What would be nice is if they split up Greenlight from games that are done (or nearly done), and then have a separate section, essentially advertising, for things in Alpha mode.

Technically there is a section in the Greenlight page called Concepts, were games can be added, scored and talked and more apropriate for alphas, but I just found it the other day by accident.



http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=765&section=concepts&p=1

Simulation games might actually make it on Steam Greenlight, Long Live the Queen seems to be doing well atm.

Simulation games can do quite well. Look at Papers, Please or Democracy 3. For some reason, though, if one puts dating/romance in a game, some people just get in a general uproar. "We don't want that polluting our space!"



Of course, Valve being a business tends to look at the bottom dollar approach. And if something does well, they are certainly willing to let similar projects through.

The biggest problem with GL is that popularity doesn't necessarily means sales and vice versa. I'm indie since many years and I know how this works. You put a platformer, some pixel art, a touch of zombies and voilà, you get tons of votes. Then maybe you can' sell the game for more than $5 and in the end when is live it does poorly. With simulation/RPG people are usually willing to pay more and that has a big impact.

Also depends on the target market - there aren't many women gamers on Steam, so as a consequence you don't get many votes if you try to Greenlit an otome game, and it's a catch-22, since there aren't many otome games (or games with romance) there are less women on Steam

Also depends on the target market - there aren't many women gamers on Steam, so as a consequence you don't get many votes if you try to Greenlit an otome game, and it's a catch-22, since there aren't many otome games (or games with romance) there are less women on Steam

Slowly, that is at least changing, though it is a shame it isn't faster. *shrugs* And not to mention some of the ones who go under male personas just to avoid general crap thrown out to.

Well I put Nicole and I'm past 26% in less than 2 weeks which was quite surprising, I thought to get max up to 10% lifetime so yes maybe things are slowly changing!

Well I put Nicole and I'm past 26% in less than 2 weeks which was quite surprising, I thought to get max up to 10% lifetime so yes maybe things are slowly changing!

Well, I think hitting past 30% is pretty cool. I admit, it would be a little weird if Nicole passed Greenlight status before the Yuri version was out

I don't think that is very likely, 30% is not bad, but after the initial bump it slows down, and takes months to reach the top100 (if you manage to)!

It's all a hype machine. There are (Kickstarter) games that are yet to be completed (in extreme cases development hasn't even started) that are already in the top 10.

Yes, I think Steam should just do like itunes and "open the gates" and then let the public decide. Or something like that, hard to know what is the best. Personally while I'm of course happy to be there, I don't think is going to change my life by much.

I think they are slowly going toward an "open gate" attitude as well. Another 100 games just made it through Greenlight, including a few Visual Novels now. Sadly, I didn't see anything else from Winter Wolves make it.

The highest one is Spirited Heart now but still only 79% which is too low to get in even on next batch. I don't think you'll see more games from me on Steam beside Loren maybe the next RPGs will have more chances though.

I submitted Nicole today but of course 0% chancest o get in with a dating sim

I joked on twitter saying that if I submitted with this image instead of the normal title screen I would get Greenlit in a week:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/db6df31b4183ef5d83df24791782c54b/tumblr_mw65hbVDc61qhts2bo1_1280.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

So, I see I have you to thank for a rather bizarre dream.



Yes, it was about zombie Nicole. Instead of Morale, she had a stat called Rot. Some of the daily tasks she would go under is to keep herself appearing 'human' (whether it was sewing up limbs, applying a ton of make-up, stealing perfume from the jewelry counter, etc.)



And instead of Energy, she had a stat called Brains. Simple enough...needless to say, dating could be a social nightmare.



And as well as different clothing, she could have different stats of decay.

those seems appropriate stats for this kind of dating sim!

Just out of curiosity, how are some of your other Greenlight games doing? I know Nicole had a large leap initially, and then died down.

I have several (5 I think) that are between 69-79%, but at the current approval rate I think none would get in before the next 6-8 months. I think very soon Steam will become like the Apple/Android appstores anyway

From the Twitter feed:

ah the percentages weren't updated... so I have 3 games above 80% and 2 above 75% now. 1 RPG and then otome/yuri dating sims

It would be interesting if all passed at once.

I am not sure people here would find it interesting... Loren on Steam kept me busy for at least 1 month doing all the various bureucratic/admin stuff. Next games should be easier to add, but still means delays and more delays on the next games

Now that some time has passed, I hope you consider the Steam release of Loren a success



However, after seeing what went down, I have some observations that may make future releases a little easier for you (of course, you probably already noticed these yourself).



1. If content is going to be censored, you might be ahead to mention it at the time. Of course, for the majority of your stuff on Greenlight, this isn't a problem. I'm just thinking ahead what may be seen in say Loren 2, etc. Mind you, everything you did addressed the issue as far as I'm concerned (such as the workarounds, downloading from your site).



2. If there is DLC going to be released, I suggest making it clear that it isn't Day 1 DLC, that in fact it had been made later, and it is only on Steam it appears as Day 1 DLC. Of course, to the average Steam user, that is the platform they use so they may not know the difference. I know I personally hate when the bigger companies make Day 1 DLC, so I can understand some of the reaction people who didn't know better had.



3. If there is OSTs and music available, let the people know. Some of the people I know didn't mind the price point of your game when they realized they could get the OST for Loren 1, for example. (These were also the sort of people who also know music, art, etc. isn't exactly cheap to produce).



Of course, all these things won't help with people who want to troll, and seem to have an ax to grind, but may make any possible future Steam releases a bit less stressful for you.

Let's see about each point:

1) yeah now I know better what I can and what I can't put. I had no idea before, that's why I couldn't give a warning. Actually, I DID. But it was a month before the release. I spammed all the social networks, blog, etc but probably people didn't read it is safe to assume now that on Steam there will NEVER be any nudity content. Sexy clothes/undergarments, yes though

2) yes next time will post in the community. Obviously I can't post in the DLC page description "hey this is not a day 1 DLC!" but will write it clearly in the community what is it.

3) yes, though now Steam allowed me to put the bonus content there too: http://store.steampowered.com/app/275240 so perhaps next time there won't be the need to get it on my own site.



oh and those things actually weren't that much stressful! Was learning how everything works, test to make sure that there weren't bugs, etc. that took lot of time and grey hairs. Now at least I know it well so for eventual future releases this part will go smoother

Well at the very least there are some "positives" about steam. Random people like msyelf have found and liked loren and have made our way or may be finding their way here. Ive posted a review on steam for loren ( without giving away spoilers of course =3 ).



The biggest issues with steam is the red tape that needs to be cut through to get anything done, amonst other things. Hopefully i can help a little with support on steam. Cant speak for my friends but they are looking at it and may give it a go, so more support will get it there eventually.