were seriously promising back in 2018 so I'm personally excited to see how far they've progress with it in that time.

Check out the new absolutely rockin' trailer below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

It has a lot of nice ideas that help set it apart from other similar survival games. With the starting area being more peaceful, allowing you to build up and explore a little with it getting progressively harder as you venture from the centre of the lands. That should suit quite a lot of different people to play together with different styles.

Feature Highlight:

• Huge procedurally-generated world - explore and inhabit mystical lands, from mysterious forests to imposing snow-topped mountain ranges and stunning meadows, complete with their own creatures of legend to battle and wildlife to hunt.
• Co-op multiplayer- - Whether you want to brave the lands alone or venture with trusted allies, Valheim supports independent, player-hosted servers and unlimited world creation.
• Punishing dodge & block based combat system with a wide range of weapons
• Build & sail ships - from flimsy rafts to imposing warships, build legendary vessels to conquer the seas and discover new lands.
• Summon and defeat vengeful primordial bosses of myth and legend, and collect trophies to progress and craft new powerful items
• Flexible house and base building system - raise mead halls, farms, settlements outposts, castles and more.
• Intuitive item crafting - forge the finest weapons and armour, and craft food and mead.
• Dedicated server- for players who want to run a persistent server.

Once the initial kinks are worked out, as no doubt there will be some with it being in Early Access, we might have to get up a community server for this one.

The developer has also been creating Valheim on Linux. So not only does it support Linux, it's being made with it. I always love to see more of that. Lenna's Inception is another recent (that we've written about) example of that.

You can wishlist / follow Valheim on Steam .

Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis)? That's not a piece of Linux gaming hardware last I checked? No but Irena Genesis Metal Fury is a new game coming for the retro console and will provide the ROM file for your favourite emulators.

Here's the thing: I'm a huge retro fan and I grew up with the Sega Mega Drive so it always holds a special place in my early gaming years and helped me really appreciate games. Irena Genesis Metal Fury looks awesome too and the developer, White Ninja Studio, aren't ignoring Linux either.

First, take a look at their trailer:

Watch video on YouTube.com

You can actually grab a demo ROM file from the ongoing Kickstarter campaign , and they provide a link right on the page to grab the BlastEm emulator for Linux and Windows. Always nice to see a developer take notice of Linux enough to provide everything you need right there. It will support the real hardware too.

Seems popular too! Against their goal of €35,000 they've managed to raise over 38,000 and the crowdfunding campaign has 22 still left to go.

More about the gameplay:

During the game, the player can collect different power ups to upgrade their main weapon and equip two modules; one increasing firepower and one to create a magnetic shield protecting the ship from enemy projectiles.

Depending on the situation, it's possible to adapt your ship’s speed to three different levels with a button push. You can set the default speed in the options menu according to your preference. The current speed is indicated on the HUD in the right of the screen for better visibility.

During the progression, there are dangerous mini-bosses. It will be necessary to be well armed and know the different patterns in order to win the fight and continue the stage.

As the player destroys enemies, the special attack bar will increase. Once fully charged, the special attack can be used to clear the screen of all enemies through a powerful four dragon attack inspired by The Revenge of Shinobi.

Know what else is interesting about it? It's built with open source tech too. They're using SGDK , an MIT licensed development kit for the Sega Mega Drive.

Find the Kickstarter here and try out the demo in your favourite emulator.

Lenna's Inception is a top-down Zelda-like action-adventure game with a world that is glitching, with a style that can switch between 8-bit and 32-bit pixel art styles.

It's now been available for a year so Tom Coxon of Bytten Studio has written up a postmortem for how it went, and it was a thoroughly interesting read. First, a refresher on who they are. Bytten Studio was initially just Tom Coxon who previously worked for Chucklefish on titles like Starbound and the multiplayer for Stardew Valley, Coxon was later joined by Jay Baylis who also worked for Chucklefish in the past on titles like Starbound and Wargroove.

To date they've managed to sell 6,800 across itch.io and Steam which isn't a lot for an entire year. However, it's well above average going by the 2019 numbers that Mike Rose of No More Robots put together . Game development for indies is clearly tough and most will likely need a part-time job to ensure they can keep going, something Coxon points out in the Lenna's Inception postmortem.

So above average sales, and thankfully the reception was good overall and on Steam right now it's sat on a "Very Positive".

What's interesting for us here is that 5% of the sales were from Linux, which is again (like sales for indies) higher than the average and higher than the current Linux user share on Steam (see our Steam Tracker ). Not only that, 22% of their sales were from the itch.io store too so that's a reasonable chunk and certainly not to be ignored. Here's what they said about the Linux stats:

Also of note is that 5% of copies were bought by Linux users, which is a lot more than the average for games on Steam. I think this comes down to several factors:

1. The low number of total copies sold means that not many extra Linux users in absolute terms have to find the game to push the relative-terms figure up.
2. Actually reaching out to Linux-specific gaming press and treating Linux as a first-class platform. I do think that indies have yet to really figure out how to market to Linux gamers, who often get ignored or lied to by larger studios. There are more than enough Linux gamers out there to make your indie game a success; the difficulty, as with all platforms, is in reaching them. The difference is that nobody seems to be marketing specifically to Linux gamers. The first to actually succeed at this could maybe double their sales figures or more.

I did all the coding for Lenna’s Inception on Linux (I like a good terminal), so officially supporting the platform has been almost free. Linux gamers are also very good at fixing your bugs for you!

The figure for Mac was a lot lower: .8%. Most likely because we dropped official Mac support prior to release because continuing to support it became a huge burden .

So the Linux version sold approximately 340 copies which at their normal price of £7.19 that would be somewhere around £2,444.6 (it went on sale once previously, so likely a bit lower). For a small indie developer, that can make all the difference.

Interestingly, they gave purchasers of the massive Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality on itch.io a copy of Lenna's Inception too so a further eighty thousand people have a copy of it. This had a fun side-effect, which seemed to actually boost their sales shortly after on Steam.

Concluding the postmortem: sadly overall Leann's Inception was not a commercial success but valuable lessons have been learned from developing and marketing it. Oh and Coxon said "Don't sleep on Linux, itch.io, consoles or localisation. They’re important!".

You can buy Lenna's Inception on itch.io and Steam .

Bytten Studio are currently working on Cassette Beasts , an open-world monster catching RPG built with the free and open source Godot Engine and they will be continuing Linux support with it.