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[mude]

www.desura.com

Desura is a new digital delivering platform for indie games and mods which is based on indiedb and moddb communities.

It seems easier to publish a game than Steam or similar, but this platform is very young.

The actual client is well done but lacks some important features. there are new games frequently (at least one a week) but the catalogue it's still small.

They are saying they are working hard to improve the service, if they did it fast I'm sure that this service could be a great opportuniy for a lot of indie developers.

This is a thread I opened on the official forum to suggest some improvements: http://www.desura.com/forum/thread/what-desura-needs

Are you going to publish your game on desura, are you sharing this new service?did you have experiences with it?are you satisfied?

I think that another dd service only for indie games could be a good thing.

[tergem]

Personally I am VERY interested in Desura... I don't know enough about it though. They seem great, yet I can't find any third party relating to how good it is.

[Nix]

I think that it's going to be important that they maintain as least some standard of game quality. A platform like this is only as good as the games it serves.

[mude]

I think that it's going to be important that they maintain as least some standard of game quality. A platform like this is only as good as the games it serves.

yes it will be important, but I think they should be less severe than steam (a lot less)

It's better to give more space to the best games with charts like "best games in the last month" or something similar.

I don't want an XBLIG but I'm sure it won't be, they are a lot different.

If a game sucks, rate it very bad!

the biggest problem is: very few non developers people know about desura or they tried it. Mostly because the did a bad launch.

I hope they will support better free games, it's an indie DD platform, supporting also free games is important imho. I don't think that they will make no harm to the other games.

[PompiPompi]

I think that it's going to be important that they maintain as least some standard of game quality. A platform like this is only as good as the games it serves.

Let the players decide instead?
Of course some games with too many techincal problems, or games that are really terrible(although, some games can be so terrible they are actually good) might be filtered by the staff.
But I think their intention, and the right thing to do, is to provide sophisticated and advanced tools to let the users\players decide which games they like.
What's the point of another portal selling the same popular games that are sold in steam and verywhere else?

[HyperNexus]

If I have a game that I think is worth going up there then I'll support it. I see no reason to not support as many digital distribution platforms as possible.

[ANtY]

I plan to use it for my incoming game Pure Rocket Ownage, but i think they shouldn't have demos of games like HL, GTA or CoD because i don't see any reason in doing this. Wasn't it meant to sell indie games?

[Pineapple]

It looks cool but it'd be annoying to have to handle two separate clients (this in addition to steam) and remember what games belong to which. Until it grows a bit I don't think I'll bother using it.

[Aquin]

I took a look around, but um... I couldn't really find anything on Desura that I wanted to play (that I didn't already own on Steam.)  The idea of dealing with two different platforms seems like a pain.

This might make me a corporate tool.  Or a lazy gamer.  Or both.  I think I can live with it. 

[Nix]

Naw, supporting Valve doesn't make you a corporate tool.

[Aquin]

I dunno, Valve is sorta owned by EA.  Just because they's all cool right now doesn't mean it'll stay that way.  There could be a day when the mighty Steam falls apart, led astray by terrible new overlords and their mismanaging despotic ways.

Or something.  I dunno.  But I've got like a thousand dollars invested in my Steam account, so I can't really back out now.  When the time comes to drink the Kool-aid, I'm a be first in line. 

[moi]

Naw, supporting Valve doesn't make you a corporate tool.

No, but thinking like Madk  makes you a corporate tool.

It looks cool but it'd be annoying to have to handle two separate clients (this in addition to steam) and remember what games belong to which. Until it grows a bit I don't think I'll bother using it.

[Tanner]

Desura is buggy as hell at the moment. I've had nothing but trouble using it.

[Pineapple]

No, but thinking like Madk  makes you a corporate tool.

You take that back

If Desura were an acceptable alternative I'd be all for it, but it's just a lesser-featured version of something that's already out. It even looks like Steam.

[wsworin]

I plan to use it in the future. As an independent developer myself, I try and support all the portals when I make my purchases. This includes GamersGate, Direct2Drive, BeamDog, Steam, and Impulse. We owe it to ourselves to diversify. After all, why should there be a monopoly on digitally distributed games? Wasn't that what were fighting in the first place with brick and mortar publishers and their monopolies. Digital content ultimately should be just placed on a web browser or downloaded through your site. But indies need that advertising of a portal to move forward.

What most people don't understand is that when there is a monopoly of a service, if you are a developer and you have a unique game and you don't get on that one service. Your basically done for and go work for Activision to make ends meet. Unless you get really lucky. So no one would want that to happen. Support your indies by supporting alternative Digital Downloading markets.

[Radix]

No, but thinking like Madk  makes you a corporate tool.

You take that back

If Desura were an acceptable alternative I'd be all for it, but it's just a lesser-featured version of something that's already out. It even looks like Steam.

Not agreeing with moi but "I'd buy it if it were on Steam" is something people here get a lot and it sucks.

I don't know anything about Desura or whether it has the potential to make that better.

[wsworin]

"I'd buy it if it were on Steam"

Yep, people see that all the time. And that is a huge problem, because Steam actually only releases a small  amount of indie games compared to what is out there. And since the majority use Steam, and never look at what other services offer, they miss out on what could be the next big thing.

Most people don't realize, but digital distribution services actually have a very small team that reviews your game, it may even be just one person. They might not even play your game. And when they get back to you and if they say no, they don't give an answer. However, I understand why they operate in such ways. This is because they are very busy! It always runs from the top down because this guarantees the least risk and the most polish for their service as a whole.

EA > Mid range Publishers(Paradox, Meridian4, Southpeak, ect.) > Indies. That is how their time is allocated. And they only have so much time to look through requests. That is why the littler digital distributors are so important. Because they usually run from Indies > EA.  

So in the end, for the sake of creativity, support all the services! It will serve the industry much better as a whole in the end.

[ANtY]

"I'd buy it if it were on Steam"

Yep, people see that all the time. And that is a huge problem, because Steam actually only releases a small  amount of indie games compared to what is out there. And since the majority use Steam, and never look at what other services offer, they miss out on what could be the next big thing.

Most people don't realize, but digital distribution services actually have a very small team that reviews your game, it may even be just one person. They might not even play your game. And when they get back to you and if they say no, they don't give an answer. However, I understand why they operate in such ways. This is because they are very busy! It always runs from the top down because this guarantees the least risk and the most polish for their service as a whole.

EA > Mid range Publishers(Paradox, Meridian4, Southpeak, ect.) > Indies. That is how their time is allocated. And they only have so much time to look through requests. That is why the littler digital distributors are so important. Because they usually run from Indies > EA.  

So in the end, for the sake of creativity, support all the services! It will serve the industry much better as a whole in the end.

+1  (im not adult yet )

[Pineapple]

Buying things on Steam isn't the issue, I purchase plenty of indie games outside of Steam. All I'm saying is that I don't want a second client.

[moi]

^
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This post doesn't make you sound like a corporate tool at all
</sarcasm>