Steam & Launcher Poll + Discussion

[Daffyflyer]

. It was created for indie developers who don't have the net-worth of a small country (EA....) to promote and distribute their game. I have used it for more than seven years and have had no problems. They have always been cheaper than other methods of buying games, more reliable with reviews, and generally on-par with everything. Granted, they buy popular mods and make money on them, if you're going to hate them. Do so for that reason.

And of course, any concerns of "It'll be bad for the developers" is entirely OUR problem to worry about too!

[JeffreyCor]

I fully support a full Steam conversion. While it can be inconvenient for some users it allows the focus to be on the game itself which would net a greater return for all.

[Dragawn]

I'm a heavy Steam user, and loving what the platform is now, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to put all your money on one horse.

So far Steam is a pretty good platform, and Valve a good company, but companies tend to change once they get (near) monopoly of something, which might be in the near future of pc gaming with Steam. If you guys go for full Steam integration I would suggest keeping the option to still back out and be stand alone.

[crabcakes66]

I support a full move to Steam. I understand some people will have a problem with that but I think it's the best choice you can make.

As long as it makes sense for you guys internally.

[USDMFTW]

Steam is the best direction for a game like this.
Its a very seamless program with very little down time, integrated social features, guides etc. You wont need 50 facebook pages or websites and 1k forum threads to host guides and your group etc. Plus, by using steam it will be open to a much wide audience than what we have now. Very rarely do people find this game by google search or some list of games.

[bragametro]

Hi to everybody,

For me, go to Steam!!! At full Steam...

Plus -
1 - I use Steam for other games so I am ok with it. I imagine that most of us know Steam. So go for it.
2 - If, like you said, it will take less work and it will be quicker to launch the game, go for it.

Minus -
1 - Some day Steam will go down for good. Nobody know when but nothing last forever ( except some engines like the one in my car ). But when Steam evaporates and go down for good it`s always possible for you to release and convert the keys to work again with the launcher.

The last decision is yours but for me it`s ok. Go to Steam platform.
Thanks for asking.

[Daffyflyer]

1 - Some day Steam will go down for good. Nobody know when but nothing last forever

[Janekk]

Uh.. so Steam is harder than some hypothetical method of installing Automation that doesn't actually exist and won't exist?


GOG might be something we look at eventually, but for now we want to keep maintenance as simple as possible and keep it on as few platforms as possible. As far as we can tell from talking to some publishers, going onto GOG wouldn't justify the extra work required to maintain it. Plus of course there is the whole piracy thing, and the fact that I'm not sure how we'd handle the multiplayer stuff in the GOG version.

Precisely .

Seriously though. Isn't their fancy new steam-like client they are working on supposed to handle patching, multiplayer etc. ? Obviously you should focus on Steam release right now and get that out of the door before thinking about other platforms. I can live with steam as much as I don't like to use it, Automation wouldn't be first Steam-only game I own, excuse me rented for indefinite amount of time. I was just thinking that prolonging life of your launcher just long enough so you can give people choice where they want their game instead of mandatory steam would make some people happier and you'd avoid angry fan-mail from people who won't use steam because of religious reasons. Maintaining your own launcher/patcher for the sake of it isn't best idea long term I think. Unlike branching out to another distribution channel it won't really net you more sales so that extra work is pretty much wasted. I guess it all comes down to how well it does on steam (and how badly you want to get rid of your launcher), if sales are so-so to very good to I'll-just-hire-people-to-finish-this-for-me, branching out becomes an option. If it doesn't sell all that well on steam then there is no reason to believe GOG or any other platform will be any better. Yes, I'm telling you that you should decide what works for you, yourself not with forum poll.

I do think that with some polish, maybe marketing, maybe article or two it should sell pretty damn good. You're not quirky pixel-retro platformer, you don't compete with anything even remotely similar and just on that doomy and gloomy predictions of 3 dollar sales will miss the mark.

[Daffyflyer]

Yeah, the real painful thing is that we're about to overhaul the multiplayer stuff, and the logical way to do that is just straight Steamworks stuff. Doing a non-Steam version of that will be painful/waste a huge slab of time.

[CNSpots1]

I had to vote no towards moving entirely to Steam.


I've heard enough stories, as well as once knew someone who lost their entire $200+ steam Library over a false cheating accusation, their account was terminated, and when they contacted Steam's support in an attempt to fix the situation, they got "Not our problem" in response.

I also have my concerns on the funding.. For instance, how is purchasing going to be effected by steam? Will you guys be losing a percentage of the revenue? Or will the prices have to be hiked up to insure that steam gets their cash out of the situation.


I'd rather we had the option to stay independent from steam, but looking at the polls, it seems the majority of people are in favor of steam exclusivity without taking into mind what could happen to the others.

I'll play the game regardless, as always. I just certainly hope that if you go to it, Steam works out the way everyone likes to think it will. Things don't always go perfectly..

[shaunisradd]

I had to vote no towards moving entirely to Steam.


I've heard enough stories, as well as once knew someone who lost their entire $200+ steam Library over a false cheating accusation, their account was terminated, and when they contacted Steam's support in an attempt to fix the situation, they got "Not our problem" in response.

You dont lose your library, only get banned from official steam multiplayer.. I call shenanigans.

[Janekk]

Yeah, the real painful thing is that we're about to overhaul the multiplayer stuff, and the logical way to do that is just straight Steamworks stuff. Doing a non-Steam version of that will be painful/waste a huge slab of time.

Right. Then how about this: if you want multiplayer get your steam key today, if you don't want steam you can use this non-steam-no-multiplayer version. No one can say you didn't give them choice and if you'll also make promise to look into getting on other platforms like GOG there shouldn't be too much problem (well people will always complain). Of course option to turn that no-multiplayer version into steam key would remain, you know in case you'd end up sticking to steam only or someone changes their mind.

[Daffyflyer]

I had to vote no towards moving entirely to Steam.

I also have my concerns on the funding.. For instance, how is purchasing going to be effected by steam? Will you guys be losing a percentage of the revenue? Or will the prices have to be hiked up to insure that steam gets their cash out of the situation.

Prices will be the same, though they will rise $5, at some point, as per the preorder discount noted on the buy page here.

Steam does take a cut, but they'll also get us infront of a much much larger audience and handle all the hosting/distribution, I'd be extremely surprised if we didn't make a lot more money by being on Steam.


Regarding losing your game library, I'm not sure what can be done about that, that's one of the problems with Digital Distribution I guess.. though it seems to be a lot worse with things like Direct2Drive

[Daffyflyer]

Yeah, the real painful thing is that we're about to overhaul the multiplayer stuff, and the logical way to do that is just straight Steamworks stuff. Doing a non-Steam version of that will be painful/waste a huge slab of time.

Right. Then how about this: if you want multiplayer get your steam key today, if you don't want steam you can use this non-steam-no-multiplayer version. No one can say you didn't give them choice and if you'll also make promise to look into getting on other platforms like GOG there shouldn't be too much problem (well people will always complain). Of course option to turn that no-multiplayer version into steam key would remain, you know in case you'd end up sticking to steam only or someone changes their mind.

That's still maintaining two different and seperate versions of an entire game, that's really time and effort intensive for a small team to do.

[WildKarrde]

Steam, hands down. If a PC game wants to be taken seriously, it needs to be on Steam. Every day it's not on Steam is lost sales. I've known lots of people who are waiting for it to get on Steam, even though I have told them they will get a Steam key when it gets on Steam.

So yeah, the game needs to be on Steam, ASAP.