What's the deal with Steam?

[ChrisP]

I sent two emails to the address listed on the Steamworks page.

My first email didn't get an answer after waiting for two weeks.

My second email was a little punchier, a little more direct, and mentioned that the game had been a finalist in the 2008 Independent Games Festival. I had an answer within 5 hours, and Mayhem Intergalactic is going to be on Steam as soon as I finish the integration work (adding achievements basically) and test it to my satisfaction.

The lesson? Be persistent (but not annoying) and sell your credentials. In terms of actual experience, Cas and Cliffski outrank me by years, and their games are better. So why didn't they get in? I don't know, but I have some theories.

Either there really is some super-secret Valve conspiracy to exclude their games from Steam (mwahahaha mine is an evil laugh), or the guy in charge of handling the emails happened to be swamped that day, or he didn't realise the sales potential of your games because you didn't sell them well enough (I was able to do this because I got into the IGF, but surely you guys have won a competition for something before, otherwise you can talk about your conversion rate and/or massive sex appeal), or your email was eaten by a grue, or...

This article has some guidelines which might help.

***

As for the benefits of being on Steam from my perspective, the big one is exposure. I'm hoping to entice some customers to join my newsletter and so on, so I can sell to them later. It'd also be nice to actually make a profit out of this gig for a change.

***

On a side note - I've emailed similar messages to a bunch of other digital distributors and haven't got a response. This includes sites that Cliffski's games are on, for example. So maybe it's just luck, or maybe it's something to do with which genres sell best to which audiences.

[mooktown]

Originally Posted by ChrisP

My second email was a little punchier, a little more direct, and mentioned that the game had been a finalist in the 2008 Independent Games Festival. I had an answer within 5 hours, and Mayhem Intergalactic is going to be on Steam as soon as I finish the integration work (adding achievements basically) and test it to my satisfaction.

Congrats ChrisP, good to see some old-fashioned persistence paying off, I think GM will sit well with the steam crowd

Tried steam lately Cas? Your games have a similar retro styling to a lot of the steam offerings.. unless of course they gave you good reason for a refusal.

[Sol_HSA]

Originally Posted by ChrisP

The lesson? Be persistent (but not annoying) and sell your credentials.

I have another possible theory: maybe it was because you sponsored the text mode demo contest with some copies of the game?

[ChrisP]

Originally Posted by mooktown

Congrats ChrisP, good to see some old-fashioned persistence paying off, I think GM will sit well with the steam crowd

Thanks! I assume you mean MI though.

Originally Posted by Sol_HSA

I have another possible theory: maybe it was because you sponsored the text mode demo contest with some copies of the game?

Nice theory, I like it.

[cliffski]

Originally Posted by ChrisP

The lesson? Be persistent (but not annoying) and sell your credentials. In terms of actual experience, Cas and Cliffski outrank me by years, and their games are better. So why didn't they get in? I don't know, but I have some theories.

Well I guess I'll give it another go. Maybe with Democracy 2 selling so well right now due to the US elections they might be interested.

[princec]

Originally Posted by mooktown

Congrats ChrisP, good to see some old-fashioned persistence paying off, I think GM will sit well with the steam crowd

Tried steam lately Cas? Your games have a similar retro styling to a lot of the steam offerings.. unless of course they gave you good reason for a refusal.

Yep, we got rejected entirely a couple of weeks ago. They noticed we had Gravitron 2 though, which did make it on to Steam. G2's a nice game n' all but really nowhere near the polish, playability or sellability of our other games, so it was kinda baffling. That said -- I'm not too bothered at the moment, I'm somewhat disillusioned with alternative forms of distribution after Fuck Bridge Entertainment dicked us over. <begin chant>Direct Sales, Direct Sales, Direct Sales...

Cas

[Jim Prior]

Originally Posted by cliffski

Well I guess I'll give it another go. Maybe with Democracy 2 selling so well right now due to the US elections they might be interested.

Yeah go for it, i'm sure it was nothing personal on their part. Although I prefer the ethos of other systems more(Stardock etc), Steam can make you more money currently.
Introversion saw a huge difference once they got their games on Steam. In fact from a pure financial perspective and knowing your games do sell well, I would keep hammering at that Steam door until they do take them.....or threaten you with legal action to stop bugging them!

[Jamie W]

I guess that's the one big lesson of this thread; keep hammering away (politely) at doors until you get a response, be that yes or no; don't take 'no response' as an answer.

[vjvj]

Originally Posted by Jim Prior

Introversion saw a huge difference once they got their games on Steam. In fact from a pure financial perspective and knowing your games do sell well, I would keep hammering at that Steam door until they do take them.....or threaten you with legal action to stop bugging them!

Yes, I spoke with the Introversion guys at GDC shortly after Darwinia debuted on Steam, and they told me that it had a huge impact on their sales.

FWIW, I was also ignored by Valve when I inquired about Steamworks integration. But I understand how these things can fall between the cracks, especially when you're dealing with biz dev/dev rel types (no offense, but it happens). I think persistence is good advice and I intend to do the same after we get through our current art overhaul.

[ChiefRedThunder]

Originally Posted by Sol_HSA

Ah, that explains why you can only find small and insignificant games such as far cry 2, crysis, tomb raider underworld and gta iv there..

Thanks for making me laugh today Great reply!

[Bad Sector]

Originally Posted by princec

Yep, we got rejected entirely a couple of weeks ago. They noticed we had Gravitron 2 though, which did make it on to Steam. G2's a nice game n' all but really nowhere near the polish, playability or sellability of our other games, so it was kinda baffling. That said -- I'm not too bothered at the moment, I'm somewhat disillusioned with alternative forms of distribution after Fuck Bridge Entertainment dicked us over. <begin chant>Direct Sales, Direct Sales, Direct Sales...

Cas

Maybe is Java/Molebox and they can't use it with their wrapper?

[aiursrage2k]

Seems like a great service if you can get on there (17 million potential customers).

Helped test Spectraball (which a guy from gamedev made) and it made it on... but Kong3d did not
http://www.gamedev.net/community/for...age=1&#3203459
http://store.steampowered.com/app/18300/

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtop...eab37f9c600f18

[mooktown]

Originally Posted by ChrisP

Thanks! I assume you mean MI though.

Of course! >.< For some reason I had Galactic Mayhem in mind, sorry

[Jeff]

Awww yeah: http://blog.wolfire.com/2008/12/over...king-up-steam/

I had the exact same experience as all of you guys - no response for a couple emails, but on the third email they were really excited and responsive as if they didn't even receive the first two. It's almost like they have an aggressive spam filter.