computer games forum

Thing is that it's still NOT CLEAR what is allowed
Just to be sure I am still using the censorship, but in my case people don't really need weird patch files (like other developers do). In my case you only need to delete a .txt file "censored.txt" inside the game folder. Very simple

Well... Valve actually tried to describe what will be allowed in the future:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110 ... 6200553082

Yes, TRIED is the right word
Because even after reading all of that, it's still NOT CLEAR what is allowed and what isn't

"We don't all agree on what deserves to be on the Store."

"except for things that we decide are illegal"

"laws vary around the world"

No one knows what this means.

Hehe, they want to run the biggest online game store in the world... without doing any moderation/work. A bit hard I think
I mean doesn't take too much effort to see the amount of spam games that are showing on Steam. Literally, demos of Unity/Gamemaker/etc just reskinned and submitted as "game". WTF? What's the point of allowing that? Still, too much work to check, so let's leave everything as it is

You get those spam games on almost all the stores, even itch. One reason why I hate app stores.

Yes but itch doesn't take 30%. You can even set their commission to 0% if you want (but you'd be very evil).
Thing is, what is Steam now doing ot justify their 30% cut (which in reality with various taxes is always more like 35-37%) ? since the exposure they provide nowadays is nothing compared to what it was just 3-4 years ago?
Personally I am not in favor of closed stores but if the alternative is "let all the garbage in!" then ... it's better the other option. I was happy to get Loren on Steam after 2 years, and if it means that each of my games got same exposure as Loren, I would happily wait 2 years every time, rather then see my games buried under 150 fart apps

This is a little bit of a tangent, but steam accidentally leaked player counts for all games with achievements so you can see just how many sales there are to these types of games vs other genres. (Warning: Look at the CSV linked by the article at your own risk. Some interesting numbers in there. Some depressing numbers in there.)

These are based on the number of players that have played the game at least once, so shouldn't count people that bought a game and never opened it. And it counts players that played a game on a free giveaway/trial weekend. But only for games that have achievements.

Hehe it all confirms what I said. But there aren't all the games, for example the highest Sakura game is Sakura Dungeon, however I'm pretty sure they made even more money with their first titles. I know because while all those info must be taken with a grain of salt (for example Loren was in TWO Humbles so it screws up the player count completely) I remember an early Sakura game was a Daily Deal. Only games that really sold A LOT will be promoted as daily deals.

Loren sold over 50,000 copies? I'm not sure how good of a real profit it makes because there's the fact that it's been on Humble, but somehow that number is bigger than I expected. Maybe I underestimate visual novel/RPGs' sales from indie developers.
...Excluding fan servicey stuff like the Sakura series I suppose. No wonder so many people just throw boobs in your face just for the sake of it