Yesterday I was approached by a publisher, who wants to bring one of my projects to steam and port it to several other mediums if possible, handling distribution, promotion and putting me in contact with his list of artists, composers and many other services.
While I personally consider the game in refinement/under construction phase,after letting them play the game they seem interested in moving ahead with setting the project up for steam with a little work for now. We spoke at length and the process seems to involve many things, like consulting artists to help improve the game's elements visually, and improving the game through play testing,etc. In exchange for my fees, they will handle things such as promotion, press releases, etc. At this point I'm now working on getting the game to a point where it can be played via steam Early Access along with the help of the publisher. This was a route I was heading in anyway once I got the game to a certain degree of polish and refinement - so I'm fine with this.
My question is how does Steam work with regards to BYOND software?
He seems to find the lack of - at the least- an exe creation option a bit distressing and I agree to an extent. It's a bit difficult to share your work as things stand with people outside the community without having them get involved with the community(which..sometimes is a mixed experience).
I've heard tales of games making it to steam from here such as Severed Worlds and NesTagia, so I'm just curious what does that conversion and process entail?
I hit this step of development a bit sooner than I anticipated, but being one to make the most of opportunities, I'd like to capitalize on it so any insight would be helpful.
-Avid
Nov 25 2015, 10:12 am
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Zagros5000
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Lol, the fact that you need a private conversation with the engine developer just to get something like this says A LOT about the engine
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Just visiting the site says A LOT about the "developers" here too.
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I'm personally about ready to just leave all together. I've tried to remain optimistic but seeing this bullshit community year after year for the past 8 years really gets exhausting.
That's not even considering frustrations with limitations on the engine. Hell, I tried running the web client on a project the other day and it crashed before it even loaded properly. | |
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the steamworks SDK requires the implementer to agree to an NDA, so this'll have to be private. All the replies are pretty relevant though.
I'm very unsure about the fact that a publisher proactively contacted you though.. especially after looking at your games(no offense.) Take the contact with a grain of salt. | |
I'm very unsure about the fact that a publisher proactively contacted you though.. especially after looking at your games(no offense.) Take the contact with a grain of salt. No offence but I agree. | |
A bit of a negative approach don't you think? Even saying no-offense does not make the implication of what you said any less offensive, but I digress.
I don't know where this mentality(implied based on your response) comes from that steam is to be put on a pedestal. Take for example; http://store.steampowered.com/app/200210/ Realm Of The Mad God^ Visually? Weak. Possible to be made on byond? Absolutely. Popular? Very much so, considering the small niche of the product. If a game can get even 10 people playing it "here", there is nothing to say it won't get a 100, a 1000, 10,000 "out there". My point is lets not be so... judgmental... As for the topic at hand, and the reason the byond exe/steam api/sdk isn't available to all users openly on the site(Despite a regime change) is "Byond" me. | |
RoxasX-San wrote:
What do you mean by ""Byond" me"?They don't know the reason why the steam api isn't accessible to all users. If what Somepotato said is accurate, then I'd imagine that's one reason why. | |
Lavenblade wrote:
That's not even considering frustrations with limitations on the engine. Hell, I tried running the web client on a project the other day and it crashed before it even loaded properly. Pretty pointless to vent about it if you're not going to report the issue. | |
Lavenblade wrote:
That's not even considering frustrations with limitations on the engine. Hell, I tried running the web client on a project the other day and it crashed before it even loaded properly. When people have issues with the webclient and don't report them, it won't get better. I'm happy to look into any issues that are reported. | |
RoxasX-San wrote:
I'm very unsure about the fact that a publisher proactively contacted you though.. especially after looking at your games(no offense.) Take the contact with a grain of salt. I dont get why people jump to conclusions based of screen shots and 2 mins of game play.Iv played alot of games on byond and avid not only has his own art style for his games but many functions and originality.I think ur looking at his current side project and not his others so ur jumping to conclusions about a game u haven't played fully.Its insulting no matter how u try to dumb it down. Saying it cant be true because ur games aren't good enough cant be dumbed down. If someone seen ur game and seen the potential in it and said they would back it wouldn't u go for it and u would think that the byond community would support it instead they support games with the best mock ups and no gameplay i dont get it. Iv tested his game fully u should do the same. Good luck Avid | |
LoL this is exactly why I can't take some of you people seriously. But "haters gon' hate" I suppose.
Truth is- I get compliments all the time from various people saying some of my games are probably the best things being hosted on BYOND on a consistent basis. That's not bragging-that's just what people have told me.(12 and counting woo hoo) I prefer to stay humble and continue my work instead of indulging in name calling, argument baiting, and the rest of that nonsense. What I can do is have the guy get in touch with Lummox so he can discuss it directly if you wish. And there's the matter of the 3 hour conversation we had last night as well. *Note: This conversation originated on Facebook as a result of a post I made to an indie game developers group inquiring about the best way to handle complex stories in gaming.*
In response to some of the comments here as well, I do now see alot of limitation in relation to what you can accomplish when it comes to DM as well. It doesn't really make me salty or frustrated, I get having an affection for the toolset, but if something isn't meeting your needs or growing to meet expectations you can easily find several other game development tools out there. Such as Game Maker, Unity, etc. There's a ton of them really. My point is diversify. If you can't see a future in what your working with, find something that can give you what you need. As for me this is just one tool I use. I also focus on learning and applying unity in 2-d which has an excellent set of tools for publishing on just about any platform you can think of, from mobile to consoles with the click of a button. The same with Game Maker. Would I like the some odd months I've spent here on BYOND not to go to waste? Sure. But if the tools aren't provided then I really have no choice to not limit myself and move onto something that can accomodate my needs. Unlike most people here in this community I'm not a hobbyist. I use BYOND as a testing ground in order to hone my craft and learn about game development hands on instead of going to college. I've learned alot, but when walls are reached you have 2 options, stop and wait, or bust through and keep going. Personally I have no intention of stopping. | |
Definitely recommend doing some research on this guy and the company he works for before you commit, may have been redacted out but you didn't once ask for any previous games they've published or a website. Which may be down to naivety, inexperience or a combination of the two.
I'd also check if they're on linkedin and ask for their professional email address, as someone who works in the gaming industry(albeit not in the USA) there are plenty of scam artists out there who take advantage of indie developers due to their age and inexperience. | |
Not to mention he's clearly from a foreign country and English isn't his main language. Good luck explaining things to him.
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I'm aware to an extent of what you mean. that boils down mostly to my preference to not be bogged down by details-not ignorance. But you did pose some great ideas for linkedin, email address and the link. Thanks.
He did provide some info when asked that could easily be fact checked. For instance he mentioned two companies he worked with, he didn't ask me for any fees at all (in fact, he simply said he would get paid when I did or connect me with people that could improve the work.) As far as the website, I thought it odd that it would be down, but then again when I was working on a game this past month it took me about 3 weeks longer to add all the stuff I wanted (and I'm still not done.) I also tried to host a guide for a project last night and received errors on all 3 free hosting websites I attempted to upload to-so I didn't really sweat it that much. Seems like his goal is basically to find games close to completion to minimize the effort and maximize profit. Which is a smart way to handle it. It's more beneficial to do that if you approach people who have laid a solid ground work and don't have much work lying ahead of them. Anyone who's made a game or worked on one for any serious amount of time, realizes that it's actually a massive amount of work. For all the stuff that I've done being one person delegating my project, I can confidently say that the level of features, atmosphere and depth I packed into this particular game, would put some AAA teams to shame with the stuff they put out nowadays. He seemed impressed by that, one person team (albeit I had a lot of help. Shout out to my artist buddies on this thread :D ) so I think that's mostly what prompted him to make the offer. You rarely see a single person handling multiple aspects of game developing-and succeeding to an extent. It certainly is more difficult to get people to look at your work when you don't have eye catching gfx. But at the end of the day, there's some games here, in this very community that consist solely of pretty graphics, and minimal, basic game-play that have been in development for years with no actual sign of ever becoming anything more than reincarnations of themselves. To me that's a tremendous waste of time, and talent. All of those things shape my current approach to how I develop my games. What one person values isn't necessarily the status quo, and sometimes if you look more closely, you find unexpected treasures in the least likely places. I personally feel like this guy became curious because of the amount of effort I put into the concept. A wise person realizes that, if I had 3,000 dollars to spare , I could simply have all the art redone and then also have a quality game with game-play depth in a relatively short amount of time (which has always been my goal anyway.) | |
Lmfao is that why Ganite quit development on his DBZ game?
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That's pretty condescending of you and full of assumptions.
In the past I've often paid for art. Through out my indie career I'd probably put the actual amount around 3,000-4,000 now that I think about it. However, your number is way off. 30$ an hour is for triple A or better artwork. You don't have to pay that much (or hourly for that matter). I can tell by the way you speak that you're probably a person of very little talent who's only option is to throw money at a problem. Quality artwork does not have to be paid for , and nor does quality programming-if you know what you're doing. In many instances I've gotten both for free (and actually still do occasionally) by trading skillsets. If you feel okay with securing a loan then bragging about you "got it like that" on a message board then "do you boo boo". However there's something you're sorely mistaken about- I never said they were footing the bill for anything nor that they were paying for anything at all. The conversation revolved around having the game placed in to steam Early access after we get it to a certain point. They would then handle press releases, and hype for the game. Early Access steam involves people paying to play your game, and help improve upon the final finished project. They take 20% of the fees from all of their work, the rest goes to me and I'm free to do as I like with it. Which includes purchasing art I would like. As a side note I'm pretty sure I won't be needing to or paying anyone 30$ an hour for that either. I reserve those figures for when I'm more capable and have some capital behind me to put out a great product. Thanks for the advice though , I think I have it covered. It's funny that you expressly mention art because I've come to realize something. This community is filled with games that have a huge amount of hype. Developers making mock ups to impress , but having very little actual gameplay behind their games, spending years in development for art, but having next to 0 actual gameplay. Anyone can make a game look good, fun, and compelling...completely different story. That's the entire point of why I've taken the approach I have taken. And no offense, but you're not really in a position to offer advice to me, I am pretty sure you're Paris.huggles. Same person who couldn't even pay me 20$ for some work I did for you a while back. But..you're a baller? Hmm. Ok. Truth is the game they are looking at probably has 5x as much content as any game on this site that I've seen. That's not bragging, that's based on study, and the work I personally have done. The awesome thing about something great is that I don't require other people's approval to understand it for what it is. | |