Jex
Member
I assume they don't want a million games on their store front - that would be confusing to the customer and it would make good titles hard to find.
At least, I assume that's the theory.
Mutant Mudds Steam REJECTED
- Thread starter Box of Bunnies
- Start date
I assume they don't want a million games on their store front - that would be confusing to the customer and it would make good titles hard to find.
At least, I assume that's the theory.
jediyoshi
Member
Price wouldn't have been the only issue. If it was, then it would have been on the devs since Valve suggests a price following submission.
That paints a pretty grim picture for other DD services. Watch it.
Not an uncommon occurrence, I believe No Time To Explain, To The Moon and various Cryptic Comet games were rejected for similar reasons. Probably because Valve gets so many submissions from crappy low-end indie games the good ones get overlooked.
It's either this or Appstore 2.0, so I can't say I'm going for the pitchfork just yet. The good news is they can still get on Steam if they gain enough interest like To The Moon did.
It's either this or Appstore 2.0, so I can't say I'm going for the pitchfork just yet. The good news is they can still get on Steam if they gain enough interest like To The Moon did.
And yet many would like to have Steam as the only DD option in PC gaming. Yep, good luck guys.
As i stated many times, monopoly is always bad choice.
Many reasons, sometimes stupid reasons.
People already know that.
And there isn't a monopoly so why even bring it up?
Box of Bunnies
Banned
Because plenty of Steam fans are actively seeking one. The "not on Steam, not interested" mindset is fairly widespread amongst PC game enthusiasts.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I think it'd be funny if we saw a Pokemon game on Steam.
That's not seeking monopoly, that's expressing preference.
BlazeHedgehog
Member
I love all the people in this thread jumping to say "VALVE NEEDS TO CHANGE ITS POLICY!"
Nobody even knows what that policy is. Change it from what, exactly? There is a lot of assumption going on in this thread.
The only thing that maybe needs to change is that whoever is in charge of validation at Steam needs to clarify what exactly the parameters for acceptance are. Not telling somebody why they were rejected is pretty silly.
Saying anything more than that and you might as well be trying to carve a turkey while blindfolded.
Nobody even knows what that policy is. Change it from what, exactly? There is a lot of assumption going on in this thread.
The only thing that maybe needs to change is that whoever is in charge of validation at Steam needs to clarify what exactly the parameters for acceptance are. Not telling somebody why they were rejected is pretty silly.
Saying anything more than that and you might as well be trying to carve a turkey while blindfolded.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
I think the guy that made that RPG all about killing his ex girlfriend was the most exposed one so far.
Now this, I guess.
How do you think monopolies start? If you don't think that Valve is exploiting their reputation, I have a bridge to sell you.
Seriously, how many posts does NeoGAF have where people go "no company should ever try to compete with Steam"?
I've even seen some posts that go "not even indie companies should try selling over anything but Steam".
I think it'd be funny if we saw a Pokemon game on Steam.
Sure, there's a few kinks in the system, but the way I see it, it's about barriers and where we want them. If the game isn't even published the barrier to buy is 100%. If it's on an overcrowded store that sometimes makes a mistake and allows IP infringement to occur, the mistakes obviously have to be corrected, but at least there's a chance to buy the game.
More openness and less walled garden approach would be nice among the big DD providers.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I don't know if we're owed anything, but I think Steam owes developers some explanation so that they can maybe fix their problems and resubmit.
If the problem is that they get too much junk, they should impose a 100 dollar "certification fee" or something to make it so that only people who are serious will submit their games.
Heck, make it a thousand dollar deposit contingent on your game being approved or something like that.
There's also plenty of people who refuse to purchase games that use Steamworks. Stardock commented on SoaSE lost sales due to that in an interview, but I can't seem to find it. Regardless of what Steam fans want, Valve have a long way to go before they become a monopoly.
We're definitely not. I'm purely talking about personal preferences and what I'd like to see the industry moving towards. But I agree with most of your suggestions.
Steamworks DRM doesn't turn that many people off outside of message boards. Stardock's comment was that they lost more by not having retail than they did losing due to requiring Steam.
Also said was that Stardock's own IT folks would rather use Steamworks, because doing it yourself is annoying, but that Brad Wardell vetoed doing that for Fallen Enchantress personally. (game will be on Steam but not require it)
test_account
XP-39C²
It is really weird that if they give no reason why it is rejected. Is this really true? How are you suppose to do any changes etc. to the game that might get it approved on Steam if you have no idea what the reason for the rejection is?
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I think it was a gaffer who talked about his experience with Valve when he tried to submit his game three times. Basically he just stopped because he wasn't sure what else he could do to convince them.
test_account
XP-39C²
That is a weird policy by Valve. Could make it impossible to submit games without having a clue why it gets rejected.
If you're game is rejected the only thing you can do is release it and build enough interest in it for Valve to notice, I believe that's how To The Moon got accepted on Steam. If this gets on gog it'll get on Steam.
That shit got accepted to steam? Wow.
Speedymanic
Banned
Huh, shades of MS rejecting games on their service.
Sucks that Steam are rejecting games.
Sucks that Steam are rejecting games.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Funny enough, I think the game was actually in one of the indie bundles, so it's not like it was an unknown.
That's not to totally shit on Steam when it comes to indie devs though - the fact that Feep can generate a seemingly unlimited number of codes to give away his game on GAF is a neat promotion tool.
They just need some way to make it easier for devs to get on Steam. Or at the very least, make the decision making process more transparent.
The game's been out on the NA eShop for like six months and has a lot of very flattering reviews.
No, monopolies don't start because consumers have preferences. What you see as Valve exploiting their reputation to move towards monopoly, I see it as Valve trying to keep themselves above competition, as any business firm would do in order to maximise profit.
"no company should ever try to compete with Steam" and "not even indie companies should try selling over anything but Steam" are examples of fanaticism, not of preference.
Steam also rejected Gemini Rue and Offspring Fling at first, but later both were accepted after developer pressure and press exposure.
Here's an article from PA about the Offspring Fling process with quotes from the creator himself.
Here's an article from PA about the Offspring Fling process with quotes from the creator himself.
chubigans game (the oil blue) is on Greenman Gaming, GamersGate, Desura and was part of a Indie Royale bundle, yet his game isn't on Steam. I'm not sure how getting on GoG would make a difference in Mutant Mudds case.
Nabs
Member
We don't know that they were rejected for the same reasons. Plenty of games are rejected before they are accepted, so he should keep trying. I'm not sure why the oil blue was rejected (great game), but I do know that it has issues with the overlay. That could probably be enough to reject a game when you're receiving a ton of submissions every day.
TaroYamada
Member
This is true, Gemini Rue wasn't added until the Indie Royale bundle for this very reason. Valve generally requires the Steam overlay work for submissions.
walking fiend
Member
The only Nintendo related reason I can think of, is that they [developers] didn't want the game to be noticeably cheaper on Steam than eShop to prevent the sales on latter becoming lower and hence the revenue decreasing.
SirIgbyCeaser
Banned
Mutant mudds is just a really hard platformer. It's not that fresh or unique, I actually think its a pretty bad product outside of the E-Shop where is a barren desert, and a difficult platformer on the console of mario makes some sense.
I really wonder sometimes about Valve's rejection policies. There's enough unappealing crap on Steam to assume that just about anything can get through if they play by the rules, and then we see stories like this pop up about legitimate games getting turned away without explanation.
It can't be an easy vetting process for a small team, but the communication between that department and developers is by all accounts pretty awful. Wish they'd step their game up in that respect, it only hurts their service in the long run.
It can't be an easy vetting process for a small team, but the communication between that department and developers is by all accounts pretty awful. Wish they'd step their game up in that respect, it only hurts their service in the long run.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I can't think of any examples right now--PC-exclusive retro RPGs like the Spiderweb stuff would be a good place to start--but hadn't we heard in the past that Steam generally rejected games with prices Valve feels are too high? Mutant Mudds was astronomically expensive on 3DS relative to most stuff on Steam of a similar size, scope, or fidelity.
We've also heard the networking is a thing. I know the programmer for Mutant Mudds is or was friends with Guilherme Tows, who did Eversion, which is on Steam. Maybe they could try to leverage their connections there?
We've also heard the networking is a thing. I know the programmer for Mutant Mudds is or was friends with Guilherme Tows, who did Eversion, which is on Steam. Maybe they could try to leverage their connections there?
That's alright because eShop will be offering season sales ..starting right now actually. Also what about all the times Steam has had sales on indie games (that are also on Xbox Live and PSN) like Braid, LIMBO, Shatter, Kung Fu Rag Doll, etc.
So how does that compare to Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac and/or VVVVVV?
Super Meat Boy has way, way more content, and is very well designed. VVVVVV has a novel gimmick (that it stole from Metal Storm). Mutant Mudds is merely competent--nothing more, nothing less.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Well, Isaac is a roguelike, so I would say "not at all" to that. Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV are both more substantial, more original, and more polished experiences than Mutant Mudds. I did enjoy Mutant Mudds, of course, and I wouldn't call it "actually a pretty bad product", but I don't think it's game of the year material the way VVVVVV or Super Meat Boy were.
toythatkills
Member
Look at the XBLIG marketplace. This is what happens when you don't reject games based on quality.
Minsc
Gold Member
Valve rejected having The Pinball Arcade (a cross platform XBLA/PSN game) on Steam because they felt their users don't like pinball games
And they also rejected Book of Unwritten Tales, a very polished adventure game, despite Steam being full of adventure games.
CecilRousso
Member
I rather see some games being rejected, than the store being full of cheap clones, like the App store. Which is bound to happen if they make it completely open.
No thanks. You might not realize it, but the internet is absolutely filled with shoddy, poorly programmed and designed games with graphics from the 90s when people discovered polygons. And that's not even counting the obvious derivatives, copyright and trademark infringing works.
While the application process should be more transparent, making it totally open would be a distaster.
Last thing we need is an Apple or Android Marketplace filed with clones and broken stuff.
article said:
God, this needs to end, seriously.
1000$ fee proposed in one of the earlier posts would be good enough i think, to stop most of of the crap and being still viable to indies.