When to Greenlight?

General Discussions
#1

I’m hoping we have a few people on here who have had their games published on steam so that I can get some feedback from you guys on when the best time to put it up for greenlight would be.

I currently have my game sitting in the Concepts Section (AKA: The corner of Steam everyone forgot).
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=236887937

It’s mostly ignored, and that’s completely expected. The concept section is completely dead, seriously. I was the “Top rated all week” for pretty much two weeks straight with a grand total of 5 votes. Most steam users don’t even realize the Concept section exists. :stuck_out_tongue:

Having said that, I will eventually be putting my game on the real Greenlight area, that will be it’s “time to shine” and time to really get some attention going. My plan was to post it once I have a workable alpha demo people can play around with, and I had a proper website with a forum people can use. But I was curious to get your opinions on Greenlight, is sooner-than-later better than waiting until the game is playable? How important is it to have a semi-completed product to show off? If I can show off the concepts of what the game WILL be in a very polished manner is that all I need?

Basically in a nutshell, I’m trying to figure out if my tactic should be to post it up now, and gain exposure/momentum slowly, or post it later and blow people’s socks off? Most of you guys have seen my game; do you think in it’s current state with maybe a well polished dev-diary video explaining what features exists and what will be in the future would be enough? Should I wait?

#2

Your game looks good, but I would get it to a level with actual presentable gameplay before putting it into greenlight…

#3

That’s pretty much what I was thinking as well honestly, once I got the game to a point it’s an actual game with actual game play elements that can be shown. Right now I can only show engine mechanics, but I can’t really express how the game is actually played, because a large majority of that is still on-paper or it’s coded, but no content exists for it yet so I can’t really show any visuals.

I just wanted to make sure I’m going at this right, be a shame to miss out on a ton of potential exposure because I’m not really advertising the game at all right now.

#4

What Denius said; I’d wait until you’re confident that it will make it.

I remember seeing the game Vector on greenlight and was more or less blown away by just the trailer video: you can see it here as they reused it when they launched on Steam (yes, they got greenlit pretty fast): http://store.steampowered.com/app/248970/

See that? Very professional and polished, that’s what you want. I haven’t actually played it (ha, yep, I still didn’t buy it; just wasn’t looking for anything to buy at that time), but if you can get it to the point where it at least looks that good and a video like that can be made, people WILL vote/buy. Really, I’d say the goal is to have your game be release-ready when you go to greenlight, considering the next step is being on steam, the only thing you want to have to do is integrate into steam, otherwise the game should be “finished.”

#5

insider knowledge: Greenlight is being axed this year*. So use it for what it’s best for: a focal point for gathering interest. Start early, pimp often.

Cas :slight_smile:

  • disclaimer: at Valve’s whimsy. Maybe they’ll change their minds.
#6

Never.

  • Jev
#7

Surely they’d have to replace it with something though?

So, are you saying I should consider posting it on Greenlight now, just makeup a nice quality dev diary video explaining the game, it’s goals, etc?

#8

Well… that’s what I’d do. I think it’s basically not being replaced with anything; Steam is moving towards being open to everybody. The storefront though, that’s a different matter.

Cas :slight_smile:

#9

So if you don’t mind me asking, how do you keep interest/exposure up after the initial push to greenlight? I know initially you get a ton of exposure because you’re basically on the front page a little while; but how do you keep it flowing after you drop off the radar?

Also, lets assume somehow by some black magic, I post my project and get greenlit a month later, what happens if my game is still 6+ months out from being released?

#10

This has prompted me to be more active on the concept page, and also your game is looking really good so thumbs up for you.

BeardedCow

#11

I know next to nothing about Greenlight. What I do know, however, is that pushing a game to the public before it even looks good or before you have actual gameplay is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot.

I did that with Project Raft. I was building hype before I had typed a line of code. Everyone was wanting to play it (Not really) but I didn’t have anything for them to play. Then, since I felt like everyone wanted it RIGHT NOW, I rushed myself and didn’t polish very important things.

So, play it safe and post when you think even you would Greenlight it. Step out of the Developer shoes and think about the consumer and what the average user would think.

#12

I’ve not myself ever used Greenlight, as I showed a bit of leg to the appropriate Valve rep :wink: so my advice is maybe not so useful. But what I’d do in your situation is make sure the game is nearly finished and highly polished before I actually showed it to anyone (or you will immediately invite negative reaction as Jacob says). Then I’d make regular weekly updates to its progress and show it off at every opportunity. Same old same old really. Just that instead of your website where nobody ever goes, people (hopefully more of them) are looking at your Greenlight page.

Cas :slight_smile:

#13

Along with Greenlight, get it on other forums so people see it EVERYWHERE. I actually got banned from a small forum for spamming because of that once. Obviously don’t spam it. Then people will think you are a dirty spammer and not like your game because of it. Get exposure everywhere, not just on Greenlight.

Oh, and here is a pretty little site that you can post your game to. It takes almost next to no time to get on the marketplace. (Like 30 minutes) And you can sell your game at virtually any price!

#14

Ah, sounds like I’m on the right track then. That was my original plan, I wasn’t going to hit mainstream advertising until I had a functional alpha with a demo people could play that was pretty well polished. Right now really the only place I show off the game is here on JGO and within my own community, both places where people are more slanted to watch the development unfold that average gamers. :wink:

#15

Sound like a good plan. If you look back at the Minecraft thread, you see that’s more or less what Notch did, and… well… you know how that turned out :wink:
(Still a freak occurrence, though)