Contraption Maker

Linux installers have finally been brought up to par with Windows ones... But that's to where the Windows ones have been since January of 2024, at 1.4.24, and elsewhere there have been multiple updates since. Last version number mentioned is 1.4.33, and in between there has been 1.4.29, which is a major update introducing number blocks and related puzzles which were apparently initially supposed to be a DLC but ended up being introduced in the base game... for those getting it from a store whose users aren't treated as 2nd class...

Emailed dev to ask...

Whats actually the deal with so many games having a missing soundtrack on GOG? Is there any good reason other than simply "treat them as a second class"?

That's weird - why bother updating the outdated builds with ones that are already outdated as well - rather than pushing the current ones since you still have to push through the process anyway? Maybe it's GOG pipeline lagging behind again?

Not sure actually - I recall a poll being cited in which gog users "decided" they don't care about soundtracks, but that's been ages ago, and since then the stance has obviously shifted.
Another curiosity though is why some games, that do have soundtrack available miss some tracks from it, or miss variants of it (like .flac version, which I see is repeating a few times over). That I have no idea about.

"""""Hello, updating our game on GOG has always been a challenge for us because, unfortunately, GOG's website frequently encounters issues during the update process. As a result, updating sometimes takes several days as we have to keep trying repeatedly. That’s why I previously mentioned that we would update our game on GOG only for major updates. We appreciate the understanding of our players who use the GOG platform. """""

This is a recent statement from the devs (or its representative) from SpaceBourne2.

Whats weird is simply that there are some devs who are updating their games on GOG like mad and apparently "it works" for them. Finally it simply looks like GOG customers may only get a update once every 6 months (according to my experience) while "the other customers" will get a update about every single week it seems. Sure, it makes matters worse if they do not even put the game on a sale on GOG... but many times on another platform. I think, it is with strong common sense difficult to "expect great results" from GOG, if the difference in support is that big.

Honestly, the game they develop is extremely complicated. According to my logic it should be "a walk in the park" putting some stuff on GOG, even at 10 times worse conditions, The most important thing is simply "willpower", according to my life experience.

True

For me personally, the updates are of course very important, but I have patience and don't need the updates immediately, and I don't need small interim updates either.

If the big updates come a month or two later, I can live with that. But for me it becomes a disappointing nuisance when games in E.A. no longer appear here at all, or updates appear after years or not at all.

For this reason, I only buy games from publishers and developers that I trust in this regard, or at such low prices (discounts between 75%-90%) that I don't care. And E.A. games don't really matter anymore (the last exception was Underspace).

If a developer wants to increase my willingness to pay more money for the games, they have to put in the effort.

Particularly positive examples for me in recent years:
- Asterigos
- BROK The InvestiGator
- Drova - Forsaken Kin
- Everspace 2
- GRIME
- Outcast - A New Beginning
- Planet of Lana
- Shadows of Doubt
- Songs of Conquest
- Stardew Valley
- The Planet Crafter

And even games that were dropped from the shop during development are sometimes very well supplied with updates. "Hellish Quart", for example, keeps getting updates.

We just have to look closely

Well, i am not lacking patience (some people do) but at least once a month is surely welcome on a game with so many updates. For now i simply wait for this game to slowly become "finished" and will not play this game at all, nor participate in the development for bugfixing, because this is impossible anyway... with a strongly outdated version.

It is simply nice to get support at all but i can surely wait some weeks. I got way to much other games to play and i am not focused "on a single game": On top of that... what i truly want are complete games in the best shape possible, and at the end of the year (i do not say "day" a day is meaningless in the long term-horizon of things)... able to achieve it. How fast is will be is not the most important matter to me,

What the GOG customers REALLY worry is that some devs may even completely drop any support at some point, leaving them with a broken game... a matter i totally understand if people are afraid of or even upset with.

Of course i do not say it generally happens, there are a lot of publishers with a release having a top condition on GOG, but unfortunately there is as well "the other side of the coin (looking at potential issues)", which have to be taken care off.

I would also suggest Astrea:Six-Sided Oracles. They have been updating Steam, GOG, Itch, GMG, Epic, and consoles with balance patches and bug fixes with some regularity since its release in September 2023.

Also, Metal Slug Tactics was updated yesterday, now bringing the patch in line with that of Steam. I'm not sure what, but something must have occurred behind the scenes. Before yesterday, GOG and consoles were two months and two patches behind Steam. Presently, 1.0.3 is live, skipping 1.0.2. Patch 1.0.3 comes with a delay of two weeks compared to Steam, which is a what one might expect when everything is functioning as intended. Hopefully it was only an unfortunate outlier.

Karate Survivor unfotunately is missing the update from 12/2024 which added endless mode and others.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/3027930/eventcomments/591757083455579826?snr=1_5_9_

I just contacted the devs on their discord and asked them to fix it. Right now however the game is outdated.

Hello,

i have to report one game:

Tangledeep
Steam 1.53k
GoG 1.53a

A small thing, however, the one or other error is corrected and the developer was always on the ball, so it's so bad the Tangledeep now knocks down 2 patches.

btw:

Stereden
no Linux Build

Nah, the patch 1.53a is actually from February 2022, but GOG got this patch around 1 year "to late", around February 2023 to be pretty precise.

The newest bugfix... 1.53k is from January 2023 and it seems it did not arrive on GOG.

Yes this patch is critical, else the game is broken:

"""Hello adventurers! Today we have a minor (but helpful) bug fix patch that restores Challenges functionality, fixes the minimap toggle button, and circumvents corrupted shared bank files. """

Their second title "Flowstone Saga" was not appearing on GOG anymore... so kinda it seems the cash flow was not suitable and they probably dropped their "GOG support".

Although, it does not exactly look like the "most popular" game on Steam (141 reviews only)... seems like few sales there as well.

The Switch is probably their best "cash cow".

My last info (I'm a Kickstarter backer) was that Flowstone Saga was accepted and will come to GOG. Not sure what's taking them so long.

I might send them a message and also ask them about the missing Tangledeep update.

That would be great because I own it here and would love to play it without the bug.

Yeah cool Tabgledeep is neat little game, i lke it.

Another Game:
Spacebourne 2
Steam: 5.2.4 Hotfix
GoG: 5.0.1

The Devs says she upload only Major-Builds, why they problem to upload to gog. But I#M don't ttrust the Devs and there problems are not our problems, we have payed for that game.

From what I see on gogdb the game have been updated today to the version you mentioned - 5.2.4. There is just no offline installer yet.

I had to contact gog support to get a few years out of date offline installer updated just this week. They might want to try that.