A new way to get your game onto Steam. There are still positives and negatives to the approach but hopefully it means more indies can make a go of things.

http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/

Interesting. I imagine you'd want to do it early in the process to avoid development re-work if you rely upon Steam features?

I would wager it's going to be a mix of both early and late. Most of the Steamworks features can be dropped in later in development so I don't think that there's going to be anything blocking there. I think it's going to be interesting if you could get a game accepted with just an early prototype because as we all know here there's a big difference between having a neat proof of concept running and a fully polished end product. This alongside Kickstarter is making the garage dev days alive and well.

Interesting... One reputable company that I worked for a few years back had just released a game on PSN and XBL, but was rejected from Steam. We were lucky enough to get an explanation, but all it said was "this is not the type of game we want associated with our service"...

I'm thinking heavily about putting my game (still greatly in the rough) on there, if I get it in enough shape in time to show good screenshots. Unless I have to sign a contract or something, it just seems to me like free advertisement, early feedback, and increased Valve-awareness of my game.

Interesting... One reputable company that I worked for a few years back had just released a game on PSN and XBL, but was rejected from Steam. We were lucky enough to get an explanation, but all it said was "this is not the type of game we want associated with our service"...

Good god, what kind of game were you making?

[quote name='Hodgman' timestamp='1341897624' post='4957519']
Interesting... One reputable company that I worked for a few years back had just released a game on PSN and XBL, but was rejected from Steam. We were lucky enough to get an explanation, but all it said was "this is not the type of game we want associated with our service"...

Good god, what kind of game were you making? [/quote]Just a boring anime 2.5D platformer. It wasn't meant to be offensive, but if you think Jar Jar Binks is an offensive racial stereotype, then you could make the same accusations about some of the characters in this game. It really was tame, it's just the innocent ignorance of the writer showed through a bit. Sony and MS had no problem with it, and it's supposed to be much harder to get onto PSN/XBL than Steam...

It wasn't meant to be offensive, but if you think Jar Jar Binks is an offensive racial stereotype, then you could make the same accusations about some of the characters in this game. It really was tame, it's just the innocent ignorance of the writer showed through a bit. Sony and MS had no problem with it, and it's supposed to be much harder to get onto PSN/XBL than Steam...

Just guessing - I imagine more people are involved in looking at a console game (and one of the parties involved is the ESRB), so misapprehensions and prejudices are less likely than when only a small committee is deciding whether or not to approve a game.
Second guess - maybe the writing was not a factor in Steam's decision. Maybe they were getting flooded with games at the time. Hard to tell what they may have been thinking.

Just a boring anime 2.5D platformer. It wasn't meant to be offensive, but if you think Jar Jar Binks is an offensive racial stereotype, then you could make the same accusations about some of the characters in this game. It really was tame, it's just the innocent ignorance of the writer showed through a bit. Sony and MS had no problem with it, and it's supposed to be much harder to get onto PSN/XBL than Steam...

Was it one of those "alien race A is the Russians, alien race B is the Chinese, the humans are American" stereotypes? Seen that sort of thing more times than I care to remember.

I'm totally intrigued now. Can we at least get a game name or link?