Paid Mods RETURNING? + Valve Kills Steam Greenlight!

Ay!! Ashley is back :)  Nice shirt.

I agree that modders should be compensated for there work. 

One thing still is gnawing and back of brain is what to do when licensed IPs are used in mods? 

Easy. you ask them what cost they want to make the game and then factor the charge based on that. If it's a $10 game, make it cheaper than a $50 game.

I hope the irony of these two stories being together is not lost...

If modders start getting paid and get to advertise their work on Steam for free through the community and dev's are going to get charged a lot for putting stuff on Steam then you're going to see these programmers (since that what they both are) floating towards games that are based on reliable engines with lots of API access and a lot more heavy modding or even the rise of TC (total conversions - where the only thing left of the original game is the engine and API with all new content... these already exist in the mod world for a number of different games; I used to play a few for Doom and NeverWinter Nights! :)

So, if you fancy making some money as a dev you might as well build an engine, get it submitted to Steam and then take a cut from the modders using your engine... your own game needn't even be very good, it just has to be on Steam, have an API that allows modders access to everything and a reliable engine that works pretty much anywhere (You might also later have to develop a system for handling lots of mods though the modders might provide that for you if you give them the right API). So, in effect, you'd become a engine/genre platform on top of Steams gaming platform.

(About that cut... I am sure that the Steam system for paying modders will include a cut to the original devs because otherwise they will cry foul since most of the mods are using their IP - the few TCs that don't might also only be using the devs license for someone else's engine, e.g. Unreal, but tough luck for them I suppose, the original dev did have to pay to be on Steam after all).

There was a $100 fee for Steam Greenlight. I think the issue is that it was too cheap so pretty much anyone could put games on the system. Which is why they're looking at $200+ for it. The goal is to keep some developers away. But if any studio (or individual) is confident enough in their product and knows that it isn't complete garbage. It's not too difficult to get a loan to start yourself off.

As someone who is planning to take a product to Steam eventually, I perfectly understand the decision.