[philjohn]

On the other hand - the big publishers need Valve less, so from a purely business perspective it makes a ton of sense to keep them on the platform, which is the biggest storefront for purchasing games.

Yes, smaller developers have to pay more, but they're getting a heck of a lot of exposure for that take, without having to spend big on traditional advertising like the large publishers have to.

[beerlord]

That is unfortunately not correct. A large amount of advertising and PR is very necessary to receive any attention for a launch on Steam.

Unfortunately a mere 'launch' on Steam has been devalued, by Valve allowing anyone with $100 to launch on the platform (and the majority of the launches on Steam are very low quality as a result).

If you want to make a middle class income from launching games on Steam, you will need to become very familiar with online advertising. Have a look at the Positech blog for details.

Indie devs are now realising why the big studios spend 30% of their budgets on marketing...

Of course, it all gets a bit easier once you have an existing profile, an existing fan base, etc.

[zeroname]

It's not just lack of marketing, it's the fact that there are now far more games, but gamers have neither more money nor time to compensate.

There are too many game developers, it's as simple as that. Too many millennials don't want the regular old "grown up" jobs anymore, they want to be creatives or artists and the market just can't soak them all up.

If you think it's hard as a game developer, try living off painting or sculpture or music or literature. The vast majority never get there. Meanwhile, a game programmer at least has ordinary programming jobs to fall back on - if they can stomach it.

[slfnflctd]

I don't know how they do it, honestly. Back in the day, when things were simpler, being a game dev sounded pretty cool. Now? No thank you. Lower wages, longer hours, much more difficult work, and 'fans' who continuously insult you in the worst possible ways no matter what you do... sounds like a nightmare. If I'm going to go the creative route I think I'd be happier on the sidewalk with a guitar.

Career-wise, I would much rather help a middle manager figure out how to best crunch the data on their quarterly reports. It can actually be more interesting than it sounds on the surface, and if you're competent everyone's happy at the end.

[beerlord]

An advantage the Gaming Industry holds is that it is completely global.

The salaries for game artists and programmers in Eastern Europe are actually quite high, by local standards. And when you consider the very low cost of living in those countries, they are even appealing at a global level.

Working for a games studio in those countries, particularly if key management are Westerners or the local studio is a branch of a Western company, also gives a professional and modern work environment, whereas many older (non-Gaming) companies in Eastern Europe still have old-fashioned work styles (managers holding less respect for workers, for example) which are somewhat a legacy of the Communist era.

Los Angeles is 147% more expensive to live in than Wroclaw (4th biggest city in Poland) for example. https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/wroclaw...

Typical Unity Developer salaries in these mid-sized Polish cities are about $35,000 annually, which enables an excellent upper-middle-class lifestyle. Plus, because the cost base in Eastern Europe is so low, if the game your company makes is very successful, you stand to receive a very large bonus.

[Dylan16807]

Maybe. But the odds are far worse when Steam won't even filter out garbage asset flips that took three hours to make.

[zeroname]

I have never seen any of these on "my" Steam. It's not part of my shopping experience in any way.

I know they exist because Jim Sterling sometimes makes funny videos about them, but I can't fathom how they make a significant impact on "genuine" developers.

[giobox]

You only need to read their blogs to see how it’s hurting the “good” indie developers. Heck just use steam - the discoverability of good indie software has suffered hugely as Steam dramatically lowered the cost of entry to the platform. It’s now incredibly hard to stand out. The numbers speak for themselves, with steam going from adding several hundred games a year to their catalogue to nearly 8000 last year. The growth curve is accelerating too - there was “only” 4000 or so games added in 2016.

Having some small but achievable degree of barrier to entry was a huge help in keeping the store free of trash software.

[zeroname]

> You only need to read their blogs to see how it’s hurting the “good” indie developers.

I don't think so. The odds are that if they failed with sales on their indie game, instead of admitting that there a thousand developers just as good as them who are fighting for a slice of the pie, they'd rather blame the platform.

Again, I have never been presented any of these asset flips on Steam. I do see hundreds of games that appear to be well-made every week and I don't even have the time to take a closer look at even a fraction of them, much less buy and play them.

[mysterydip]

To add some statistics to this, there were 7600 games released on steam in 2017, almost double the 4200 the year before, and 13 times more than the 500 released in 2013. It used to be the case that getting on steam was "guaranteed exposure", but no longer.

[ken]

Economically this is true, but I'm deeply uncomfortable with it. The whole reason I got into computers in the first place is because it put everyone on equal footing.

As a kid I could write a program on my C=64 that was equal in every way to a commercial program that my parents bought. Personal computers were the great equalizer. (You don't even need a company! Magazines published amateur submissions all the time.) There's no other field I can think of where a kid could use a standard piece of equipment that they find around the house, and use it to build something on par with the top professionals in the world. Maybe a piano.

Valve and Steam (and all the other "app stores") were surely built by a lot of the people who grew up on personal computers in the same the way I did. I'm saddened to see that they're using their business success to help big companies get bigger. The economic value of the personal computer has changed from "equality for the little guy" to "leverage for the big guy".

This is what Bret Victor meant by "When I see a violation of [my] principle, I don't think of that as an opportunity. [...] I see a tragedy. To me it feels like a moral wrong, it feels like an injustice."

[zeroname]

I don't get your historic analogy. Yes, you could make a game that rivaled the games of the big guys, all on your own. However, there's no way you could've gotten your game into the major sales outlets without a publisher. That publisher would've never given you a 70% cut. In that regard, you're far better off now.

[Shivetya]

developers can get more exposure on Twitch by paying a decently sized streamer to play their game. Showing people your game in play is far more important than placement on a shopping platform