Cassette Beasts is the in-development title from Bytten Studio (previously Lenna's Inception), which is an open-world monster capture / transformation RPG inspired by Pokemon Fusion.

Being made in Godot Engine , it's a very promising looking game with a fun take on the monster capture genre with the spin that you transform into these creatures using retro cassette tapes. Confirmed to be supporting Linux and Windows at release, check out some of their latest teaser footage showing some open world exploration:

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Looks like NVIDIA might be ready for the next push in cloud gaming with their GeForce NOW service, as it's even easier to run it on Linux. What is it? GeForce NOW allows you to play games you already digitally own on other platforms, on whatever device you have available. It hooks in with Steam, EA / Origin, Epic Games and more.

Back in August , NVIDIA officially opened it up to Chromebooks by letting people playing with it in the browser. For everyone else, it needed you to spoof your user agent string to act like it was a Chromebook. It was a small thing but still a minor nuisance. That now, appears to no longer be needed.

With nothing more than Chromium installed on Linux, GeForce NOW appears to just work. Here's a video to show just how easy it now is:

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It makes sense they would roll this out to more people, as it does then make it more of a proper competitor to Stadia too. It reduces a barrier for their service, since pretty much everyone will have a web browser and not everyone wants to download yet another app for launching games. Having it in the browser really does open it up to more people and more platforms (like Linux!). Just keep in mind this might not be intentional from NVIDIA, however going back to using the user agent spoofing will get you going again if they move to lock it down once again.

Head over to play.geforcenow.com if you wish to try it.

Today the X.Org Developers Conference (XDC 2020) begins and there's a couple of interesting talks worth checking out, especially if you like to follow OpenGL and Vulkan. What is the event? The X.Org Developers Conference is the event for developers working on all things open graphics related including in the Linux kernel, Mesa, DRM, Wayland, X11 and so on.

Due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, it's going to be quite a streamlined virtual event spread across three days from September 16 to September 18. There's not a lot of presentations being done, however, all of them sound really interesting. Here's a quick overview of what events are coming:

• Overview of the open source Vulkan driver for Raspberry Pi 4
  • September 16 @ 1:20pm CEST / 11:20am UTC
• About OpenGL and Vulkan interoperability
  • September 17 @ 5:05pm CEST / 3:05pm UTC
• Ray-tracing in Vulkan: A brief overview of the provisional VK_KHR_ray_tracing API
  • September 17 @ 5:35pm CEST / 3:35pm UTC
• Quick GL and Vulkan tests with shader_runner and Amber
  • September 17 @ 6:30pm CEST / 4:40pm UTC
• How the Vulkan VK_EXT_extended_dynamic_state extension came to be
  • September 18 @ 1:50pm CEST / 11:50am UTC

You can see the full schedule here with more info and all of the videos from this year's conference will be up on YouTube . They usually split each one into a dedicated video, along with each full day having it's own livestream video. Watch each one right here on GOL, we're making it easy for you below.

Day 1

Watch video on YouTube.com

If you prefer direct links to each livestream, here they are:

1. Day one
2. Day two
3. Day three

You can still get involved even though it's virtual, as they will be chatting and taking questions on IRC. You can join these if you're interested on freenode .

• ##xdc2020 for general discussion
• ##xdc2020-QA for questions directed to presenters

You can also view the official event site here .

Are you a huge Minecraft fan? Get ready for a big load of news to come in as Mojang have announced a new Minecraft Live event happening on October 3.

Previously called MINECON and other names, this is the yearly Minecraft event which they're now sticking with calling Minecraft Live. Their plan is to go live on 12 ET / 4PM UTC at minecraft.net/live - it's going to be a bit different to other celebrations since the global pandemic is still very much a thing. The Minecraft team are calling it amusingly just "an event that will happen" because they can't do everything they originally wanted. Still you can expect info on updates, new mob votes and the usual excitement.

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As a parent to a Minecraft-obsessed smaller version of myself, I will be watching along so you can expect GOL to have a write-up of anything interesting announced for the Java Edition which is cross-platform for Linux, macOS and Windows. You can buy Minecraft on the official site .

Mojang also announced that their planned 'Minecraft Festival' is delayed until 2022.

Stop. It's hammer time. Hammer Dongers time to be exact, as the currently free local multiplayer arena battler has a new update out and it's as frantic as ever. I will also never not chuckle at the name.

For those that missed our previous articles on it, the game is quite simple. It's a local multiplayer brawler that pits 2-4 players in small arenas with big hammers. There's also a number of special weapons to take each other down with. The key part of the fun here is the map can be blown up and it's part of what makes it so fun. Run after each other, smack the hammer down and hopefully send your opponent into the dark abyss.

In the latest update released a few days ago, there's now a shadowy figure that appears when a timer runs out in each match who makes the entire map fall apart. This makes it even more of an absolute riot to play.

Check out our latest little preview video:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Additional improvements added in this update include: a score counter on the screen during matches, a visual indicator that flows across the map if your hammer strike will split the map, there's a bunch of new audio and various other bug fixes and smaller improvements.

Hammer Dongers has seen a slow and steady few releases over the last year, that's turned it into a wonderful local multiplayer experience to add into your collection. Shows how a simple idea can be done so brilliantly. I'm also very keen to see what sort of single-player they eventually add in which is planned.

You can download and play it free from itch.io .

Taking inspiration from Left 4 Dead and Escape From Tarkov, blending together elements for casual and hardcore gaming crowds, 314 Arts have announced Projekt Z.

Developed in Unity, they've already confirmed their plan to fully support Linux with Projekt Z and even quite early on, it's looking pretty impressive from their first announcement dev-blog style video on it. Their aim, from what they tried to explain about it is to have a mix of story and tactical shooting along with hub building and people recruitment. While a small team, they're using some of the more advanced rendering bits in Unity to make it look rather modern and slick.

Watch video on YouTube.com

The tactical side of it definitely sounds interesting, from the minimal HUD to weapons based on magazines so if you reload with ammo left eventually you pull that previous magazine back out to reload with. Along with weapon jamming, stealth elements, leaning around corners, weapon recoil and so on.

Once there's more info out there on it, we will let you know. We shall be following along given the promise.

Dark Envoy is the next title from Event Horizon, creator of Tower of Time, and there's a bunch of new gameplay available in a fresh video.

Before that though, as a quick reminder. Dark Envoy is a non-linear RPG to offer exploration of a vast world with an emphasis on tactical combat layered with lore and strategy. A continuation of Event Horizon’s attempt, which began with the studio’s debut title Tower of Time, to shatter long-standing RPG tropes and to create something unique in the process.

When originally asked about Linux support for Dark Envoy, last year they said that after the effort they put in with Tower of Time and with their experience now they will continue Linux support. Catching up with them after the new gameplay video went up, they said to GOL that Linux is still planned unless something impossible comes up "due to strange linux variations". So, the usual. Anyway, check out the 9 minute footage below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

In addition to the new footage, they also mentioned a delay to the release. It's now going to be in 2021, with an aim to be around April / May time. They won't release until they are "fully satisfied with the quality, to ensure that Dark Envoy is a game worthy of your time and which you will remember playing".

You can follow Dark Envoy on Steam .

The Mane6 development team have posted a short but slightly amusing update on the upcoming Linux port of the fighting game Them's Fightin' Herds.

As a brief reminder: it was originally funded via an IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign with an initial funding goal of $436K, which was way back in 2015. Linux and macOS support were stretch-goals at $486K, meaning they would only happen if it hit that goal. Once the campaign finished, they managed to raise around $586,346.

It then went into Early Access in February, 2018 and released proper in May, 2020. So we've been waiting a little while for the Linux support to arrive. On Twitter , the official Mane6 Dev Team put up a video to mention "Wanted to show off some progress on the Linux port! Yes, this is running natively on Linux! Though... we do have some... polish, left to do...":

Looks good. Ship it! Joking aside, the issue there is obvious and quite amusing to see in action but it's nice to see an official update on how the game is coming along.

You can buy it from Humble Store and Steam .