If you are a PC gamer and like to invest in indie games, or at least take notice of them, then you are likely well aware that Steam is pretty odd when it comes to accepting indie games. There have been many games that were really solid, like Space Pirates and Zombies, that had a really hard time getting onto Steam, while many others haven't been able to get into there at all. The reasoning for this stingy-ness is to control the quality of games on Steam, but when you see games like Revelations 2012 getting through then it really makes one question why so many games of higher quality don't get accepted. Steam Greenlight is going to change all that.

 With Steam Greenlight some of the control is going to be put into the hands of the Steam community. Greenlight is going to be system that lets the community vote on what game they want to be accepted into Steam. Developers will submit their game to the system and then the community will be able to rate that game. The game will have it's own page and the developer can put on screenshots, videos and as much information as they want. Valve will look at the games and reach out to the developers if they see a decent amount of interest in the game. The games won't be required to have a specific amount of votes, they just mainly want to see if their is a real desire from the community to see that game on Steam. 


One of the great things about Steam Greenlight is how it will greatly support in-progress indie games, like Gnomoria, Project Zomboid or Starfarer. Developers will be able submit their games as long as it is technically playable. Presumably that means that you will be able to pre-order games and play them immediately on Steam, that is if the developer is using that very common pre-order model. All games have to be developed for PC, at the least. Steam Greenlight will be coming out later this summer, in late August, and I love that they are continually giving their community more control and tools, like the splendid Steam Workshop. For more check out the official announcement. Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.

-Written by Sean Cargle