[TriLUG] Steam coming to Linux

[Brandon Van Every]

Hi, I'm new, and I have not met any of you in person yet.  Much as you
can tell I like political debate, I need to refocus on the reasons I
signed up for this mailing list.  :-)

Earlier this year I learned that Valve was bringing the Steam gaming
portal to Linux.  I was sorely sick of the Microsoft toolchains,
especially Visual Studio and MSBuild, so I bolted.  Valve's entry
changed the likelyhood of a viable gaming market developing on Linux -
and by that I mean the Linux desktop, not Android.  I calculated that
even if Valve didn't follow through on their intent, the Desura portal
already existed on Linux and the Humble Indie Bundle was having a
disproportionate amount of Linux backing.  So it seemed to me that
it's a good time to become a Linux indie game developer, possibly
seizing a window of opportunity as it begins to open.  As it turns
out, Valve did follow through on their plans.  They've supposed to be
doing a closed external beta of Steam on Linux sometime this month.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE5MzI

So, what do you LUGers know about Linux game development, or efforts
in that direction in the region?  I'm interested.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every