14 DAY TRIAL // GOG.com is a digital distribution platform that is specialized mostly in old games, but the company that owns it, CD Projekt Red, wants to also extend the support to include Linux. They are now looking for people to help them with Linux ports, although it seems that some of them will be distributed in Wine wrappers.
GOG stands for “good old games” and the company that took it upon itself to bring many titles back from the dead understood that melancholy sells. People want to play the games of their childhood, but it's possible that some of the titles might not work on current operating systems.
Getting them to work on modern OSes is not a difficult job to do, but GOG.com also wants to bring some of the games to the Linux platform, even if there wasn't a Linux version to begin with. To do this, they need some developers and they are hiring.
A GOG.com representative posted a job add on the gamingonlinux.com website, and the company is interested in getting people that can help with the Linux angle of their business. That is not a bad idea in itself, but some people might object to the way GOG and CD Projekt RED intend to make this transition.
“The Linux Tech Specialist will assist with porting games from the Windows PC environment over to Linux by creating installer scripts, debugging problems, generating masters and builds, and other elements related to making a game run on the Linux platform. Our keyword is ‘le’Tech’,” reads the announcement on GOG.com.
The requirements are also quite interesting: Power user – both Linux and Windows, Gamer at heart, Knowledge of what Dosbox and Wine are, and so on.
If you read closely, you will see Wine is being mentioned. This means that the guys from GOG are planning on using Wine to make some of the old games available for Linux. Despite what people might think, this is not actually a bad thing.
The same company recently released The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and it became apparent that a Wine-like wrapper has been used to make the game work on Linux rather than making a native port. This got the Linux community upset, but it would not be a problem for old games.
The only reason Wine would not be recommended is the performance aspect. When users run a game through Wine, the performance takes a hit, but in old games that might not be an issue. In fact, people might even have a hard time noticing that Wine is being used.
If you feel that you have what it takes to work at GOG, make sure to give them a call.