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Valve to abolish Steam Greenlight


Radi

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2 minutes ago, Zakamutt said:

Everyone keeps talking about several thousand dollars, assuming the real highball figures will happen. Meanwhile, if Steam keeps the $100 cost, devs may potentially earn more as this will be recoupable (and greenlight is also 100 bucks, though I believe you don't need to do this more than once.

If and only if the fees increase dramatically will this necessarily even matter.

I agree. Maybe I'm giving this more importance that it really has. 

8 minutes ago, Zalor said:

I am glad to see serious and well-trained artists like Radi wanting to contribute to this medium. We don't have enough people like him/her, and the western VN market desperately needs professionalism. Anything that could discourage serious artists from developing VNs is a problem.     

Thank you Zalor, I really appreciate your words. 

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1 hour ago, Radi said:

Painting, programming, composing, etc are jobs. It doesn't matter if people does them because it is their passion, every one needs to eat. My primary concern is not making money, is to make a living out of art. Those "poor" artist were the reality of the situation 5 years ago, but that is changing.

55 minutes ago, Decay said:

An indie platform is almost never better because nobody uses them. Even games ill-suited for Steam will sell far better there than on perfectly matched indie platforms. I mean, just look at the entire VN industry. 

Or how about we try to find a way so these people can ply their craft while also making a decent living? Just because this has historically been infeasible doesn't mean it has to be forever. 

Yes, the crux of the problem, most art doesn't sell. In an ideal world wealth distribution will be a thing but we're far from that stage, and the answer to getting most artists to make a decent living is likely not to be tied to any commercial market. Commercial markets rely on games selling and indie games and art doesn't sell and so you have a vicious cycle. Desura went bankrupt, Steam is commonly seen to be floating with trash (and trash isn't something you label a product you see as having any worth.) Patreon while making things easier is still a market solution and there still isn't enough people willing to dish out for art. That's why you still have the majority of artists in poverty.

Am I being miserable or just being realistic? Am I complaining that artists weren't starving anymore? Artists never stopped starving. When I began learning about writing about a decade ago, we were told that if you went into the business for money, we may as well turn around and find something else to do. I have yet to see conditions improve enough where this is no longer the go-to advice.

The last few years have seen a boom in Indie gaming. Why? Because Steam just let the doors open and people started flooding in. When indie games just began to enter the market there were a few indie games and a whole shitload of curious buyers. Now there's a whole shitload of indie games and not many interested buyers. Steam, being a market platform, needed to fix this. Not only are indie developers complaining about there being too many indie developers, you have consumers complaining there are too many indies. This is the problem, not my miserableness (although it is considerable) but rather normal market behaviours.

It won't be solved by burying your head in the sand or petitioning Steam to change, the problem will continue.

35 minutes ago, Zalor said:

The western VN market needs professional artists badly, 

You won't get them. Firstly professional artists cost too much for what VN developers are willing to fork out. Secondly working on what may or may not be construed as a porn game may or may not hinder that artist's career.

If you can't afford a couple of thousand bucks to register, forget about hiring a professional artist.

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It's not like Steam can't get proper product curation. They simply don't want to and out of various reasons, having to deal with angry developers and communities alike being the most prolific examples. In the end, it might just be not worth their money, to ease things for a handful of more artistic developers.

Besides, what truly defines computer game an art? It's not like it ever relied on business to thrive, quite the contrary. Artists were always starving and so they will, because that's the natural order of things. Art doesn't sell and if it sells, it's only because it just happened to appear at the right moment, in the right place and time. In other words, you get lucky. That's it.

Edited by Narcosis
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