itch.io

(We didn't forget you Linux guy, soon...)

Lol, I would hope there's multitude of us, just maybe not all so vocal. :) Glad to see the project shaping up!

My text parser inexperience really shows itself. :) Disappearance of the cursor threw me off, but it works now. Thanks.

In that case, I took the liberty of testing the demo natively using latest stable AGS and everything works fine aside from two bugs, which I suspect might not be Linux-specific as both of them also occur running Windows executable in Wine. 

The first one is minor and involves a cursor changing to "Press <\> to resume" upon returning to main menu after concluding the tutorial. The other one is a showstopper as the pointer completely disappears and Nancy cannot be moved even with the keyboard after finishing the dinner.

Any plans for the Linux release?

Thanks a bunch! :) If you need help testing natively, I'll be glad to jump in.

Would you care to make a Linux build too, as the engine you're using supports it?

Will you also be releasing a full version here and perhaps on Linux?

Would GrandMa care to work on Linux?

Is Linux port still in the works?

This beauty seems like just what we need. Do you ever plan to release it on Linux?

Any chance of a Linux port?

But you still do not see, that there is no such thing as private messages on a website. They have to have moderators to intervene.

If the system is implemented properly, they are private in the sense that they are accessible only to the communicating parties until reported and even then, only the portion in question is made available to the moderators, not the whole history of everything that user(s) wrote to everybody, unlike public ones.

That was in response to your reasoning, that those messages would be "private" and hence would not need moderation and some simple features would hand wave all the issues. At least that is what I understood from you. You invoked something like that to the explanation that such messages would not be implemented "because they would be a moderation and privacy nightmare".

The part you quoted was solely in response to the screenshot issue.

and having not observed any supporting evidence for the viability of your solutions you could cite

The viability and the lack of real-world evidence was related only to the "disabled by default", not the PMs in general, not because I think this should be the new norm, but because I was informed that moderation issues were the main stumbling block. If you think this simple solution wouldn't reduce them substantialy, you are free to ignore it.

you think you know better than the people actually running such a site.

This conversation is starting to head in the wrong direction, so I will try and be very brief. Never said such a thing, unless you think that sharing ideas constitutes as "being smarter than the ones who are making this site". In that case, why does this forum section even exist?

 Maybe discord can get away with it. But on a regular website, if I harrass you with pm, there has to be means of the site removing the messages and banning the account. The harrassed account being able to "block" the offender is just not enough.

Completely understandable from an ethical standpoint, but are they also obliged legally?

Anyway, that problem already exists within the moderation of comment sections and community forum, so essentialy it would just boil down to the question of scale, and with allow lists that should almost be a non-issue (not saying it won't happen, but significantly less frequent),

Also, what I said, people do take screen shots or just repeat information you gave them there.

Nothing can protect you from that, no service or technology, you wiilingly gave that info away. But are you telling me this is actually one of the reasons Itch won't implement the feature? If so, that would be a "reason" not to have any private messaging system, anywhere.

Did you see your proposed solutions anywhere on the net? (I am talking about a public website, not some system like discord). Also, did you see anyhwere a private message system that is disabled by default (or enabled, but can be disabled)? I am curious, how viable those solutions are. If they are, one would think, that they are used at some places.

Not very familiar with a lot of other services, but that takes nothing away from the potential viability of the propsed solutions. Don't see why PMs could not be disabled by default if that means they would be introduced to users who want to utilise them. Keep in mind, Itch is obviously not most of the platforms, otherwise this kind of feature request wouldn't be an issue.

And no, a block list will not prevent spam. Users would have to block each spammer after the fact. That is not prevention.

True, I should have worded that differently. I named the allow list first for that particular purpose. Block list would be a mitigation technique for users wanting to go the other route.

Imho, itch is designed for publishers to interact with the players, not for the players to interact with each other.

How about players interacting with the publishers non-publicly and publishers interacting among themselves, an example Dace posted in another comment?

E2EE is worth a lot less than you think.

Not until such laws come to pass, especially worldwide. And even then, it won't be the kind of encryption I specifically mentioned: true end-to-end (meaning client-side encrypted/decyrpted) zero-knowledge (stored without any possibility of hoster accessing unencrypted data). A lot of services slap on E2EE label these days, but upon closer inspection you could easily see they are just misleading, if not downright deceiving their users.

No argue there, nor was it implied otherwise. But I am starting to realise minds have already been made up and the real reasons don't seem to have anything to do with the protection of user data, otherwise the staff would readily implement full end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption and introduce the feature numerous users have requested throughout the years.

In addition to what has been stated under the proposed solution above, scam/spam prevention could be achieved by implementing allow and block lists.

Btw, the nature of private messages is such that users themselves are responsible for moderating them, given the appropriate tools, so no additional labor on the part of Itch staff is needed, nor expected. 

If that is the main dealbreaker, the solution is rather trivial. Make the PM feature disabled by default and let people turn it on manually should they wish to do so, while explicitly acknowledging an appropriate warning that goes with it. If you suspect (most of) your users are in the dark about leaks, breaches and the like, educate them, all the while leaving them with the freedom of choice whom, what and when to trust. I suppose you wouldn't like somebody else making that decision for you either.

Thank you for replying and in such a swift manner. Could you clue me in as to why would they think that private messages will be a privacy nightmare? As for moderation, a simple block option should usually suffice. 

https://itch.io/t/3229128/feature-request-private-messages

Would you consider implementing direct/private messages as an essential way for cross-user interaction?

Props to you and the rest of the team, amazing what can be accomplished in just two weeks 👏

As a side note, how to DM via Itch.io that you mentioned in the Post Jam Update?

Thanks again, everything works fine aside from two bugs, possibly not Linux build specific:

1. "Save and quit", which you already addressed in another comment.
2. If you enter terminal again after completing the puzzle, there is no way to exit the screen, or at least I haven't found one ie. you get stuck.

Congrats and many thanks for the native Linux build! 

Btw, how do you DM via Itch?

Thanks Dace, looking forward to play it, along with your other games if you ever find the time to port them as well. Best of luck in the jam!

Is there a plan for Linux port at some point?

You don't have to install Linux as a standalone OS, just try WSL: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

I understand the overhead is not something any dev looks forward to, but I've also seen teams of one successfuly supporting their games on multiple platforms. As they say, where there's a will, there's a way.

Another point to keep in mind is that we, the Linux users, are still mostly being treated as second-class citizens at best (which is not to be confused with normalizing such behavior), so any form of support is surely better than none.

Too bad to hear you switching sides though. If you still have the knack for it, maybe check out the current state, a lot has changed over the past few  years.

I appreciate your response and the fact you have made what looks like a really interesting game, but I always end up puzzled by the fact relatively few developers are willing to make Linux builds, even though most if not all popular engines allow for an easy export, like Unity for example: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/linux.html

Hope you might reconsider your stance for this and possibly your future projects as well.

May I ask which engine the game is created in?

Is Linux version still being considered?

Great, didn't know about that 👍

As for Ubuntu, if you're on Windows, you can easily install it using WSL 2 and in the case of macOS there's always an option of setting up virtual machine via VirtualBox for example. No pressure, just sharing info :)

Depending on the licence in use, these might be of help:

• Setting Up For Ubuntu
• Ubuntu: Compiling Your App

As a sidenote, have you considered Godot Engine for future projects?

Excellent! How about the Tachyon Dreams series? Or Warp Cinema, which honestly seems like a very unique gem?

Any plans to release this one (and your other titles) on Linux?