NOTE: This news is mostly a repost from the developer's Desura news page.

Download link: Gamieon.com



I have to start with an apology to Linux users: I could have had this out months sooner, and I'll explain why:



When I first found out that Unity was supporting Linux, I was very much looking forward to adding one more platform to my programming kung-fu belt. I had already purchased Unity 3.5 Pro, iOS and Android licenses...and was crushed to discover I would have to pay for another license to get Unity 4 Pro. My interest in the Linux port ceased...



...that is until I learned something last night after reading the Unity FAQ a little more carefully: I could still get Unity 4 with a free license, make a new Hyperspace Pinball branch, open that with Unity 4, and build a Linux version seamlessly.



The only barrier now is QA... I've only ever spent 0.00001% of my life tinkering with Linux distributions; mostly out of curiosity. I don't have a dedicated computer with any distribution, nor do I have any desire to dual-boot my existing computers. I'll need to figure something out on my end; maybe I'll buy a very cheap computer since I want to have one around anyway for chaos testing.



At any rate, this is all new territory for me, so I'm looking for feedback from everyone telling me whether it runs or not and with what distribution they're using. I honestly don't know what I can do if it doesn't work; but if I have at least a couple people telling me "it works fine," then I will put it on Desura. Since I already did it for PC users, I'm 99% certain I will release the Linux version for free for the first week if testing goes well.



If you're a Linux user, please download Hyperspace Pinball from the link above, and leave a comment in this post letting me know your distribution and whether it worked out of the box. How soon I put Hyperspace Pinball on Desura depends on how fast I get feedback. :)



Edit by Liamdawe: The reason the developer did this is actually thanks to us! I tweeted the developer and after a "no" he then decided to do some digging in the FAQ:

@gamingonlinux Not right now. Upgrading to Unity 4 for the Linux license is too expensive and I currently have no fundraising plans. — Gamieon (@Gamieon) April 20, 2013

@gamingonlinux Actually nix that; I didn't read their FAQ's closely enough. Will get back to you. — Gamieon (@Gamieon) April 20, 2013



And finally:

@gamingonlinux Just started an open beta at indiedb.com/news/hyperspac… . If testing goes well, I'll release it. Gamieon (@Gamieon) April 20, 2013