STEAM Greenlight

[TheCommandTent]

Saw this article over on RPS about a new thing from STEAM called 'Greenlight'

From the official website

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.

http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight

It sounds like an interesting idea.  I may be totally off base on this but it seems like some sort of 'STEAM crowd-source' idea for picking games to sell to us.

[Nefaro]

Sounds like they've been adopting more of Desura's specialty. 

First biggie was the hosted mods.  Now the alpha support & feedback thing here.  Too bad they also don't adopt separate game installers, that don't require an ad client to run, too!  :P

[ArizonaTank]

My immediate reaction is that over time, I fear this means that indie devs will work on chasing the mob.  Flashy graphics, loud explosions, tons of rail shooters (and zombies) but no substance.  At this point, Steam is a market maker.  Games with truly new and neat ideas may never get a look. 

[Gusington]

I really enjoy the Steam mod workshop, even if I am still learning how to use it. This new Greenlight idea could be fantastic too. Someone at Steam is paying attention to current gaming culture...they are a true force to be reckoned with.

All your bases belong to Steam.

[Nefaro]

My immediate reaction is that over time, I fear this means that indie devs will work on chasing the mob.  Flashy graphics, loud explosions, tons of rail shooters (and zombies) but no substance.  At this point, Steam is a market maker.  Games with truly new and neat ideas may never get a look.

The thing is.. many indie devs have had to take their games to distributors other than Steam, because Steam turns them down.   I dunno how many times I've read indie forum threads where someone asks why their game isn't on Steam and get the reply that Steam turned them down & said their game basically wasn't good enough for them.  Then the poor dev often pines about how they'd love to be on there. 

A notable exception being Cryptic Comet.  Instead of pining too much he just puts up his own sale when he feels it should be on a Steam special at times.  Kinda funny, that.  ;D

Unfortunately, such publisher decisions by Steam seems to have been driving some devs to create more run-of-the-mill mindless "disposable" fodder.  You can see that kind of change in dev thinking evident with Third Wire's announcement of going this route for better distro in the future.  Can't blame them for having to chase the money, I guess, but part of the blame is on big publishers (*cough* Steam *cough*) for refusing to carry the unusual stuff in the first place (and thus giving much less exposure).

[Staggerwing]

All the harder to understand when we are not talking about actual shelf space. Why shouldn't Steam just hoover up every game out there and distribute it? Why worry if it's mainstream or indie and weird? It's not like they are going to run out of servers or something. If some guy wants to have Steam carry his tactical turn-based Hog-calling game set in the Gardens of Versailles why not carry it along sides the latest Modern Call of War Duty? What is the downside?

[Nefaro]

All the harder to understand when we are not talking about actual shelf space. Why shouldn't Steam just hoover up every game out there and distribute it? Why worry if it's mainstream or indie and weird? It's not like they are going to run out of servers or something. If some guy wants to have Steam carry his tactical turn-based Hog-calling game set in the Gardens of Versailles why not carry it along sides the latest Modern Call of War Duty? What is the downside?

Exactly.

I've been shaking my head in wonder at whomever decides which games are Steam-worthy or not.   Another notable line they turned down any further titles from, DCS' flying sims, pretty much gave up bothering to try from what I read. 

S'ok, I'd rather buy indies without any attached DRM or adware anyway.   ;D  I just hope to get word-of-mouth for such indies around here since they don't get much exposure time.