Selling games though Steam Workshop.

[A88mph]

Recently, Steam has made it so that mod-makers for Skyrim can sell their mods to players.

Is it possible that RPG Maker VX Ace's Workshop will be set up in the future so that we could sell our games there as well?

 

[Zeriab]

Technically it is possible, but it looks like requiring a rather big amount of work. (No idea whether Degica has plans in that regard)

Since you are talking about games specifically I would recommend going the route of Greenlight instead.

For resources there is already a curated form in terms of DLCs. Having access to resources through the Workshop for buying resources would be great, there is that,

 

[A88mph]

Steam Greenlight is not helpful to newcomers such as myself. (and from my understanding, RPG Maker games, just because of what they are, tend to have a snowballs chance there anyway)

However, If RPG Maker's workshop is able to permit paying to play our games (and why just games? Maybe story tellers could just make one movie-length cut scene), then those who cannot afford the $100 Greenlight fee can start funding their bigger projects immediately.

 

[CriticalGames]

It's a very interesting idea, but I imagine that Valve would see it as a way for RPG Maker developers to circumvent Greenlight - which they generally dislike. I think the focus with this new initiative is game mods, rather than full games in and of themselves. While I know it's not a great system by any means (I'm on there myself haha), Greenlight is what Steam have set up for indie developers, so you're probably stuck going through it.

 

[Andar]

then those who cannot afford the $100 Greenlight fee can start funding their bigger projects immediately.

That is a bit of contradictory - if you cannot afford 100$ you should not talk about "bigger project", because even small commercial projects should have budgets of 1000$...

Perhaps you didn't know, but originally Greenlight was free, and the 100$ fee (which goes completely to charity if I remember correctly) was introduced to stop the thousands of wannabe-developers getting their extremely bad partial games to Steam.

A lot of the negatives against RM-Games on Steam was created because of amateurs using RM to get their incomplete work to greenlight (often with only a few hours into development).

If you want to get your games sold, then you need some basic quality and work - and if you can put that into the game, then 100$ should be absolutely no problem for you.

If 100$ fee are a problem for you, then the chance of you getting a project into minimum quality for commercial sales are extremely low.

And as said, last info I have that fee doesn't go to valve, it goes to charity and is only there to filter out people who don't understand that selling a game requires more than working a few days on a idea that had been done dozen of times before...

 

[CriticalGames]

@Andar - Yes, that's right - the $100 goes to charity.

And while I agree it's not a massive amount of money, I don't think we should equate game quality with cash spent. In this industry, you're only ever paying for skills (e.g. artists, programmers, composers, etc.). Sometimes people will work for a very small amount, or perhaps A88mph is friends with people and they'll do the work for free. Nowadays, there's also lots of great open source content that's free for commercial use. And, of course, some people can do almost everything themselves - particularly with an engine like RPG Maker. When you've got a minuscule budget, paying an extra $100 to get onto a service that is very difficult to pass through can be a big expenditure and is very much a risk/reward scenario.

So I can definitely see where A88mph is coming from on this topic, I just don't think it's likely to happen.

 

[Clord]

Steam Greenlight is not helpful to newcomers such as myself. (and from my understanding, RPG Maker games, just because of what they are, tend to have a snowballs chance there anyway)


However, If RPG Maker's workshop is able to permit paying to play our games (and why just games? Maybe story tellers could just make one movie-length cut scene), then those who cannot afford the $100 Greenlight fee can start funding their bigger projects immediately.

Actually, RPG Maker games make through Steam Greenlight quite easily. There are numerous games that have gotten through despite of using RTP.


It used to be harder but then the bar was lowered enough to get in by good presentation and not much marketing.

 

[CriticalGames]

Actually, RPG Maker games make through Steam Greenlight quite easily. There are numerous games that have gotten through despite of using RTP.

It used to be harder but then the bar was lowered enough to get in by good presentation and not much marketing.

Well, I think 'easily' is a bit of a misnomer (it's taken some of them quite a long time to get there), but yes things are much easier now. It's a far cry from the early days of Greenlight, and there's definitely a lot more support/less vitriol from the Steam community. RPG Maker games have carved out a bit of a niche on there now, which is great to see. Congratulations on making it through yourself, by the way =D

 

[Clord]

Well, I think 'easily' is a bit of a misnomer (it's taken some of them quite a long time to get there), but yes things are much easier now. It's a far cry from the early days of Greenlight, and there's definitely a lot more support/less vitriol from the Steam community. RPG Maker games have carved out a bit of a niche on there now, which is great to see. Congratulations on making it through yourself, by the way =D

I voted your project.


Anyway back on-topic.


Ability to sell whole games on Workshop is not probably something Valve wants to implement anytime soon. I think it would conflict with their main storefront.


Then again who knows as it's pretty good idea as long there is some quality control before you're allowed to sell.


Then again maybe some people want their simple door eventing by paying 0,35€.

 

[CriticalGames]

I voted your project.

Anyway back on-topic.

Ability to sell whole games on Workshop is not probably something Valve wants to implement anytime soon. I think it would conflict with their main storefront.

Then again who knows as it's pretty good idea as long there is some quality control before you're allowed to sell.

Then again maybe some people want their simple door eventing by paying 0,35€.

Not to de-rail the topic, but thank you very much! It's sincerely appreciated

That does actually suggest an interesting idea, though! Perhaps people could sell scripts and events systems (hopefully something a bit more advanced than a door ) through the Steam Workshop? The licensing would have to be different than it would for Skyrim mods, but it could potentially function like the Unity Asset Store. Assuming Enterbrain/Degica are interested in this new monetisation system, of course.

 

[Kes]

EDIT - I deleted this, thinking I'd put it in the wrong thread, and then realised that in fact I hadn't.  I was just replying to the last post.  So I've put it back in again.

I really ought to go and get some sleep.

There's an old saying: "Be careful what you wish for."

At the moment there is a thriving community making RM resources, often of extremely high quality.  And it's free.  As a developer, do you really want to change the ecosystem which supports that so much that it withers?  Because that's what happens when everything is turned into a monetized market.  There are plenty of examples.  (Read Michael Sandel on the subject, for example.)  And then as a developer, you would have to pay for everything you couldn't make yourself.  As a maker of resources, there is a thriving commercial section here, where quality is maintained, and is not buried under lots of badly made resources. As a creator, do you really want to have to try and sell your stuff in the sort of environment that is already developing on Steam after only a couple of days? 

 

[CriticalGames]

There's an old saying: "Be careful what you wish for."

At the moment there is a thriving community making RM resources, often of extremely high quality.  And it's free.  As a developer, do you really want to change the ecosystem which supports that so much that it withers?  Because that's what happens when everything is turned into a monetized market.  There are plenty of examples.  (Read Michael Sandel on the subject, for example.)  And then as a developer, you would have to pay for everything you couldn't make yourself.  As a maker of resources, there is a thriving commercial section here, where quality is maintained, and is not buried under lots of badly made resources. As a creator, do you really want to have to try and sell your stuff in the sort of environment that is already developing on Steam after only a couple of days? 

Yeah, I thought about that after posting - and you make a very convincing argument. In fairness, I never said it was a good idea haha. I use RMXP anyway, so I'm not interested one way or another - just trying to contribute to the topic by extrapolating Clord's comment. I guess the big difference between something on Steam Workshop and the Unity Asset Store is that the latter is heavily moderated - much like content is on RPG Maker web. Like I stated in my first post, though, I can't see anything happening either way with Steam - this new initiative seems to be about game mods rather than developer tools.

 

[CrazyCrab]

Personally I hope that nope, it will never be an option.

Why? Well, RM games are struggling with their reputation anyway. If we agree to selling them in the Workshop where the mods are sold we're pretty much admitting that our games are nothing but glorified mods without the actual commercial quality that would make them a game. I think that we deserve better than that, don't we? ^^

Also, there is a war against the paid workshop all over the internet, with people being blacklisted and bullied off the workshop for selling stuff that is ''not worthy''.

I mean this is one of the top mods nowadays:

Spoiler

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=431426494

Honestly, right now selling mods is a sure way to commit a PR suicide. I'd strongly recommend against it if you don't want to attract A LOT of negative attention towards you and your project.

 

[phoenix_rossy]

Steam Greenlight is not helpful to newcomers such as myself. (and from my understanding, RPG Maker games, just because of what they are, tend to have a snowballs chance there anyway)

Not if your game looks half decent and you take the time to actually market the campaign.