Steam Greenlight

[SparcMan]

I know I haven't been around much, but I wanted to let George and everyone know that the game can be submitted to be distributed on Steam if George chooses to and it gets enough support. Check it out
http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/


The link to submit a game is: http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/editgame/?appid=765

[RPC]

This is a great idea, but George has shown some hesitation in releasing Transcendence on other platforms. We'll see what happens in future releases.

[george moromisato]

Thanks for posting about this--I didn't know about it previously.

I think this would work for Transcendence--I don't think I would have to port anything for it to work on Steam. And it certainly wouldn't hurt to add it.

I would love to someday distribute via Steam, but I think Transcendence needs to be more accessible first. I believe there are a few things that prevent Transcendence from being more popular:

1. The game needs some pacing, balance, and usability fixes to really be polished.
2. We need to harness the mod ecosystem and increase its diversity and quality.
3. We need a steady supply of new content to keep people interested.

I'm working on #1 in various ways, though mostly targeting 1.09 and 1.1. #2 is in progress with the creation of the Multiverse and the mod improvements in the last few releases. #3 really requires #1 and #2.

Once we've made sufficient progress on the above we'll be able to broaden distribution of the game and increase marketing efforts. Until then, though, I believe marketing efforts will be, at best, inefficient and at worst, wasted.

[Song]

I'd have to agree, and I must stress: Greenlight is in its early stages and is currently flooded with games. This means that standing out is currently next to impossible (I have seen a LOT of good games on there with between 1 and 3% of the required votes. It saddens me a lot.), and in any case, Transcendence currently has some very serious problems in the areas George has mentioned (in particular, I'd say that the game needs more rich and diverse content. In the early game we're close to perfect on background stuff and extra stations. In the late game, that goes out the window). Greenlight's a great way to get stuff onto Steam, in theory, but I'd say to wait until Transcendence is in a state where it's 100% ready to ship to a mass audience before gambling on Greenlight. That way, we could start a campaign before, during and after the greenlight attempt to build interest in the game. Transcendence is something of a unique product, so who knows how well it'd do if polished nice and shiny and delivered carefully?

(Plus we'd get a lot of people asking for multiplayer support if the game went up now, and having to explain that the engine can't handle it to hundreds of Steam users may not be 100% fun.)

[snafu]

(Plus we'd get a lot of people asking for multiplayer support if the game went up now, and having to explain that the engine can't handle it to hundreds of Steam users may not be 100% fun.)

Do it the same way as Egosoft: put it in the FAQ & handle loads of forum queries with a hotkey to the FAQ entry

Or stickie a post at the top of every forum IN BOLD, CAPS & UNDERLINED (use italics & different colour if you wish) in 80pt type THIS GAME WILL NEVER BE MULTIPLAYER, NOT EVEN OVER LAN OR SERIAL CONNECTION. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE - IF IT COULD BE DONE IT WOULD BE A DIFFERENT GAME

.. & then /still/ deal with the whingers, the half-an-idea coders & the can't-be-bothered-to-read idiots who create threads saying 'Wouldn't it be great if this was multiplayer!!!???'

(sorry, bad day over at EgoSoft's forums dealing with exactly this sort of idiocy.. admittedly for different reasons (the games are not the same) but the principle still applies..)

[Ttech]

I think Greenlight looks interesting as well, though there is one thing though that might be an option, promote Transcendence as a very Indie game - Humble Bundle has had success on making games very well known because it comes in a pack. I don't know if they would allow you to add a game that is free however.

[Star Weaver]

I haven't actually looked into this, but uh, you need to win the lottery to be distributed on steam as an independant now? I thought you could just go do it. Will need to read up on it sometime.

Also, with the multiverse underway, steam isn't going to offer us much of anything except more users. And i've heard a decent amount of negative stuff about steam users on the whole, from the developer point of view; make it out like the vast majority would try a game like this for 30 seconds, not get hooked, and forget about it forever.

[SparcMan]

I know this is thread necromancy, but under the circumstances and the fact that I started the thread, I think it's appropriate.
So first of all, I noticed that Transcendence has finally made it onto to Steam so big congratulations to George!!!
Second, for anyone that recognizes my name, It has literally been years since I've been on the forums, but it was the Steam release that eventually brought me back and I intend to buy it fairly soon.

Last thing is off topic, but I no longer use the name SparcMan so if anyone knows who can help me change it, please let me know as I'd rather not have to start over with a new account. Thanks!

[Song]

I know this is thread necromancy, but under the circumstances and the fact that I started the thread, I think it's appropriate.
So first of all, I noticed that Transcendence has finally made it onto to Steam so big congratulations to George!!!
Second, for anyone that recognizes my name, It has literally been years since I've been on the forums, but it was the Steam release that eventually brought me back and I intend to buy it fairly soon.

Last thing is off topic, but I no longer use the name SparcMan so if anyone knows who can help me change it, please let me know as I'd rather not have to start over with a new account. Thanks!

I don't know how to do it personally, but I'll put a thingie up on the staff board so the more experienced mods/admins see it. Hopefully a namechange should be possible.

Edit: Done. Hopefully someone will be able to swap it at our end (I don't think users can do their own namechanges by default on this board)