Procedure to Submit Free to Play Games to Steam

[Edvardine ☪☮]

Hello, i want to ask about game publishing here on steam.

Currently i'm working on a Visual Novel game which i will be working alone (Well, not entirely alone, i have friend that will help me with the game making) but yeah, all the artworks will be made by me.

Since steam greenlight is gone, i need to know about the procedure to submit free games to steam, my game will be FREE TO PLAY and i won't charge any price.
I read about Steam Direct and people gotta pay USD100 for submitting games?

And i will not hold any form of crowdfunding and such so if that USD100 is still applies for Free to play games, that's really painful for me.

Any form of answer will be helpful.

[Ogami]

Yes, EVERYONE needs to go through Steam Direct and pay the 100 dollar fee per published game.
Does not matter if your game is a 60 bucks title or in your case, Free To Play.
So you need to cough up the 100 dollars if you want to publish your game on Steam, no way around it.

[Edvardine ☪☮]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Yes, EVERYONE needs to go through Steam Direct and pay the 100 dollar fee per published game.
Does not matter if your game is a 60 bucks title or in your case Free To Play.
So you will need to cough up the 100 dollars if you want to publish your game on Steam, no way around it.

Fuuuuu, that hurts, so bad... well alright then, thanks for the reply.

[MeowDread]

100 dollars? What about other people in other countries, they will pay more. also sorry for the necro.

[Satoru]

its 100 flat fee

[Washell]

Originally posted by Classic Pyro:

100 dollars? What about other people in other countries, they will pay more. also sorry for the necro.

A mere 100 dollars to gain access to the biggest store for your product on the planet is such a pittance that it's the stuff of wet dreams in any other industry.

Also, making, hosting and distributing the game from your own site will likely cost more on a yearly basis and be a recurring fee. $100 for unlimited hosting and downloads is a good deal.

[Diegovz01]

There are also some free alternatives such as Gamejolt and Itch.io, if you are an indie dev I highly recommend you to choose them over Steam.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Edvardine ☪☮:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Yes, EVERYONE needs to go through Steam Direct and pay the 100 dollar fee per published game.
Does not matter if your game is a 60 bucks title or in your case Free To Play.
So you will need to cough up the 100 dollars if you want to publish your game on Steam, no way around it.

Fuuuuu, that hurts, so bad... well alright then, thanks for the reply.

Yes because steam should totally use their bandwidth and their time to distribute your product for free......

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Diegovz01:

There are also some free alternatives such as Gamejolt and Itch.io, if you are an indie dev I highly recommend you to choose them over Steam.

I also recommend itch.io . They are a great place for indies.

Originally posted by brian9824:

Originally posted by Edvardine ☪☮:

Fuuuuu, that hurts, so bad... well alright then, thanks for the reply.

Yes because steam should totally use their bandwidth and their time to distribute your product for free......

Dates.

[Jdance]

So, do we still have to pay a fee for making mods like Portal Reloaded and Portal Stories: Mel for example? It would seem nonsense to have people pay 100 bucks to release projects like that.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Jdance:

So, do we still have to pay a fee for making mods like Portal Reloaded and Portal Stories: Mel for example? It would seem nonsense to have people pay 100 bucks to release projects like that.

To have a title on the store, yes.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Jdance:

So, do we still have to pay a fee for making mods like Portal Reloaded and Portal Stories: Mel for example? It would seem nonsense to have people pay 100 bucks to release projects like that.

Why? Do you expect steam to provide you with a store page, forums, storage, bandwidth, etc for free?

[Sombra]

Originally posted by Washell:

Originally posted by Classic Pyro:

100 dollars? What about other people in other countries, they will pay more. also sorry for the necro.

A mere 100 dollars to gain access to the biggest store for your product on the planet is such a pittance that it's the stuff of wet dreams in any other industry.

Also, making, hosting and distributing the game from your own site will likely cost more on a yearly basis and be a recurring fee. $100 for unlimited hosting and downloads is a good deal.

I just want to say that what he was saying is that $100 in others currency (third world currency specifically saying) is a huge value. I agree with all you said but that answer is not very cohese with what he said.

But its not Valve problem, so that is nothing to do here.
Valve could be generous reducing price for third world devs (in fact, I believe they already do it) but they arent obligated at all and would probably bring alot of other problems :v

(and to set numbers; $100 on my country currency is like 2/3 of a minimum wage. But I just check and in fact, Valve is charging only half of the value on my currency aparently, still 1/3 but is much better, god bless G.)

[Souvlaki42]

However, Valve will give your money back when your game has earn at least 1000 USD including in-game purchases. This is a win I guess. Also I think one of the reason that this fee exists is because Valve tries to discourage new developers from uploading games that are low quality enough for Steam standards.

You can read more about that here

[Crafty Official]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Yes, EVERYONE needs to go through Steam Direct and pay the 100 dollar fee per published game.
Does not matter if your game is a 60 bucks title or in your case, Free To Play.
So you need to cough up the 100 dollars if you want to publish your game on Steam, no way around it.

Do i have to pay for every game i want upload $100? or i can just buy it only once for uploading games?

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Crafty Official:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Yes, EVERYONE needs to go through Steam Direct and pay the 100 dollar fee per published game.
Does not matter if your game is a 60 bucks title or in your case, Free To Play.
So you need to cough up the 100 dollars if you want to publish your game on Steam, no way around it.

Do i have to pay for every game i want upload $100? or i can just buy it only once for uploading games?

$100 per game