The Steam Review

Introversion Software’s next title will be revealed in just seven days!

“Our third game will be announced in PC Gamer UK issue 157, on sale December 22nd (Next thursday!)”

Will it be on Steam? Get out your credit card and help decide…

The game is ‘Defcon’, a “global thermonuclear war simulator”. See Introversion’s minisite and Wikipedia.

Rag Doll Kung Fu in action.

Although Rag Doll Kung Fu was an independently-produced game, the indie production was sandwiched between chief developer Mark Healey’s full-time job at Lionhead Studios. Following the presumable success of RDKF’s Steam release, Mark today announced that he has left Lionhead, a ‘very hard decision’, to set up his own development team with co-developers Alex Evans and David Smith.

“I’ve left Lionhead – a very hard decision for me, but one I have made – my current plan is to spend rest of this year finishing the map editor with Alex, get the free demo out (sorry about delay on this – it’s in Valves hands as to when and how they release it), and then set up a dev team, to make a new game next year, with Alex and Dave, who helped out on Rag Doll. (This time, it will be full time, none of this spare time business, TOO TIRING!)

I would like to point out that I didn’t leave Lionhead on bad terms or anything, it was just time for a change really (I was there from the very start!).

Watch this space for the next game – it’s gonna be off its head. :D”

As Mark hints, he has been a key member of the Lionhead team. He spent many years working alongside Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux, including during their time at the now-defunct Bullfrog where he was lead artist for Dungeon Keeper and worked on several other influential titles. Here’s wishing him and his new team the best of luck!

S.C.S – Dangerous Waters is the only title confirmed for distribution, but many more are expected to make the jump as well.

“Strategy First is the first entertainment software publisher to move forward with Valve’s Steam, which connects nearly 6 million gamers worldwide.

S.C.S – Dangerous Waters, a groundbreaking naval simulation game due for arrival in December 2005, will be the first Strategy First title made available to millions of Steam gamers.

Emanuel Wall, Product Manager at Strategy First said, ‘Throughout the years, Strategy First has delivered great games from many developers while navigating the evolution of genres, technology, and distribution mechanisms — whether it’s moving from 2D to 3D, or from floppy to Steam.’

Future announcements outlining this multi-title deal will be announced in the weeks to come.”

Strategy First’s titles include Cossacks, Sudden Strike and Galactic Civilizations, but save for Dangerous Waters it is unknown exactly how many games and which developers will become available on Steam. However, given SF’s extensive back catalogue and Steam’s exclusivity contract it is not unreasonable to presume that the number to be large, quite possibly dwarfing the existing selection of titles.

A full list of Strategy First’s publications, which include Introversion’s Uplink: Hacker Elite, can be found on their website.

ComputerGames.ro has posted an interview with Mike Dunkle, Valve’s Cybercafé administrator, covering a wide range of topics including Steam. He reveals that Valve are ‘working on new billing systems, like PayPal or debit cards’ (there are large barriers to their use), and does not dismiss the idea of Steam making an appearance on the Xbox 360.

Unfortunately, a man in Dunkle’s position is not the ideal candidate for an interview like CG.ro’s: he has to turn down many of the questions, and gives vague answers to others. While the new billing systems seem realistic, don’t expect to see Microsoft give a competitor to Xbox Live! Arcade access to their console any time soon…

Darwinia can now be pre-ordered through Steam for $17.95. Although the 30MB pre-load is not advertised, it too is available by right-clicking either the Darwinia icon in Steam or this link. The demo is not yet available through Steam (although it can be found on most major download sites) as the version of the game that will launch on Steam, 1.41, is still in testing. The final code will presumably be applied to pre-loaded caches when the game is released or demo goes live, whichever comes sooner. It will also be released in a traditional installer for pre-Steam purchasers.

There is also a new gameplay trailer for those who are still undecided.

Darwinia and its demo are now available.

Worldwide distribution and a six million-strong audience should help secure Introversion’s future.

There have been three new Steam releases announced in the past few days, beginning with Darwinia last Tuesday. Introversion Software’s seminal genre-buster saw almost universal praise from critics but sold poorly, not least because it lacked any form of distribution in America. After near-bankruptcy and an underwhelming response to offering downloads for those purchasing through their site, Introversion are getting ready to begin a Steam distribution deal. I spoke to Tom Arundel, Introversion’s accountant and the man responsible for Darwinia’s upcoming localisations and the existing Mac and Linux ports.

Hello, and thanks for taking part in this interview. I’ll start off with the biggest question for your existing community right now: will those of us who have already bought Darwinia be able to register our boxed copies to our Steam accounts?

No. That would be a logistical nightmare – think about it!

Secondly, does your new agreement cover Darwinia only? Or will past and future Introversion titles be distributed on Steam as well?

Currently it’s only Darwinia, but I wouldn’t rule out other Introversion games coming out on Steam. Let’s see how Darwinia does amongst Steam customers first…

Will your new relationship with Valve lead to any new content, features or improvements to any of your games?

Certainly, the multiplayer features of the Steam system take the pain away from matching up players to multiplayer servers, so that’s something we’d like to make more use of in the future. Also, since we now have the distribution, localised versions will also be developed, starting with German for release, and French in the new year…

So we are going to be seeing multi-player games from Introversion?

Yes. We have design docs for a multiplayer version of Darwinia – we’re currently scheduling the work / release. We also have a new multiplayer game coming out in Spring that we’ll be talking more about in the new year.

Can you explain the month-long wait before Darwinia is made available?

Green diamonds represent the souls of deceased Darwinians.

Few people outside of the UK know about Darwinia. Despite our best efforts, US gaming magazines etc really haven’t picked it up. Therefore we need to build up some PR awareness first. Naturally this takes time! We’re also working on a German version of Darwinia (ready day 1) which also takes time to complete.

Darwinia will of course be promoted though Steam. But will we see external advertising campaigns as well?

Lots of PR. Money spent on PR is always better spent when you can capture attention. We’re a bit off the wall and represent a bit more than just a machine that spits out games every 2 months. We also have some silly stunts planned for the new year 😉

Finally, do you expect to see more sales from existing Steam users, or from those who sign up especially to buy the game?

Well, you’d like to think that at least some of those 6 million existing customers would be interested in the game! We also expect some new customers to sign up to steam in order to buy Darwinia. As for who buys more – can’t really say – guess it depends on the cross-over of existing FPS customers.

Thanks again to Introversion for taking part in the interview!