Mods get Steamworks

Preparation for widespread hosting? :: August 11th, 2008 :: Steamworks :: 51 Responses

Too many crossings out, time for a rewrite!

Five mods have been given special access to the Steamworks SDK and will be releasing future versions over Steam. The news was announced by the co-op HL2 mod Synergy, probably earlier than it was supposed to be:

I would also like to inform you that we will be releasing Synergy and future updates through Steam! Valve Software has allowed us to do so by giving us access to the Steamworks SDK.

We are honored to be one of the four (sic) first selected mods to be given this opportunity. We will certainly put this to good use!

For you players, this means that you will see Achievements and Stats coming to Synergy in later updates. (Not to mention the automatic updates, provided by Steam.)

This plugs the final gap in Steam’s handling and presentation of mods; now they are to all intents and purposes they are free games, including, apparently, support for sub-mods. Previously mod teams had been told they were too small for Valve to support, and before that that their work was one day going to be distributed over Steam’s Peer-to-Peer network.

Although Steamworks doesn’t by itself give a game a presence in the Steam store, the more popular mods are already listed and are unlikely to be removed just to comply with Valve’s rules for commercial games.

The names of the other four mods have been found referenced in Steam’s content registry (thanks AciD):

And Synergy, of course. There’s no known date for when Valve will start extending offers to other mods, and knowing Valve most likely isn’t one at all!

Tags: mods

51 Responses to this post:

0 Comments

August 11th, 2008 at 12:08 pm ::
Film11 Says:

Ohh, good news. Hopefully this will further increase a mod’s playerbase or otherwise revitalise it. I’m especially pleased about Adam of MINERVA fame getting a job at Valve. I’m sure we’ll see some of his grand influence in the maps in Episode 3.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:55 pm ::
AciD Says:

I bet 10$ that ZPS! will be there too.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:48 pm ::
Naurgul Says:

This is really good (and kind of unexpected) news.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:25 pm ::
Secone Says:

This is great news!
August 11th, 2008 at 6:08 pm ::
Chewy Says:

Sweet. Been a synergy fan for a while. I’m hoping it’ll be Dystopia, Minerva, and Empires
August 11th, 2008 at 7:14 pm ::
AciD Says:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7985973&postcount=9

Just FYI.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:23 pm ::
Tom Edwards Says:

Where did you see DIPRIP? I can’t find it in my cache.

Edit: never mind, I found it in the blob.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:43 pm ::
Mr.KnowEverything Says:

the 4 mod which are on steam:

Age of Chivalry
D.I.P.R.I.P.
Insurgency
Zombie Panic: Source
August 11th, 2008 at 8:35 pm ::
Mr.KnowEverything Says:

Iâ€™ve also just spotted a â€œcddbfingerprintâ€ app that separately implies some kind of media playing tool?

by VALVe CDDB stands for Content Description Data Base, so nothing special. Each application has a unique ID ( fingerprint )…
August 11th, 2008 at 8:40 pm ::
delfino furioso Says:

where are eternal silence and dystopia?
August 11th, 2008 at 9:09 pm ::
Chewy Says:

the 4 mod which are on steam:

Age of Chivalry
D.I.P.R.I.P.
Insurgency
Zombie Panic: Source

Don’t treat theories like fact. Synergy is one of four
August 11th, 2008 at 9:11 pm ::
Chewy Says:

wait… I’m dumb
August 12th, 2008 at 1:32 am ::
AciD Says:

http://synergymod.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=46
ehhh.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:22 am ::
Mr.KnowEverything Says:

Now you can find Synergy too in the blob
August 12th, 2008 at 7:00 pm ::
Tom Edwards Says:

Looks like the Synergy guys blabbed too early, AciD. 🙂

Donâ€™t treat theories like fact. Synergy is one of four

All of those mods are referenced in Steam’s files.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:15 pm ::
Jim Says:

People apparently like to spread rumors… I have yet to see any official confirmation about such an issue.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:36 am ::
EclipDgg Says:

i hope i dont have to pay for Synergy i already have it
August 13th, 2008 at 9:41 am ::
Tom Edwards Says:

You won’t.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:17 pm ::
Scared Says:

I hope that Black Mesa will be able to use the Steamworks features. They are probably one of the most anticipated HL2 mods coming out (look at all the ModDB awards they have won) and it would be awesome if they were able to add this to the experience as well.
August 18th, 2008 at 8:12 am ::
ATimson Says:

I hope that Black Mesa will be able to use the Steamworks features.

At this point, I’m doubting they’re ever going to release period, much less with Steamworks support.