Steam Release?

[Dragoon.]

I remember vividly the bug in the Sierra installer of Half-life 1 that not just deleted the game folder when uninstalling but also it's root folder.

[shampax]

or eve online bug which deleted boot.ini

[Xarsus]

Well Steam will be great i guess that you will support Workshop feature also

[ErissN6]

That's sad there could be a DRM release and not a GOG one.
Hey, I went to know Pandora on the GOG forum, in the Alpha Centauri sub'.
And I too bought Pendora for I couldn't buy Civ5 for it is on Steam. I am a patient true-pc gamer.

[lsc9x]

I vote for Steam. I gave a lengthy list for reasons why in my LAST reply to this post, but apparently the spam filter on this forum mistakes company names for URLs, said I had "too many URLs" in my last post for a new user, so it blocked the post, and I had to scrap that reply and do this one. So, for the purposes of this reply, I am going to replace the worlds S.t.e.a.m. and V.a.l.v.e. with "Them, they, and their's, and that".

1) I used to hate their service, but they have improved considerably over time. I haven't had a single problem with that service since I upgraded to Windows 7, 6 years ago.
2) As a consumer, I love their service, for reasons mentioned above! It is now my first stop when I am looking for a new game, or for one I read about online. I have bought games off their crazy discount sales, and that's just additional revenue for the developer, even if the price is lower. Selling 10,000 units at $10 each is a LOT more money than selling 1,000 units at $30 each. Do the math! Your game will have a potential audience of something like 30 million users!
3) There are games on that service that DO play in offline mode once they are registered. You still have to log into their service, but don't necessarily need to be online to play. I think this has more to do with the publisher and not them.
4) This (PFC) is a really great game, and it should be on that service because the devs and publisher DESERVE that additional revenue.
5) Publishing on that service is NOT exclusive. This means that publishers can still sell the game on their own website completely outside of their service. The company that makes this service isn't stupid. They know that any advertising is good advertising, and I don't see them changing this policy any time soon. It's a solid business model and a principled practice. The want small developers and publishers to succeed!
6) They have a great achievement system, forums for the community, a friends chat system, and they have expanded into creative software for designers and a program that allows users to pre-purchase certain titles before they are released and allow users and developers to team up to make better games. Just like the small indie titles. In fact, they sell this service so that small indie companies don't have to muck with managing a whole interactive website on their own.
7) As a former game designer (Actually Mission Designer for the PC RTS "Far Gate") I really WISH we had their service back in 2000! Our game tanked, in large part, because we had a crappy publisher, didn't get any advertising, and didn't have the distribution needed to make our game succeed. If I, personally, made a game like that today, this system would be the FIRST on my list as potential revenue avenues.

PFC is a really great game - one of the best I have played in a LONG time. It may not be perfect yet, but hey, we are on day 5 after launch with version 1.0.2? This game can, and should, get better with more development and it would be a sad, crying shame if it didn't have access to the millions of players on Steam.

Thank you. =)

There! Now let's see if I can get this past the spam blocker...

[lesfletcher]

I am just here to say I would buy this if it were on Steam and not otherwise.
Many people have posted reasons.
The bottom line is it's just EASIER.

[Merci257]

So, your game is not on Steam?

Well, I guess you are not surprised that I never ever heard of this game before, and just stumbled over it (due to a youtube video by Quill18). And, to be honest, even though I like 4x and strategy games in general, I won't buy this game if it isn't on Steam.

Why? Pure and simple convenience. I _have_ to use Steam if I want to play the "big guns" anyway. Civ V, XCOM, Total War - and even Paradox uses Steam only (from EU4 onward); but I also find plenty of other games on this very service that I might like. Many of this use Steam features like cloud saves, the workshop, they have a handy forum just one click away that can offer support for troubleshooting some issues I might have. They offer autopatching if you so desire, even Beta patches or patch rollback if I want to play an earlier version is possible - all is of this is up to the developer. And, of course, my friends are also there.

That said, for those that want DRM free versions... I can copy my EU4 folder, delete Steam, and still play the game if I so desire. Paradox uses Steam as a simple delivery service, not as a DRM tool.

But then again, it's up to the publisher if they want to reach a broader audience, or not.

[lsc9x]

So, your game is not on Steam?

Well, I guess you are not surprised that I never ever heard of this game before, and just stumbled over it (due to a youtube video by Quill18). And, to be honest, even though I like 4x and strategy games in general, I won't buy this game if it isn't on Steam.

Merci,

Good point, our points exactly, and for this one I think you SHOULD buy it, even though it's not on Steam. I love this game! It's not big, it's not perfect, but it was exactly what I was looking for: A fun strategy game that kept me up way too late 2 nights in a row, and INSPIRED me to post things about it on about 10 different websites. I wish there were more games like it, actually!

If Proxy could do this with a "global" warfare, on modern day Earth, that would be one if the sickest 4x games of all time. You listening Proxy?

That is all.

[Dragoon.]

Good to see that potential Steam-only strategy players show promising skills in adaptation. Sun Tzu would shed a tear.

[ErissN6]

'We are the Steam, you will be assimilated, resistance is futile.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRCxKJq7PMY

[Barnacle_Bill]

Personally, I avoid Steam whenever possible. I only have an account because of certain games I don't want to skip that are only distributed on Steam (so far, only Civ5 & EUIV). No problem with publishers offering Steam as an option, but I really wish they wouldn't force me to use it.

[KaiFiebach]

While I welcome the current DRM-free release,
I strongly support the voices for a Steam release.

1. Advertising
Steam is not only a great sales platform, but also a huge advertising platform. Pandora is a great game, but the majority of people just do not know about it.

2.Convenience
Steam offers such a stable and convenient experience, that these days many people only buy PC games if there is a Steam version.

3. Special sales
Whenever there is Steam sale with huge rebates, people buy like crazy, even games they do not play later.

For any game you can sell on your private platform, you may sell 10-100x the amount on Steam. I have contacts to another publisher, and their sales exploded on Steam. If you want to make not only good games but also good money, Steam is a must these days.

[afreet]

I just wanted to add my 2 cents, particularly with regard to the previous poster's last point. I'm pretty flighty about my games, I buy a lot of them so that if I get bored I can just play something different. I really prefer to get them on Steam if possible, and as a result I have 485 games there (ok, a lot of them are though Humble Bundles...). Of these I've only actually played 108, and only 43 of them for more than 3 hours (Steam keeps track of it!). That means there are literally hundreds of games whose developers have received SOME money from me despite the fact that I never have, nor probably ever will, played their game.

I found out about Pandora through some random comment on some random game website and now I'd really like to try it, but it's hard to justify the price when I have no idea how likely I am to play it much. It could prove to be more than worth it like Sword of the Stars has been for me (129 hours), or I could just not get into it like Conquest of Elysium (1.2 hours), or it could be something that I always want to install but never get around to it (Europa Universalis and 100 other games). At the very least though, every time I get bored and decide to install something new I look through my list of Steam games for something that peaks my interest at the moment, and if Pandora goes on sale on Steam it WILL make it onto that list. I have a GOG account too with about 10 games (mainly for Alpha Centauri!), and I'm very happy when a developer makes their games available DRM free, but to be honest it doesn't really affect my personal buying habits.

[jdmillard]

I've only observed this discussion as I consider myself neutral. But I'm curious if a "pro-Steam explosion" has occurred on these forums from the fans for other games in the past. If not, I think that says something powerful about this game. It seems like there are an endless number of fans pouring into Slitherine solely and simply due to the fact that many players have waited a long time for a game like this.

I've typically avoided Steam in the past, but If I'm right about Pandora and the fans, I think it's a game that would explode if it were given some publicity. If I were in charge this is what I'd do: I would announce a Steam release date and tell everyone who buys it on the Slitherine page that their activation codes would be valid on Steam later (or however that stuff works). That way you still get revenue now, Steam fans won't hesitate to buy the game now, and you give yourself more time to work out the quirks and roll out a lot of the other features that time didn't allow. Upon the Steam release the game will be even better than it is now, making it even more ripe for an explosion.

This is saying a lot coming from me, a not-huge-Steam fan. I think it's just smart.

[Jinzor]

I've only observed this discussion as I consider myself neutral. But I'm curious if a "pro-Steam explosion" has occurred on these forums from the fans for other games in the past. If not, I think that says something powerful about this game. It seems like there are an endless number of fans pouring into Slitherine solely and simply due to the fact that many players have waited a long time for a game like this.

I've typically avoided Steam in the past, but If I'm right about Pandora and the fans, I think it's a game that would explode if it were given some publicity. If I were in charge this is what I'd do: I would announce a Steam release date and tell everyone who buys it on the Slitherine page that their activation codes would be valid on Steam later (or however that stuff works). That way you still get revenue now, Steam fans won't hesitate to buy the game now, and you give yourself more time to work out the quirks and roll out a lot of the other features that time didn't allow. Upon the Steam release the game will be even better than it is now, making it even more ripe for an explosion.

This is saying a lot coming from me, a not-huge-Steam fan. I think it's just smart.

I've been lurking this thread for quite a while now, finally registering just to post that I absolutely, 100%, would buy this game right now if this were to happen. I'm currently holding off buying it because I prefer to keep my games library on Steam and firmly believe that this game, eventually, will come to Steam. If I could buy the game now and register it on Steam later, then I won't hold off any longer.

If it is possible to do this, please do this.

[loktar]

I just bought the game, and would love a Steam release as well. Only reason I think this would be great on Steam is just for the fact more people will see it.

However I prefer *owning* my games, which on Steam you can't ever do, so thank you for providing an option for my to buy it here as well.

I would also like to throw my hat in with the people saying GOG as well.

[MagpieX]

I've bought games off-Steam since years before and I am not really emphasizing on convenience much that I would let it get in the way between buying or not. This included games which got to Steam very late and already had a sizable audience at that time like the GalCiv series or SoASE. At any rate more distribution platforms if the developers think it needs a bigger audience for their game is a solid idea. I'd however suggest to keep it a light-weighted integration so that people can install and play it without services like Steam as well.

I am not so sure how it would develop popularity-wise on Steam but it will definitely have high snap popularity should it be advertised as spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri. People however do have very different ideas of successors, some want clones, some don't, they generally however want >100% experience of that predecessor and are very harsh in their judgments and recommendations if they feel even the slightest bit of being disappointed. However with the new Steam review feature out existing players can always give their own opinion before it. So I think it's worth publishing it on more platforms including Steam and also providing a demo with it which tends to avoid the usual friction between having to trust reviewers and making your own opinion without being exposed to the risk of a mispurchase. Would be a win-win situation for everyone including the people who just want convenience.

[traum]

I don't want to argue about the merits of Steam.

I just want to say I will buy your game the moment it is available on steam.

This is because I buy a lot of games, and it is difficult to keep track of them if they aren't all in one place.

I know I can add the game to Steam, but if my hdd crashes, and I reload, it won't be there, and I'll forget it exists and that I own it.

Steam has game-ified compulsive collecting of games, and I want this game in my collection please.

Please either setup a "email me when it is available on steam list" mailing list page or get on greenlight so I can upvote it and track its status.

Thanks for reading.

[Simileum]

I too would purchase this game now if I knew it would transfer over to Steam at some point. It's not just about everything everybody else has said, but in addition to all that, I'll be moving all my gaming over to Steambox at some point, and don't want to leave any stragglers behind. So is this game going to Steam at some point or not?

[BlueTemplar]

Rock Paper Shotgun made several articles about Pandora, so it does get some advertising. And most of 4X fans have probably heard of it by now, or will quickly hear about it : there are already two threads about it on civfanatics.

The problem is more about the people that are not 4X fans : remember that Alpha Centauri itself, despite being one of the best 4X games, didn't sell that well - only 150 000 copies in the first 5 months (though perhaps due more to a lack of advertising rather than complexity).

[Steam] offer autopatching if you so desire, even Beta patches or patch rollback if I want to play an earlier version is possible - all is of this is up to the developer. And, of course, my friends are also there.

Wait, rollbacks? What Steam game has that? AFAIK you're forced to play the latest release or beta version of the game...
(BTW, how can you roll back Pandora, or prevent it from patching? I don't want to have my current game made unplayable by a patch like it happened for Endless Space and Sword of the Stars 2...)

Also, you can release a game on Steam without including its DRM, though the developers/publishers rarely choose not to, for instance Europa Universalis IV is "DRM-free" (CD-key still required?) despite being a Steamworks title!
http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_Li ... s_on_Steam