Linux Game Publishing (sometimes also referred to as LGP) was a software company based in Nottingham in England. It ported, published and sold video games running on Linux operating systems. As well as porting games, LGP also sponsored the development of Grapple, a free software network library for games. As well as acting as a Linux game porter in of themselves, they also functioned as a publisher for other Linux game developers and porters. The company was dissolved on 3 May 2011.
History
2001-2012
The company was founded on 5 September 2001 by Michael Simms when the similarly oriented Loki Software filed for bankruptcy.Founder, Creditors Differ as to Loki's Future Course Linux Today, 17 August 2001 (Article by Dennis E. Powell) Simms had previously founded the Tux Games retailer a few years earlier, and the collapse of Loki would have gravely affected his available stock. Linux Game Publishing had initially tried to pick up the support rights to many of Loki's titles, but in the end it was only able to acquire the rights to MindRover: The Europa Project. It was able, however, to independently pick up the publishing rights to Creatures: Internet Edition as well as the rights to the port of Majesty: Gold Edition which was previously being developed by Tribsoft.LGP History pt 1: How LGP came to be Linux Game Publishing Blog, 15 May 2009 (Article by Michael Simms)Majesty, Tribsoft, and LGP LinuxGames, 3 January 2002 Empowered by the addition of former Loki employee Mike Phillips, LGP released its first title on 21 December 2001.LGP History pt 2: The Early Days Linux Game Publishing Blog, 23 June 2009 (Article by Michael Simms) In 2002 Ryan C. Gordon (a.k.a. icculus, former Loki Software) started porting the puzzle game Candy Cruncher to Linux and he was looking for beta testers. The first Linux version of Candy Cruncher was released in 2002 by Pyrogon (an indie game company founded by former employee of 3dfx and id Software Brian Hook) as a digital download.Call for Candy Cruncher Beta Testers LinuxGames, 13 February 2002 LGP took interest in publishing Pyrogon games on physical CDs, and on 10 September 2002, LGP and Pyrogon announced a publishing partnership for Pyrogon's Linux titles.Linux Game Publishing and Pyrogon Announcement LinuxGames, 10 September 2002 Upon learning about the release of Postal 2 in 2003, Ryan decided to contact the developer behind it wondering if they would be interested in him making a port of the game to Linux. Loki had previously ported the original Postal to Linux, and he was interested in keeping the franchise compatible.Interview with Ryan Gordon: Postal2, Unreal & Mac Gaming Macologist, 10 November. 2004 Running with Scissors agreed, and the finished port was shipped on 14 February 2005, with LGP initially handling the publishing of the Linux version.Postal 2 for Linux now shipping! icculus.org, 14 February 2005 In 2003, Hyperion Entertainment and Metropolis Software extended their existing license agreement for Gorky 17. Linux gaming developers Steven Fuller and Joe Tennies joined the Hyperion Entertainment game development team and they ported Gorky 17 to Linux, which three years later was published by LGP.Hyperion and Metropolis announce AmigaOS 4 version of Gorky 17 Hyperion Entertainment, 25 December 2003
David Hedbor, founder and main programmer of Eon Games—an independent game development company specializing in creating games for desktop computers and handheld devices,About Eon Games ported NingPo MahJong and Hyperspace Delivery Boy! to Linux, which later were published by LGP.Hyperspace Delivery Boy Port LinuxGames, 6 September 2002 (the first version of NingPo Mah Jong for Linux, however, was released in 2003 by Pyrogon only as a digital download).Pyrogon Releases NingPo LinuxGames, 18 April 2003 Eon Games stopped development and porting of games for Linux and other platforms in 2005 (and later closed in 2010).Eon Games 7 January 2010 In 2003, LGP began working with Epic Interactive, a German company specializing in porting and publishing games to alternative platforms.(Three) New Titles from LGP LinuxGames, 7 November 2003 Epic Interactive ported Knights and Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom and Software Tycoon to Linux.Software Tycoon Available LinuxGames, 10 January 2005 In 2005 Epic Interactive has changed its name to Runesoft Entertainment.E.P.I.C. Interactive Becomes Runesoft Entertainment LinuxGames, 8 June 2005 In 2005 Czech development studio Mindware Studios released the Linux demo of Cold War.Cold War Linux Demo Released 11 March 2005 Cold War was the first LGP game published on a DVD disc. LGP gained the publishing rights to several other game titles including Soul Ride, as well as Disciples II: Dark Prophecy. The latter has been described by Michael Simms as "LGP's DNF" and "the game that refused to be ported" and has been said to have been the cause of several resignations from the company, including that of aforementioned employee Mike Phillips.LGP History pt 3: The long haul Linux Game Publishing Blog, 25 August 2009 (Article by Michael Simms) It has still, alongside another long delayed game Bandits: Phoenix Rising, yet to be released.Bandits: Phoenix Rising Proceeds On Linux Phoronix, 15 February 2008 (Article by Michael Larabel)Bandits: Phoenix Rising Finally Gets A New Beta Phoronix, 7 March 2009 (Article by Michael Larabel)
In 2005, LGP announced the opening of their beta test for Linux version of X2: The Threat.LGP Opens Beta Test for X2 Slashdot, 2 October 2005
On 13 March 2008 Finnish game company Frozenbyte announced a partnership with Linux specialist IGIOS Ltd to port and release Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds Survivor on the Linux platform.Shadowgrounds Survivor headed to Linux LinuxGames, 14 March 2008 Both ports were later published by LGP, and LGP was actively involved in developing the Shadowgrounds Survivor port alongside IGIOS.
In December 2008, LGP released X3: Reunion and X3: Reunion Special Edition, which were first games using copy protection and the new installer written to use the GTK2 toolkit and support for using XDG menus.Has A New Linux Game Installer Phoronix, 26 February 2008 (Article by Michael Larabel)
In December 2008, LGP launched PenguinPlay, a new website for Linux gamers, allowing matchmaking for multiplayer games, and social networking.PenguinPlay! LinuxGames, 2 January 2009
In June 2009 they began offering downloadable games and game rentals.LGP Gets Into Game Downloading, Rentals Phoronix, 2 June 2009 (Article by Michael Larabel)
In August 2009 they grudgingly dropped support for all PowerPC games, stating that "demand for PPC versions of LGP games has been almost non existent".PPC support officially being discontinued for all LGP titles Linux Game Publishing Blog, 5 August 2009 (Article by Michael Simms)
On 10 August 2009 Michael Simms confirmed that LGP is working on an original simple game based on Sudoku.Bringing Windows games to Linux TechRadar, 10 August 2009 (Interview by Graham Morrison)
In September 2009 Shadowgrounds (the first LGP game available in Finnish) and Shadowgrounds Survivor were finally released, the latter becoming the first commercial game for Linux using the Nvidia PhysX middleware.Shadowgrounds: Survivor Proceeds On Linux Phoronix, 18 February 2009 (Article by Michael Larabel) In late December 2010 the IGIOS Linux team founded a new Finnish company named Alternative Games, which is focused upon porting games to Linux as well as to Mac OS X.Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds Survivor for Mac OS X Frozenbyte Forum, 6 May 2011 Later they will also port the Linux version of Trine for Frozenbyte without Linux Game Publishing.Alternative Games Is All About Linux Gaming Phoronix, 14 December 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel)
In late September 2010 the Linux Game Publishing server suffered a massive hard drive failure which took down all of their online infrastructure, including related websites such as Tux Games and The Linux Game Tome.LGP Has Been Down For A Month And A Half Phoronix, 18 November 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel) Various other unforeseen issues caused the recovery not to take place until late November, with partial service being restored on 23 November 2010,LGP Is Partially Back Online; More Unforeseen Issues Phoronix, 23 November 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel) with full recovery not being made until 8 December 2010.Linux Game Publishing Is Back Online Phoronix, 8 December 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel) They have since stated that work is going well on their current project, and that they have a working build of it in internal alpha testing.Linux Game Publishing...are alive? GamingOnLinux, 4 May 2011 (Article by Liam Dawe)
2012–2020 On 31 January 2012, after over a decade with the company, Michael Simms announced in a blog post, that he was stepping down as CEO, saying "you can't continue on a high energy rampage for 10 years without something breaking", and handing over control to Clive Crous, citing his "unrestrained enthusiasm for Linux gaming" as his primary qualification.Linux Game Publishing...the return? GamingOnLinux, 31 January 2012 (Article by Liam Dawe) Since August 2012, LGP has started selling their games in stores like Desura, Gameolith and Ubuntu Software Center (USC). Ubuntu Vibes, 31 August 2012 However, early information about LGP games in USC had shown up on the Canonical blog two years before.Canonical announces strong ISV and open source ecosystem support for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Canonical Blog, 27 April 2010 In 2012, they shut down the PenguinPlay website.Linux Game Publishing Shuts Down PenguinPlay Phoronix 24 February 2013 In 2015, LGP decided to host their website on the Heroku cloud service and they closed their support system hosted on Tender.Linux Game Publishing Remains Offline, Three Years After The CEO Shakeup Phoronix, 27 January 2015 (Article by Michael Larabel) In 2013, LGP removed several of their resellers from their list e.g. Fun4tux, Ixsoft, Linuxpusher etc. In 2014 - 2015 LGP's resellers stopped offering rentals or eight specific games for download which used LGP copy protection. The website was brought back for archival purposes in 2020.
Games published
Supported