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Shantae: Risky's Revenge attempting tri-platform with Steam Greenlight
WayForward, the developer behind adorable DSiWare and iOS game Shantae: Risky's Revenge, wants to get this thing on Steam, and it's using Greenlight to do so. You may recognize WayForward as the team behind the Adventure Time game for DS, as well as BloodRayne: Retrayal and Double Dragon Neon.Shantae: Risky's Revenge is the highest-rated DS game of 2011 and WayForward has a slick track record, making this particular project both believable and desirable. Check out the Greenlight page right here.
Valve: Greenlight will 'continue to evolve' in coming weeks and months
Following the divisive announcement of Steam Greenlight's $100 fee, Valve says the service will "continue to evolve" across the near future. Speaking to Gamasutra, Valve's UI designer Alden Kroll said users inundated his company with suggestions following Greenlight's launch last week, and that he and his colleagues aren't done tweaking with the service yet."We have a huge list of suggestions from customers and the lessons we've learned from shipping," Kroll revealed, "so Greenlight will definitely continue to evolve over the next weeks and months as we tune the system and add valuable features."The debate over Steam Greenlight's merits and faults rages on, and in particular over the $100 barrier. This week we asked several indie developers what they thought about the service, including Minecraft's Markus 'Notch' Persson, Super Meat Boy's Edmund McMillen, and Analogue: A Hate Story's Christine Love.
You light up my life: What Steam Greenlight is for indies, from indies
Steam Greenlight isn't for everybody. Literally – five days after pushing Greenlight live, Valve implemented a $100 barrier to entry in the hopes of eliminating the barrage of prank game ideas by people who don't "fully understanding the purpose of Greenlight."Before the fee, it was difficult to know what Greenlight was going to mean for the indie community, since its "new toy" sheen hadn't yet dissipated. It's even more difficult to gauge what Steam itself wanted Greenlight to accomplish, with or without the fee.In its launch announcement, Valve says Greenlight will serve "as a clearing house for game submissions" and "provides an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans." If that sounds a lot like Kickstarter, it's because it sounds a lot like Kickstarter. This isn't a bad thing; it equates Greenlight to something that has run the online course and has experienced public showdowns and successes, something known.While a few developers benefit from the high-speed, viral-hinged community vetting of crowd-sourced creative sites, even more have failed. Still, sites such as Kickstarter truly can help raise awareness for a legitimate project, even if that interest doesn't transform into cash. In this sense, Greenlight has an advantage, in that it's not trying to raise money. It only wants attention.Developers want their games to reach astronomical levels of awareness as well, and recently this translates into a fixation on one particular service for the success or failure of their projects – Kickstarter, and now, Greenlight. Hundreds of pitch emails switch from titles such as "Snappy the Turtle, a new indie adventure game" to "Kickstart Snappy the Turtle" or "Vote for Snappy the Turtle on Greenlight." This shifts the focus away from the game itself, in both the mind of the developer and the person receiving the emails.Since most people receiving the emails are video games journalists and potential publishers or fans, it's safe to say they don't particularly care about Kickstarter or Greenlight – they care about the game. So should the developer, more than anything.Those who have succeeded on the development side offer a unique perspective on Steam Greenlight. We asked a few what they think about the service, the $100 and its impact on indies: Adam Saltsman, Markus Persson, Edmund McMillen, Christine Love and a group discussion among Rami Ismail, Zach Gage, Greg Wohlwend and Mike Boxleiter. Their thoughts are below.
Steam Greenlight now requires $100 fee, which goes to Child's Play
To make it a little harder to submit jokey "Half-Life 3" games to Steam Greenlight, Valve has instituted a $100 fee for anyone hoping to submit their games for community approval and eventual Steam sale."The proceeds will be donated to Child's Play," Valve UI designer Alden Kroll notes in the announcement. "We have no interest in making money from this, but we do need to cut down the noise in the system."Additionally, the browsing experience has been altered. "The next time you visit Steam Greenlight you'll be shown a smaller, manageable list of games that you haven't rated," Kroll said. "This view is a mix of popular games and new games to Greenlight." Both of these initiatives are an effort to manage the exploding population of games on the service, from different angles. Greenlight has received over 700 submissions since its launch on August 30.
Steam deletes games with 'Half-Life 3,' offensive content from Greenlight
Steam's Greenlight service allows anyone to upload a game idea for community vetting, no matter what stage of production it's in – including "not real." This is an issue Valve predicted, and it has started taking measures to ban games that are obviously fake, such as anything called "Half-Life 3," and those that are patently offensive, such as "Best WTC Plane Simulator."The only way Greenlight will succeed in its intended purpose is if its users take it seriously, and unfortunately for Steam, "the users" are "the internet." We'll keep an eye on Greenlight's progress once the initial hubbub dies down.This is why absolute freedom is a terrible idea, people. The rabble can't be trusted with such a liberated, unchecked service, and let's be honest, most of them need to be kept on a short government-dispersed leash. That in mind, check out our new game on Steam Greenlight, Freedom Sucks: Revenge of the Plutocrats.
Valve launches Steam Greenlight to pick cream of indie game crop
Steam has developed a reputation as a haven for indie games like Super Meat Boy, so it's only fitting that store owner Valve has just launched a section to welcome more of those games into its tent. Greenlight lets small developers submit titles and have gamers vote as to whether or not the candidates should get space on Steam's virtual shelf. Pickier players don't have to see every game in contention; they can filter the list down to specific game types and platforms, and collections can narrow the selection to categories hand-picked by fans or publishers. No games have cleared Greenlight just yet, but it won't be long before the logjam becomes a flood -- between this and general apps, Steam is about to get a lot more crowded.
Steam Greenlight is live, more than 30 games awaiting judgement
Steam Greenlight, a community-based means of discussing and judging potential games for launch on Steam, is up and running with more than 30 games on the docket. Steam Greenlight, announced in July, is a hub for developers to post information about their games to collect fan feedback and get voted onto Steam's radar for future releases.Greenlight currently hosts Mutant Mudds, The Intruder, Organ Trail, 8Bit MMO, Paper Monsters, DLC Quest, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land, But to Paint a Universe, EvilQuest and Cute Things Dying Violently, among other low- and high-profile indie titles."We've been working on this feature for the last few months with the input from a group of indie partners, and the response has been extremely positive," Valve's Anna Sweet says.Discuss and rate the available games on Greenlight now.
Puzzlejuice desktop debuting at PAX, coming to Steam Greenlight
Puzzlejuice is coming to PAX in a keyboard-only desktop version, which creator Asher Vollmer told us he plans to submit to Steam Greenlight soon. The iOS puzzle game is one of a select group to be spotlighted at this year's PAX.We featured Puzzlejuice in our Portabliss column earlier this year, in which JC noted the game's fiddly touchscreen controls. Yet he found the bizarre mixture of Tetris, Boggle, and Match-3 so "irresistible" that he still heartily recommended it. If you're at PAX, you can find out if a keyboard helps resolve those control issues.Meanwhile, Vollmer is celebrating Puzzlejuice's featured billing by releasing an updated version, which includes an 'impossible' difficulty mode and a new power-up. The game will also go on sale for $0.99. Vollmer also has other news to celebrate, as earlier this month he started work at thatgamecompany as their 'feel engineer.' Whatever that means.
Valve launching non-game software on Steam this September
Valve is set to roll out a line of software titles ranging from "creativity to productivity," hitting Steam on September 5. The software titles will incorporate Steamworks functionality, allowing automatic updating and cloud storage, among other standard Steam features.This follows a leak on the Steam mobile app in July that listed a slew of software features (pictured above), including photo editing, audio production, design and illustration, accounting, video production and more. Steam recently launched the Source Filmmaker, which allows users to easily create in-game movies.Software titles will continue to hit Steam after the initial September 5 launch, and developers will be able to submit software ideas to Steam Greenlight, its crowd-sourced idea system.
Steam Greenlight lets you pick which games end up on Steam
Valve has unveiled Steam Greenlight, a community hub for finding, discussing and getting new games published on Steam, crowdsource style, set to launch at the end of August."For many stores, there is a team that reviews entries and decides what gets past the gates," Valve writes. "We're approaching this from a different angle: The community should be deciding what gets released. After all, it's the community that will ultimately be the ones deciding which release they spend their money on."Steam Greenlight will allow developers to post their games, whether in concept or playable stages, and receive direct feedback from the community. Potential players will be able to vote for games they'd like to see launch on Steam. Games won't be published according to any specific number of votes, but rather to "relative interest" compared with other games on Greenlight."We are most interested in finding the games that people want, not requiring them to always hit a specific number of votes," Valve says.Games must at least run on a Windows PC, but can of course be developed for other platforms simultaneously. Interested developers need a "valid and non-limited Steam account (yes, that means you'll need to own a game on Steam)," and to fill out a submission form including at least one video, four screenshots, and a written description including expected system requirements.Indies, welcome home.
