Recently, developers have said that Greenlight, the service that allows indie developers to launch their titles on steam, will discontinue in about a year. They had said that they will be working on a new internal way for releasing new indie games. 

Do you think this is a good idea? Or do you think that a lot of great games could be missed because of this? I think it's a good idea for the big developers, but I think that Greenlight should stay open for the smaller developers.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Steam-Greenlight-Will-Disappear-in-One-Year-Says-Developer-434233.shtml

I think that Greenlight has become something it was never intended to be.  People flock to sites like Steamgifts and Reddit to promote their games on Greenlight via giveaways and the like.  This has turned Greenlight into a breeding ground for those who have the best promotions, not necessarily games that people will like.  Not that Greenlight is exclusively that way.  I think that the program itself is a good one, just with some degree of flawed execution.

Personally, I think it's about time for a new way.  Some games will be missed, but there needs to be a less exploitable system.  Greenlight has hurt many a small developer because they don't have the money to promote their game in more commercial ways, and has reduced many devs to giving out free keys for their games to those who vote for them on Greenlight.  Their game may be good, but without a good promotion, their game is more likely dead than not on Greenlight.

Here is a typical example of a promotion: http://www.steamgifts.com/forum/txtjP/free-copy-of-final-slam-2-once-greenlit

supernerd117 : Maybe a thing like devs vote on other games. like greenlight but dev only. 

I know that super robot disco dodgeball is one that does something like what you said.

buy the beta and get 2 full games when greenlit. game gets discounted the more people follow them on twiter etc.

I'm not going to miss Greenlight honestly.

It's gotten a few games I like on Steam, but 90% of what gets Greenlit is crap, honestly, and there are too many RPG Maker games on it. (ANYONE can make an RPG Maker game. They aren't even really games!)

There'll be a better way of doing it in the future, but it's a good thing I never decided to make that game and try to get it Greenlit. I'd have wasted all that effort on something that would have been shut down in a short period of time.

I agree with leggy.
Greenlight was a good idea, but unfortunately most of the content that was greenlit was really terrible and unoriginal.

RPG Maker games can be fun, but cookie cutter games shouldn't be greenlit...

Aw crap. Hopefully the newer program will be easy to work with...

Eirinn :
GenesisJunkie :
Sword legion :

You three need to see this...

mrfe : I'm sure it will work well. I imagine steam makes a lot of money from these games and would want them to be available for sale.

mrfe : Well poop. I can't say how upset I was when I saw that title.

Hopefully indie developers like us will be able to get in without higher prices and crazier requirements (the old ones were already steep enough for me). This could end up being good or being terrible. If they chase away indie devs, it'll be a massive blow to Steam and indie devs alike.

This could require some serious recalculation on our part.


In the end though, indie devs are passionate about what they do (you have to be if you're independant), and they'll find a way to get their work out there. IF Steam runs them off, they'll mostly be hurting themselves.

Eirinn :
mrfe :

Saw this a while back, but I figured that it may be for the better, if we were just going to be wiped out by the other indie gamers with better trailers than us.


I'm not sure what to think, but I trust God.

I know that we are capable as a team of making a game that get's a lot of recognition. That's what get's a game out, whether it's good or not.

Cave Story wasn't on steam greenlight, but it become the most popular indie game ever, so they made a better version that they sold on steam.


Maybe that's what we should do, make a really neat free indie game just to get our name out.

I will be honest here, this is pretty disheartening. Greenlight shutting down will cause a lot of lesser known developers to suffer. It will likely also cause games that are in more unpopular genres, such as visual novels, to suffer even more. These smaller developers and lesser known games need a chance to become something, and Greenlight was promising to be that. I really do not want to see the program shut down. It is desperately needed, and I feel like it should stay open for a longer period of time. I see no reason to shut it down this early in. The system might be flawed and exploitable, but whatever. As long as it serves more as a boon, which it does, it should continue to stay apart of Steam.