Valve's vision of a Steam Machine in every living room is generating plenty of excitement, not only from gamers, but also developers. Double Fine , for example, is "rooting" for Valve's success. Double Fine vice president of business development, Justin Bailey, and brand manager Greg Rice, told PC Gamer that the creators of Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and the upcoming Broken Age are ready for SteamOS, and excited about the prospects of Steam moving into the living room.
Supporting a Linux-based operating system will be easy for the studio. "All of our games are supported on Linux," says Bailey. "Our proprietary engine, called Buddha, goes to PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android right now." In fact, Double Fine has sold Linux versions of its games through Humble Bundles and Steam already. The upcoming Broken Age, one of the first Kickstarter success stories, will support Linux when it comes to Steam Early Access in January 2014.
"Ultimately, we want to be on the platforms that our fans want us to be on," adds Rice. "We've seen a lot of success on Linux with things like Humble Bundle and Linux sales on Steam already. So it just seems like we're in a position to take advantage of it."
Unsurprisingly, both Bailey and Rice embrace Valve's rush to the living room. Double Fine games are historically controller-friendly, and SteamOS helps solidify that PC gamers will have controllers as an input option. "With PC games in the past," says Rice, "it's been a problem just because you can't assume everyone has a controller, and you know everyone has a mouse and keyboard, so a lot of [developers] consider it an afterthought. But now, Steam coming to the TV will just make it important enough to figure out how to have good controller controls in their games."
It's not just professional interest here, either. Rice is excited by the way SteamOS can change his own gaming habits. "I've always wanted a device like this that was someone saying, 'Here's the official box that will play the games you can buy on Steam, and it will work with a controller well, and it's all you need and you can just plug it right into the TV,'" he says. "One of my big bummers right now with the new consoles is that I bought 300 games on XBLA and PSN that aren't going to work, so knowing that if I buy a game on Steam it will forever work on Steam is pretty awesome."
"I think that's a bold strategy," Bailey adds. "I think we're rooting for them, that it pays off for them."
Read more of our coverage of Valve's announcements .
