4 ms·

I'm not sure how much of the success it attributable to Steam, and how much of it is just a consequence of the times - lots of cheap tech, lots of people using

I'm not sure how much of the success it attributable to Steam, and how much of it is just a consequence of the times - lots of cheap tech, lots of people using cheap tech, and most importantly, video games being something everyone does. In the 80s and 90s, video games were for geeks. Ha, in my freshman year of college in 2001, my roommates were baffled that I would put on a headset and seemingly talk to my computer while playing a game on it? Anyway, I will say the Steam Early Access program is amazing. It basically lets developers develop games in a Lean-Startup style, by releasing an MVP and then iterating on it, and it lets customers buy the game at any point to fund the development. I've been playing Kerbal Space Program (highly recommended if you're interested at all in spaceflight, orbital mechanics or rocketry) on the Early Release Program, and it's just awesome. The developers are cool and are pretty at-large in the community on reddit.

deciplex 12y ago
Early Access is a crapshoot though, and I'm glad Valve is taking steps to rein it in a bit. Too many developers start with basically a POC, sell it at normal release price points, and then development peters out after that. Godus and DF-9 are good examples of this. Strangely, it seems that you should avoid Early Access when it's for games by [i]established[/i] developers (Peter Molyneux and Tim Schafer are behind Godus and DF-9, respectively). Meanwhile KSP was made by a bunch of (former) nobodies, who actually made a game that delivers everything they've ever promised.
- lacker 12y ago
  Too many developers start with basically a POC, sell it at normal release price points, and then development peters out after that. It seemed like this happened with Minecraft, it was just popular enough that the POC was good enough.
  - happimess 12y ago
    Surely you're joking--Notch gave away the POC for free, and started charging for the beta somewhere before 2011 (when I started playing). Since then, new features and bug fixes have been essentially non-stop. I picked it up after a long hiatus and found new terrain types, new monsters, new neutral creatures, an enchanting system, a brewing system, an entirely new dimension ("The End"), and several types of abandoned structures.
  - kllrnohj 12y ago
    Minecraft's price has increased slowly as the game got more and more stuff, and the pace of improvements and additions has increased significantly over time. Minecraft today is $27 (and totally worth every penny and then some), but this is very much not what Minecraft cost 2 years ago. The alpha version was €9.95 and the beta was €14.95. So no this is not at all what happened with Minecraft.
    - deciplex 12y ago
      Yeah, this is the way to do it, and I hope it starts to get more common on Steam and other platforms. Charging full price for alpha versions of your game, then putting it on sale once it's done, is a slap in the face to your biggest fans - and the people who will most likely help you succeed via word of mouth.

deciplex 12y ago

Early Access is a crapshoot though, and I'm glad Valve is taking steps to rein it in a bit. Too many developers start with basically a POC, sell it at normal release price points, and then development peters out after that. Godus and DF-9 are good examples of this. Strangely, it seems that you should avoid Early Access when it's for games by [i]established[/i] developers (Peter Molyneux and Tim Schafer are behind Godus and DF-9, respectively). Meanwhile KSP was made by a bunch of (former) nobodies, who actually made a game that delivers everything they've ever promised.

lacker 12y ago
Too many developers start with basically a POC, sell it at normal release price points, and then development peters out after that. It seemed like this happened with Minecraft, it was just popular enough that the POC was good enough.
- happimess 12y ago
  Surely you're joking--Notch gave away the POC for free, and started charging for the beta somewhere before 2011 (when I started playing). Since then, new features and bug fixes have been essentially non-stop. I picked it up after a long hiatus and found new terrain types, new monsters, new neutral creatures, an enchanting system, a brewing system, an entirely new dimension ("The End"), and several types of abandoned structures.
- kllrnohj 12y ago
  Minecraft's price has increased slowly as the game got more and more stuff, and the pace of improvements and additions has increased significantly over time. Minecraft today is $27 (and totally worth every penny and then some), but this is very much not what Minecraft cost 2 years ago. The alpha version was €9.95 and the beta was €14.95. So no this is not at all what happened with Minecraft.
  - deciplex 12y ago
    Yeah, this is the way to do it, and I hope it starts to get more common on Steam and other platforms. Charging full price for alpha versions of your game, then putting it on sale once it's done, is a slap in the face to your biggest fans - and the people who will most likely help you succeed via word of mouth.