Free To Play (F2P) Arrives on Steam

A slew of free to play (F2P) games have arrived on Steam including Global Agenda and Champions Online.  The micro-transactions within the games will all be available through Steamworks (to my understanding).  Anyone familiar with buying hats in Team Fortress 2 will understand the Steam integration of micro-transactions.

This is really good news and Steam is a perfect vehicle for F2P games.  The biggest barrier to subscription games is requiring a credit card up front.  F2P removes that barrier and then the biggest barrier for F2P games is the client download and account setup.  Both of these, for the most part, can be taken care of via Steam.

I'm looking forward to more F2P games to hit Steam.  Personally, I'd love to see League of Legends or Allods Online on Steam.  Of the first wave of F2P games, I may try out Forsaken World (a straight up WoWDiku MMOG) or maybe Spiral Knights (co-op dungeon beat'em'up) or Global Agenda (shoot em up MMO thingy).

The straw that broke the SW:ToR camel's back? No digital downloads outside EA.

EA has announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will only be available for download via through EA itself via their new service Origin. No Steam or Direct2Drive.

...highly anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will be sold as a direct download only through Electronic Arts itself. In an interview with CEO John Riccitiello, the Wall Street Journal uncovered news of EA's new service, one it's calling Origin. This service will provide customers with a download service for all EA games, including the Battlefield games, the Need For Speed games, and the aforementioned Star Wars: The Old Republic.

This, my friends, is a travesty. Not only has SW:ToR been underwhelming in all of the previews, but now they are expecting gamers to pick up yet another digital distribution platform to get the game via a direct download? What is wrong with Steam? Steam has a massive catalog of other EA games, including MMOs such as Warhammer Online.

I didn't buy into Starcraft 2 because it was on the new Battle.net.  I've sworn off buying any Games for Windows Live games (that aren't on dirt cheap sales via Steam).  I've pretty much decided that if a game isn't on Steam, I'm probably not buying it (Minecraft being the sole exception).

I seriously hope this does not include Battlefield 3.  BFBC2 was a huge success on Steam.

Terraria Moving Forward

The Terraria developers have posted a look at what their plans are going forward now that they've made multiple-millions of dollars with their game.

Progression has been pretty slow over the last week. I've actually been in the middle of moving. I put an offer on a house before the first trailer went public, and got the keys to it the day before Terraria was released. (Great timing, huh?)

I just finally got my workspace set up at the new place, so I should be able to get back to the grind early next week. But enough about that, let's talk about the future of Terraria.

My immediate focus for the game will be patching up the remaining bugs, implementing Steam features, and of course working on multiplayer to make it more secure and accessible. Multiplayer is a bit of a mess right now, and a dedicated server with no graphics card requirements is very much needed. Content progression will be slow for the next few weeks until we get all of the necessities taken care of. Though, we will be adding a few new things here and there to keep you interested.

In the long term, we will not just be adding content, but new mechanics as well. Some of the ideas the we have been playing around with are:

Pure PvP servers with team based objectives. Worlds will be generated before every match. Imagine a CTF server where towers are automatically created on either side of the map. Players can fight it out on the surface, or try to tunnel into the other tower.

Adding sloped/inclined tiles to make the world smoother.

New harder world types to continue game progression (Ex: Alien plants, alternate dimensions, evil worlds, etc.)

Enemy factions that will move into your world, and build their own city. You can slaughter them while they are weak, or let them build up their strength to get better rewards.

More events: Volcanoes, earthquakes, more/improved invasions, etc..

Weather: Seasons, snow, floods, etc..

Farming, and stamina system that gives a bonus to player stats.

Mechanics for making traps and devices.

Terraria has endless possibilities, and there is still a lot more that we want to do with it. In the meantime, please be patient while we get the last few kinks worked out.

Frozen Synapse Launch

Just wanted to share some videos now that Frozen Synapse has been officially launched. This is a really well done game with some great "extra features" such as in-game recording and uploading to Youtube.

In this first game I dominate from the start (I'm GREEN in the video). The key to victory here was using cover while my opponent kept sending his guys into the clear. Also note how I ensure each of my guys covers the other once I have a numerical advantage.



More videos to come, but they are failing upload to Youtube for some reason.

The Business of Terraria vs Minecraft

Many pundits would like you to believe that Terraria is a copy-cat of Minecraft.  Others want you to experience Terraria for what it is: a game with similar goals that is partially influenced by Minecraft (and Metroid and Final Fantasy).  Which ever side of the fence you fall on, there are some business decisions that distinguish Terraria from Minecraft.

First and foremost, Terraria launched through Steam.  Minecraft, while technically not yet launched, opted to roll out of the alpha/beta gates with its own platform and suffered weeks of log in server problems, PayPal issues, and a ton of website downtime.  Terraria launched smoothly and pain free through Steam.  So while Minecraft developers scrambled to deal with platform issues after their beta launch, Terraria has enjoyed a honeymoon where their developers can focus on the game.

Secondly, I get the distinct feeling that the Terraria developers just want to make a great game.  On the other hand, the Minecraft developers certainly have made and continue to improve a great game, but I've always gotten the feeling that they want to be a "big game developer".  Notch, Minecraft's chief developer, alluded to this when asked about possibly working at Steam's parent company Valve: "I don't want to work for Valve. I want to be Valve."

All evidence shows that Terraria is a smash hit.  Peak user numbers on Steam have been stellar and for a few days even unseated Counter Strike as the most played game on Steam (that's a pretty big deal). 



As far as I can tell, it's smooth sailing for the Terraria developers and with the Steam platform (and possibly Steamworks) on their side, I expect many great things from Terraria.

PS. If any Terraria developers read this, please, pretty please implement the Steam cloud for world saves!  Thanks.