Games on Linux (Stanley Parable In Particular)

April 11, 2016 2:13 PM

According to this article Stanley Parable was released on Linux (most of the article is about an alpha release, but there's a footnote on the full release). So why is there no penguin icon?

Is there something I am misunderstanding about Steam? Was it withdrawn? More generally, if I want to play Windows games on Linux, is PlayOnLinux my best hope? I really don't want to dual boot, but I could install a VM.

Previous question gives some idea of the games I want to play.

posted by andrewcooke to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Just because Steam itself is on Linux, doesn't mean that every game available through Steam is available on Linux. Valve is just in the business of providing a distribution network and a light wrapper of DRM and some social integration, not of doing full ports of games to different operating systems, it's up to the developers to do that, if they have the desire and capacity.
posted by firechicago at 2:18 PM on April 11, 2016

Response by poster: Oh, crap. I have a huge typo in the question. Mods, please? It should be:

According to this article Stanley Parable was released on Linux

(otherwise there's going to be a pile more replies as above)
posted by andrewcooke at 2:21 PM on April 11, 2016

Best answer: The Steam logo is now tied to the Steambox which means it can work on Steambox and Linux (Steamboxes are just Linux). They switched away from the penguin icon about a year ago? The "Steamplay" tag line means you can buy it for a single platform and it works on all.

So, Stanley Parable is on Linux. See a search like this to see the difference between PC and Mac only and games on all three platforms.
posted by skynxnex at 2:24 PM on April 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think the penguin icon in Steam has been swapped for the Steam icon (the third icon from the left on the product page linked), reflecting Valve's SteamOS project which is somehow a part of Linux support on Steam. I haven't played Stanley Parable specifically but I have played a number of Steam games on Linux (including Sunless Sea, XCOM and XCOM2, and Portal 1 and 2). None of these currently have a penguin icon but they do have the Steam icon.

In search results etc. on Steam you can add an OS filter for "SteamOS+Linux" to verify that you're looking at games that are ported to Linux.
posted by egregious theorem at 2:25 PM on April 11, 2016

Mod note: Post fixed, carry on.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:28 PM on April 11, 2016

Response by poster: Awesome, thanks. Could have sworn I saw penguins just the other day, but perhaps it was a screen shot on the game's site. And somehow was parsing the steam logo as part of steam play....

[edit: thanks cortex]
posted by andrewcooke at 2:28 PM on April 11, 2016

I've bought quite a few indie Linux games from Humble Bundle. I don't like running Steam all the time, so I usually jump on the ones with the "DRM Free" label. If you're patient, you can nab some great deals

edit: also recommend gog.com for having DRM Free Linux games
posted by rocketbadger at 12:54 AM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]