Valve officially turned out the lights on Steam’s user-driven Greenlight service today, ending an era defined by inconsistency—both in regards to game quality and Valve’s policies. The final game to be submitted, though? It looks pretty neat.
It was bound to happen sooner or later. There were just too many used car dealerships, too many store grand openings or going out-of-business sales. The flailing inflatable tube people that vie for our attention along our nation’s highways take up flailing arms against each other in Inflatality.
Lonely Mountains: Downhill is a mountain biking game that looks really chill. It’s just you and your bike. Oh, and some mountains. You’re not constrained to any particular path. You choose how you want to explore. Nature, it turns out, is neat like that. The game’s not done yet, but it’s got a page on Steam Greenlight.
Baobab’s Mausoleum is an episodic RPG inspired by Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Twin Peaks. It takes place in a bizarre town that only appears in nightmares and once every 25 years in a specific place. It looks surreal. The game isn’t done yet, but it’s on Steam Greenlight right now.
A Case Of Distrust is a stylized detective adventure influenced by games like Phoenix Wright and 80 Days. It’s set in San Francisco, in the year 1924. You’ll play as a woman private investigator who has to navigate mysteries, deception, and the issues of the time. The game isn’t done yet, but you can read more about…
Cattails looks like Stardew Valley, except cats. You play as a feral cat exploring an open land, developing relationships, combating cats from rival colonies, and yes, romancing other cats to start a family. No farming, though. Cats are hunters, not gatherers. The game is on Kickstarter.
All Walls Must Fall is a tactics game that owes as much to Rez as it does to XCOM. It takes place in a future Berlin where the Cold War never ended. Time-traveling agents loop the same night over and over via tactical battles that occur to the beat of music. Looks wild! It’s on Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter.
Rhythm Doctor is a trippy rhythm game that aims to invisibly teach you complex music and rhythm theory. It’s about doctors who save patients with sweet beats, culminating in “glitchstep boss battles” against a resilient virus. It looks cool and sounds great. It’s on Steam Greenlight right now.
Today, Valve announced that they’re killing Steam Greenlight, the user-driven service they use to ferry lesser-known games onto the Steam store. Soon, it’ll be supplanted by Steam Direct, a service that allow anyone to pay a fee get their game, well, directly onto Steam. No more votes. This approach, however, creates…
After years of saying they’d do it, Valve is finally getting rid of Steam Greenlight, Steam’s user-driven service for admitting smaller games to the Steam store. They’re replacing it with something called Steam Direct.
Slice Dice & Rice is a fighting game with no health bars, where fights can end in a single blow. It’s inspired by Bushido Blade, and the point is to out-think and out-maneuver your opponent rather than out-combo them. The art style is slick, too. Only thing I wish they’d change is the name. It’s on Steam Greenlight.
Morphite is a sci-fi shooter/platformer inspired by Metroid Prime, Ratchet and Clank, and... Turok. You’ll explore the galaxy and unravel a fully voiced main story with bosses, creature-scanning, and puzzles. It’s currently set for “early 2017,” and it’s on Steam Greenlight right now.
Dead Cells is Castlevania meets permadeath. You explore an interconnected castle that sprawls and shifts like those stairs in Harry Potter, except evil. Death, however, replaces backtracking, and each death will unlock more of the world. Combat is Souls-inspired. It’s on Steam Greenlight right now.
No Man’s Sky and Spore have a lot in common. Both were ambitious to a fault. They aimed for the stars, but fell well short of expectations. They also both had plenty of dick aliens.
The First Tree looks like Journey: Fox Edition. It’s about the intertwining stories of a fox searching for her missing family and a young couple dealing with tragedy. According to its creator, it will be short, but bittersweet. It’s on Steam Greenlight right now and will be out early next year.
The Digital Homicides are a Steam group with a goal that seems admirable: to keep poorly-made, sketchy, and downright scammy games off Steam. How they go about achieving that goal, however, is far more murky and controversial.
Blubber Busters is a combat platformer about venturing inside space whales to cure their illnesses. Seriously. You lead a crew of intergalactic infection fighters, and you can swap between and upgrade them. It comes from devs who worked on League of Legends, Darksiders 2, and Enter The Gungeon. It’s on Kickstarter.
Far From Noise is a game about experiencing nature... while teetering over the edge of a cliff in a car that could fall at any second. It’s narrative-driven, and “dramatic events”—as well as your decisions—change the story each playthrough. Also I guess you end up talking to a deer??? It’ll be out soon.
Life Unfolds crams an entire lifetime into 30 minutes. You go from the womb to the grave, experiencing everything from childhood friendships, to your first kiss, to marriage, to raising a kid of your own. It looks cute, but your time is painfully limited. Every choice counts. It’s on Steam Greenlight right now, and…
German independent developer Roman Uhlig recently had his excellent local multiplayer game 12 Orbits added to Steam Greenlight. He’s posted a lengthy, bro-packed conversation demonstrating the sort of attention such a move brings.
