Steam

[Mikhail Reign]

I have a question. is there a planned release date or are you waiting on steam? (or other) cause this game is great and I wouldn't know what to think if steam doesn't want it now. seriously I checked green light and they released a game on steam called GRASS SIMULATOR. your a cow who walks in a field and shoots targets.

If you take a look at the block of text below you will find your answer.

Steam provides no good automatic way to allow playing on older versions. Since our updates consistently break save compatibility (because they're usually large changes to the structure of the game and/or adding and removing game objects), this would mean your saves would just break and you'd have no way to prevent it or go back and finish them.

It's not necessarily the best system for a game in this stage of development.

So there's that, plus I want the game to be good and ready quality-wise for the larger Steam audience. There's no date on Steam release. Though we are looking at making an auto-updater that would take the pain out of updating manually, and handle the ability to play older versions with your older saves if you wish.

All you have to do is read a little down the first page at the developers comments to find the answers to basic stuff. Not complaining per-se, just do a little research before asking redundant questions.

Not really. You can use the beta option pretty easily to have versions on steam. ProjectZomboid use it to run betas. I cant remember any names, but there are a few that just use it for old versions. Its just Right Click Game>Properties>Beta>Select version from the drop down list. Its not a complex task, and the information could easily be added to the store page, the forums or anywhere else vaguely relevant.

[narkul]

Not really. You can use the beta option pretty easily to have versions on steam. ProjectZomboid use it to run betas. I cant remember any names, but there are a few that just use it for old versions. Its just Right Click Game>Properties>Beta>Select version from the drop down list. Its not a complex task, and the information could easily be added to the store page, the forums or anywhere else vaguely relevant.

Yep, it couldn't be any easier. Don't like the new alpha of 7 Days to Die, do the above and you can choose from 8 or 9 previous alphas. Turn off automatic updates and you can stay on any version you like. I do wish Steam would revamp their dated UI though, seriously in need of a tabbed interface instead of one page at a time.

[Psyclops]

Not really. You can use the beta option pretty easily to have versions on steam. ProjectZomboid use it to run betas. I cant remember any names, but there are a few that just use it for old versions. Its just Right Click Game>Properties>Beta>Select version from the drop down list. Its not a complex task, and the information could easily be added to the store page, the forums or anywhere else vaguely relevant.

Funny enough this route has already been suggested and addressed, as you can see on the second page of this topic!

I've seen some games (Europa Universalis IV comes to mind) where the 'betas' tab lets you pick from older versions as well - that said, I have no idea how it works.

That's the way we'd have to do it, but that's a bit of a hack.

[narkul]

Not really. You can use the beta option pretty easily to have versions on steam. ProjectZomboid use it to run betas. I cant remember any names, but there are a few that just use it for old versions. Its just Right Click Game>Properties>Beta>Select version from the drop down list. Its not a complex task, and the information could easily be added to the store page, the forums or anywhere else vaguely relevant.

Funny enough this route has already been suggested and addressed, as you can see on the second page of this topic!

I've seen some games (Europa Universalis IV comes to mind) where the 'betas' tab lets you pick from older versions as well - that said, I have no idea how it works.

That's the way we'd have to do it, but that's a bit of a hack.

Yes, but I don't think it's really a hack, Endless Legend uses the beta tab for an alternative 32bit version of the game versus the 64bit version that installs by default. I think if Steam changed the name of the tab from Beta to Alternate Versions, it would be the same thing but feel less like a hack. I'm assuming that the real reason we're waiting, is for the 1.0 release rather than an early access release which is probably not a bad idea due the harsh treatment early access games usually suffer.

[Mikhail Reign]

Yeah other then the tab being called beta instead of alternative version, it is the exact function that is required. Hell it's implied then keeping 4 or 5 copies of the game so I can play different versions.

[StorymasterQ]

Other than for mod compatibility, why would you want to play older alternative versions of an alpha game, though?

[vagineer1]

Other than for mod compatibility, why would you want to play older alternative versions of an alpha game, though?

For nostalgia value?

[narkul]

Other than for mod compatibility, why would you want to play older alternative versions of an alpha game, though?

So you can play your saved games that the new version is no longer compatible with.

[Damien Hart]

Other than for mod compatibility, why would you want to play older alternative versions of an alpha game, though?

The main issue is situations where steam auto-updates, but you're right in the middle of a year long game, and suddenly your save is irretrievably gone.

And what with Steam having no explicit feature to disable auto-updating anymore, the average user doesn't know how to work around the system by setting the update schedule to hours that they are never on, not to mention that that particular workaround means that none of your other games would receive updates either.

[thefinn]

I'd personally only release this on steam if it were finished, otherwise it just comes across as "another early access PoS" - god knows there are enough of them..

[Psyclops]

I'd personally only release this on steam if it were finished, otherwise it just comes across as "another early access PoS" - god knows there are enough of them..

This ^^

Think about it this way, currently having the game limited to this site provides many advantages to take into consideration.

1. This site is the only way you can purchase the game, this means that 100% of the profits, sales, marketing, etc is handled by Tynan and word-of-mouth, arguably the best marketing tool there is, especially because it's free. (You go on an awesome vacation you're gonna tell your friends about it, and they're gonna go and tell their friends about it, and so on. Same with this game.)

2. Because it's not on a massive platform like Steam there is a limited number of customers who see this game right now and judge it, whether their reviews are fair or not. This also leads to a more tight-knit community and less trolls who are just out to populate the game with bad reviews.

3. This game is in Alpha, releasing the game as such under "Early Access" not only gives a bad name to the game, but leads to people reviewing the game in it's current state, then possibly never updating their review, leading to a skewed opinion overall. Let's say they base their down-vote on something that gets updated a patch or two later, if they never update that review that's one more review that's negative that doesn't deserve to be there.

Just my *3* cents.