Steam Won't Distribute Games With LGBTQ+ Content
10 posts across 4 communities in the last 60 days; 60% from r/gamedev.
“Why are the indie community nowadays just a bunch of rogue likes or card games? Is there any real explanation for that?”
“Looking at the last few years, we've seen some incredible indie games come out. At the same time, though, a huge number of indie releases feel genuinely low quality. Why do you think that is? And I don't think "because more games are being released" is a satisfying answer. If…”
“I meant to say a single indie game. I can't imagine you've not noticed all of these types of posts. I check out some of them and feel a little sceptical about the time spent. Maybe if they include all the time spent learning to code and art, I could understand, but that's not…”
Many indie game developers are facing challenges, including a lack of artistic skill and difficulties in distributing their games due to platform restrictions (like Steam's policies on LGBTQ+ content). There's also discussion around learning from failed games and improving developer happiness through engine choices like Taylor.
SOURCES (32)
“Why are the indie community nowadays just a bunch of rogue likes or card games? Is there any real explanation for that? submitted by /u/TerryfinerCH4 [link] [comments]”
“Hi gamedevs! I recently stumbled upon years old convos on itch about the platform not providing a way for indie game dev teamq to automatically share the revenue made by their games. Then after some research, I couldn’t manage to find about such a feature for Steam either, apparently you're just receiving Steam's payouts monthly on a single bank account before sharing it manually according to rules and spreadsheets. Soo I was thinking about building a tool for that, a tool that would aut”
“Been thinking about this for a while and I'm curious what people here think. Steam already gets a crazy number of releases. Last I checked it was something like 50+ new games a day, and that was before AI tools got as good as they are now. If making a game gets way cheaper and faster, it seems pretty likely we'll just get a lot more of them. Realistically a big chunk of those will be low effort stuff pumped out to see what sticks. What I keep wondering is what that does to the small dev”
“Hey all, I am really surprised at the place I've found myself in over the last few days. I picked up and started making a game (with AI coding assistance) about 7 days ago, and I posted the first video anywhere online 2 days ago. The reception for the video was so positive that I made a Discord that night. When I went to bed I had 10 in the discord, when I woke up it was 20. I posted more videos throughout the day and when I went to bed I was at 40 members, by tonight I'm at 130 and it&#”
“Hey guys, Wanted to drop you my take on what I believe is an interesting story that popped up not that long ago. First off: I’ve worked 16+ years in the industry in games marketing, PR, publishing, and most recently development. I just saw Simon’s GameDiscover newsletter where he talks about if “the game biz.. sustainable for the average indie?” He puts forward the following point: “Let’s say you spent USD $500k of your own money to make your game: no publisher, but you get all the upside. If yo”
“Hey guys, Wanted to drop you my take on what I believe is an interesting story that popped up not that long ago. First off: I’ve worked 16+ years in the industry in games marketing, PR, publishing, and most recently development. I just saw Simon’s GameDiscover newsletter where he talks about if “the game biz.. sustainable for the average indie?” He puts forward the following point: “Let’s say you spent USD $500k of your own money to make your game: no publisher, but you get all the upside. If yo”
“Let's say an indie developer releases their game for free on itch.io. If the game gets a lot of attention and players seem to really enjoy it, would it be reasonable to later remove it from itch.io and release the game as a paid game on Steam? Would players generally be okay with this, or would it be seen negatively? submitted by /u/OmarMuqhthar [link] [comments]”
“When your indie game, made by a team of 2 full time, is listed among the big ones! This is craaaazy, and scary! submitted by /u/saulotti [link] [comments]”
“What keeps you coming back to indie games, is it the art, the weird mechanics, or just supporting small devs? submitted by /u/LogPlayd [link] [comments]”
“It seems most indie's self publish their game, which makes sense. We have the means to do anything from the comfort of our homes. However, that barrier to entry makes it easy to charge ahead without a clear path forward. If you are an indie dev who found a publisher, what was your experience? What kind of support did they provide ( Marketing, Outsourcing, Industry connections, etc ). How did this support help you reach milestones and deliver an outstanding game? If you chose to self publish”
“Been thinking about a startup idea with a collegue of mine and we want to really tackle the problems that the industry is facing outside of what is well known submitted by /u/Ecstatic_Piccolo [link] [comments]”
“Looking at the last few years, we've seen some incredible indie games come out. At the same time, though, a huge number of indie releases feel genuinely low quality. Why do you think that is? And I don't think "because more games are being released" is a satisfying answer. If anything, we're living in a time where players expect higher quality from indie games than ever before. The standards have gone up, the tools are better, and there are countless examples of successful”
“I meant to say a single indie game. I can't imagine you've not noticed all of these types of posts. I check out some of them and feel a little sceptical about the time spent. Maybe if they include all the time spent learning to code and art, I could understand, but that's not what they're implying. Does it actually help to say you spent longer than you did? Do people ignore games made inside of a single year? submitted by /u/sundler [link] [comments]”
“Excluding Reddit, Twitter/X, BlueSky, Mastodon, Steam, Itch.io, and YouTube. Where do you look for/discover new indie games? Just curious if gamers use alternative sources to find indie gems. submitted by /u/mbl-games [link] [comments]”
“I'm not talking about DRM or launchers.I mean discoverability. As an indie developer, if your game isn't on Steam, does it realistically have a chance? Aside from itch.io (which serves a very different audience), are there any storefronts where an unknown indie can actually build momentum? Have any of you seen meaningful success on platforms outside Steam? submitted by /u/Noktaloren [link] [comments]”
“I just made a game I wanted to make and was not a part of any communities. I had and still have no clue who to tell about this kind of game. Any advice is welcome. submitted by /u/OldSignificance9574 [link] [comments]”
“Versus submitting them to crazygames or something like that. I assume any kind of web game is tough to earn from, but I'm just wondering what your experiences with that are. submitted by /u/LordAntares [link] [comments]”
“Apparently they make physical PC releases for Indie games which seems cool, but I can't find much info on them. Has anyone heard of these guys? I'm trying to find a way to contact them and also looking for more info, but I'm not finding much. This seems new so maybe word just hasn't spread, but honestly have no idea who they are or if they're legit. Link: https://www.wetheindies.com/ submitted by /u/The4rthHorseman [link] [comments]”
“- Almost half have terrible onboarding/tutorial. By the way, this applies not only to games. I often see this problem with apps/services too. - Unclear player goals. This point is related to the previous one and further worsens the perception of the project. - Metrics in the UI without explanations. Icons for currency, stats, and so on. Even adding a basic tooltip would help a lot. - Sound problems. Some have the default volume set too high, some don't have separate sliders in settings for b”
“Curious about YouTube Playables from an individual game developer perspective. Can individual developers get access if their game is still in development or usually expect already published games with playable demos? Also are there any revenue options for individual game developers through YouTube Playables? Would love to hear from anyone who has explored this. submitted by /u/BusinessTechAdviser [link] [comments]”
“Hi fellow indie devs! I'm currently working on a small project and I'm at the point where I need to start sourcing some music. Where do you guys usually go to find yours? I'd love to hear about both free and paid options. submitted by /u/Acrobatic_Sail8187 [link] [comments]”
“Like the title says, I pitched my game to more than a hundred publishers, and unfortunately no bites (though there were a few nibbles!) It was discouraging, but I got some good feedback and lots of doors left open to resubmit later in the game's development. So while I continue to work on it, I figured it's time to do what any self-respecting indie game developer does and promote myself on Reddit! https://reddit.com/link/1uwnivn/video/0iexbulxq9dh1/player \ Forgive the audio quality - th”
“I'm the producer of ACE Strategy: Mecha Nova — a roguelike deckbuilder where transformable mechs fight in space on a 3x3 grid. We're a tiny team of less than 5 people. For the longest time, we didn't have a dedicated character artist. Which, for a mecha game, was… rough. Mechs are cool, but someone needs to pilot them, right? Then we got incredibly lucky. We found this artist — let's call them Sanatorium — and their art style was exactly what we had in our heads but couldn't”
“I've seen plenty of indie games that do well globally, take Meccha Chameleon for example. However, there are games like Sanabi that did super well in South Korea but not as well in the Western market. Are these usually cultural differences (in understanding the game's lore, characters, etc) or region focused marketing? submitted by /u/cheesebbang [link] [comments]”
“About a month ago I made a post in this sub talking about how my game didnt do well on steam and it blew up on the sub so I figured I should make an update. I think a lot of people thought I was abandoning the game but that was not the case at all, I was just looking for feedback and wanted to improve the game. I've spent the last month reworking a lot of stuff and I have released the game out of early access today. I changed a lot of stuff about the game from the stuff people mentioned in t”
“I've been holding off posting on r/gaming , I was thinking I should save it for when our demo or game releases. But ya'all I'm gonna be honest, I'm nervous about the prospect. Our game is the kinda game I reckon will attract the hate crowd, and posting it on somewhere like r/gaming makes me think it's likely they'll turn on us. We've been in a few festivals and even when people are being mean about other games, they seem to respond generally well to ours, so there'”
“If you're curious and want to find a way to beat these 3 monkeys, try it out here: SAI-1 on Steam submitted by /u/Savings-Show-8165 [link] [comments]”
“Maybe it's just me, but I feel like every successful indie game gets a dozen breakdowns and postmortems, while the ones that fail just quietly disappear. Which is kind of weird, because failure is probably what most of us will experience at some point. Feels like there's a lot we're not learning. submitted by /u/ResidentAccording256 [link] [comments]”
“Given that game distribution platforms won't distribute games that support gender inclusion and that they are the main way games get distributed why should game developers put games up on Steam? Or on any other platform that restricts distribution? I get that any representation is important, but the fact that such games are 'geofenced' by platforms really diminishes information propagation. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1ulau2x/russia_has_valve_prevent_adultlgbt_g”