Secure .exe for distribution

Kay. Let me suspend reality a bit here and assume I can sell a game on this service.

selling your game on steam isn't free

steamworks is a separate suite of services, separate from steam distribution, one of which is antipiracy

and why not? there are free versions of corporate antivirus software products, I can have a free library of pictures online, multiple gigs of free webspace, free online networking sites, free music distribution, free mmorpgs, there's alot of great stuff for free on the internet. we're all on a free messageboard where we can get free tech support from the developers of a free game creation IDE

besides

steam benefits from having a larger library of games connected to it. if people log in to steam for the first time to play your game, and see other ads, and end up buying other games, and telling their friends about steam, it's all win win. having some server somewhere generate something that gets downloaded alot is quite commonplace on the internets

[quote:3o78fo9a]-Free multiplayer (how do you handle THAT with Construct?)

it doesn't provide multiplayer, if your game already has multiplayer, it allows other players on steam to be aware you are playing and join you, either by joining the exact server (like valve's own team fortress 2), or simply launching the game, and letting your software do the rest (like valve's own left4dead)

'selling your game on steam isn't free'

I knew they had to hit us somewhere. Any idea what the costs are?

no, I've contacted valve about it recently (earlier today actually), but haven't gotten a contact back yet

but you can still use all the steamworks services (like antipiracy) for free without selling your game on steam

I'll post back when I get a response

Whoa. So you can still use Steamworks, but not use Steam to sell it? That's a nice, nice option. So that gives you 2 main options:

Option 1-Sell on Steam, let them take whatever cut Valve demands, and take advantage of Steam's marketing to potentially sell more copies than you could alone [From what I've looked up, it might be a 50/50 split) Option 2-Sell on your own website and likely sell far fewer copies, but use Steamworks for anti-piracy/digital distribution/data tracking and take all the money. Man, I like those options despite the warts. If someone gets Steamworks' API integrated into a Construct game, we ought to make a tutorial or a stickie on how to at least do Option 2. Preferably both.

[quote:1ank4xw4]Each individual copy of a CEG-protected game is only playable by the Steam account authorized to access it.

The catch is right there. You need Steam to play it, I think.

I don't think that's much of a catch.

Thats not a catch, thats a feature (->anti-piracy) !