Have you prepared your wallet and stocked your wishlist full of games? The Steam Lunar New Year Sale 2021 has officially begun and so there's a lot to pick from that's currently discounted.

Before getting into the games, this year Valve has updated their Points Shop with a bunch of bundles so if you have plenty of points ready you can now buy big packs ans save 10%. Bundles include: Lunar New Year Oxen Bundle, CS:GO Bundle, DOTA Bundle, Half-Life Bundle and a Portal 2 Bundle.

There's also a Year of the Ox 2021 animated profile, miniprofile, avatar frame, and animated avatar. On top of that there's also the ability to claim a free animated sticker each day of the sale, featuring this year's zodiac star: the Ox!

As per usual, we'll give a few recommendations of games that have Linux builds that deserve some attention:

• Slayaway Camp - 66% off
• SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE - 60% off
• Dicey Dungeons - 50% off
• Tricky Towers - 50% off
• Unrailed! - 50% off
• Breakpoint - 45% off
• Helheim Hassle - 30% off
• Resolutiion - 30% off
• UnderMine - 30% off
• WHAT THE GOLF? - 30% off

Be sure to also look through our Steam Curator for a handy list of titles we've reviewed that we enjoyed (or didn't) if you're in need of further inspiration.

The Steam Lunar New Year Sale 2021 lasts until February 15th, 10 AM Pacific / 6 PM UTC. See more on the Steam store .

Also don't forget that Paradox Interactive also have their own sale with Cities: Skylines currently free to play, and DRM-free store GOG are also doing a huge sale .

Every played the prop hunt games? Most players hide themselves as an object, with a seeker trying to pick them out. Run Prop, Run! plans to offer up another unique take on it. In development by PlayTogether Studio who previously released Mad Experiments: Escape Room.

While the basic idea is the same, it's been adjusted to have a bit more to it. There's some platforming involved and a few special skills too, like props having an ability of shooting out a cloud of smoke to confuse the seeker. Different phases of each game too with props hiding, trying to escape and then becoming an extra hunter.

Watch video on YouTube.com

It's not just enough to spot a player, the hunters actually need to capture them. The hunter seekers are, amusingly, a big hopping gun and you need to hit them with it and stay around them for three seconds for the capture. With everything having googly-eyes stuck to it, I have to say it looks truly hilarious.

Overall it really does sound like a fun and unique twist on prop hunting thanks to the platforming, skills and capture system. Looking forward to seeing the full thing.

You can wishlist / follow on Steam , and gather a few friends together to try the demo. The developer mentioned there's no time limit on the demo, it's staying up for the foreseeable future.

Always on the look out for the next fun strategy game to sink some time into, I came across DEFLECTION and it looks pretty much like a game of Chess with a whole lot of lasers.

Inspired directly by the classic laser chess game Khet, the idea is to move around the board and annihilate enemy pieces with your lasers. There's a number of different pieces that have their own advantages, abilities and weaknesses you need to utilize to take them down. At the end of each turn, you have to shoot and so placement is key to victory.

Watch video on YouTube.com

It actually sounds like it could be very amusing to play through, with a lot of very careful thinking needed. The majority of pieces can move in all directions and rotate 90 degrees for ideal positioning, plus you can use enemy pieces against them and there's special objects in the levels too like portals and mirrors. There's even special green pieces, which both players on the board can control. Lots of ways to win by the sound of it and it could be a good one to watch.

Planned Features:

• Local and Online Multiplayer.
• Tutorial mode against the AI which goes through rules and tactics.
• Play against the AI!
• A lot of scenarios/maps designed to challenge you, some having unique pieces only available in them.
• Many different pieces with advantages, downsides, abilities and more.
• 3D Camera with full control.
• Steam Achievements and stats.

You can wishlist / follow on Steam . The developer mentioned they planned to have a demo available during the upcoming Steam Game Festival in the Summer.

Here's another developer interview for you! This time we chatted with Decemberborn Interactive about their game Cathedral.

GOL: First of all, can you introduce yourself and your studio?

"My name is Eric Lavesson, and I'm the lead developer of a Swedish game development studio called Decemberborn Interactive. We're a small company, consisting of three people working with a few talented freelancers. The three of us work together at another company as well for our day jobs, and spend some evenings, weekends and various spare time working on games under the Decemberborn banner.

I started the company in December 2014 (So, the company was "born in December". Coming up with company names might not be my forté). To date, we've released one game, which is called Cathedral. It was in development for about 5 years (part-time) and we released it on Linux, OSX and Windows in October 2019."

GOL: How did you get into making video games?

"I've always been interested in writing my own games; It’s a long and weird story which has followed me through all my computers, consoles and programming languages that I’ve dabbled in over the years. When I was 9 years old, my parents had an Atari 600XL. It came with a binder full of programming examples in BASIC which I happily typed in to see what happened. I made my first (extremely crude and unfun) text adventures back then. A few years later, I got an Atari ST, where I dabbled a bit with Motorola 68k assembler. I modified existing examples that I got my hands on through magazines and shareware floppy disks, but ultimately it was a bit too much for me at that age. Later, I got a hold of STOS - an implementation of BASIC made just for games! I created a few really simple platformers and demos with this and had a lot of fun throughout the years. Even later, when my Atari got switched out for a PC, I continued games in QBasic for a while and switched more and more into C (and later C++) and assembly in DOS, where things got way more interesting. All of this of course became even more exciting when you started getting access to OpenGL and DirectX a few years down the line.

Long story short; all of this drove me towards a career in software development, and even though I ended up specializing in rendering and visualization in my dayjob, I never actually released a game until Cathedral. Games and game programming has always been a huge positive part of my life, but releasing a game was just a distant dream for a long time. At one point I felt like I needed to rectify that and get something out there, which is when Decemberborn was created. I also had the luck of meeting people with the same mindset that I could collaborate with."

GOL: Your first title, Cathedral, released back in October 2019 - tell us a little about the game

"Cathedral is ultimately an NES-styled adventure game, inspired a lot by Metroid and similar games (so a Metroidvania, if you will). In depth, it’s essentially stuff that I loved from a bunch of games, both old and new ones, put together into one game. There’s inspiration from a ton of NES games such as Wizard & Warriors, Zelda II, Metroid, Simon’s Quest and so many more, but also from various games on other platforms such as the Wonder Boy series. I could most likely list inspirations that we drew on for quite some time, but ultimately I think what all of these games have in common is that there’s a sense of adventure in them. You’re on an adventure, figuring things out as you go, unveiling a world, one layer at a time. And I think that’s the essence that we wanted to capture in Cathedral as well."

Watch video on YouTube.com

GOL: How did the release go overall, how did you find the reception to it? What valuable lessons have you learned about it?

"The release went well. We had a simultaneous release on Steam and GOG across all platforms (Linux, OSX, Windows). We patched the game fairly often the first week due to some minor bugs, but I don’t think we encountered anything huge or way too unsettling.

The reception has been very positive so far! Some of the initial player feedback encouraged us to slightly redesign and add some rooms and items to avoid unnecessary backtracking. So far, people seem to enjoy it, which makes me happy!"

GOL: How has the split been across the different platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows) for your sales of Cathedral?

"Windows is by all accounts the largest platform, taking almost all of the sales. Linux is sadly less than 2% of the sales, with OSX being only slightly stronger. The good news is that this won’t affect any future decisions for us to release on Linux in any way at all, since we do all of our development on Linux machines. We’ll always want to release for as many platforms as possible, but Linux is our main development platform, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon."

GOL: What has been the most challenging part of developing and releasing Cathedral?

"You’ll probably get different answers depending on who you ask in the team, and I don’t know if this is the type of answer you’re expecting, but for me I’d have to say the psychological stress that I put on myself developing the game. This project became extremely personal for me. I put my soul into creating both the engine and the game, and not always in a healthy way. Cathedral was too easy for me to get consumed by; For long periods of time, I didn’t sleep enough, I didn’t eat regularly and I could literally sit in front of the computer from the moment I woke up until I went to sleep. Long-term, this puts a lot of stress on both your body and your mind, and it reached a point where it simply didn’t work anymore, and pretty much all development halted for a long period of time.

Setting up a company, building custom engines, learning how the Steam and GOG SDKs work. All of these are more or less complex things, but they can be broken down, understood and solved one step at a time. If there’s anything that ever actually truly threatened the development of the game, it was my mental state. I could talk A LOT about mental health in software projects, but ultimately, taking care of yourself should be a priority."

GOL: As we understand, Cathedral was developed on Linux, could you tell us about your workflow on this? How does it compare to developing on Windows?

"When it comes to programming languages, pretty much no difference at all except the platform-specific abstractions. As long as you avoid platform-specific code in the wrong places, you should be good. The BIG difference will be the tools available, and I think it comes down to what you prefer to work with.

Regarding programming language: We wrote our engine in C++ and made it as portable as possible. We have the same codebase with platform abstractions in some places (such as filesystem access, for instance). These are mostly things you need to consider when porting to consoles anyway, so developing one Linux and building something that should also work on Windows and OSX helped prepare for that.

Regarding tools: My entirely personal take on this is that everything just feels less clunky on Linux. I have a fairly lightweight IDE, and I have a powerful terminal where I can express pretty much anything I need within a matter of seconds. And if it’s something longer I’ll just put it in a shell script. It’s awesome and I love it.

While working on console ports, we did have to switch over to Windows because of some SDKs and tools not being supported on Linux. And I honestly missed Linux every second I worked in Windows. I don’t know how many times I accidentally opened up a command prompt and accidentally tried to execute a bash script, or pipe the output from grep somewhere, and so on…

I’m sure this comes down to preference and how used you are to the tools you have at your disposal, but the toolchains that are available to me in Linux just feels like home, and I know how to utilize them well."

GOL: Any advice for developers getting into making and releasing their first game?

"I’ve had the feeling that I’ve been guessing all the way on how to handle things, since I’ve never released a game before, so I might be the wrong person to ask, but this is probably what I can think of:

• Take care of yourself, physically and mentally (I can’t stress this enough!)
• Don’t sit on your own ideas and try to perfect them. Try them out, ask people what they think. Have people play your game as early as possible, even if initially just friends and family. You’d be surprised how people play your game, and how you might want to change the design to take that into account.
• Share stuff and be active. Show pictures, videos, gameplay. Doesn’t have to be on social media - show a friend or a coworker, or post on a gamedev forum. Whatever works.
• Ask questions on forums. Ask for opinions and ideas. I sucked at this for the longest time, thinking that what I was working on wasn’t really worth showing off just yet. You’d be surprised over how willing complete strangers are to help you become better at both game design and programming! And, if you get the chance, help someone back :)
• If you have a choice, don’t go at it alone. It’s so much better to be two persons (or more), especially when brainstorming ideas, but also for moral support when things get tough."

GOL: What’s next for Decemberborn Interactive?

"Lately, we’ve been porting Cathedral to the Nintendo Switch. We’re currently working with Elden Pixels (the devs that created Alwa’s Awakening and Alwa’s Legacy) as our publishers to bring the game to the Switch, which is scheduled to happen very soon.

Apart from that, we’re actually building a completely new game engine, based loosely on the engine we wrote for Cathedral, incorporating all the things we learned along the way. It’s at the point where it’s mature enough to build prototypes in, and that’s exactly what we are doing. We have a few different ideas that we want to explore for our next game. It’ll take some time before we have anything to announce, but rest assured that it’ll have day 1 Linux support!"

You can buy Cathedral for Linux on GOG and Steam .

Want to see more of our interviews? All our article tags lead to a dedicated page. Check out the interviews here .

Linux hardware vendor and Pop!_OS Linux distribution maker System76 are getting closer to releasing their custom Keyboard, and they've begun teasing out a lot more info on it.

Firstly it looks like the entire code for it is now live on GitHub which goes over quite a lot of detail about it. The System76 Launch Configurable Keyboard is "designed to provide the ultimate user controlled keyboard experience, with open source mechanical and electrical design, open source firmware and associated software, and a large number of user configuration opportunities".

Some shots (click for gallery)

The units are being manufactured by System76 directly in their Denver, Colorado facility just like they do with their Thelio cases. The chassis for the System76 Launch Configurable Keyboard is milled from two solid blocks of aluminium, then powder coated for the fit and finish. They say that each "pocket, port, and hole is designed and precisely machined so that swapping switches and plugging in cables is easy and secure for the user".

Are you a fan of colourful patterns? Well good news on that front as each switch has an RGB LED that is independently controlled and so you can pick from different patterns. The whole configuration suite is open source too with the keyboard-configurator also up on GitHub and the firmware will be easily updatable with the fwupd project.

Would you be looking to buy one? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

For The King: Lost Civilization Adventure Pack is the first ever expansion to For The King, a challenging blend of Strategy, JRPG styled combat, and roguelike elements.

Released originally back in 2018, For The King is actually really good and its certainly a game that deserved to have a whole lot more content to play through. Popular too, as they confirmed they've now seen over 3 million players (although that is across all platforms).

"This hard-as-nails fantasy experience melds challenging turn-based combat, deep roleplaying game progression and procedurally generated maps, quests and events to ensure no playthrough is the same. This potent gameplay mix is matched with a captivating artstyle and options for players to tackle the campaign on their own or in co-op with friends."

This Lost Civilization Adventure Pack gives you a brand new Jungle Falls zone, two new playable character classes and lots more. Check out the trailer below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

What to expect from it:

• Explore the lost Jungle Falls Realm - A lush jungle forest beckons adventurers to explore its dense wood, but what dangers lurk under its thick mysterious canopy?
• Two New Playable Characters - Go on the offensive with the glory-seeking Gladiator or harness dark energy from the heavens with the wise Astronomer!
• Spectacular Arena Battles - For Glory! Defeat waves of enemies before a cheering crowd in the new gladiator arenas.
• New Weapons - Throw caution to the wind with devastating dual-wield weapons or gamble on the destructive power of the versatile wands.
• New Enemies and Loot - More than 90 new items closely guarded by over 50 new enemies. From giant snakes to petrifying golems, the rewards are great but the stakes are even higher.

You can pick up a copy from Humble Store or Steam , the Linux version is not on GOG .

While Google hasn't seen the best news with Stadia lately after stopping first-party games and Terraria being cancelled , the store continues on with some fresh announcements of new games, updates and some sales.

Firstly, a quick look at the new games. For those subscribing to Stadia Pro, the just released horror adventure Little Nightmares II is going to be another game you can claim free with the sub. Additionally, Pikuniku , the colourful and quirky platformer is now live to buy in the Stadia store.

Now Stadia also has another free to play game, as Crayta now has a Starter Edition available for everyone. Allowing anyone to jump in to create and play games, plus it has expanded with the Stadia Crowd Play Beta feature which allows people to jump right into the action if someone is streaming the game to YouTube:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Crayta will also be heading to the Epic Store for the main Windows release, so no Linux desktop support - Stadia only. It will have cross-platform play and cross-progression so either way a nice boost in player numbers perhaps.

As for game updates PAC-MAN Mega Tunnel Battle got a new addon that gives new themes, special items, new player icons and character accessories. Destiny 2 also continues to be updated for Stadia with the Season of the Chosen now live but no word yet on the cross-play for it.

Something that has been asked a lot in the Stadia community is for FIFA to come, probably the biggest Football game around. Well, it's now confirmed. FIFA 21 arrives on Stadia on March 17.

There's also quite a few games on sale you can see on Stadia.com .

Ready for one more attempt? Paradox Interactive and Paradox Tinto have announced he newest expansion to Paradox's flagship grand strategy game about the early modern world with Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan.

Leviathan offers new tools that allow you to play “tall” with smaller and more focused realms with a few centres of power. Paradox aren't yet giving away everything that's in it but they did say it also has a host of other changes to well-established game features like Regencies and Colonies. Additionally you will get new ways to quickly develop your capital, drawing resources and power from vassals or newly conquered territories, and allows you to build beyond your province's construction limit if you are willing to pay the price.

Watch video on YouTube.com

As per usual, a big free update for everyone will be dropping at the same time as we've come to expect from anything Paradox do. This free update will rework  the Southeast Asian and Australasian maps, with new nations, new cultures and new religions offering up plenty of new ways to play through.

You can wishlist / follow Leviathan on Steam .

Loop Hero, an upcoming mash-up of genres that blends together a roguelike adventure with deck-building and a little auto-battling in a very unique game mechanically is now launching on March 4. There's also a limited time demo up.

Confirmed to have Linux support at release, Loop Hero has been making some waves through various previews done by other publications with plenty giving it high marks. For good reason too, this could be the next great destroyer of time that makes you stay up late with weary eyes.

Watch video on YouTube.com

Feature Highlight:

• Infinite Adventure: Select from unlockable character classes and deck cards before setting out on each expedition along a randomly generated loop path. No expedition is ever the same as the ones before it.
• Plan Your Struggle: Strategically place building, terrain, and enemy cards along each loop to create your own dangerous path. Find balance between the cards to increase your chances of survival while recovering valuable loot and resources for your camp.
• Loot and Upgrade: Strike down menacing creatures, recover stronger loot to equip on the fly and unlock new perks along the way.
• Expand Your Camp: Turn hard-earned resources into campsite upgrades and gain valuable reinforcements with each completed loop along the expedition path.
• Save the Lost World: Overcome a series of unholy guardian bosses over a grand saga to save the world and break the time loop of the Lich!

Having no direct control is a bit odd at first but that's part of the charm and uniqueness of it. That doesn't mean you're defenceless though, far from it. You are in control, of most things apart from the hero. They're looping over whatever you place down on the map and using whatever tools you've equipped for them. It starts off extremely simple, carefully adding a new layer to the tasty loop over time with more mechanics and more tiles to place down with unique properties. Then you get into the camp building and so much more. There's so much crammed into it!

Right now you can try it out too, as it has a limited time demo available for the Steam Game Festival. It's one of the most interesting games in the entire event so do try it out. I've been quite captured by it because it's so thoroughly weird and unique, a bit too easy to get absorbed into as you watch everything unfold.

I like it so much I need more, a lot more.

Follow Loop Hero on Steam ready for release on March 4 and it's also 15% off to pre-order.