By getting games out to market, Steam Greenlight is the best tool for developers to generate fan base and brand recognition in the experience of local developers.
On Thursday, Nov. 20th, the Calgary Game Developers (CGD) non-profit organization held a gathering at the Rose & Crown Pub in downtown Calgary to discuss the Steam Greenlight game platform and have members share their experiences with the program.
First launched in 2003 by Valve Corporation, Steam is the largest software distribution platform available on PC, Mac and Linux, with 12.5 million active users using the service. Greenlight was introduced in August 2012 as a space for small developers to pitch their games to the community across the Steam. If the games garner enough praise and attention from the community, they have the chance to be officially put on sale in the Steam Store.
“It’s interesting to see community feedback,” said Shane Berezowski, member of the CGD and creator of the recently released game CMYW.
CMYW began development in April of 2015, and after joining the CGD in May and receiving support from other members, Berezowski decided to publish his game onto Greenlight on July 16th. By August, the community approved the game as Greenlit and it was ultimately released on Oct. 16th after a mere 6 months of development.
Over the last month, the game has sold over 800 copies and generated $1,886 in gross revenue, providing a rewarding experience for Berezowski.
“This is probably considered a failure to most people,” he said, “[but] those numbers seem accurate for someone of my calibre.”
Justin Luk, game developer and co-organizer of CGD, decided to test the waters and post the project AsterVoid he had been working on since August of 2014 to Greenlight.
His first attempt in April 2015 received underwhelming reception, as over the course of 176 days there were only 268 “Yes” votes to have the game launch in contrast to the 916 “No” votes from community members.
Luk admitted that this first effort was haphazardly done, posting only a small trailer, a couple screenshots and lackluster description on the titles product page, but this yielded him a good learning experience.
“You can get this many eyes with no effort at all,” said Luk.
With the aid of colleague Radu Muresan, Luk tried again. Re-launching the title as AsterVoid2000 on Oct. 28th, 2015, and found much greater success.
In only 22 days, the game has received 858 “Yes” votes over the 827 “No”. It is currently #77 in the top potential Greenlight games.
Luk credits much of the newfound success to be from his added effort to present his game, but it can also be attributed to his new publisher, Black Shell Media.
“Once you’re off that front page you fail to exist anymore,” said Berezowski. CMYW was also published by Black Shell Media.
“A week of them pushing my game got my numbers [back] up there,” he said.
It is worth noting that Valve receives 30 per cent revenue on any Greenlit project, and the publisher Black Shell Media takes another 30 per cent of the remaining revenue.
Berezowski attempted to self publish his title initially, but after sending roughly 300 emails to press and marketers, he decided to enlist the help of a publisher.
Not all developers had need of publishers however.
Michael Lohaus and his partner Vieko Franetovic released their game Krunch independently on December 12th of 2012. Additionally, the game was listed on the Greenlight service that was new at the time.
After over a year on Greenlight, it was finally approved in February of 2014 to launch on the Steam Store. Despite the slow traction, Krunch still managed to succeed as an independently marketed title.
“You need to build your game’s reputation and your brand in order to propel a Greenlight gampaign,” said Lohaus.
A focus on cumulating a community and generating the attention of a target audience was the unanimous advice the developer’s had to offer, not only for a single project to succeed, but for future projects as well.
Regardless of any business you start, it won’t be profitable at the beginning,” said Berezowski. “You’re always going to get beat up and it’s your decision to keep going and see what happens.”