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I'm in desperate need of some advice regarding Greenlight, and although I know most people on here probably don't know much more about it, I'd appreciate a little help if anyone has any to offer. Basically, I'm trying to figure out whether or not I should purchase a Greenlight subscription.

Here's the situation:

I recently released a little narrative-focused exploration/horror game called The Moon Sliver, on Desura and itch.io (http://videogamepotpourri.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-moon-sliver-story-focused.html). I'd like to try and earn enough money off it to purchase a Unity Pro license.

It's going to be included in two bundles thus far, the first of which (the next Groupees Community Bundle) will be releasing this coming Tuesday. If I decide to purchase a Greenlight subscription, I'd want to do so before the bundle(s) released, so I can put a link to the Greenlight page in the game's bundle profile, to possibly get a few more votes.

In the future, I'm hoping that a few of the bigger Lets Players will be taking a look at it, and if I purchase a Greenlight sub, I'd like to do so before they play it, so that their videos might garner me some votes. My previous game, Fingerbones, was played by Markiplier, Yamimash, Cinnamen Toast Ken, and Raedwulfgamer, and the combined views on all of their videos was probably close to a million. That's great publicity, and if they linked to a Greenlight page, I could probably get a fair number of votes out of it. However, I have gotten no real response from any of them about The Moon Sliver (despite sending all of them free copies), and there's no gaurantee they will be playing it.

The research I've done shows that a game needs somewhere around 20,000 "yes" votes on Greenlight to make its way into the top 100, and get onto Steam. Greenlight itself is absolute rubbish as far as visibility goes, so unless your game is already fairly popular you aren't going to get many people to vote for it. Currently, there's no way there are 20,000 people who would even know about my game, much less upvote it on Greenlight. However, I am actively working to market the title, and am gradually building momentum, and it would be best to have the Greenlight page already up, ready for votes, when (if) the game does take off.

A Greenlight subscription costs $100, which I have sitting in my savings account from sales on itch.io, and once it's purchased I can put as many games as I want on Greenlight. However, Steam has stated that they will be getting rid of Greenlight in the future.

Further complicating matters, I recieved a publishing/distributing offer from http://flyinginteractive.com, which would put my game on Greenlight and promote it. However, I know little to nothing about this service, and what the advantages and dis-advantages are.

Any advice about what you think would be my best course of action would be appreciated. Naturally I don't expect someone else to make the decision for me, but I would greatly appreciate some help and guidance.
Not advice as such, but here is VirgilW's greenlight process for Creeper World 3. May be of some interest. Creeper World games do have a bit of a fanbase, though.

http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=14590.0
Post edited May 23, 2014 by amok
ive got no clue how greenlight works, but ive seen a bit of your games from the posts you made here to surely grab one of them if they were on steam since i dont use desura, so i prolly wont buy the greenlight bundle its included in even if it would be a major factor in purchasing it. anyways im not sure if ure looking for more lets players you might wanna get in touch with or if you're only searching for purely english speaking lets players. but if you like you could contact one of the well known german lets players ill list below. they usually have a lot of views on everything they do as they are so popular among the german gaming community

Gronkh: , [url=https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gronkh/139619776061785?fref=ts]Facebook , , [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gronkh]Wikipedia

Sarazar: , [url=https://www.facebook.com/Sarazarlp?fref=ts]Facebook

they are currently in the US it seems so im not sure they can work on a lets play while they are on "vacation" but theyve got pretty good connections to even more lets players so maybe you wanna give it a try to increase the amount of people that know bout your games
Hello there! So basically a publisher takes a cut which you may not be ready to give at this early stage, particularly if they're more flash than results. Flying doesn't seem to have a portfolio and just an overly flashy website. I think he'd benefit more from you than vice versa. Groupees is a good way to go to get Greenlit as you'll get your 20,000 votes mostly from that if not all of them. What's the other one?

Even though Valve is doing away with Greenlight, they're doing it on Valve time. That means when HL3 comes out. Lets Plays before Greenlight? That might help with votes but not with sales due to the waiting period between release and such. Bundles have been the best indie spotlight while LP's can reveal the whole game, deterring the experience rather than advertising it. The only exceptions are if GIANT LP'ers advertise it, but if they gave it a bad review you'd be screwed. :P

Too bad you can't work with GOG since it doesn't offer serious indie options.
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MaximumBunny: Hello there! So basically a publisher takes a cut which you may not be ready to give at this early stage, particularly if they're more flash than results. Flying doesn't seem to have a portfolio and just an overly flashy website. I think he'd benefit more from you than vice versa. Groupees is a good way to go to get Greenlit as you'll get your 20,000 votes mostly from that if not all of them. What's the other one?

Even though Valve is doing away with Greenlight, they're doing it on Valve time. That means when HL3 comes out. Lets Plays before Greenlight? That might help with votes but not with sales due to the waiting period between release and such. Bundles have been the best indie spotlight while LP's can reveal the whole game, deterring the experience rather than advertising it. The only exceptions are if GIANT LP'ers advertise it, but if they gave it a bad review you'd be screwed. :P

Too bad you can't work with GOG since it doesn't offer serious indie options.
The Flying Bundle is the other one, as well as Indie Game Daily. Possibly Indie Royale, but we'll see.

So you think that I might get enough visibility from bundles to merit a Greenlight sub? And that's true, Valve is nothing if not slow when it comes to these sorts of things...
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Aveweto: ive got no clue how greenlight works, but ive seen a bit of your games from the posts you made here to surely grab one of them if they were on steam since i dont use desura, so i prolly wont buy the greenlight bundle its included in even if it would be a major factor in purchasing it. anyways im not sure if ure looking for more lets players you might wanna get in touch with or if you're only searching for purely english speaking lets players. but if you like you could contact one of the well known german lets players ill list below. they usually have a lot of views on everything they do as they are so popular among the german gaming community

Gronkh: , [url=https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gronkh/139619776061785?fref=ts]Facebook , , [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gronkh]Wikipedia

Sarazar: , [url=https://www.facebook.com/Sarazarlp?fref=ts]Facebook

they are currently in the US it seems so im not sure they can work on a lets play while they are on "vacation" but theyve got pretty good connections to even more lets players so maybe you wanna give it a try to increase the amount of people that know bout your games
Ahh, thanks for the suggestions! I'll shoot them messages.
Post edited May 23, 2014 by jefequeso
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jefequeso: The Flying Bundle is the other one, as well as Indie Game Daily. Possibly Indie Royale, but we'll see.

So you think that I might get enough visibility from bundles to merit a Greenlight sub? And that's true, Valve is nothing if not slow when it comes to these sorts of things...
From groupees yes. The flying bundle is too tiny unfortunately. Same with IGD. Also, you can promote yourself on steamgifts. Examples:

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/QTwdi/teslagrad
http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/JPSqo/the-incredible-adventures-of-van-helsing

Make a group, show your trailers/gameplay commentary on youtube that you'd link in the description, link to the bundle it's in (best time imo), offer around 20 copies as a sacrifice/advertisement cost...and there's your unity pro. Shouldn't be more complicated than that.
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jefequeso: The Flying Bundle is the other one, as well as Indie Game Daily. Possibly Indie Royale, but we'll see.

So you think that I might get enough visibility from bundles to merit a Greenlight sub? And that's true, Valve is nothing if not slow when it comes to these sorts of things...
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MaximumBunny: From groupees yes. The flying bundle is too tiny unfortunately. Same with IGD. Also, you can promote yourself on steamgifts. Examples:

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/QTwdi/teslagrad
http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/JPSqo/the-incredible-adventures-of-van-helsing

Make a group, show your trailers/gameplay commentary on youtube that you'd link in the description, link to the bundle it's in (best time imo), offer around 20 copies as a sacrifice/advertisement cost...and there's your unity pro. Shouldn't be more complicated than that.
I assume this is something I would be doing if I get on Steam, though?
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jefequeso: I assume this is something I would be doing if I get on Steam, though?
They do allow Greenlight things as well. For example, Oozi http://store.steampowered.com/app/257990/ was one that wasn't on Steam when they made this http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/n8Ml3/oozi-earth-adventure

Seems it was the very first one too. ^^
Welp, I bought a subscription. *crosses fingers*
Didn't Gabe Newell said that Greenlight will be discontinued and that they want any game on Steam?
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jefequeso: Welp, I bought a subscription. *crosses fingers*
Good luck! I've read some success stories on Reddit about Greenlight, I hope it works out for you.
Here's the Greenlight page, if anyone is interested in helping me out:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=262796211
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jefequeso: Here's the Greenlight page, if anyone is interested in helping me out:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=262796211
liked, favoritised and followed :)
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jefequeso: Here's the Greenlight page, if anyone is interested in helping me out:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=262796211
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Aveweto: liked, favoritised and followed :)
Thanks :D

1 down, 19,999 more to go!
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Aveweto: liked, favoritised and followed :)
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jefequeso: Thanks :D

1 down, 19,999 more to go!
haha dont worry ill get my gf to hit like too so thats 2 down :P