Hello!



Today we will discuss several sites for your games, consider their pros and cons, features of working with them and the quality of services provided. This article will be interesting for those people who do not have publishers or who have decided to distribute their game themselves. Also note that the article is focused on client games.



Who are interested in this topic - please under the cat.

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Steam greenlight

Not yet launched, the Steam Greenlight distribution platform made quite a stir among independent game developers. It is foolish to discuss the pros and cons of this service - officially its launch is only at the end of this August. The very system of promoting games on the counters of Steam looks tempting, besides, the role is played by the fact that the players will be promoted by the projects that they like.



In essence, Greenlight will be a “social network” of independent developers. You can share your ideas, screenshots, demos with everyone. Players will observe and vote for all this and vote for really worthwhile projects. Those who get the n-th number of votes will fall on the shelves of Steam. While the number of these votes is not known and the first time will vary greatly, because Valve has no idea what their traffic will be and how often people will vote.



The bottom line: the largest distribution platform for independent developers from Valve . So far nothing can be said about it, because the launch of this service is scheduled for the end of August. Well, we will wait!

Desura

Undoubtedly, Desura is one of the best sites for your game. Its advantages are not so high requirements for the quality of games and cross-platform client. From the first plus it is clear that for Indie-developer Desura will be one of the best options for distributing their games, since not everyone can afford to make the game so beautiful that it would be taken to Steam without talking. From the second plus, it is clear that your game can be seen not only by Windows users, but also by the owners of Mac and Linux.



Desura has a convenient game management system, flexible settings and a nice design. When you publish a game on Desura , you automatically create your product page on resources such as IndieDB and ModDB , which is a good thing. All three sites are closely related and there will be no need to run over them if you notice an error in the text or decide to reload the game version - it’s enough to make an edit in one of the systems.



The game is published on this page (registration is required). To create a page for the game, you need a game icon, boxshot, screenshot preview, and a cap of two sizes. When you submit a game for moderation, you will be asked to upload ten screenshots and one video that demonstrates the gameplay. In order not to waste time, I advise you to take care of this immediately. Moderation of the game can take from several hours to three days, depending on your luck.



Desura has its own API for creating in their games achievements and statistics related to a profile in Desura. A very useful thing, because even such trifles can motivate players to play your creations.



Bottom line: nice service with good attendance and convenient management of published games. Low requirements for games will make a good start in the distribution of your games.

IndieCity

IndieCity is a very, very young game distribution service. IndieCity has practically not gained popularity in Russian-speaking countries, but you shouldn’t push it to second place - among foreign developers, this resource is valued for a really low “passing score”.



In IndieCity there is something from KickStarter 'a - you can view unfinished projects and transfer the necessary amount to the account of the developers.



The requirements for games are much lower here than on Desura - here they pay for the idea rather than for quality and graphics. There are many games here, but this does not mean that the competition is high. Quite the contrary - by making at least a beautiful icon, you will attract much more attention than with a similar course to Desura.



Entry for developers is here . Also, like Desura, it has its own API, support for achievements, statistics and similar whistles, so necessary for the average player.



IndieCity supports bank cards Visa and MasterCard . Problems with the withdrawal of money earned should not be. You will receive 85% of the earned money if you have integration with the achievements of the system, and 75% - if not. If you have more than 100 games on IndnieCity, then the rates change to 90 and 80 percent, respectively.



The result: a young service with a bet on small indie projects. Low requirements for the games have created a lot of "children's" projects, which will allow you to compete very, very successfully in this part of the market.

Indievainia

Indievania is a good service, with decent attendance and low game requirements. The service opened almost a year ago (in August 2011), but gained enormous popularity among English-speaking indie developers. For the most part, the ratio of prices and quality of projects there is very, very bad, that plays into your hands - by invading the territory of Indievania with a beautiful game for 99 cents, you can attract many buyers.



The main task of the site is “promotion and promotion of game prototypes, as well as their alpha and beta versions.” The terms of placement are more than favorable: Indievania takes only 9% of the transaction instead of 30% accepted in the industry. To date, payments are made only through PayPal, Google Checkout and Amazon Payments.



Adding the game takes place on this page . Many settings of your product, user-friendly interface and nice design will allow you to maximally customize your game in this service. The good news is that the product can be sold with the option "pay what they want", with the ability to set a price threshold.



Bottom line: a service with low competition that is popular among indie developers can be considered one of the places where you should publish your game. The main thing - to deal with the withdrawal of money, but with the rest of the problems will be gone

Conclusion

The services I described just above are the best in their fields. If you have made a small game and do not want to suffer with publishing and similar difficulties, this information can help you. If you were looking for information about Steam - sorry. I have no experience with him at all, and there is no desire to gossip.



But, I think, these three services are enough for your eyes to collect money for bread and butter.