I just found out about this new thing called Gameroom from Facebook by watching some random video on Youtube. Apparently it is a Steam competitor. So…[sigh]… I guess this is yet another platform that we shall have to support with our games. And probably requires screenshots in completely different sizes from the ones I’ve all ready made.
Can’t really see it catching on. Instinctively it feels like a platform nobody will use like Blackberry games or Kindle games or Google Plus. As is usually the case with “me too” applications. But also, I can’t risk not supporting this platform. Probably will be most popular for casual games.
Is Unity supporting this platform in any ways? Are there any guides for getting Unity games on this platform?
Why have I never heard of it before? What do you think of it?
On a slightly connected note, I notice that as well as indie games on Steam people are also making indie movies. I think this is a very exciting idea that people could self publish indie movies on Steam. Because its very hard for indie filmmakers to get on other channels like Netflix. Maybe people could make animations using the sequencers coming up in Unity 5 and put indie animated movies on Steam. (But would you be required to add a splash screen to your movie I wonder?)
Oh, just realised it’s Unity 5 so, it would have that Splash Screen. [cough] Maybe time to upgrade to Unity Plus.
Is this the only way? Wouldn’t there be another way, such as when you have a game not made in Unity? I’ll research.
Now the gamble is, will it be worth the time and effort to port? Hmm… and is it really just not cool to support Facebook gaming? Steam is the cool kid on the block after all.
Are you developing your games for mobile or WebGL platforms? Or PC? It feels like the former is what this new platform truly competes with. Just look at the best practices section of the main site and how it recommends your game be at most 50MB compressed. That’s roughly the size you would expect for games intended for those platforms.
I’m going to bet that the chances of success are going to ultimately be similar to what they are now for them too.
I’m hoping its more for PC games because I can’t see mobile games working particularly well for this. Especially as most PCs don’t have things like touch screens and sensors etc. It would be like using an Android emulator which is no fun at all. And that wouldn’t be much of a Steam competitor. 50MB compressed seems very small. This is very strange. OK I’m less excited now. Now it feels like Chrome Apps. Blugh.
What rock are you under? Unity has been pushing this through the forums for a while. It even featured heavily in the Unite keynotes.
I personally haven’t looked into it, because I don’t like developing for FaceBook. They have a history of poor documentation, poor revenue sharing deals, closing down important services and other general stuff to make developers uncomfortable.
Don’t let my bias put you off. Go for it if you are interested. But I will be sticking to Steam, brick and mortar, or direct orders.
Has Facebook called this a Steam competitor, or is that just what the journalists are saying? Everything I’ve seen points to Facebook looking to just get more of the casual audience it already has, not to “compete” with Steam.
Facebook realised that some people would like to play the same games they love on mobiles on their desktop.
its like playing android games on a PC emulator.
So you no longer need to download emulators.
Good idea but “Don’t let my bias put you off”yes I will let it put me off
Lol. Reason I stated that is because I haven’t built games for Facebook for a couple of years. It used to be horrible, but they might have changed. Or not.
Steam is the cool kid on the block after all.
Now it feels like Chrome Apps. Blugh.