Anyone publishing their RPGMaker VXAce games on Steam?

[sporkboy]

Since I can't publish my VXAce game as some form of in-browser game I have been kicking around ideas on where to publish my game. Obviously posting in forums such as this and other communities is one way but I have been kicking around the idea of publishing it on Steam. I bought VXAce through steam but I don't know of any VXAce produced games available there.

Anyone publish their game through Steam?

Anyone have an RGSS3 wrapper for the Steamworks API? (I'll settle for some pointers on RGSS3/Ruby wrappers for C++ which is what the API is available in.)

-Aaron

 

[Zalerinian]

Well first you have to get greenlit on Steam, which is no easy task. I believe Zeriab, though, has experience in this field, and I'll have to get to it eventually. But first you should focus on actually making something that greenlight would like. Using the only RTP will almost certainly get you voted out of there in a day. Steam users are very critical  towards RPG Maker games, so you have to make sure it's good before you post it.

 

[Allerka]

I'll warn you now, RPG Maker games tend to be very poorly received on Steam. This bias in large part comes from people doing a game with maybe five hours of work and then trying to get it Greenlit, essentially flooding the Greenlight section with lots of terrible projects. This has the unfortunate side-effect of creating a negative bias against truly exceptional projects as well, such as You Are Not The Hero, which, as far as I know, is the only VX Ace-produced title to make it thus far.

 

[Andar]

there are a few RM-Games on steam, but it isn't easy to get there - you need a good fanbase for the greenlight voting, a good quality game - and don't forget the fees you need to pay for steam access. But then they will help you get the game there - no one else is allowed to tell you how to modify your game for the steam api.


How many games have you completed yet? It's a lot better to have a noncommercial game completed first to get a fanbase before even considering going commercial, because if you're still working on your first game you most probably won't have the experience needed to get a game through commercial quality control.

 

[sporkboy]

None completed yet (which I'm sure you all guessed.) I figured it would be quite difficult to get from Steam to 'mainstream' publication but didn't know it was difficult to get on their in the first place.

Thanks for the info.

So the lesson is publish to indie game sites/forums. I know there are quite a few threads on those topics so I won't waste anyone's time by asking about it here.

I will however ask Andar, what do you mean by "No one else is allowed to tell you how to modify your game for the steam api?" Is that part of the Steam/Greenlight licencing agreement?

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of games made with all the default setup put people off to it. I'm working on the game mechanics right now. I have about 1/2 an hour to an hour of playability but 'm not really fond of the default mechanics. I've been working on integrating features from third party scripts and some of my own. It's still using all the default tile sets and audio. I wouldn't have considered trying to publish before I'd replaced those. Now I'm further convinced. ^_^

 

[Zeriab]

The two RPG Maker games I know to actually have been released on Steam (both RPG Maker XP) are Cherry Tree High Comedy Club and To the Moon.  (Lemme know if there are others)

Both have been well received with To the Moon in particularly getting praised.

When people here tell you that RPG Maker games typically are very poorly received, they really mean in the Greenlight community. We don't really know how much weight that hostility will carry over once some of the greenlit RPG Maker games actually gets released. CTHCC and To the Moon were both accepted into Steam before Greenlight. There are a lot of unknowns including how the Greenlight skews the picture.

As Zal said I do indeed have experience with Steamworks, which I got making the To the Moon steam integration. As a part of this I signed an NDA.

*hugs*

 - Zeriab

 

[sporkboy]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to check those out as well as you are not the hero.

 

[Shaz]

I believe You Are Not The Hero, and Alpha Kimori have both been Greenlit too, though only fairly recently, so maybe not yet actually available on Steam.

I've moved this thread to Commercial RPG Maker Discussion. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

 

[amerk]

To the Moon and possible Cherry Tree were allowed in before Greenlight, I believe, but it still took Valve to give them the okay. Not sure about Alpha Kimori, but You Are Not the Hero recently was greenlit. Greenlit means you received enough votes and passed Valve's okay to be offered a spot on Steam once the game is completed and meets their criteria.

All the ones that have gotten onto Steam, or at least voted through Greenlight for a spot, have shown themselves to be the exception to the normal RM games (customized game play and graphics, interesting stories that don't ring of cliches, unique touches to current concepts). You also need to be able to market your game as well. Simply dropping it on Greenlight for the votes is never enough. However, if you put in the work, draw in your fans, give them a reason to vote for your game and show them (don't just tell them) why your game is special, even an RM game can get through.

If you're interested in Steam, I'd consider investing some money to grab these games, or at least play the demos, to study them and see what made them so different so that people wanted them to begin with.

 

[Shaz]

Alpha Kimori went through greenlight. The dev posted an announcement on facebook when it got approved

 

[amerk]

Yeah, I saw it on their at one point, but never paid attention to what happened to it. It shows that it's indeed possible to get through, but definitely takes a lot of work to stand out.

 

[Andar]

I will however ask Andar, what do you mean by "No one else is allowed to tell you how to modify your game for the steam api?" Is that part of the Steam/Greenlight licencing agreement?

I haven't seen their licencing agreements or contracts, but part of converting a game for steam is implementing their DRM - and I don't think that they will allow anyone to tell how their DRM works to anyone else, so it's a good guess to assume that people who know how to convert programs to steam aren't allowed to post that info...