Quote: Original post by Hodgman
You could always approach Valve, they're trying to push lots of smaller games through steam these days.

Thats exactly what i was thinking..

The other option would be to possibly approach Sony..

They have the EDI where people like yourself would possibly have an opportunity to get your game published on the Playstation network platform..

Not sure how easy/difficult it would be but i'm sure the potnetial is definitely there..

Can't hurt to submit an application form anyways..

I went to the Steam website and tried figuring out what it was. I still don't quite understand. It seems to me to be more of an online multiplayer hub than a distributor of small games. I didn't see any game on the site that looked like indie material, but it might still be worth a try for me to contact them.

Is it true that it is impossible to run a game bought on Steam when offline? That didn't make much sense to me, but I do remember hearing this.

Quote: Original post by synth_cat
I went to the Steam website and tried figuring out what it was. I still don't quite understand. It seems to me to be more of an online multiplayer hub than a distributor of small games.

Its a content-distribution system. You can buy games through it and download them to your PC. You have to run steam to play these games though, to stop piracy.
It also incorporates a server-browser, anti-cheat system and "friends" system for multi-player games.

Quote: I didn't see any game on the site that looked like indie material, but it might still be worth a try for me to contact them.

Yeah, its mostly big games on there, but there are some indie companies, and all the PopCap casual games.
http://www.nakedsky.com/html/Company.html
http://www.arkane-studios.com/en/arkane-studio.php
http://www.popcap.com/aboutus.php

Quote: Is it true that it is impossible to run a game bought on Steam when offline? That didn't make much sense to me, but I do remember hearing this.

No, steam has an "off-line mode" (however a few older versions had bugs that stopped it from working unless you were online!)

You could approach a casual games portal. Of course, their target demographic is mainly females 30yrs - 45yrs old, which your game would have difficulty appealling to. Here are a few links:
http://www.bigfishgames.com/affiliates/developer.html
http://gamedevs.realarcade.com/?src=
http://jayisgames.com/

Might be more in-line with what Reflexive does, slightly more 'hardcore' games (they tend to have a higher amount of action/arcade titles than Bigfish or Real).

Reflexive Developer Program

My business partner also had an interesting talk at the Asian Game Developer Summit, on the topic of negotiating and managing a publishing deal. I just uploaded the videos to Google Video, so here it is:

Chris Natsuume
"Negotiating And Managing A Publishing Deal"

Thanks for all that info - I've got a much better feel for this whole thing now.

synth_cat