Friday Facts #34

[slpwnd]

FFF meets SSSS: http://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-34

[Drury]

Good to know!

EDIT: Nice, it's out.

[CruelOverlord]

Wow that radar looks great!

[Drury]

Wait, if I get it right, Albert is on a vacation in a tropical paradise at this point, and yet he's modeling and animating stuff?

Dude's got serious determination, I'll give him that.

[campos.ddc]

Small typo:

"relative quitness" => "relative quietness"

[Gammro]

Wait, if I get it right, Albert is on a vacation in a tropical paradise at this point, and yet he's modeling and animating stuff?

Dude's got serious determination, I'll give him that.

I think Albert lives there, or at least he's from spain and is now in spain again for the first time in a few months. I think they made arrangements for him to work from home/there for a while

also: Dat dish

[Drury]

Wait, if I get it right, Albert is on a vacation in a tropical paradise at this point, and yet he's modeling and animating stuff?

Dude's got serious determination, I'll give him that.

I think Albert lives there, or at least he's from spain and is now in spain again for the first time in a few months. I think they made arrangements for him to work from home/there for a while

also: Dat dish

He lives in Barcelona, no? Or he moved to a more artist-friendly environment?

[Trucario]

Wait, if I get it right, Albert is on a vacation in a tropical paradise at this point, and yet he's modeling and animating stuff?

Dude's got serious determination, I'll give him that.

I think Albert lives there, or at least he's from spain and is now in spain again for the first time in a few months. I think they made arrangements for him to work from home/there for a while

also: Dat dish

He lives in Barcelona, no? Or he moved to a more artist-friendly environment?

German environment

[Alfdaur]

niccccccccce...

[Garwan50]

You're becoming real businessman

[Aedaeum]

Keep up the great work guys. I'm really looking forward to the future of this game

[Bobdafilter]

You're becoming real businessman

No, "real businessmen" would find loopholes in the taxcode so they wouldn't even have to pay taxes, maybe they could convince their government to pay them instead so they don't lose all the 5 jobs Factorio provides.

Other than that I'm glad they aren't moving on to Steam soon, it would give the game lots of unwanted attention from angry people who don't look up games before they purchase them and complain that they don't complete their expectations and demand a refund.

[Nova]

I don't understand the whole steam stuff. Factorio has an automatic updater and no multiplayer - why use steam? Because of more payment methods? Could be the case.

[muzzy]

I don't understand the whole steam stuff. Factorio has an automatic updater and no multiplayer - why use steam? Because of more payment methods? Could be the case.

Steam isn't just a sales and distribution platform, it's most importantly a marketing platform that allows you to reach a huge number of potential customers.

[sciencemile]

While I do like steam, there are some disadvantages apparently along with advantages. I don't know the specifics since I'm not a publisher and haven't really read the license agreements in relation to that.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/n ... -on-steam/

So if what is being said is true, I think that sheds a little light on why the Devs want to get the game a bit more finished before putting it on there, maybe.

[Drury]

Actually Notch didn't put it on Steam for purely personal reasons between him and Valve. His explanation is moot because there aren't any practical obstacles.

Steam isn't just a way to access the masses, it also makes a lot of things easier for both the developer and the customer. There's the workshop where any sort of community-made content can be uploaded and rated (from maps to mod packs), it has it's own screenshot function so you don't have to implement it yourself, it has a more solid automatic update system than you can ever dream of (updates can be downloaded anytime, the users can schedule them and set their download speed limits and quotas), whenever you feel like putting the game up for sale you can without even adressing Valve directly, they just okay it and then everything goes automatically.

It would be specifically good for multiplayer - if you go with Steamworks, it will save you a lot of trouble. Pretty much the whole system is pre-built and ready for anything you throw at it, be it dedicated servers or peer-to-peer, it's got matchmaking system, it's got fast server browser, it's got anti-cheat, it's got it all. Naturally it works with Steam so people can always join their friends in-game without even launching the game beforehand. Basically the sooner you start looking into this the better. I think the idea of tinkering with Steamworks AFTER having working multiplayer isn't the best. SW would help you lots.

There are also developer tools that would allow you to work with remote colleagues like Albert better - you can send closed builds via peer-to-peer instantly, without using ulozto or whatever. You can see details about your target audience, what HW/SW configurations they're using, the clients automatically send a report every time they crash (with HW/SW configurations) and similar reports are filtered so you can see common bugs.

The downsides are that Valve takes a (variable) split of your sales (as would any other distributor really) and that getting on Steam is yet another overwhelming experience. Is all I can think of.

[Maric]

I would not like Steam only Multiplayer through Steamworks as Drury suggests, as I myself am not using Steam. If i would be forced to use Steam and look at all the advertisement and sales and stuff I would probably stop playing the game. I simply just dont like the carrot and stick approach of Steam forcing people to use it and then pushing more ads(exposure) in their direction^^

[Drury]

There are no ads on Steam...? Unless you count game highlights on the main page. Valve makes money from distributing the games, they don't need ads.

Seems to me someone has never used Steam in their life and put it in the same bag as other "big corporation" services like Google Play or Facebook...

[noddie]

There are no ads on Steam...? Unless you count game highlights on the main page. Valve makes money from distributing the games, they don't need ads.

Seems to me someone has never used Steam in their life and put it in the same bag as other "big corporation" services like Google Play or Facebook...

You might not think it so, but (almost always) when you exit a game steam pops up a new window that is full of offers for you. And this is the definition of advertising. It shows you things you did not request, hoping you will buy more. This is in my opinion one of the downsides of Steam.

Keep up the good work guys, gaming on computers is more than being available on Steam.

[Gammro]

You do know you can turn those off right?


Also, it doesn't change the fact that steam still is the biggest digital storefront, so if you want to become big, you'll have better chance when you're on steam. However, I think a game shouldn't be solely on steam. I'd hate it if steam got in a monopoly position for selling games.