An alternative to Steam Greenlight
What’s it take to submit a game to GOG.com? Find out for yourself — the distribution platform has a page for exactly that, and it’s refreshingly transparent. It’s also a decidedly different approach than the one Steam is taking with Greenlight.
With a promised average turnaround time of two business weeks or less, “We’ll tell you exactly what we think about your title. We know our users’ tastes, and we do our best to present them with a selection of DRM-free games they’ll enjoy. We review all submissions and pick those that offer the qualities our users value most, such as gameplay depth, originality, and a high level of polish.” Feedback, it should be noted, will be given even if the title under review isn’t accepted.
GOG.com says it will help promote its games — both on the main site with front-page placement and a news post — and through social media channels. There’s also the matter of an optional advance on royalties which, according to managing director Guillaume Rambourg, can range anywhere from $5k to $50k “depending on our estimates of how the game will do, and estimates on if the up-front advance will help make a substantially better game at launch.”
I really like what they’re going for here. It’s a human-centric approach, one that I hope will do wonders for GOG and not backfire. It’s the Internet, after all — there’s always someone willing to ruin a good thing for everyone else.
GOG Launches New Indie Submissions Portal [reddit]
