Greetings Indie Vision.

I wanted to ask a question based on the digital distribution service steam.

I’m an indie developer and i’m currently approaching my local government for funding a game project targeted for platforms like steam and impulse. One of the requirements of securing such funding is to prove that there is a reasonable chance of getting a healthy working relationship with steam going as getting a game on steam is a big step in customer visibility and simply getting the game selling.

Steam is notorious for not replying to enquiry and being hard to get a work relationship going. Is there any resources available on the subject of approaching a large scale digital distribution service like steam to listen to your game project and evaluate whether or not it’s a product they would like to support and have on their platform?

Thanks for your time,

Chris Watts.

Over to Mark Morris of Introversion…

At Introversion we are lucky enough to have a great relationship with Valve. They really helped us out with Darwinia and we continue to talk to them about development and commercial advice – I understand that not all developers are that lucky. The valve guys will see 100s of games a day all from hopeful developers who are keen to get their game published. There is no easy way to make sure your game is a head of the queue, it takes tenacity, dedication and work to make it onto their radar – If you don’t know what I’m talking about watch the first part of Wall Street and you’ll see how Charlie Sheen breaks into the business.

There are however, some fundamental things to get right:

1. Ask yourself what are Valve looking for?

They are going to want to know that you are trustworthy and capable individuals. Make sure your communication is well formatted and professional – why would they want to work with someone who doesn’t know how to use capital letters? Keep it short and sweet these are busy people. E-mail is good, but don’t forget snail mail – how many e- mails do you get everyday? How many envelopes fall on your mat in the morning?

　

Paragraph 1:

Tell them about yourself and your background – who are you, what experience do you have, how many games have you shipped in the past, are you an incorporated company or an individual – sell yourself and your team.

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Tell them about the game – what is the concept, what is the gameplay, who is it aimed at and why well it sell. This is your elevator pitch

- get them excited, but be honest and not over the top.

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What do you want – a steam launch is your end goal, but when will that be – they wont want to engage if you are three years of launch. You want a meeting to discuss your game at Valve’s office or a call or a meeting at GDC or what? Be clear on what you are asking for.

Most Importantly

The game – they play everything that goes on steam – send them a link to an exe on an ftp. Test this to hell. If Valve install it and it crashes before they can play you have just blown your chance. I think it is a good idea to make a gameplay video with a voice over perhaps and / or a trailer to that Valve can view this just in case they do have problems with the exe. Make damn sure that you include the right codecs for the video or use something like YouTube to make sure it’ll be viewable.

2. Keep on at them – don’t badger, but phone up a week after your letter – did you receive it? have you played it? When do you think you’ll get to it? I’ll phone you in a couple of weeks to see what you think.

Just my thoughts.

Mark.

We’d like to say a big thank you to Mark for answering that.