Placing the game on the Steam platform

[ProfiPRO100 (OP)]

Will the Aurora game be added to the Steam platform?

[LuuBluum]

If you go into your Steam library, click "Add a Game" on the lower left, and then go to "Add a non-steam game", you can navigate to the Aurora executable and add Aurora to your Steam library. That way, you can have Aurora on Steam without needing it to be on the storefront.

If you want it on the storefront, I don't want to speak for Steve here but every bit of my understanding of the intent and purpose of Aurora as Steve's project is that he does works on it for himself, to create interesting stories that he has an interest with. Throwing it on the Steam storefront, even if free, would put some amount of pressure or "implicit obligations" on him to change the game in ways that he has no interest or disagrees with. I imagine he'd sooner just make the game not accessible at all.

[Erik L]

If you go into your Steam library, click "Add a Game" on the lower left, and then go to "Add a non-steam game", you can navigate to the Aurora executable and add Aurora to your Steam library. That way, you can have Aurora on Steam without needing it to be on the storefront.

If you want it on the storefront, I don't want to speak for Steve here but every bit of my understanding of the intent and purpose of Aurora as Steve's project is that he does works on it for himself, to create interesting stories that he has an interest with. Throwing it on the Steam storefront, even if free, would put some amount of pressure or "implicit obligations" on him to change the game in ways that he has no interest or disagrees with. I imagine he'd sooner just make the game not accessible at all.

I think it was brought up years ago. Steve taking money for the game would require him to deal with tech support and such. Donations to Steve are welcome (search for it).

[nuclearslurpee]

I think it was brought up years ago. Steve taking money for the game would require him to deal with tech support and such. Donations to Steve are welcome (search for it).

Steve has also said, in the past, that he has been approached about commercializing the game, but in every case the other party has tried to require that he effectively dumb down the game for a broader audience. Steve is in it only to make a game he, himself, wants to play, and isn't concerned about getting a bigger audience, so this has always been a non-starter.

[Ulzgoroth]

It does seem clear that putting a game on Steam these days isn't a project that requires the backing of a publisher, commercial game dev expertise, or very much investment. There are a number of small games that are literally class projects by college students released for free, not to mention quirky single-dev creations.

But it's likely not worth Steve's time and effort unless he's got a long-suppressed desire for publicity or (somewhat unlikely) ambitions of making real money on the thing.

[Black]

I would say it is not worth it for Steve or for us players. We saw what the influx of new players with release of C# version did. With modding drama and so on. Releasing on Steam would be this on bigger scale and on top of that, you would get Chinese and Russian players that demand translation to their language and review bombing, if Steve would not do it. That is something that happens on Steam with other games. Same with mod support and so on.

Instead of new features and bug fixes, Steve would have to deal with Steam shop page and other things that would not really benefit us players at all. So I personally am very happy that Steve does not intend to release on Steam.

[nuclearslurpee]

Instead of new features and bug fixes, Steve would have to deal with Steam shop page and other things that would not really benefit us players at all. So I personally am very happy that Steve does not intend to release on Steam.

And since the game is already free, there's little reason to bother anyways. The only advantages would be visibility (which is not a goal and can backfire, as stated) and ease of installation. The latter I think is frankly a disadvantage as I am sure the ~30 seconds it takes to set up the installation by downloading from this site has turned away more of the sort of player who lacks a mere 30 seconds of patience than any of us will ever know. I am not advocating for gatekeeping through tedium and obfuscation, of course, merely noting that having a small filter in place is not the worst thing.

[QuakeIV]

Yea if you cant download and unzip a zip then skill issue, get filtered

[Louella]

i play a couple of games that are free on steam, and... the amount of absolutely pointless forum drama is unbelievable at times.
people not just requesting, but demanding that various things be changed to suit their preferences.
or that the developer should "hire a team to implement the good suggestions from players".
the occasional assertion that "coding this shouldn't be hard at all"
and the people who use the forums as a platform to promote various political ideologies, (every form of -ism you can think of).
requiring someone to volunteer as a moderator to clean up the worst of the mess.

for a game that doesn't make anyone any money.

[StarshipCactus]

Agreed, keep this game off Steam. There is no good reason to put it on Steam and tons of reasons not to.

[Erik L]

i play a couple of games that are free on steam, and... the amount of absolutely pointless forum drama is unbelievable at times.
people not just requesting, but demanding that various things be changed to suit their preferences.
or that the developer should "hire a team to implement the good suggestions from players".
the occasional assertion that "coding this shouldn't be hard at all"
and the people who use the forums as a platform to promote various political ideologies, (every form of -ism you can think of).
requiring someone to volunteer as a moderator to clean up the worst of the mess.

for a game that doesn't make anyone any money.

I and a couple others moderate here. I've got the forums set to minimize spam. But some still leaks through at times.