computer games forum

Those big portals usually give a big result early, and then fade out quickly (unless you have a top hit, but I don't ). So in practice made in the first month as much as the first year (more or less, didn't calculate exactly) selling direct. Now is dropping fast but surely a nice revenue. I still want to sell direct of course, but getting more games there would let me invest more in the new ones
(Of course even not related to the approved game, for example getting a dating sim there I could use the money to do a tactical RPG for example )

Hmmm... One thing that I've seen indie devs trying to push games into Greenlight has been Steamgifts.
Don't know how effective it has been, but it worked one or two times for me, if not at least to take a look into a games Greenlight page.

For example here is the comment section in the entry for a giveaway of Alice: Madness Returns

In case the link expires, I'll post the entry here (its not to spam!!!) :

*** READ CAREFULLY ***
This contest is open to everyone, but it is created to promote our game Whispering Willows and get you to vote yes on our game on Greenlight. We really need your help to get our game greenlit. Please go vote "YES!”
Vote for our game Whispering Willows on Steam Greenlight
Also please LIKE our facebook page to see our photos, news, and updates about the game.
Whispering Willows is also available for pre-order on the Night Light Interactive website
Keep an eye out for more Giveaways from Night Light Interactive, we'll be giving away many more titles!
Join our Steam group for exclusive giveaways.
Thanks for your support and enjoy!
Night Light Interactive Team

There are a few differences between the methods, some gift away a previous title (the case of the War Against Human Tanks), some gift away a very know game to get more views, some gift away a similar game (like Long Live The Queen, to promote a visual novel).

Also there are some gifts that happen to frequently which shows that some games are not having the best of results struggling to be greenlit (for example Shadows of the Vatican).

In the case of the example above(Whispering Willows and the indie devs Night Light Interactive Team) they also try to bring people into they steam group/forum with exclusive giveaways. It could also be done with a private link in another forum outside steam (I've seen it for Linux gamers givaways).

Sorry for the long post, but I've been wanting to suggest this idea for sometime as another option besides the greenlight bundles.

Well yes, I am a bit different from most people... I believe that the games should get in because people vote for them, and not with shady tactics like those
Nothing wrong if others wants to use them. I've seen a lot of stuff, like many approved games that don't even are available now (so I wonder wtf, there are ready made games and people vote games that even after 2 years aren't yet finished!!) or someone bundling FIVE games into a single entry, so when they are approved five games get in! I assumed you must submit one game, otherwise I could have made "games of aravorn" entry and submit Loren, Spirited Heart and FUTURE games like Amber Magic Shop or SOTW.

Maybe I'm not a smart businessman, but I don't want to resort to such tricks

How is Roommates doing so far? Or is it too early to tell?
Maybe you can co-advertise with Sakevisual, since they just got a similar game Greenlit?

Game is doing well, but not on Greenlight is a bit early but I don't think will get through. Seems like my visual novel / dating sim games really don't match Steam customers!
I don't want to ask Sakevisual even if I know Ayu well (she worked for me in the past), besides her game is definitely better, so that's why she got in.

but it is also kind of a loop thing... if there are no visual novels in steam there won't be many of those customers there anyway... So at least with the few indies and "Asian inspired" games that started to sneak through greenlight at least there should be an increase of those customers, even if only on a small scale.

Yes not saying is a bad thing of course! And things are slowly changing. There's still a big hate for VN and anime in general, but also more people that support it

I noticed the comments on Greenlight are very polarized -people seem to either love VNs or hate them.
I still think it's better than having all the people reacting with "meh", though. At least you are not going unnoticed :D

Why do you think Ayu's game is better anyway? Is it the voice acting and the anime cutscenes or something else?

Not sure, but if her game got greenlit IN A MONTH, while of all my games I have submitted the best was Loren who got greenlit IN A YEAR, I have to think that is better (I hadn't time to play it). Otherwise, I don't know what could be

Thing is, Backstage Pass wasn't finished (just entering Beta stage) when it passed Greenlight. Of course, the acceptance of it had nothing to do with it being Greenlight since there are numerous examples of games that got Greenlit, and are still being produced, or were nothing more than proof of concept.

Then you look at VN like Cinders. It made it in less than a couple weeks. Arguably the best VN I've played, and gorgeous artwork, so it seemed to resonate with people.