Steam Greenlight Announced

Sierra Oscar

Valve have announced an interesting new component to the Steam platform, called Greenlight. Basically Indie developers will be able to submit their game concept onto the platform for peer review by Steam users. In turn the Steam users can vote on each individual potential project and ultimately decide as to whether the game makes it onto Steam or not.

It sounds like an interesting concept, we will have to wait until August to see how it works in reality.

Enlisting the community to help select new titles

July 9, 2012 -- Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Steam Greenlight, a new platform feature that enlists the community’s help in selecting some of the next games to be released on Steam.

Steam Greenlight will allow developers and publishers to post information and media about their game in an effort to convince the Community that their game should be released on Steam. Greenlight piggybacks on Steam Workshop’s flexible system that organizes content and lets customers rate and leave feedback.

As well as serving as a clearing house for game submissions, Greenlight will provide an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans.

“Making the call to publish or not publish a title isn’t fun,” said Anna Sweet, at Valve. “Many times opinions vary and our internal jury is hung on a decision. But with the introduction of the Steam Workshop we realized an opportunity to enlist the community's help as we review certain titles and, hopefully, increase the volume and quality of creative submissions.”

Steam Greenlight will be released August 30.

gizmo

Looks like a really good idea alright. From what I gather the approval process for getting on Steam can drag on for months so not only does this offer the ability for gamers to push certain exceptional looking titles up the list but it'll also provide another platform for indies to get some indirect promotion.

EDIT: Reading more about it now and I'm not as sure. I was under the impression it was just a list of games which had been submitted for release, not this...

Can I post my game concept or early builds?
Absolutely! We encourage you to post information about your game as early in the development process as you are comfortable with. Greenlight will let you define whether you are posting your game as a concept/early build or as a playable game that is nearing completion.

We ask that you only define your game as 'playable game' if you have a playable build that demonstrates the gameplay mechanics and at least one level of your game. Otherwise, please classify your submission as 'concept' until its far enough along that the community can reasonably evaluate the mechanics, scope, and style of your game. Either way, you will probably get great feedback and a good start in building a community of fans around your game.

super_furry

As said, this is pretty much the way that Xbox Live Indie Games works. However, there'll be a much bigger audience, it'll have none of the geographic restrictions and will have a lot more support from Valve than Microsoft offer.