Anyone doing a uBlock for Steam?

AI has slop is a problem, and Shovelware has been a problem for decades, basically as long as videogames have existed.

However, a LOT of these cheap and obscure games on steam have more innocuous explanations, with that explanation often being "the dev doesn't really care about making money". Perception, for example, is a student project that was released for free and I wouldn't pay much for anyways, but it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

Or when I was in a band, one of the other members was a developer by trade who, as a hobby, connects with a couple of his other friends to develop game that he released on steam. I recorded and produced an EP for that band and we released it for free and we certainly spent more money buying drinks at the bars we played than we were ever paid for playing. I think his game was similar: they charged money for it to cover some of their costs, but he certainly never left his day job.

Or Mind Over Magnet, which was the project of the YouTuber GamerMakersToolkit. The whole thing was a multi-year project where the guy made videos covering the game development process and culminated in the release of the game. The actual business model was based on the video content, while the game itself was just a side piece that was probably profitable, but I doubt made enough profit for him to survive on for years.

This was my initial reaction too. I am making the assumption that less than ten still means not zero.

I rarely leave reviews so I’m surprised that 50% of all releases even see a single one.

I don't think that's trivial to filter.

I'll click the thumbs up button then get intimidated by the text box that pops up. I'm not mentally prepared to give out a useful review.

As I recall, its around 5%-20% of players leave a review, usually closer to 5% unless something about the game makes people want to talk about it, for both good and bad.

I leave reviews when the game does something exceptional (good or bad). Or sometimes when steam nags me to leave a review.

It's funny: if you leave a negative review and keep playing it asks you if you want to change your review.

When I am supreme overlord, artists will get free food and housing. But like, it's gonna suck really bad because tortured artists make the best art.

No not UBI, but universal necessities to live. ie food water electricity housing healthcare and for all people not just artists.

UBI is a bandaid solution where money is taken from the government and given to corporations when governments should supply those necessities itself.

Slop falls to the bottom but I bet a lot of hidden gems do too. The greater volume of games coming out, the harder it’ll be for individual developers to get recognized!

Old school indie developer Jeff Vogel has a whole talk about how difficult it is.

An unfortunate 'secret' for most indie titles is that the vast majority of their sales are on discount, usually during launch or one of the big week long sales. Not a lot of people buy indie games at full sticker price unless its a pretty high quality title.

So your $200K net revenue would be at absolute max, but is realistically ~50-80% of that.

Assuming 5% of buyers leave a review, that would be 20,000 in sales. At a net unit revenue of $10 (after Steam's cut and the payment processor), that would be $200 K net revenue.

A unit revenue of $10 means your product is going for ~15 base price. I don't know about you, but I rarely buy stuff above $10 anymore. So like the other guy said, you're looking at like half of that based on people buying during sales.

Something I tried to do earlier to help with it, in this very channel, was a "Downvote any game you've heard of before" thread. It was a nice exercise to help people post odd games no one had heard of.

My game Drone Perspective is one of those. Such a good game, but I am a bit afraid that I can't turn it around.

@Assassassin @Agent_Karyo

Our first game barely got past 10 reviews in a 2 years, despite real original assets etc. It just didn't click with people. While 'filtering out the slop' will improve the numbers, I'm sure there are many games in a similar boat as ours.

Additionally they have to have time to play it.

And money to buy it! Wages are down. I was unemployed for a while so I just didn't buy any games (or much else)

Indie games have to launch on steam or they fail miserably. Seriously though. This is why I roll my eyes at people who claim steam makes it breaks these games.

Those two things aren't opposed though. Launching on Steam doesn't guarantee success, but I believe what they're claiming is that not launching on Steam more or less guarantees its failure.