Steam’s new vetting system, Greenlight, has opened its doors. It’s now up to you fair citizen to cast your eye over the stock and decide what you’d like the option to buy.
We’ve talked about it beforebut Steam’s Greenlight service is Valve’s way of dealing with the vast number of submissions they receive for Steam approval which they no longerhave the time to sift through. They’ve created a space for all the games to queue up for entrance; we’re the bouncers pointing out who gets in and who doesn’t. Valve are keeping a little cagey on the numbers, but after a game receives a certain number of upvotes it will be allowed into the Steam store for people to put down real monies on it.
Valve haven’t stepped away from their curator’s responsibility entirely. In the Greenlight FAQ they state that “We’re going to be reaching out to developers as we see their games getting traction regardless of whether they have achieved a specific number of votes or are sitting 1st or 2nd place at any given time. We are most interested in finding the games that people want, not requiring them to always hit a specific number of votes.” So this isn’t like Kickstarter where if you don’t hit the target then you have to go home.
Though one similarity it does share with Kickstarter is that it’s not only finished games going into the mix. One game on the list that might be a familiar name is Project Zomboid. It’s been in an iterating beta for the past two years now, so it’s at least playable, but it’s not yet released. Though games in a less ready state are accepted too.
It’s way too early to say how well this will work out but it is likely that the developers who create the best marketing material and best rally their community will float to the top. It shouldn’t be forgotten that this is a popularity contest. But it’s one that we all have a vote in, so if you like the look of a game, show your support.