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Any plans to get the game on Steam ?


ObaniGarage

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Hey there,

 

I've been playing this game casually for some years, and I wondered if there were any plans, now or in the past, to put it on Steam ?

I'm pretty sure it would get a pretty decent amount of players, knowing how amazing the game is, especially for a free game.

 

I wouldn't pay personally for the price of the steam sdk, but I could participate in paying it and I'm pretty sure there are people in here that would like to have it on Steam and maybe contribute to paying the sdk if you can't afford it :)

 

Sorry if this has been brought up multiple times, I didn't see it looking through the forum, and I'm pretty new to it.

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I think having TDM on Steam has more of a promotional effect than a practical one. Most of the people who like Video Games have a Steam account and will see it, it is even essential to have a account for some games. I remember years ago, when I bought Portal on CD, I had to create a Steam account to activate it.

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  • 2 months later...

Personally I think it's a slippery slope to go on Steam. Steam represents corporate proprietary economy, what to me is like the opposite of the free software philosophy. If you mingle with them, they change you rather than you change them.

I think the purity of this game is endlessly more important than the amount of players. Quality is endlessly more important than quantity.  It's better to be a relatively lonely precious gem than to be a rusty metal among millions of rusty metals.

A flashing gemstone of good quality will surely always attract some people, and then it will be the right people, those who can truly appreciate it.

Edited by mouser
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Steam is still a nogo.

(Tip: you can add TDM to steam client, as a nonsteam game, to show you are playing the game)

But it is nice to see TDM appear in several other "stores"/repositories/etc.
(to name a few: opensuse, arch linux, gentoo, lutris, playonmac)

How about publishing our product on Microsoft store and Epic?

Edited by freyk
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Microsoft Store include also FOSS, among others, also several distros de Linux. Another thing is that it is advisable to download the distros from there. It has already cost me enough to disable telemetry and other Windows 10 Spyware, which is possible, but not that simple at all.

a3JyB31.png

Edited by Zerg Rush
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Even if they were to accept TDM, the Microsoft store is probably a rather difficult fit technically, because store apps are locked down quite significantly. That would probably cause issues with permissions and prevent the download of new missions - or even setting config options - to work without some significant work on our end.

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1 hour ago, cabalistic said:

Even if they were to accept TDM, the Microsoft store is probably a rather difficult fit technically, because store apps are locked down quite significantly. That would probably cause issues with permissions and prevent the download of new missions - or even setting config options - to work without some significant work on our end.

MS Store also offers updates, but in general it is not recommended to download apps from this store, because it gives MS unnecessary control over this app. Over the years I have learned a golden rule, never download things from sites that are not the official page of it, this avoids all kinds of problems

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Steam should really lighten up on those rules for new games. I don't know if there were such draconian conditions when the Steam Greenlight page was submitted.

It's not like over 9000 hentai games will do any harm to Steam's library. At least there's choice and stuff.

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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Not sure, whether Steam would accept TDM.

But if yes, it all boils down to whether there is a volunteer willing to fight with the ultra-heavy-weight legal trolls owned by Eidos or Square Enix, which may or may not just be waiting for TDM to emerge on Steam.

I couldn't fight em trolls even if i wanted to as such legal intermezzos can get extremely expensive. So if someone has that resources and is willing to take the risk, getting TDM on steam may prove to be surprisingly easy for them...

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Another problem not mentioned in this thread is that I'm pretty sure TDM contains textures that are distributed under licenses not compatible with TDM's licensing models ("asset license" which prohibits redistribution, relicensed as CC-BY-NC-SA which allows redistribution). Had some discussion about that in this thread, but the crux is that even if people wanted to use a non-free platform like Steam (which, imo, would be a great idea), I don't think anybody would want to legally sign their name under a project with known licensing issues unless those are fixed.

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As long when we and others, dont ask money for it.

And if we cant use the installer and mission downloader, how about releasing a standalone pack & a mission pack and disableling  the mission downloader (by making a little change in the main menu gui)

Edited by freyk
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Looks like we need to find accountant players who will do all the accounting for TDM for freeeeeee

 

But seriously though, there can't be any profit from TDM. It's just about getting around red rape bureaucracy. Right now I'm in the middle of sorting a legal nightmare around my dad's death and its aftermath. There's more "paper chase" about this than there is actual meaning behind these papers. Any official doing public service just wants to get rid of petitioners. Nobody's actually going to read TDM's legal documents before going to bed because they would be so exciting. Have to be realistic about this.

 

I also have the sad experience where an NGO I work with is practically on its death bed because its members went abroad.  Others like my dad died or are in very poor health and are unable to go on. So if TDM is alive or not depends more on contributors than on the fact that there might be a legal entity responsible for the IP. On the other hand, maybe visibility on Steam and other platforms could help find more contributors. Maybe there's countries where it's really easy to create the plainest legal entity. No profits = a minimum of accounting. Maybe there's some expertise, grants, donors that can offer support to legally register TDM. But again, drafting a project proposal itself requires time, effort, thought. One small step for man, one giant leap for TDM.

Edited by Anderson
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"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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Since I've known TDM, I've mentioned and comented it everywhere I went, including AlternativeTo.
It is this, to make this game known, not necessarily that it is on Steam or another site, which in any case is not the most suitable for an OpenSource game.
As I mentioned before, maybe it is a matter of talking with some Linux communities, to include TDM in the repository, at least in the main ones.
But mainly that community members spread the word, better if it is in a technical forum or blog, visited by developers. Perhaps people are encouraged to get involved in development.

Edited by Zerg Rush
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It would be great to have TDM in some Linux repositories (DarkRadiant is already in Debian/Ubuntu), but this would require some changes to how the game handles its data files.

Linux distributions would expect a binary /usr/bin/darkmod, data files in /usr/share/darkmod/*, and writable files like save games and config settings in a user's home directory under ~/.config/darkmod or ~/.local/share/darkmod. This is a significant change from the current behaviour of writing all data files into a single game directory (which would break completely if the game is installed to a read-only system-wide location).

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As i said earlier, some do.

But most packagecreators dont script them correctly, so new users post their permission problems in TDM's tech support subforum.
One of the Opensuse packagecreator, stefan bruens, adviced us to program the installer to place writeble data in the folders you mentioned, @OrbWeaver
I tested this with symlinks, works fine. (have to test the fs_ path's)
edit: using tdm configsetting for windows, works also: seta fs_savepath = "%APPDATA%\darkmod"

Edited by freyk
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I would like it if TDM would stick to the current install way. Much easier to find files and make changes (it would be great if DR also had an universal installer). Not sure how many Linux users would search in the repo for games and then would find TDM.

 

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The problem with the Linux Repo is what I said, people do not look there for Games, because what is there frankly is not worth it, but if there is TDM in the Repo, people surely pay more attention, since TDM is a Exception between OpenSource games and it will bring fresh wind to the other games that are in the repositories and maybe it will also cause others to dare to create OpenSource games, because what is offered so far is the same as it was 15-20 years ago . As commercial games are increasingly being developed for Linux, TDM aside, the OpenSource communities are resting on their laurels in this field.

For this, it is not necessary to make major changes in the way of distribution, it is enough to get the installer there.
In general, I do not think that hosting TDM in a store or repository is the only way to increase users, starting with word of mouth there are many other options. People who like an excellent video game there are plenty.

Edited by Zerg Rush
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