Valve is taking community to a whole new level with this Greenlight business. Developers will post gameplay info (trailers, screens, descriptions) and the people will decide to, well, basically Project Greenlight it. Or not.
To quality for submission a developer must provide:
- A square branding image (similar to a box cover) to represent the game in lists and search
- At least one video showing off the game or presenting the concept
- At least four screenshots or images
- A written description of the game along with tentative system requirements
This isn’t based on a point system so it’s not like you need a certain percentage or target Kickstarter-like number to “make it” but rather this data will allow Valve to determine what is hot and what is being ignored/rejected by the community.
Valve’s comment to developers:
“We ask that you only define your game as ‘playable game’ if you have a playable build that demonstrates the gameplay mechanics and at least one level of your game. Otherwise, please classify your submission as ‘concept’ until its far enough along that the community can reasonably evaluate the mechanics, scope, and style of your game. Either way, you will probably get great feedback and a good start in building a community of fans around your game.”
For more info check out the Greenlight website.
I’m all for this. There are some underappreciated games that I think would do well on Steam (see: Vic Davis).
I hope they take into account that certain genres will get more love than others. I don’t see tbs games making a big splash, but they could gain a lot of enthusiasm within a certain crowd. The news article I read mentioned Unity of Command and that game was shockingly denied access to Steam. As was Vic Davis, though I understand why his games would get shot down.