An indie developer has found that Linux users provide more valuable and numerous bug reports, despite Linux users only accounting for only 5.8 per cent of sales.
Reddit user koderski, with the tag @KoderaSoftware, has provided a detailed post on bug reports. They found that even though only 5.8 per cent of sales of their game, DeltaV: Rings of Saturn, were Linux users, over 38 per cent of bug reports came from them.
They did the maths and determined that they received an average of one bug report for every 11.5 users. However, they got one report per 1.75 Linux users. They also state that only three of the bug reports were for Linux specific issues and that the rest of the bugs were affecting every player.
They said, âthe thing is, the Linux community is exceptionally well trained in reporting bugs. That is just the open-source way. This 5.8 per cent of players found 38 per cent of all the bugs that affected everyone. Just like having your own 700-person strong QA team. That was not 3 per cent extra work for me, that was just free QA.â
They went on to discuss the quality of the reports as well. They found that Linux players would provide far more detail. This would include software, operating system versions, logs, core dumps, and replication steps. They also connected with one player over Discord to work through all the variables and isolate the issue.
In closing, they said, âWorth it? Oh, yes – at least for me. Not for the extra sales – although itâs nice. Itâs worth it to get the massive feedback boost and free, hundred-people strong QA team on your side. An invaluable asset for an independent game studio.â
In other news, Mario Party Superstars will include a health warning for one of the minigames returning from the N64 version.
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