Steam Greenlight: 1000 games and counting, more Greenlit every few weeks

Next round of 10 selections on October 15:
Alden said:
Today's update to Steam Greenlight brings a handful of changes and additions for fans and developers.

First, we heard from both developers and gamers that it was hard to have a meaningful conversation about a Greenlight game within the often lengthy comment section on the page. So starting today, each listing in Steam Greenlight will also have a dedicated discussion area where fans can ask questions, post feedback, and start conversations around the game.

For developers, we're adding more data on weekly voting for their title and greater visibility about their status within the Greenlight process.

Developers can now see a graph showing their up-vote traffic for each day of the past week, and compare it with the average votes for top-ranked games.

Next, we've made changes to help give developers a better idea of how their titles are progressing to being Greenlit. For games in the Top 100 ranking, devs will now see their specific numerical ranking. For games below the top 100, they will see their progress toward top 100.

And finally, mark your calendars for October 15. On that date, we'll be announcing at least 10 of the next games that the community has voted up and moving them to the 'Greenlit' section. Make sure you get your votes in and make your voice count.

Head on over to the Greenlight discussions to let us know what you think about these updates, and be sure to join the Official Group for the latest news and announcements.

Other minor updates of note:
- Added a section to the front page of the Steam store to promote Steam Greenlight
- Added a new tab to Greenlight item detail pages to list out more comments per-page

I assume that Slender: Source Faceless will make it in this round since they've changed their apparently offending name.

The bottom half of the next 10 is really close though -- I hope Octodad makes it, that and McPixel are ones that I'm really intrigued by. Not too interested in all of these zombie/horror games.

That sounds like a nice update.
 
I don't get to see the stats as a dev either...my game says it is 45% of the way there to the top 100. Is that good? Bad? Heck if I know. :p

Originally my bar was at 1%.
 
Replacing it with complaining right now. Brilliant.

It's the internet. People are going to complain no matter what. Might as well get it all over with at once, rather than have it happen every single time a new group of games get selected. Assuming that is why they hid it in the first place.
 
It's the internet. People are going to complain no matter what. Might as well get it all over with at once, rather than have it happen every single time a new group of games get selected. Assuming that is why they hid it in the first place.

Well they keep hiding more and more stuff. That first day where you could see unique views seems so long ago...

Soon we'll just see the title of a game and have to vote yes or no based on that.
 
Apparently a way to make people happy with this Greenlight thing simply doesn't exist.

Well they keep hiding more and more stuff.
Because when they show stuff people go crazy over it.

Let me give you a clear example: they pointed from the start "Don't worry about percentages, guys, they are just indicative for us"... And yet every single fucker with a Steam account spent two weeks whining about percentages anyway, writing blog and articles about what a mess was, how impossible it was to be approved on Steam, etc.
 
Apparently a way to make people happy with this Greenlight thing simply doesn't exist.

I'm happy, actually. The exposure it gives games is fantastic, and each update they've done so far is really good. I just wish they didn't shut out games that didn't get a large number of votes...but hey, they're running a business, not a charity.

For the record I knew my game wouldn't get approved by Steam, and I know my next game won't get enough votes either, but I'm still paying the $100 and submitting it because I like the service.
 
The top ten for that matter. Would it kill them to just greenlight 1 game that doesn't make the top 100 but is greenlighted based on it's content?

Nuts.

Yeah, would be kind of nice if they let some through based on their own judgements. This is really a popularity contest where the big kids could very easily just get through every time and muscle out the small fry. In fact, the current system practically ensures the same titles get through now that would make it through the old direct-application way. At least if they only harvest the top 10 at any time.

Still, gotta play by their rules I suppose...
 
Yeah we are currently listed as 42% of the way to top 100. Haha. Yikes that is just insanity.

Cute Things is at 47%. Not sure what that means, tbh.

I do like the new "past week's voting history" though. Kinda made me cringe that appearing in the Indie Royale bundle made a dent but not an appreciable one. Oh well, keep soldiering on.
 
Can't blame Steam for removing the percentage tracker for each title.

But, now it seems I can't browse all titles without actually going through and rating them. I suppose that's a good way of encouraging people to look at projects they may have not considered and make a thoughtful decision with their vote.
 
Apparently a way to make people happy with this Greenlight thing simply doesn't exist.


Because when they show stuff people go crazy over it.

Let me give you a clear example: they pointed from the start "Don't worry about percentages, guys, they are just indicative for us"... And yet every single fucker with a Steam account spent two weeks whining about percentages anyway, writing blog and articles about what a mess was, how impossible it was to be approved on Steam, etc.

They complained about how stupidly high the number for getting 100% was, and how it went up and down and up several times a day. Which isn't a cry for "hey, please remove everything!" it's "hey, please give us more detail".
 
They complained about how stupidly high the number for getting 100% was, and how it went up and down and up several times a day. Which isn't a cry for "hey, please remove everything!" it's "hey, please give us more detail".
And yet didn't Valve explain, when Greenlight was released, that they were going to adjust the details, and some games might be accepted without reaching 100%? People knew that, knew Valve loves statistics, presumably read Valve mentioning that they could/would change things around, and still complained. :/

I feel like for a while in this thread, it was literally once or twice a page that someone would have to post explaining like "Yes, 100% is crazy high. Yes, Valve is changing the numbers. Yes, that's the point, Valve is gathering data since this is an experiment so they know how to adjust. No, games may not have to even reach 100%. Yes, Valve has a FAQ or whatever explaining this." And 10 games got accepted...I don't think any of them had 100%.

It just needs time and not overreacting, in my opinion, and it may still be a good avenue for certain games I think. =)
 
And yet didn't Valve explain, when Greenlight was released, that they were going to adjust the details, and some games might be accepted without reaching 100%? People knew that, knew Valve loves statistics, presumably read Valve mentioning that they could/would change things around, and still complained. :/

I feel like for a while in this thread, it was literally once or twice a page that someone would have to post explaining like "Yes, 100% is crazy high. Yes, Valve is changing the numbers. Yes, that's the point, Valve is gathering data since this is an experiment so they know how to adjust. No, games may not have to even reach 100%. Yes, Valve has a FAQ or whatever explaining this." And 10 games got accepted...I don't think any of them had 100%.

It just needs time and not overreacting, in my opinion, and it may still be a good avenue for certain games I think. =)

Solution to me seems to be just show the number of up votes. Then you still have an idea of how the game is doing, and don't see 50 games all at "1%".

Now after you vote for a game, you're pretty much done with it forever. There's no way to see how it's doing, no way of knowing if it's succeeding or failing.
 
They complained about how stupidly high the number for getting 100% was, and how it went up and down and up several times a day.
Yeah, and they both were stupid complaints, because Valve stated *clearly* "Don't mind that stuff, we are just calibrating it over time".

People also whined an awful LOT about the downvote button, no matter how many times Valve employees stated "Don't mind the downvote button, it's not going to subtract from upvotes, we are just using it to gather statistics".
A pointless waste of air, apparently. Everyone kept ranting for days against the "great potential for trolling" and other senseless shit like that.

So, do you actually want to blame them for going "Fuck you, guys, we are going to keep all the stats hidden from now on. You should just mind voting what you like"?
I'm not a big fan of hidden stats myself, but users and developers essentially forced this choice on them.

In fact, that's exactly who I'm going to blame for these changes: the whiny users/developers.
 
So cause people complained, the rational response is "ok, no stats at all, fuck off"?
Sure. Why not? People can't complain (too much) about numbers they don't know shit about.

Also, some developers should realize that maybe -MAYBE- if they aren't getting all the attention in the world is because their game isn't interesting at all, not just because people on the internet like to troll them with downvotes and the service is somehow unfair showcasing their product.
 
I think it should be an option left up to the developers whether they want their vote tally information to be publicly viewable or private (for their specific game).

That said, there might be a legitimate reason to hide the info that has nothing to do with the reasons mentioned so far -- momentum. If a user sees a game with a ton of votes, they might be swayed into thinking "this must be good, I'll just upvote it without spending much time looking at it for myself". As seen with the GAF hype phenomenon, where one person hyping something can cause a cascade effect.

Similarly if a user sees a game with few votes, they might think "oh it must be crap if no one is voting for it, I won't bother giving it the light of day either".
 
The way I see it, the user has no business knowing how well or advanced a project is. You vote for the project because you interest in the product. That should be the only factor.

Now, if the developer actually wants to share that info, I guess he's free to do so.
 
I think this change is a good thing. Now Valve can pick games that are not in the top 15 without getting complaints from the community. This should be good news for all games with less votes, improving their chances of getting greenlit.
 
So... all the ratings are no longer visible to anyone publicly. What the hell, Valve?

At least I hope they use this opportunity to pick the most popular games on different genres, including niche genres, not just the top ten. Neither of my favourites were in the top ten and the majority of them was in the 1-3% range.
 
I still hold that Greenight is a ruse and the only games Valve will allow on steam via green light were ones they would have let on anyway.

Considering how much games are uploaded per month and the time between each "10 games will go" ... it sounds like they are doing MUCH more indie games per time
 
Okay, now my private Greenlight stats say that Cute Things is 100% of the way towards making the Top 100 list. Also, the comparison of my upvotes to the average Top 100 games' upvotes has disappeared, which could just follow naturally to being in the Top 100, I guess?

A new feature appeared in the past 24 hours and overnight my game went from 47% to 100%. Color me bewildered. I'm gonna keep watching this avidly and see how this shakes out.
 
Good riddance, I'd say. When games are accepted that barely hit 15%, you know that the percentages are completely useless.

I'd be nice if they showed the Top 20 games though.

Edit: Well, actually, not knowing anything about the position of the games might be the very point. Maybe Valve doesn't want the rankings to subtly manipulate the voters ("Oh, it already has 20%, this must be good!" "Eh, this one is only at 1%? Guess it's bad then").
 
Cute Things is at 47%. Not sure what that means, tbh.

I do like the new "past week's voting history" though. Kinda made me cringe that appearing in the Indie Royale bundle made a dent but not an appreciable one. Oh well, keep soldiering on.

Now that you mention it, have you asked the Indie Royale guys to add a link or something else to let people know that Bunny Must Die! and your game are on Greenlight? I suggested it on Twitter, but got no response back.

I know they are somehow related to Desura, but I bet you'd have gotten a lot of upvotes just from the "I won't even install non-Steam games" crowd.
 
Do you mean ALL iOS games, or just the bad ones? I don't like Angry Birds that much, but I don't consider it a bad game.
I like Angry Birds. On my Android.

Not so much on my PC though (and I have tried the PC demo). Once you take away that one gimmick (the flicking your finger across your screen), it gets very boring unlike a deeper game with more involved game mechanics like Worms.

The same can be said for a lot of iOS games tbh. I wasn't as impressed with Swords and Sworcery on PC as the hype suggested, but I can see how it would be a more compelling experience with those touch gimmicks.
 
Now that you mention it, have you asked the Indie Royale guys to add a link or something else to let people know that Bunny Must Die! and your game are on Greenlight? I suggested it on Twitter, but got no response back.

I know they are somehow related to Desura, but I bet you'd have gotten a lot of upvotes just from the "I won't even install non-Steam games" crowd.

No, I kind of dropped the ball on that. The bundle release date got moved from a Thursday launch to a Saturday launch, catching me off guard and very much out of pocket at an all-day concert. By the time I was back I'd missed the initial rush of attention. They did put me in the Indie Royale Collection on Greenlight, which is nice, but probably not getting that many votes any more. I could go back and beg them now, but the IR attention has dwindled thanks to time and the latest HIB.

I did, however, put prominent Greenlight links in the main menu of both the full version and the demo version that went live before the IR bundle. That, plus Eastern Europe's affinity for torrenting my game, will hopefully net me some upvotes.


EDIT: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand back to 47%. This is certainly a journey :P
 
No, I kind of dropped the ball on that. The bundle release date got moved from a Thursday launch to a Saturday launch, catching me off guard and very much out of pocket at an all-day concert. By the time I was back I'd missed the initial rush of attention. They did put me in the Indie Royale Collection on Greenlight, which is nice, but probably not getting that many votes any more. I could go back and beg them now, but the IR attention has dwindled thanks to time and the latest HIB.

I did, however, put prominent Greenlight links in the main menu of both the full version and the demo version that went live before the IR bundle. That, plus Eastern Europe's affinity for torrenting my game, will hopefully net me some upvotes.


EDIT: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand back to 47%. This is certainly a journey :P

Oh man, what a shame :/ I still think they should have offered you to add the link to help you get more votes, and I hope they do it from now so more devs can get visibility.

With that being said... While interest in the Indie Royale has no doubt dwindled every vote counts, don't you think? I'd give it a try, I don't know, maybe they are nice and send an email to everyone who bought the bundle or post the links on their twitter account.
 
I'm happy, actually. The exposure it gives games is fantastic, and each update they've done so far is really good. I just wish they didn't shut out games that didn't get a large number of votes...but hey, they're running a business, not a charity.

For the record I knew my game wouldn't get approved by Steam, and I know my next game won't get enough votes either, but I'm still paying the $100 and submitting it because I like the service.

My thoughts exactly. I didn't knew games are removed if they don't get enough votes. I guess my game has it's days counted.
 
My thoughts exactly. I didn't knew games are removed if they don't get enough votes. I guess my game has it's days counted.
Do games actually get removed? Chubigans might have just meant that games without a large number of votes presumably wouldn't get GREENLIT if Valve kept going with the trend of taking the top 10...but even that might change in the future, especially if Valve has hidden percentages.
 
Honestly? Bit disappointed they're only creaming off the most popular ten or so games on a monthly basis, I was kinda hoping they would approve stuff more regularly.
 
Honestly? Bit disappointed they're only creaming off the most popular ten or so games on a monthly basis, I was kinda hoping they would approve stuff more regularly.
I think it's probably a good thing overall if they only do 10-20 per batch, considering how some games may be unfinished, and others may be low quality. My fear with Greenlight has been that it might become like a mobile phone app store, with everything super cheap or depending on in-app purchases, and potentially lots of junk.

Though perhaps some could make a Greenlight-iOS comparison after a few months have gone by, and say that like with iOS, if you're not in the top 10 or top 100 there's very little chance to sell your game (or whatever the current stats are).

I'm still waiting to see how it goes.
 
These are the games which are not greenlit and which either I would probably buy on Steam, either I have particularly enjoyed playing.
  1. The Stanley Parable: HD Remix
  2. Gray Matter
  3. Ludwig
  4. Pro Pinball: Revived & Remastered
  5. Wooden Sen'SeY
  6. Momonga Pinball Adventures
  7. Qasir al-Wasat: A Night in-Between
  8. Hogee and the Magic Fire
  9. Shaun the Sheep - Home Sheep Home 2
  10. Retention
  11. The Oil Blue <--- a game I would have expected on Steam before Greenlight
  12. The Sea Will Claim Everything
  13. Nihilumbra
  14. OIO - The Game - Enlarged <--- ditto
  15. Worlds
  16. Escape Goat <--- ditto
  17. LogiGun
  18. Receiver
  19. Fly'n
  20. Contrast
  21. Wyv and Keep
  22. Octodad: Dadliest Catch
  23. Major Mayhem
  24. Ichi <--- ditto
If you have not checked them yet, you could have a look.

It is annoying that Steam keeps tracks of removed games in the "upvoted games" section. The borders are red and it is impossible to remove the upvote.

ClW6H.png
 
steamgreen1.jpg

During a panel pitching Steam and Greenlight to indies at Fantastic Arcade, Valve presented some numbers representing the usage of the service.

According to the slide, 949,156 users have participated, casting 9,998,476 votes toward getting games onto Steam. 3,195 games have been posted to Greenlight for consideration, of which 1,110 got banned so far, for various reasons ranging from content considered inappropriate to just being a joke.

Finally, there are around 800 "Legitimate, Publicly Visible Items" on the service. And of those, of course, ten have been officially "greenlit."
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/21/steam-greenlight-by-the-numbers/
 
I don't get those numbers. 3195 submissions - 1100 bans does not equal ~800 legitimate items, but would leave more than 2000. Could bans be of people, some of whom had multiple submissions?
 
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