Re: Enigma on Steam

[Andreas Lochmann]

Hmm ... interesting! This might work, though it does sound considerably 
more complicated than a simple installer.

It would allow us to define something like achievements, maybe more?
Do you have some vision or ideas for achievements, or other features 
that Steam would provide?


Am 09.03.23 um 00:21 schrieb me@alex0.net:
> I did a bit of research, and found this as something we could use: 
> https://github.com/icculus/steamshim <https://github.com/icculus/steamshim>
> We should be able to use it to communicate with the Steamworks library, 
> without actually linking against it. (It uses pipes to communicate with 
> the game).
>
> Let me know what you think.
>
> > On 8 Mar 2023, at 20:57, Andreas Lochmann 
> > <and.lochmann@googlemail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Alex,
> > Hi All,
> >
> > thank you Alex, we were thinking about Steam as well a while ago. It 
> > would be a wonderful platform to showcase Enigma. The distribution fee 
> > is not off-putting to me.
> >
> > However, if I understand the following document correctly, we cannot 
> > directly distribute Enigma via Steam due to license incompatibilities:
> > https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/uploading/distributing_opensource
> >
> > We would need to release Enigma under another, secondary license, 
> > which permits linking to their non-free library. (I don't know why 
> > linking to their library is necessary, but it seems to be mandatory.) 
> > There were too many people involved in the creation of Enigma to ever 
> > see this happen: Enigma cannot be re-released under another license.
> >
> > However, it might be possible to just distribute an installer or 
> > "Enigma maintainer" app with Steam under some liberal license other 
> > than GPL. I don't know of any prior examples. Do you think, something 
> > like this is allowed by Steam? After all, we would promote Enigma, but 
> > "sell" only the installer, not Enigma itself. ("sell" might mean 
> > "selling for 0", but I think you get the gist.)
> >
> > Best,
> > Andreas
> >
> >
> > Am 26.02.23 um 21:15 schrieb me@alex0.net:
> > > Hi All,
> > > Wanted to send this email into the mailing list to gather opinions. 
> > > I’m a long-time player (and fan) of Enigma, and it makes me really 
> > > quite sad that it doesn’t get more attention. I’m also a Steamworks 
> > > developer that’s familiar with Valve’s Steam platform. I’d be willing 
> > > to pay the distribution fee ($100) in order to get Enigma onto Steam, 
> > > optimise the game for controller and Steam Deck support, and 
> > > implement achievements into the codebase.
> > > I think putting the game on Steam as a free title would make it 
> > > visible to a lot more potential players. However, while Enigma is an 
> > > open game and I could publish it to Steam independently, I wouldn’t 
> > > want to do it without seeking approval, as that’d be bad form. If 
> > > this isn’t something that developers/code owners want to happen in 
> > > general, I’ll respect your wishes.
> > > Best,
> > > Alex