Hello everyone! I was just wondering if a game made with the free version of Unity can be published to Steam? I don't have the money to buy the Pro version of Unity, and it really gives me more than I need for my project.
Since free Unity doesn't allow you to code native plugins, can I still somehow implement Steam's SDK? Will they accept it?
Thanks
Getting on Steam is far from being as easy as some people think. They are by far the market leader in digital distribution and they can choose - and they do. I have seen collegues failing to get on Steam with highly polished games and the indie games on Steam are either really exceptional or they have direct connections to Valve or people making bigger business with Valve. Getting on Steam will become much harder now with Greenlight working, which is in my opinion only a way for Valve to reduce the masses of submissions in an elegant and publically accepted way. Valve requires a solid product and a solid company structure, even from independent studios. You need to present a well planned marketing campaign, you need to pass the submission process and much more.
So in short - no, Valve won’t publish your game on Steam, no chance, if you not even have the money for the pro version. And that is NOT about using the free version, it is simply because of the lack of resources behind your project. Head over to IndieDB and present your game there, build an audience and then go to the smaller portals, like Little Indie or Desura. They will be happy to publish your game, but even there a game exported with the pro version is much more welcome. The pro version is less than 1500 $ - if you don’t have the money for that, you don’t have the money to create a suitable game at all in most cases…
One more tutorial on how to make Ludosity Steam Wrapper works on MacOS and Linux:
http://kostiantyn-dvornik.blogspot.com/2015/01/unity-anoxemia-steam-tutorial.html
Hello,
I'll assume that you are hoping to make a game that will be sold on Steam and not a mod.
In that case, getting your game to be published on Steam requires you to have a proper/official company legally setup. Your company would have to be in compliance with the many commerce laws, you would have to have a physical company office etc.
If you have all of this setup already, you would have at to least have a preview build of your game and enter into contract talks with Valve, and somehow strike a publishing deal, along with a million other details/conditions that come with that.
After doing all this, and spending all this money/time on setting up a company, paying lawyers, travel expenses, I think spending the $1,500 for Unity Pro might seem like small potatoes. I also doubt that Steam would publish a game that has the Unity Watermark during gameplay.
This is not to shoot down your dreams/plans, but you may want to get more familiar with the professional games industry before planning to be a part of it. What is more realistic is if you started distributing your game via your own website, and if your game is solid, and is selling like crazy, then you can think about Steam publishing.
Thanks.
In response to comments on other answers:
Trust me, no one will want to steal your ‘million dollar idea’.
In fact, the more people you tell about your ‘secret’ game idea the better.
Also, Apple was founded in a Silicon Valley garage, not a ‘office’.
Answer to OP:
If you want to establish a sole proprietorship or a Limited Liability Company (LLC), and you live in the United States; then you need to register to get a Employer Identification Number (EIN) with your state.
Also, upgrading to Unity Pro is a $1500 dollar expense. (Not COST)
As far as implementing Steam’s SDK into Unity, I typed into google “implementing steam sdk into unity”
This seemed like a good internal result:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/unity-to-steam-sdk-beta-annoucment.117099/
Well, start publishing you’re game to steam greenlight. I reccommend that you get you’re legal rights sorted first, so that anyone doesn’t steal you’re stuff. 