I like the MadeWithUnity initiative.
In my opinion, in the next couple of years Unity will probably add a publishing division, “a la” Steam.
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Hopefully it will build into something, if creative people sit down and think on these things with the agenda of helping developers to promote and discover games then they will find a good solution. The problem with Steam etc is as a platform and it doesn’t serve their interests to spend that amount of effort and money to improve discovery for small indies.
I’m pretty glad that cloud build is now for PC standalone as well and will be free.As a pro user I was a bit annoyed that the cloud build may have cost to use after the first year.
Not sure it would be such a great development if they became a publisher in the EA tradition, could be interesting if they setup a sort of kickstarter competitor aimed purely at funding games.
I think is a nice addition to Unity. I would probable send my game too when will be ready.
Also I like the logo “Made with Unity” and I would like to put that on my game too, maybe anyone from Unity clarify any legal stuff for using this?
Made with Unity is the default splash screen in the latest versions at least for pro users.
I am talking about the logo only, if are we allowed to put it in a screenshot in bottom right side by example.
Sorry, I meant http://madeinunity.com/ and I clarified it now in the first post.
I’m not sure that Unity is in a position to solve discoverability problems. The problem is market over-saturation. In order to solve it, Unity would have to not only become as big a market as Steam, but also be picky about what games they let on the service. Unity not allowing any game made with Unity onto the service is likely to cause ill-will with developers of horrible games that Unity doesn’t want to do. Valve doesn’t have this problem. But there’s little Valve can do to promote small indies aside from featuring them on the front page. Which they appear to do. What Valve can do is close the flood gates and reintroduce quality control. That would help mitigate the root cause of discoverability issues, which as I said, is over-saturation of the market.
Of course, as TotalBiscuit pointed out, there would still be the same number of failed games. We just wouldn’t see them because they would never make it on Steam. Nothing anybody can do is going to turn game development into a gold mine. It’s always going to be hard, it’s always going to take a polished product that is professional in every way to become a success. Or at least to build a company that is a lasting success. What Valve can do is try to bring access to the biggest market in PC gaming back towards a meritocracy so the people who actually put out professional quality products have the best chances possible and the people who shovel out crap are forced to improve their skills instead of shoveling out more and more crap. This benefits developers putting out quality products, it benefits consumers, and ultimately, it benefits developers who put out crappy products, but do actually care about game development because it gives them a bar to strive for that will help their long term success. It doesn’t do much for the gold-rushers, but who really cares about them anyway?
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Market over-saturation as well as bad games are problems for the devs, not the platform.
Over-saturation drives prices down for games but provides diversity for platforms. Devs might lose, platforms not.
Bad games could harm the platform but a filter similar to greenlight would take the responsibility from the platform to the gamers.
Such a move - a “vertical” approach in product (apps) creation (fees for engine use) and distribution (fees for apps sold) can be profitable if implemented right and the Steam proves it.
Or not.
Time will tell.
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Atari circa 1983 would disagree with you. While it’s true that a saturation of quality products improves consumer welfare (at the expense of producer welfare), a saturation of crappy products decreases consumer confidence, and then decreases demand.
You mention Greenlight as a solution to this problem, but it has not been a solution, it has been the instigator of the problem. It’s too easily rigged, and Valve apparently keeps lowering the bar as to what it takes to get greenlit in the first place.
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Well,
Atari circa 1983 should pay for the physical products it produced and distributed.
I do not have a deep understanding of Steam strategy but I think it creates and (mostly) distributes GB of data.
I mentioned platform, not customer welfare.
Crappy products can be godsend actually. From a total of 1.500.000 apps - let’s say that 1.000 apps are “great” in the “curated” Apple AppStore. In Apple presentations the argument is not " we have 1.000 great apps", it is “we have 1.500.000 apps available”.
Customers get the impression that they face a bargain when they can buy a bunch of discounted (some crappy, some good) products and give their money.
Devs get the impression that make money biased by the spikes in sales and give their work.
Platforms make the real money and it is cool, because they achieve more (sales) with less (work).
If Unity goes on this route, they will do it because it is cool (profitable).
It already happens in the asset store. Watch out the sensible (madness) sales, as well as Level 11. The MadeInUnity can be seen as another step in this direction, targeted at a different crowd (gamers instead of devs).
Or not.
/me got bored again.
This would be really neat but I’m not sure many people want to play Unity games exclusively. Plus, the publishing might just adopt the engine’s reputation as a beginner or poor man’s tool.
Thanks, corrected the first post
I don’t really think that Unity has the power to solve discoverability. Noone has that power.
Point is the supply of games is massive. There are more games coming out then there is demand from players. This might be a great marketing opportunity for a few developers. But its not going to mean a thing to the average guy with a game on the forums.
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Unity cannot do much now but if they want to have an impact in the future then they better start asap. I really would like Unity to create a system like steam. I would prefer my 30% to go to Unity then valve. That’s one of the reasons I will use Unity ads over alternatives.
Steam’s green light system is easy to game for school kids. In school it’s very easy to market your game and get other kids to greenlight. But as you get older you know less and less people… Well most peeps anyway…
Now let’s face it, kids don’t generally create any good games. They usually purchase a cheap readymade game and change bits here and there and often ask the devs of that kit “can you add a sword for me in your next update” that how you know how shit their game is going to be, and yes that little lazy shit that can’t be bothered to learn the basics of game development will now release his shit product on steam and have an easy chance of getting green lit.
The outcome is little shits saturates the market and makes it difficult for worthy professional devs to get noticed.
Thats the reason I don’t help the little shits on here. And I recommend “real” developers to do the same.
I decided to hold off one of my android games and put it aside until Google play had introduced and monitoring system. Google play should be called the shit pit.
Luckily apple will introduce human quality control.