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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev

@jagriff.bsky.social

1.2K followers 610 following 1.1K posts

Solo dev of open-world penguin puzzler Gentoo Rescue (steampowered.com/app/2830480/) Other interests: 1v1 AFPS, RTS, platform fighters, cs+math (PhD), ergo keyboards, PC hardware, baseball, piano, Esperanto, and cats https://www.twitch.tv/jagriff

www.twitch.tv

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · Jun 6

Hello #PitchYaGame!

Discover mysteries, solve puzzles, and then solve meta puzzles in GENTOO RESCUE 🐧

🧩 Explore an open-world of nested puzzles
🔨 Break the rules with item interactions
♾️ Use infinity and recursion to save the penguins

store.steampowered.com/app/2830480/...

#indiegames

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 9h

I'm pleased to announce that my talk proposal for the upcoming Thinky Con has been approved! The event is hosted by Thinky Games on November 5-7.

I don't have the talk fully fleshed out yet, but I think the title will ruffle some feathers.

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 11h

This game is wild! I'm kinda hoping we have a "2 nickels" situation with an 18-inning Mariners elimination game at home.

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 11h

Good news: It looks like Epic is willing to refund my $100 dev fee!

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

Rant: I am beyond frustrated with Epic Games. For the last month I've been getting Gentoo Rescue ready to release there, and I did not anticipate it being this difficult.

There is a requirement: since I have achievements on Steam, then I need to support achievements on EGS. Perfectly reasonable!

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 15h

Day 4 of Glowkeeper: www.twitch.tv/jagriff

I actually have some time tonight, so many some other games later? Come say hi!

#puzzlegame

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 1d

Glowkeeper day 3

www.twitch.tv/jagriff

#puzzlegame #Twitch #Stream

Twitch

Twitch is the world

www.twitch.tv

Reposted by Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev

Laughing Manatee Games @laughingmanatee.bsky.social · 2d

It's happening

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

As far as I noticed, EGS does not acknowledge the existence of Linux. I was only asked about providing binaries for Windows and MacOS.

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

Oh yeah, and one part that makes this even funnier is that I am using Unreal Engine. That's right! I'm using Epic's own engine. Yet releasing on their store is 100x more difficult than Steam or Itch.

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

Long story short is that I cannot release on EGS because of a combination of requirements, some of which were poorly communicated and are very unreasonable.

I've requested a refund of my $100. *fingers crossed* getting this money back won't be too difficult

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

If any minor thing is wrong with any section of the application, the whole thing has to be resubmitted. EAS is not a requirement on its own, but for me it is (because of achievement requirement), so it was not flagged at all until it was time to release.

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

But the worst part is the entire process. There was no hint that this would be a problem until release day. Any minor change I make to anything (like fixing a typo on the store page) requires an entire review process where I have to wait for hours.

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

Anyway, integrating EAS requires another application process. Part of this is "brand approval", where I need to have an approved domain that defines an approved privacy policy. WTF, why? I'm just a solodev with a hobby project. I don't need or want ANY user data.

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

But part of this process required setting up EAS (Epic Account Services). Also, the achievements are defined in two places: EOS (Epic Online Services) and EGS (Epic Games Store). This is all just to hint at the convoluted mess that their entire dev experience is...

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

I added achievements weeks ago to EGS. Getting them actually implemented in the game build was much trickier than it should have been (and several orders of magnitude harder than Steam), but I did it. I was able to unlock achievements in my dev environment.

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

Of course this doesn't account for the snowball effect of just getting more exposure because you have more wishlists. So even being slightly negative can probably be okay as long as it boosts you up enough.

Spending money on your game is OP

1 1

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

That seems good! It all depends on wishlist to sale conversion and how much you expect to make per sale. If 10% of your wishlists buy your game, then you'd have to earn $18 per sale to break even. If your wishlist conversion is 20%, then you only need $9 per sale to make this profitable.

1 1

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 2d

I still haven't done any paid advertising, but hearing this is making me consider it again. What's your cost per wishlist?

2 1

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 3d

Wow, congrats!

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 3d

Turning on stream. Will play some Glowkeeper, and maybe some RoA2 or Silksong or something

www.twitch.tv/jagriff

Twitch

Twitch is the world

www.twitch.tv

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 4d

I'm dropping Gentoo Rescue onto Epic Games Store tomorrow. It was way more work that I expected to get it there, so please wishlist on EGS (yes that's a thing).

store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/gent...

Gentoo Rescue Coming Soon - Epic Games Store

Gentoo Rescue is coming soon to the Epic Games Store. Please check for availability and add to your Wishlist

store.epicgames.com

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Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 5d

"I'm using their engine, so it should be pretty easy to get achievements to work for Epic Games, right?"

Well that couldn't have been more wrong. It's insane how much worse the entire EGS dev experience is when compared to Steam or Itch.

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 5d

Only ~11 hours remaining!

#indiegamedev #puzzlegame #Steam #Autumn #Sale

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 6d

Only 1.5 days left for Steam discount! Check the game and these bundles out if you're into deep puzzle games hiding many surprises.

Glowkeeper is another top puzzler of 2025.

Thinky Award winners Can of Wormholes (2023) and Maxwell's puzzling demon (2024) need no introduction.

#puzzlegame

Steam store page showing that:
- Gentoo Resuce is 15% off
- Gentookeeper (bundle with Glowkeeper) is 17% off.
- Gentoo'd Demon Wormholes (bundle with Maxwell's puzzling demon and Can of Wormholes) is 30% off.

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 5d

FPS without strafe jumping? No thanks

Jagriff - Gentoo Rescue dev @jagriff.bsky.social · 5d

Most of my recent sales are from Japan. If I ever get the time to add localization, Japanese will definitely be a high priority.