Valve Now Charging Developers $100 to Submit to Greenlight

[alidan]

[citation][nom]Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer[/nom]I understand their argument, and I'm all for Child's Play, but they could have charged $10 and still managed to accomplish what they claim they wanted to accomplish. $100 is a lot to pay when there's a possibility that your game won't get picked.[/citation]

look at some of the game submitted... seriously, one was called, "the best wtc flight simulator"
now on a purely for the lols at 10$ i could see people doing this,
considering some of the really stupid things i see on steam, especially that one TF2 brony picture that someone payed 100$ for, i cant see 10$ keeping the morons out, 100 is reasonable though.

 

[assasin32]

So lets see they make you do a mandatory $100 donation to Childs Play (no arguments there) to help curb all the BS submissions that shouldn't be done as pranks, and games you don't actually own. I fail to see the downside of this. $100 is a decent amount of money but it is small in comparison to how much time/effort is put into building an actual game.

The only thing I think you can bug them for is they don't give you a list of charities to donate to upon submission. But now that's just being picky as Valve has just shown it's being a model company by not taking the money and putting it towards charity instead, I can't think of many companies that would do the same.

 

[Guest]

THE HALF-LIFE 3 WAS NOT A LIE! (cake intended)

 

[uglynerdman]

only the trolliest of trolls will submit stuff for 100 bucks just for the luls.

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]ikefu[/nom]I'm willing to bet anyone with a good game will be able to come up with $100. Especially considering it wouldn't take hardly anything to make the money back from purchases if it was really worth submitting.[/citation]


not always true , i'm in school for game art deign and have been heavily considering skiping the job search by just starting my own indie company, and at first this would be a "no pay" effort for the team i'd put together , that is until it (our first game) sells and i can afford to set up a proper company structure . This is not good news at all considering i'm broke beyound being funny usually. now i'll have to take a look at more than just steam as an option because some jack a-- wanted to be a wise guy.

 

[demonhorde665]

oh that's another thing green light is NOT a sure fire "get on steam" thing. as any game submitted to green light has to get a certain number of votes for it to actually appear on steam. at least the money is going to a charity , but still. paying a 100 bucks for the off chance that i "may" possibly get my game on steam is not a sure bet , and not easy to swallow when i don't even have a freaking lousy 50 bucks for a cheap cpu upgrade on my computer that it desperately needs.

might be cheaper to host my own web site to sell a game at this point , sure it won't get the market penetration that it would on steam, but it'd be easier starting out with out some fee for a not really sure bet.

 

[festa_freak]

You can tell what demographic thinks $100 is a huge barrier to entry. If you can't afford $100 to get yoru game on steam, maybe you should stop game development and get a job that pays better, for the time being.

 

[rebel1280]

[citation][nom]festa_freak[/nom]You can tell what demographic thinks $100 is a huge barrier to entry. If you can't afford $100 to get yoru game on steam, maybe you should stop game development and get a job that pays better, for the time being.[/citation]
+1

 

[willard]

[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom]not always true , i'm in school for game art deign and have been heavily considering skiping the job search by just starting my own indie company, and at first this would be a "no pay" effort for the team i'd put together , that is until it (our first game) sells and i can afford to set up a proper company structure[/citation]
So let me get this straight. Your big idea is to start a company with no money, convince a bunch of people to work for you for probably months on end without pay in the hopes that some day you'll be able to offer a salary? What if your game flops and makes no money? More than 90% of all games fail, chances are the first effort of somebody fresh out of college is going to fall into that 90% chunk.

Will your employees be required to supply their own computers and work out of your parents' garage? What about software? Commercial licenses are expensive. How are you and your employees going to pay rent, buy groceries, etc. without income?

This is just an awful, awful idea. You'll never convince anyone talented to work for nothing, because they've already got jobs that offer salaries or can get one if they want it. How well do you think your game is going to turn out if your staff is composed exclusively of people who couldn't get real jobs? My guess is it would be a buggy nightmare.

If you want to start a small business, take out a small business loan and take some business classes.

 

[igot1forya]

[citation][nom]willard[/nom]Funny to see all the "zomg, $100 is so much" comments. $100 is...1) Less than the average American spends on gas each month ($177)2) Less than the average American family of four spends on groceries each week (around $150)3) Less than the average American makes during one day of work ($176)4) About the same as the average American spends on cable TV each month5) About what you'd make working a part time, minimum wage job for a week.$100 isn't exactly chump change or the kind of money you find in a pair of jeans you haven't worn in a while, but it's not a massive barrier to entry either.[/citation]
I agree, $100 is really not that much. I would, however, like to point out that those who complain, complain for the same reasons you just listed. For example,

1) Gas is expensive (most in history), so now I'm broke.
2) Food is expensive (most in history), so now I'm broke.
3) Averages are made of highs and LOWS... I'm on the low, so now I'm broke (if I had a job at all).
4) They cut my cable/Sat a long time ago... because I'm broke.
5) I work part time, see expenses listed 1, 2 and 3... I'm broke.

I think the main reason is this... "ZOMG I have no idea how to develop my own apps and have no idea that $100 can be returned the first 10 minutes in sales!"

 

[Marcus52]

Why am I not surprised that Valve didn't think this through?

 

[jabliese]

@demonhorde665

Spend months developing your game. When it is ready, go get a job at McDonalds for 2 weeks. Submit to Greenlight with your first paycheck.

 

[willard]

[citation][nom]igot1forya[/nom]I agree, $100 is really not that much. I would, however, like to point out that those who complain, complain for the same reasons you just listed [...][/citation]
Valid and good points, but what I was really driving at is that most people could scrape up $100 by cutting back a bit in a few areas. Save $10 a month in each of your big expenses (drive a little less, drop the pay channels for a while, scale back internet speed, skip Starbucks on the way to work, donate blood plasma, etc.) and you'll have enough to submit your game to greenlight before it's done. Hell, just putting a dollar a day in the piggy bank gets you $100 in about three months.

That said, I'm guessing the overwhelming majority of people saying $100 is too much are probably teenagers still living with their parents, and have no experience budgeting a household. If you aren't broke, $100 every now and then isn't very hard to swallow.

 

[pepe2907]

Most of you are making 2 wrong assumptions in their comments:
1. Every game is made for profit /and is built from the ground up/ - where are going the MODs?;
2. Everybody lives in the US.
...

 

[Guest]

Um, okay. I've seen quite a few "Free to Play" games being submitted. Um, so how would those developers get profits back? Would blow for the devs that submit and receive only down votes, due to lack of interest. OR, better yet, submit a game with a competing theme, and premise. The most I believe they should have gone to, was $50 for this. $100 for ADVERTISING on STEAM seems like quite a bit. That's like... an entire Paycheck for most people.

Seems like Green Light is more for the people who can easily afford paying $100, without it effecting any other expenses they need to use the cash for. Meaning, this isn't going to truly cater to a majority of Indie Devs I fear. Well... not the Amateur Indie Devs that is.