-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Am 25.05.2014 06:02, schrieb Charles Dang: > Hi all, > > A couple weeks back iceiceice and I discussed the possibility of putting > 1.12 through Steam Greenlight to assess interest of our userbase for > distribution via Steam and the possibility of moving to Steam as a primary > release platform. > > Last night I asked Ivanovic about this possibility. He does not have > objections to the idea. Many users on the forums have been asking for > Wesnoth to be put on Steam as well. I believe 1.12 is a good enough (and > good-looking enough) starting point to give it a shot.
I have no objection to putting Wesnoth into steam as *additional* distribution method since I guess that our main release will be the tagging of the sources, not the upload of any binary. Especially for Linux users having steam as "primary distribution plattform" might be bad, considering that this would then be outside of their normal package manager and maybe not working perfectly at all times. Some Linux users might prefer the steam version, others will probably stay with the "classic" method. > A major plus would be the automatic update system. Currently every time a > new version comes out the user has to manually download and install it and > the uninstall the old version. What most often changes between releases is > the source code, meaning our players have to constantly redownload the > metadata all the time, when there's likely not much change to that at all, > especially in stable series. Distribution via Steam would mean much smaller > updates for releases, and would also serve double benefit of making sure > players always have the latest up-to-date version, which would save us from > bug reports on old versions. Yes, updating could become a lot easier for many users. Especially if we manage to have the "beta" version as dev version and stable always track stable. > There are also some Steam features we might conceivably want to make use of > in the future, such as allowing matchmaking with your Steam friends, etc. > Should be implement an in-game profile system? We might also consider > things like Achievements or Steam Cloud storage for user's preferences. > We'd also have to decide how to deal with the Steam Workshop. Should we > allow the Workshop as a staging ground for UMC authors? Should be keep our > current forum-based development model? I take it we will be keeping our own > add-on and MP servers, but the Workshop and Friends could be made to > complement them. I think using some of these capabilities in addition to what we already have is nice. But I would dislike it if we split our community by this. This is especially true for multiplayer. So if this is done it needs to be in a way that allows both the "regular" and the "steam" version to work together nicely. Addons also need to be interchangable. Cloud storage on the other hand can be really great to e.g. keep addons and saves on different machines in sync. The only question here is the size limit of 100MB per game IIRC. Users downloading all addons would run into problems... (But they already have problems with the game itself these days with too many addons.) > The very first step, however, is Greenlight. According to the Greenlight > FAQ: > > */You'll need a valid and non-limited Steam account (yes, that means > you'll need to own a game on Steam). Then you'll need to fill out the > submission form, including some information about you and your game. > There's also a one-time $100 submission fee per Steam account. The > submission will require:/* > > */ > > * */A square branding image (similar to a box cover) to represent your game > in lists and search/* * */At least 1 video showing off your game or > presenting your concept/* * */At least 4 screenshots or images/* * */A > written description of the game along with the tentative system > requirements./* > > /* > > */ /* 1. Our logo can serve, but we might need a bigger version. The one we > use on GitHub looks blurry from being scaled up - very unprofessional > looking. > > 2. A new trailer would have to be made. The one we have was made as part of > GCI 2010, and is very out of date. We need one to show off the features of > 1.12. > > 3. Not a problem, we have a multitude of screenshots > > 4. Simply a matter of someone writing a fancy description > > 5. The fee. I believe Ivanovic handles our finances, but I don't know > exactly how much we have. If someone who knows could reply to this, that'd > be great. Our financials are handled by Noy. The question here is if we need 100$ per person allowed to upload or if we can/should handle this as some kind of group effort? Maybe those who also work on frogatto can shed some lights on how this works since IIRC they are going for steam as distribution method. > Assuming we get Greenlit, we have figure out setting up the app on > Steamworks and distribution via Steampipe. There's a large amount of > documentation available at https://partner.steamgames.com/ , but as with > Greenlight, you need a valid, non-limited Steam account to log in and view > it. T_here's also an NDA, so *PLEASE* restrict discussion of material > within to this ML, the moderators forum, email, or private messages on > IRC_. Don't use public channels, we don't want GabeN drones to come > knocking :P <https://partner.steamgames.com/> You do know that this mailing list has a public archive? So would this stop us from discussing any steam related things on the ML? That would IMO be bad... > A helpful video tutorial is provided under Getting Started -> Learn More > on Steampipe, displaying the process of uploading a game. There are still > several technical things I can't figure out, perhaps someone more versed in > this can look through and make sense of it. > > Then there's several practical technical questions: What happens if our Mac > dves leave us? Who's going to continue to provide Mac support? What about > Linux? From the docs, it seems from the docs they recommend "Ubuntu 12.04 > or 12.10 LTS" (12.04? What about later?). What is involved for getting > updated binaries out for multiple systems? Will our users still be able to > access core resources for reference when creating UMC? > > Basically, there's a lot of work to be done and decisions to be made. I > don't know how it's going to work out, but all opinions welcome. All that I can say is: I am fine with adding steam as distribution method as long as: 1) It is compatible with our license and does not hinder our discussions e.g. in IRC. 2) It does not add extra work for me since I barely find the time for getting a release out every now and then. 3) Someone takes on the responsibility for organizing this and setting things up. Do you offer to take this role, Charles (aka vultraz for those who don't want to search the credits and chat with him in IRC ;) )? So what do you folks think? Cheers, Nils Kneuper aka Ivanovic -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlOBsI4ACgkQfFda9thizwVXeQCfSBdshTycEq0Ojb5qDGu0fDBe gr0AoJmChIuLX6A2vAQxYEwd/8ptHjZn =fUhL -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Wesnoth-dev mailing list Wesnoth-dev@gna.org https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/wesnoth-dev
