Steam Greenlight

[Gormongous]

To extend the traffic light metaphor, the whole voting/percentage system feels like that button you can push at crosswalks to make the light change. The light will change, you can congratulate yourself for your hand in it, and meanwhile the system hums on invisibly.

[I_smell]

No cos traffic lights will always turn green eventually.

It's more just they have a list of a hundred games they need to play, and now they can sort by Highest Rated.

[Jim Profit]

Towns looks more like a Tycoon game than a Minecraft like game.

towns is more like dwarf fortress. but definitely nothing like minecraft. there is another much better looking one in the works as well, it's probably on greenlight. gnomoria. it's really shaping up. vote that up.

[Murdoc]

I thought towns looked pretty cool and looks like a pretty original concept, so I'd like to check it out.

As for Gnomoria, sure it looks cool and yes a graphical version of DF is interesting, but I am way to bothered at the blatant cloning of Dwarf Fortress to support them in anyway. They'll probably end up making a lot of money and did none of the heavy lifting the DF guys have done over the years, and while that's pretty common thing that happens, especially in games, it just makes me sad.

[BigJKO]

I know nothing about Dwarf Fortress, or anything, but Towns looks very similar to Gnomoria. Aren't they both just as much a clone of Dwarf Fortress? Could anyone explain the difference between the two?

[Twig]

I thought towns looked pretty cool and looks like a pretty original concept, so I'd like to check it out.

As for Gnomoria, sure it looks cool and yes a graphical version of DF is interesting, but I am way to bothered at the blatant cloning of Dwarf Fortress to support them in anyway. They'll probably end up making a lot of money and did none of the heavy lifting the DF guys have done over the years, and while that's pretty common thing that happens, especially in games, it just makes me sad.

I don't think Gnomoria is going to go anywhere near the depth of Dwarf Fortress. The adventure mode, as well as the horrifically detailed systems found within the game will probably have no place in Gnomoria (or Towns).

[Tanukitsune]

It looks like we have another Steam Greenlight bundle, with mostly manga games? I like the idea of creating these bundles to increase awareness and increase their chances of getting on Steam, they even say you'll get a Steam code if you buy the bundle and it makes you'll get a Steam code.

Of course, this will only work if the voting system works like promised.

[Joewintergreen]

So are you saying that Valve no longer takes submissions for indie games and Greenlight is the only option?

I sure hope not. I have a game on Greenlight but it's only up to 2%, and I was kind of hoping if it fails that way I could appeal directly to Valve.

I guess I can still try it, Valve aren't exactly consistent about this stuff.

[Gormongous]

I sure hope not. I have a game on Greenlight but it's only up to 2%, and I was kind of hoping if it fails that way I could appeal directly to Valve.

I guess I can still try it, Valve aren't exactly consistent about this stuff.

In a weird, completely non-serious way, I kind of love the whole mess. It's like some mad Caligula proclaiming to indie devs, "You say the people will buy your game? Then let the people choose!" And he just lords over the battle royale, eating grapes and rubbing his hands. He may publish the winner's game, he may be taken with the 'spirit' of the loser, he may execute the lot of them. It's not like there are rules here.

[Joewintergreen]

Haha, that actually makes me feel better about it.

[circadianwolf]

In a weird, completely non-serious way, I kind of love the whole mess. It's like some mad Caligula proclaiming to indie devs, "You say the people will buy your game? Then let the people choose!" And he just lords over the battle royale, eating grapes and rubbing his hands. He may publish the winner's game, he may be taken with the 'spirit' of the loser, he may execute the lot of them. It's not like there are rules here.

I'm imagining Gabe Newell in this position, and it's indeed hilarious. (Although, is there anything not hilarious when you imagine Gabe Newell doing it?)

[Joewintergreen]

This fits. Last time I saw Gabe he was playing Dota on an enormous exercise ball surrounded by dozens of ornate swords.

[Orv]

I thought towns looked pretty cool and looks like a pretty original concept, so I'd like to check it out.

As for Gnomoria, sure it looks cool and yes a graphical version of DF is interesting, but I am way to bothered at the blatant cloning of Dwarf Fortress to support them in anyway. They'll probably end up making a lot of money and did none of the heavy lifting the DF guys have done over the years, and while that's pretty common thing that happens, especially in games, it just makes me sad.

Towns is actually a terrible attempt at a graphical DF, whereas Gnomoria is starting with DF stuff (without the ridiculous simulation complexity, so it's not fair to blame him for just straight out jacking their "heavy lifting") and he's going to expand it beyond that. Towns isn't worth the money, Gnomoria is getting there. If you won't support Gnomoria for being a DF "clone" you really shouldn't support Towns.

Towns is trying to make it a more above-ground complex, where the only end-game is to go down 12 levels of dungeons and once you clear those out it's over. Gnomoria is going for the DF-style endless game while attempting to make it playable by the layman and add things that Toady could add in the future, but in a couple years instead of a decade or two.

Survivors of Ragnarok is attempting to make a 2D DF-style game, and has made a lot of recent progress, but it's taken about three years to get to a state where it's even an alpha of a game.

[I_smell]

I sure hope not. I have a game on Greenlight but it's only up to 2%, and I was kind of hoping if it fails that way I could appeal directly to Valve.

I guess I can still try it, Valve aren't exactly consistent about this stuff.

Oh, hey, I met you on twitter. We're not-on-Steam buddies!

[Joewintergreen]

Oh, which dude are you on there?

[Tanukitsune]

I'd hate to sound paranoid, but I've checked the percentages of votes for a few popular games and they haven't gone up in days....

Destructoid asked their readers to vote for Mutant Mudds and it's still at 3%. I'm really beginning to think they're just choosing what games they want because I refuse to believe any game could get 100% votes with this system. I've yet to see a single game get over 15% of the votes! SHENANIGANS!

[Twig]

It is well known (well, not well known) that the first ten games chosen were the top 10 upvoted at the time, of which Black Mesa was the highest by a huge margin at 30-something percent.

[Tanukitsune]

Wow, Black Mesa only got 30%? If that's what Black Mesa got, no wonder nobody else has gotten more than 15%!

But how this works still eludes me, if a relatively popular site like Destructoid can't make a game on Greenlight make a vote percentage change, what does that mean? That you need a ridiculous amount of votes to get a 1%? That voted take a LOOONG time to show up?

I just don't see this working, if they just take the top ten of what's left each week doesn't that mean we'll eventually get real stinkers anyway?

I wonder if the 30% of Black Mesa actually represents the 100% of people who care enough about Greenlight to vote.

[elmuerte]

It means that valve hasn't made up their mind on how greenlight is suposed to work. If they started off with something that could easily reach 100%, then people might get the idea that the game will be greenlit right away.

[Twig]

I'm glad someone here gets it. Seems like most posts in this thread are happy to blame Greenlight for the impending apocalypse.

Valve will tweak it and tweak it and tweak it until they decide it's where they want it to be. That's what they do. They experiment. I mean, Greenlight will never be perfect, but it's only, what, two weeks old? Give it a LITTLE bit of time, at least.

[Tanukitsune]

Hey, I'm not saying anything bad Greenlight, I'm just struggling to figure out how it works.

[elmuerte]

it doesn't

[Orv]

it doesn't

El Muerte has the right of it. It's basically a beta right now, and Valve is continuing to figure out what they want it to be.

[Joewintergreen]

Greenlight shows you whether games are in the top 100 now, and if you're the author it tells you your rank (mine is #66, hooray! I think)

[Tanukitsune]

Hmm, is this something only people who have submitted games can see? Right now I can't even see the voting percentage. Maybe they are changing that part because they are fed up of people like me whining that no game has gone over 15% of votes. XP