Darwinia Launch on Steam!

[madman2k]

congrats IV, you just sold your soul - a key aspect why you had so much sympathy in the Linux community, was that feeling of supporting "the last of the bedroom programmers".
Now after you've become just another Steam game, many will think twice before they support a Steam supporter.

Anyway I'm intrested why you dropped your own online distribution system, which was much more user friendly and flexible - only publicity reasons?

Furthermore I hope this step will give you enough ressouces to make a multiplayer patch for Darwinia.

[Dred_furst]

Well this is certainly excellent news! Steam is a world wide system that any country can access. this means a HUGE increase in fanbase. and hopefully this will be more of a success than Rag doll kung fu ever was. Its good to see that valve are doing more to work with smaller companies like introversion . I'm going to buy darwinia through steam again just because I like steam a lot, plus i want all the games on the list its good to see your game in a list next to big ones like half life and half life 2

It appears that my windows http download is still there on the Introversion site, so I'm slightly placated. Hope it stays that way.

These points, however, still stand:

Because the download from the Introversion store is HTTP, useful for people (like me) who can't access steam

Because the steam version will most likely have some form of copy protection

Because you'll probably have to have the steam process running if you want to play the steam version of Darwinia, which some people dislike.

The HTTP download being the big one, considering that one would really, really hope that the third point wouldn't be true - running Steam in the background would be enough to put me off any game, even one as brilliant as Darwinia.

On that note, steam can be system hungry, and varies a lot. if you only have steam in the task manager, game preformance increases. on an addition to this, the whole reason this is feasable is because people have increasingly larger amounts of RAM nowadays, varying from 256mb upwards. you can run steam on a 128mb system and run half life 1 on windows XP very successfully and smoothly even though the memory usage is maxed out. darwinia is more hungry for resources, but 128mb is less standard now, But i'd say you need not worry about running an extra task. think, if your in this mindset, why dont you close explorer to free up RAM? why not close something like firefox or Internet explorer(gasp) when you open your email viewer? computers can multitask, plus steam is not that RAM hungry sitting in the system tray.

Great news by the way!

[film11]

This is great news! I'm sure that sales will definitely jump, as we have seen the success of Mark Healey's Rag Doll Kung Fu. This is great news for independent game developers around the world I think.

[Varsity]

Anyway I'm intrested why you dropped your own online distribution system, which was much more user friendly and flexible - only publicity reasons?

Furthermore I hope this step will give you enough ressouces to make a multiplayer patch for Darwinia.

Linux versions are not affected, and Steam and standalone versions will recieve the same amount of attention.

I can understand your haste in giving whoever you like to think of as The Man some hassle, but please at least try to read the thread next time.

[elDiablo]

congrats IV, you just sold your soul - a key aspect why you had so much sympathy in the Linux community, was that feeling of supporting "the last of the bedroom programmers".
Now after you've become just another Steam game, many will think twice before they support a Steam supporter.

Anyway I'm intrested why you dropped your own online distribution system, which was much more user friendly and flexible - only publicity reasons?

Furthermore I hope this step will give you enough ressouces to make a multiplayer patch for Darwinia.

1) They haven't sold their soul. Darwinia's sales haven't been too good (from the news article Chris wrote), and so Iv needed a way to get more sales. By giving Valve a percentage of sales revenue, Iv can put Darwinia on the screens of millions of people. Thats not selling out, thats just good market practice. Iv are still gonna be making the games they want, no one owns them, hence, their soul is their own. This is the same as Iv using a Publisher for Uplink. In fact, its almost exactly the same. Valve are publishing Darwinia on Steam. Nothing more. You can still buy direct from Iv, and Valve can't tell Iv what to do. If people can look look at Steam as a Corporate machine that eats indie game developers, well, to be honest, they are a bit short sighted. Iv would not be doing this unless it would get them something, and I doubt Iv would ever do ANYTHING that would mean they have to take orders from someone else.

2) They probably had to stop the online distribution so that they are not competing with Steam. Whats the point (from the view of a publisher) of trying to sell an item that is already on sale in the same way? You might make some money, but you're not going to maximise you're profit. Thats what publishers (and anyone who works) want.

3) If people buy it via Steam, as in, don't just go "Oh. Iv sold their soul to Steam. Shame, I'm not buying their game now", then no, it probably wont. If people who have never heard of Darwinia before see it on Steam and buy it, then yes, you might get a MP patch for Darwinia, or maybe even something completely new in a world of copied genres, like Uplink and Darwinia are.

[Dr4goN]

Darwinia Launch on Steam!

That means I can DL full version legally from Steam for free? Or should I pay 19-29$ for it?

[xander]

2) They probably had to stop the online distribution so that they are not competing with Steam. Whats the point (from the view of a publisher) of trying to sell an item that is already on sale in the same way? You might make some money, but you're not going to maximise you're profit. Thats what publishers (and anyone who works) want.

I would add to this: For IV, what is the point of continuing to provide downloads for a small number of people when Steam (potentially) provides for millions of downloads. Certainly, IV are giving up a few sales by discontinuing downloads (though you can still buy the game and get a nifty green box), but they are potentially generating far, far more sales. As sales have not been all that good thus far, this seems like a fair exchange.

Darwinia Launch on Steam!

That means I can DL full version legally from Steam for free? Or should I pay 19-29$ for it?

No, this means you can pay to download it from Steam.

xander

[vague_hit]

possibly, but then again, i live in south australia so its only a possibility! i also actually like the idea of getting it over steam and playing it right after i pay for it.

[equk]

Well this is certainly excellent news! Steam is a world wide system that any country can access.

Is that not like the darwinia website which is world wide? which was providing sales direct with direct download?

I think the main points here are:

Linux users feel dissapointed that at the moment they have been dropped
Linux users cannot run steam
Loads of people dislike steam totally and will not allow it to run in the background while they play games
More time is added to get the game in that there is an additional download involved (steam)

Will you have to run steam in order to play darwinia? If this is the case then it's pretty pointless.

Steam could be seen as a security risk

TBH I think darwinia has had massive coverage both online and in magazines. If someone was interested in it they would surely own it or have downloaded the demo by now.

I'm pretty sure most halflife or counterstrike players are not going to be very interested.

[equk]

possibly, but then again, i live in south australia so its only a possibility! i also actually like the idea of getting it over steam and playing it right after i pay for it.

like you could have done when the online order and download was on the darwinia website? (without having to download steam)

[xander]

inux users feel dissapointed that at the moment they have been dropped
Linux users cannot run steam

Linux users are not being dropped. Reread this topic, noting comments made by Chris or Vic. Demo2 is disappearing from the IV website for a time, but it will be back. The Windows version of the full game will no longer be available for download from IV, as it will be available via Steam. Everything else remains the same.

What this means is that the Linux version will still be available for downloading, the Windows version can still be purchased from IV and shipped in a pretty green box, and the Mac version will only be available for sale from Ambrosia. Also, IV will continue to support those people that purchased the game direct, rather than via Steam.

The sky is not falling. Relax.

TBH I think darwinia has had massive coverage both online and in magazines. If someone was interested in it they would surely own it or have downloaded the demo by now.

Let us assume, for a moment, that you are correct, and that everyone has heard of Darwinia, and that anyone who was going to buy it has done so already. Does it hurt to publish Darwinia via Steam? It creates a vast number of potential sales, and does not really hurt IV's direct sales, as they will still be shipping boxes, and allowing Linux downloads.

xander

[The GoldFish]

How will the data you get via Steam differ from the retail package?

Would anything stop someone buying the Steam version, and then using the standard win32 patch to release it from it's clutches? (I assume it would)

I'm curious because I'm a modder, and that means if there's one thing I hate doing, it's updating my mod. Most notably the readme, where I explain how to install it. (eg it would be useful if the 'mod' directory came as standard)

That, and I'm pr0, and have hands in the 'floplink' and 'downloading the full version of uplink from legitimate sites' projects. hehe.

I'm further curious as to what nature any DEV CD (yet to be released, if at all) projects would have to take in relation to this.

Total side note: Only the win32 download is pulled, and all linux distribution is still being done by IV... so frankly you're in no way effected by a business move that may, in fact, help ensure future releases by the company, including future linux releases.

And, regardless of if Steam *should* cause performance issues or not, many people find it does interfere. (Examples include comparisons to Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, which I think uses the source engine). Suggesting that it only takes a few meg and in no way intereferes is somewhat naive. The sound problems in HL2 should not have existed, but they did - in fact I don't know if they're fixed to this date.

[equk]

Linux users are not being dropped. Reread this topic, noting comments made by Chris or Vic.

That's why I said for now

What this means is that the Linux version will still be available for downloading

Ah I must have read wrong

Let us assume, for a moment, that you are correct, and that everyone has heard of Darwinia, and that anyone who was going to buy it has done so already. Does it hurt to publish Darwinia via Steam? It creates a vast number of potential sales, and does not really hurt IV's direct sales, as they will still be shipping boxes, and allowing Linux downloads.

xander

It adds another requirement to those who have windows and want to buy the game, download and play. As they will be FORCED to download steam. Something which could work against sales as loads of people don't trust steam or just dislike it for whatever reason.

I think one thing it will deffinately do is get people to go to steam and see all the other games they sell and put their sales up.

[elDiablo]

Slashdotted.

[vague_hit]

wow equk, you really haven't been paying attention huh?

my first post in this thread was about how i finished the demo about half an hour after they announced that they were moving to steam for distribution... i went to the site ready to buy and download the game only to discover i couldnt.

anyway.. umm.. yeah.