Topic: Steam Greenlight

[Xessive]

Steam Greenlight

Steam Greenlight is a new system that enlists the community's help in picking some of the next games to be released on Steam. Developers post information, screenshots, and videos for their game and seek a critical mass of community support in order to get selected for distribution. Steam Greenlight also helps developers get feedback from potential customers and start creating an active community around their game as early in the development process as they like.

Looks like Valve is taking the community-driven path (which they've always claimed they were on anyway).

[idolminds]

Yeah, will be interesting to see how much this changes things. Being all pessimistic for a second, Valve still gets final say so its no guarantee, and the games that get the most votes will be the "big names" that don't necessarily need the extra exposure to get noticed by Valve. But still, should give some smaller games a fighting chance.

[MysterD]

I hope this helps get some games on Steam that wouldn't have a chance, if some suits made the final decision...
Maybe when gamers vote so heavily for a game, that alone could help influences the suits and have them say, "I might not like this game, but the gamers want it and and this game on Steam could really make us some $..."

[idolminds]

So, Greenlight launched and had some issues. An upvote and downvote system that didn't make a lot of sense (downvote? So you're opposed to a game being on Steam?), but the big problem was a massive flood of...well, crap. Some legitimate indie games were up there, but also lots of "I just completed the tutorials in Game Maker" stuff as well as suggestions for games that Greenlight isn't even for (ie, people were posting Half Life 3 wanting it on Steam....what?).

Valve has already made some changes. The voting system has been made more clear. Upvote if you would be interested in buying the game on Steam, and downvote was replaced with a "no thanks/not interested". I'm not sure what they do with the downvotes, but it might just be to clear that game off your big list of games you haven't voted on yet.

They also added a $100 fee to list a game on Greenlight, to cut down on the flood. This is interesting and has its own issues. Giantbomb has a good article. Now, the $100 is per developer not per game, and the money goes to Childs Play, not Valve. But its a strange barrier. Sure it cuts down on the flood of submissions, but now you have to spend money just for the chance to get rated high enough for Valve to look it over and maybe decide to let you on Steam. To contrast, Apple has a $99/year fee for the app store and as long as you don't break their rules you're pretty much guaranteed to sell there. One question is why $100? If it was just to cut down on spam, why not $50 or $20?

[idolminds]

A good response to the response to the $100 fee. The giantbomb comments were full of the kinds of comments this guy is railing against.

[Xessive]

Honestly, I think Desura has a better handle on the indie scene (even though it originally started as part of the modding scene). Steam Greenlight could take a lot of cues from Desura.

[idolminds]

First 10 Greenlit projects announced.

Black Mesa
Cry of Fear
Dream
Heroes & Generals
Kenshi
McPixel
No More Room in Hell
Project Zomboid
Routine
Towns

Excuse me while I roll my eyes at Black Mesa. Interesting that 3 of the 10 are in fact mods (Black Mesa, No More Room in Hell, and Cry of Fear).

[Pugnate]

A good response to the response to the $100 fee. The giantbomb comments were full of the kinds of comments this guy is railing against.

My initial reaction was that it is ridiculous he can't come up with $100, but after reading his blog I realize it is just Valve being lazy.

This makes sense:

   Dear Valve,

    We appreciate your attempts to make the process of submitting to Steam a better one. Even though many of us wish that the selling of games worked a little differently, the truth is that Steam is a very important market for a lot of indies, and can make a huge difference in our lives. But we’re sorry to say that you’ve gone off in the wrong direction. The $100 fee does not cut out the nonsense (at least judging from our experience with other platforms), but it does exclude many of us indies who come from economic backgrounds that simply do not allow them to spend $100 on the mere possibility of being judged by a subset of the Steam community that is generally not very friendly to indie games.

    Thus, to make it possible for the cooperation between indies and Steam to continue and to be as pleasant and efficient as possible, please implement the following measures:

        Hold submissions in a moderation queue.
        Do not allow game ideas – only actual projects.
        Require each entry to have a functioning demo.
        Add better sorting options.
        Remove the downvote option.
        Reword descriptions to clarify that Greenlight is about indie games.
        If necessary, require a nominal fee. Instead of $100, just $5 or even $1 would be enough to deter most trolls. Even a very high fee will not deter those who are delusionally convinced that their game is perfect.
        (various other suggestions by people with better ideas than myself)

    In this way, those of us from non-privileged backgrounds will still be able to participate in the Greenlight process, while a large percentage of unserious submissions will be eliminated.

    Regards,

    The Indie Game Development Scene

I read the rest of the blog. It is all very true. I feel very sad now.

[MysterD]

Thought - how about Valve allows gamers to contribute to the $100 fee, if somehow the dev's can't or don't want to pay the fee?

[Pugnate]

Good idea! Maybe they should start an Indie games voting platform to decide who gets the $100! Maybe they could call it Steam Greenlight!

[idolminds]

So the latest bit is apparently Valve has

Who should submit their games to Steam Greenlight? Is there another way to submit my game to Steam?

Steam Greenlight has replaced our previous submission process. Any developer or publisher who is new to Steam and interested in submitting their game to the platform should submit their game through Steam Greenlight.

Anyone not already on Steam MUST go through Greenlight now. [EDIT: Previously Valve also kept its original submission process open] And in some cases, even if you already have games on Steam. For example, Wadjet Eye Games (Gemini Rue, Blackwell) next game Primordia has to go through the Greenlight process even though those other games are already on the service.