Steam: I've decided to do it

jasonrohrer · 2018-09-24 19:10:34

I've been mulling this over for a long time.

The game has done well off-Steam. I've always been excited by the idea of doing things completely independently, and that has borne fruit here, to some extent. Thank you to everyone who believed in this game enough to buy it off-Steam---to jump through those extra hoops---and to all of you who helped to build this vibrant independent community from scratch.

The game is still selling, but it's not really growing. We're still all fitting on a single server, mostly, even at peak times. If x% of active players quit playing every day, then we need at least that many new players joining each day to experience growth over time. I think the current influx is just not enough to overcome the natural attrition factor.

However, I think there's a huge player-base on Steam, that is only on Steam, that we just can't ignore.

Yes, Steam still takes 30%. Yes, it's crowded (80 games released every day, or whatever). Yes, there have been off-Steam games that have done very well. But here are factors that I've come to understand over time. Factors that make Steam still really matter.

1. A lot of people have "money to burn" sitting in Steam. Kids get gift cards. Parents have provided credit card info, because they trust Steam.

2. Almost everyone has payment information already entered into Steam. Buying a game is a 2-click process. I'm sure we've lost quite a few people between clicking the OHOL BUY button and filling in info, going to find their card, etc.

3. People are used to buying games through Steam. The "My Steam Library" feeling is still a factor. All my games in one place. I know where they are. I can re-download later. I won't ever lose them. Looking at my own teenage kid, he has bought 10+ games on Steam, but NEVER bought a game off-Steam. Have I ever bought a game off-Steam? Maybe not!

4. Steam accepts all sorts of region-specific payments that are a pain for me to accept (I keep getting Paysafecard requests from Eastern Europe).

5. Steam handles and enforces regional pricing. I had 400K video views in Romania last week, which resulted in 10K visitors to the OHOL site from Romania, but not a single purchase from Romania. $20 is a lot of money in Romania.

6. The examples of games that have done well off-Steam in recent times have all been free-to-play, with the exception of Minecraft and Overwatch. Overwatch is from Blizzard with a huge established fan-base. So that leaves Minecraft. And as much as I wanted OHOL to be the next Minecraft....

I had half-convinced myself that all the factors that made Steam a necessity had changed over the years. After all, the old value proposition of Steam was simply exposure to their captive audience. That proposition has eroded, but it has been replaced with a different proposition: they've built a giant new market of people buying computer games. That giant market mostly only buys games through Steam.

Anyway, the process of getting the game ready for Steam will take a few weeks, and I'll need your help testing during that process.

Everyone who buys (or bought) the game off-Steam will of course get a free Steam key. You will all be able to start playing the game on-Steam before it is open to the public, to help with testing.

Turnipseed · 2018-09-24 19:15:00

Make it 26$ on steam and you'll get your regular cut lol

InSpace · 2018-09-24 19:27:34

Epic, hope everything goes well jasonman

Anshin · 2018-09-24 19:28:57

Good. You deserve every dollar this game makes.

UnnoticedShadow · 2018-09-24 19:31:06

Does this mean that you will stop updating for a little while? I am willing to wait but just wondering.

Also, I disagree with turnipseed about the price, as I actually think it is a bit on the high side.

Joriom · 2018-09-24 19:32:19

I just hope we can still play without Steam even after Steam release? I'm not going to that... "platform"... even if people would pay me to.

Anshin · 2018-09-24 19:35:08

Joriom wrote:

I just hope we can still play without Steam even after Steam release? I'm not going to that... "platform"... even if people would pay me to.

That's a good idea actually. Have a Steam server, but keep the regular servers for game updates first. If Steam people want to get updates first they can pay an extra $20 for the offline version and be part of the day one crowd.

Jk Howling · 2018-09-24 19:35:15

Yeah, can those who bought it off-steam still play with their original email-and-key? I don't have Steam and would prefer not to have to create an account to continue playing a game I already purchased elsewhere...

Also how will it work, exactly? From what I know of Steam, what you're purchasing is the actual rights to play the game- but the way you've been going about this since the beginning was not purchasing rights to the game, but purchasing an "account" on the official servers, so-to-speak.

Will that entire concept be void now? Are those who buy it off Steam still going to get an email with their key and require it to play, or will they get automatic access to the game's servers? Where does that leave those who bought it prior?

Last edited by Jk Howling (2018-09-24 19:38:21)

InSpace · 2018-09-24 19:53:25

Look how charming it is gonna look, it is gonna explode.

Compare it to raft that was like a topseller for so long, and has like 0 content.

voy178 · 2018-09-24 20:12:20

Beware the growth pain. So many new players will probably come and have no idea what's going on. It's gonna be chaos.

May I suggest updating the tutorial to give more meat on the bones to the new players?

Joriom · 2018-09-24 20:49:39

Jk Howling wrote:

Also how will it work, exactly? From what I know of Steam, what you're purchasing is the actual rights to play the game- but the way you've been going about this since the beginning was not purchasing rights to the game, but purchasing an "account" on the official servers, so-to-speak.

Speaking about Steam and rights... I feel like projects like 2HOL and OHOL mobile might get into some trouble with Steam looking how greedy Steam tends to be. Or Jason might get problems because of those projects.

Catfive · 2018-09-24 20:52:35

If you do take this dive it is going to be mayhem at first - even niche games get flooded the first few weeks so expect a deluge

Adveloq · 2018-09-24 21:17:07

I think this is a great idea.

Ben Clan · 2018-09-24 21:23:32

There goes the fucking game

UnnoticedShadow · 2018-09-24 21:24:39

Why??? Can you tell me?

betame · 2018-09-24 21:24:53

Support from me!

edit: cool, we can play off-steam still. But I'd follow the game regardless.

I'm glad you're getting to choose the markets your game is in.

Mathematically, increasing sales by working with Steam will temporarily grow the active player base to a new steady-state size. (modeled as dx/dt = sales - x*attrition rate, where x is the active player base). So Catfive is right about a deluge of active players from increasing sales, before it evens out again.

For us players,

steady state active player population = sales / rate of quitting

If we want to grow the player base, its our job to help new players not quit.
(Jason's job is increasing sales, and balancing the quality of the game against how many players he can handle)

Last edited by betame (2018-09-24 22:48:50)

FounderOne · 2018-09-24 21:54:46

Best wishes!

jasonrohrer · 2018-09-24 21:58:08

Game will still be sold off-Steam. Your existing accounts will still work. You don't need a Steam account to keep playing.

Everyone will play on the same servers.

Look at the way it worked for any of my previous games.

Essentially, when people buy the game on Steam, I will be creating an account key for them that is locked to their Steam ID. Actually, I will ask them for their email address too, so it will be pretty much just like a normal game account, except that they paid through Steam. I can verify through the SteamAPI whether they own the game or not on Steam, and I'll only allow them to make an account on my server if they do.

(And this actually works on Steam, whereas it's impossible to do on GOG or Itch or Humble or any other store, because there's no ownership-verification API)

Thus, "multiplayer only games" where you are buying an account and putting the game itself in the public domain work just fine on Steam.

Furthermore, each Steam user will have a real account key, which will give them access to the off-Steam downloads and source bundles and all that stuff.

Anyone with an existing account that WANTS to move the game into their Steam library will get a free Steam key. Then they type in their email and old account key, and they connect right back to their original account.

jasonrohrer · 2018-09-24 22:09:12

A few more reasons why Steam matters:

7. It's a much more idiot-proof way to install and play games. I get so many tech support emails that say, "I downloaded the game. Where did it go?" People don't know where their downloads folder is. Or... "There are all these files, how do I start the game?" Steam hides all the file management stuff from people. People have gotten used to dumbed down interfaces on phones and such. On the other hand, it's what has caused the marketplace to explode into new places. Remember when we didn't have graphical user interfaces? Almost no one used computers back then...

8. Steam's update system is better than mine. I'm proud of mine, but it's missing some key features. You can't pause the download, or queue it for later. It's pretty fragile (some people need to reinstall to fix corrupted files or whatever). Also, it doesn't handle the accumulation of updates well. Right now, I'm shipping v65c to people, and their first experience is a progress bar while they wait for 70+ update bundles to download and install. It's a lot of time and energy for me to keep the main platform bundles more up-to-date (because it's a big upload compared to the incremental bundles that I upload each week, and it's on 3 separate platforms). With Steam, the incremental bundles BECOME the main download that people get in the beginning when they buy the game, so they can download the game and start playing right away with no further update. Also, they can queue updates, etc.

Actually, these are less-important reasons, because at that point, people have already bought the game. But they give more people better experiences playing the game for the first time, which will mean better retention, and more likely that they will love the game and tell their friends, etc.

NoraRose86 · 2018-09-24 22:26:07

I think this is a good step, it’ll grow the player base and grow the game.

From experience using/buying/playing on Steam, $20 is on the high end for this type of game especially if it’s a $5 app. People won’t understand the backstory there.

Thank you for letting all of us test and get a free steam-code! Keep doing what you’re doing, the pieces will fall into place eventually.

Last edited by NoraRose86 (2018-09-24 22:29:38)

Christoffer · 2018-09-25 11:48:50

I think this makes sense as a next step, and I am curious to see what changes this new chapter will bring. There is an untapped market in the steam ecosystem and the players who only purchase steam games should also get to play this game

Just be careful of the Steam refund functionality. If you send permanent keys to a buyer on purchase and they then demand a refund from Steam, there needs to be a way for you to know and revoke the key.

Good Luck!

Morti · 2018-09-25 12:08:43

jasonrohrer wrote:

Remember when we didn't have graphical user interfaces? Almost no one used computers back then...

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Joriom · 2018-09-25 13:13:48

jasonrohrer wrote:

A few more reasons why Steam matters:

#SteamLivesMatter
*sigh*

ShadouFireborn · 2018-09-25 13:39:34

On 7:

I thought it was wierd that your install file defaults to the location of the file, rather than an explicit location in program files. That could be why people are losing their install; they're looking for it in the program files directory, where it should be, but it's in their downloads folder.

Last edited by ShadouFireborn (2018-09-25 13:40:50)

Joriom · 2018-09-25 14:18:49

ShadouFireborn wrote:

I thought it was wierd that your install file defaults to the location of the file, rather than an explicit location in program files. That could be why people are losing their install; they're looking for it in the program files directory, where it should be, but it's in their downloads folder.

First of all - you're wrong. OHOL does not even has installator nor install process. There is only self-extractor. Unboxing mechanism that dumps contents out of the single archive you received game in. So "install file" can't default so anything as there is no "install file". OHOL does not use windows users folder nor system registry. There is nothing to install.
Also, why should it be in "Program Files"? (and lets skip "Program Files" vs "Program Files (x86)" debate as well) Why not C:\Games\OHOL\? Why not C:\MyUserName\OHOL\? Or hell, like in my personal example D:\private\games\OHOL?

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#1 2018-09-24 19:10:34

Steam: I've decided to do it

#2 2018-09-24 19:15:00

Re: Steam: I've decided to do it

#3 2018-09-24 19:27:34

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#4 2018-09-24 19:28:57

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#5 2018-09-24 19:31:06

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#6 2018-09-24 19:32:19

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#7 2018-09-24 19:35:08

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#8 2018-09-24 19:35:15

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#9 2018-09-24 19:53:25

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#10 2018-09-24 20:12:20

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#11 2018-09-24 20:49:39

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#12 2018-09-24 20:52:35

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#13 2018-09-24 21:17:07

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#14 2018-09-24 21:23:32

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#19 2018-09-24 22:09:12

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#20 2018-09-24 22:26:07

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#21 2018-09-25 11:48:50

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#22 2018-09-25 12:08:43

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#23 2018-09-25 13:13:48

Re: Steam: I've decided to do it

#24 2018-09-25 13:39:34

Re: Steam: I've decided to do it

#25 2018-09-25 14:18:49

Re: Steam: I've decided to do it

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