Hello everyone. This is kind of a surprise post, but I just had to take the time to write about this news. If you are an indie game developer and plan on submitting your game to Steam GreenLight then you might want to hurry up and do so quickly. I am sure many developers using the platform or want to use the platform have heard the news already, but if you have not this is whats going on - Valve is shutting down Steam Greenlight for good.
Source - From Valve themselves:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/announcements/evolvingsteam
Almost every other major gaming site has also covered this already such as kotaku and Polygon
I am sure that many YouTubers will also probably discuss this soon enough as well.
Anyway, Valve is shutting down Steam Greenlight and plans to replace it with something called "Steam Direct". This will be the new program that indie developers will need to go through if they want to make their games available on the Steam platform. Valve didn't release much information on the new submission process and it seems that most of the plans aren't finalized yet but if you are an indie developer hoping to get onto the platform there could be some things to be worried about. For example, it only cost $100 dollars to sign up as a developer for Steam Greenlight. This was a one time submission fee that allowed you to submit as many games as you wanted. Steam Direct aims to remove this and it sounds like Valve will be charging a fee per submission. There is no official price setup for the new fee as of this writing. Valve will be sharing more information about the new process later on.
For more information and questions not answered in Valve's news update I recommend checking out this topic about the upcoming changes in the Greenlight community forums:
Changes coming to Steam Greenlight
According to this post, if you are a Greenlight developer and still have not submit anything, you may request a refund.
For those of you interested in submitting to Greenlight, there is still time and you can do so. If you get greenlit before the changes are made, then it's safe to say that you will be able to release your game on Steam without having to go through Steam Direct or paying another fee price. However, if your game is still hanging in Greenlight by the time Steam Direct takes over, then you will have to resubmit and possibly pay a fee based on the new on-boarding process.
indies worried....
If you are an indie developer don't worry, you will still be able to bring your product to Steam even after Greenlight is taken down. However, if you are worried, it is understandable. Actually, after reading through the comments and seeing what other developers have to said expresses that many other small time indies are worried. I personally am worried myself since I am an indie game developer who currently has been through Greenlight once already and planned on submitting more games through it in the future. Actually, I was planning my second Greenlight campaign for my next upcoming game. The game I have been talking about for months now here on the blog. This news about Greenlight shutting down has got me so worried, that I might even launch my next Greenlight campaign sometime next week hoping that it will get green-lit and reserve me a launch spot on Steam before the big changes happen. It might become harder to get on Steam's platform. I don't know yet. We will see.
Once again, don't get too worried. Valve themselves still haven't really given any final answers on how the new changes will work, how much it will cost etc. In the meantime, it is probably best to submit your game to Greenlight before it's completely gone.
This news isn't all bad. Valve is obviously doing this in the best interest of their customers and developers. This is a new way to add in some sort of new level of quality control. Steam Direct could mean less poorly designed, broken unfinished games and more quality content for people to buy.
I will most likely be posting an update about my current game project within the next week or so.
