Valve unveils SteamWorks kit

By Games Industry.biz Published 30 January, 2008

For devs and publishers.

Valve has announced that Steamworks, a suite of publishing and development tools, is now available free of charge to developers and publishers worldwide, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The tools are available for all PC games distributed via retail as well as through online platforms such as Steam.

"Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," said Valve president Gabe Newell.

"Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing."

The Steamworks tools were used in titles such as Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box and offers real-time stats on sales, gameplay and product activation. as well as territory control, an encryption system, auto updating, voice chat, multiplayer matchmaking and social networking services.

"As more developers and publishers have embraced Steam as a leading digital distribution channel, we've heard a growing number of inquiries regarding the availability of the platform's services and tools," said Jason Holtman, director business development at Valve.

"Offering Steamworks is part of our ongoing efforts to support the needs of game developers and our publishing partners."

Another glorious day in the GamesIndustry.biz.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • BigStu #1 4 years ago

    OMG YOUTUBE FOR GAMES!!

    Oh no we've already got that.

  • marilena #2 4 years ago

    For free? Awfully nice of them.

  • oceanmotion #3 4 years ago

    Good stuff, shows you how mad paying for Xbox Live really is.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #4 4 years ago

    Good stuff, this is obviously an attempt to get more developers to also release there games through Steam but im sure there are no developers that see that as a bad thing.

    Sure this will piss microsoft off with them trying to offer the similar Live Service.

  • viper_h #5 4 years ago

    Hmm, mickey mouse, badly implemented laggy games service that I have to pay for, run by a company who've never actually brought out one decent game all on their lonesome...

    or...

    Years old, bug-tested, multiuser system for free, created by a company with multiple games-of-the-year under their belts...

    Steam please!

  • marilena #6 4 years ago

    Wait, games for Windows - Live has a subscription fee? Fuck that!

  • dominalien #7 4 years ago

    Interesting.

    I wonder if this is what they were looking for Linux developers for. It would be awfully cool to have this work on Linux, might even make a few companies look at it as a platform worth developing for, for a change.

  • Freek #8 4 years ago

    Multiplayer support on PC isn't free either, it's just that third parties and clans pay the bill for the servers, on Xbox Live you have to pay your own way.
    Ofcourse they then tried to do that same trick on the PC wich simply doesn't work since it's always been free and there's plenty of compition. I think they changed the free silver version of Live for Windows to now include multiplayer support in repsonse.

    But untill a system that's as good as Live and for free comes to console land (most likely PSN in the future) the fee won't go away.
    Edited by 1 at 30/01/08 @ 11:52

  • Gurrah #9 4 years ago

    It's probably just free for use, if you plan on actually releasing something commercially, Valve will definately want it's cut. Still, it's quite a genius move of Valve, not having to pay thousands of dollars for the development tools will definately draw smaller developers towards steam.

  • hiddenranbir #10 4 years ago

    Valve pwnz again.

    The fact it is free is very very good for indie and other up and coming developers. Especially in a world where big developers need buyouts and mergers to stay up.

    Thank you Valve. Thank you for keeping creativing gaming alive and for help fight off the pressure of 'quarterly profit margins' and 'share dividend' nonsense that, most, publishers care more for.

    ---For as long as the ability to buy an actual, physical boxed copy of a game and not just a serial number exists, I will do so.-

    I want the actual value of money I have, not just some silly representations of paper and metal. :( Zzz.

    Btw, the tool isn't limited to Steam. Tools are there for retail distributors too.
    Edited by 1 at 30/01/08 @ 12:41

  • bad #11 4 years ago

    The press release make things sound quite confusing. As I understand it (mainly due to continued clarification by Rock, Paper Shotgun) this isn't a case of "distribute your game on Steam for free", but instead you distribute your game content (minus the executable) as you would normally (ie on a CD/DVD in a shop or downloaded digitally from your website) then to play the game you have to activate via steam which will drop in the executable and off you go. It also supports updates I think.

    So, activation and updating by steam for free. In exchange, Valve get a lot more people installing the Steam client and make themselves the de facto digital distribution platform on the PC.

    I'm a huge fan of Steam and the sooner all games are delivered by Steam proper the better as far as I'm concerned.

  • hula hoops #12 4 years ago

    @ hiddenranbir:

    I want the actual value of money I have, not just some silly representations of paper and metal. :( Zzz.

    Once, I bought a game off Steam. I thought it was cheap so I went ahead with the purchase. The game was quite rubbish, I only spent 2 days on it.

    But the day after, I went to my local indie, they sell the game second hand at half the price I bought off Steam.

    Furthermore, I cannot bloody resell my game! Because I bought it off Steam, I don't have anything I can resell to.

    That would be the last time I bought things via Steam.

    End of.

  • Cylinder #13 4 years ago

    The only problem I have with Steam is the amount of games available - not enough! I wish every game was released on Steam, physical copies seem so unnecessary.

  • Turambar #14 4 years ago

    Silverfall on steam $40
    Silverfall on play.com £3.88 (Bought it last night, I need a RPG and figure it'll at least be worth £3.88)

    This is the only problem i have with steam. The COD4 price is especially ridiculous, $83 if you live in the UK (cheaper on direct2drive). Valve say they don't set the prices for third party content which is fair enough but maybe they should offer some guidance.

  • Freek #15 4 years ago

    You don't have to buy a game via Steam to use the Steam community functions, it can be from anywhere. You can just add it in.

  • zoidberg #16 4 years ago

    I used steam to buy 1st party titles, like the origianl HL2 when it came out, and the orange box later... as well as Counter Strike Source and others... although you can't resell the games, I hardly see ANYONE reselling the orange box... I mean COME ON... TF2, portal, HL2, ep 1 and ep 2 and you're NOT keeping it?

    Steam is great if you have broadband... You take the games you own, the entire gamecollection, anywhere. Just re-download them as many times as you want. The auto-update/patching thing is great, the Steam Community & Friends is well thought-out... it's just a great package that is just now coming into its own.

    As to the FREE steamworks... Valve once again proved that they simply...rule. :)

  • subtlesnake #17 4 years ago

    "No wonder they can't get a game out on time, and that the best thing in Orange Box wasn't even developed by Valve. They're too distracted trying to hoover up a slice of other people's money."

    Yes, obviously the idea of having separate teams for separate projects is inconceivable. And I'm sure the developers of (I presume) Portal will be happy to hear they're not part of Valve!

  • MGG #18 4 years ago

    STKD: I suppose you like to buy cd's instead of downloading music too? Vinyl over CD? Typewriter over PC?

    "Physical Media" were invented beacause there was no other way of distributing games/music/video. Now we have a far superior alternative in digital downloads - and yet people still complain.

    As for the "re-selling" argument, I am sick to death of that one. You are buying a license to use some software - you are *not* buying a physical product that you "own".

    Of all the online services, as a gamer I have to say I like Steam the most. And as a developer, I like Steam the most. And ROFL at you complaining that they don't get games out on "time" - yes, thats because they FINISH DEVELOPING THEIR GAMES before releasing them - please check out their releases to GOTY titles ratio. Its almost like they treat their games as art, rather than a product to release ASAP. Kudos to Valve I say.

  • Drakron #19 4 years ago

    This will not catch up for a reason.

    As things are in costs the publisher ends up paying the development of the game and then recovers that investment when the game is sold.

    Small developers are not interesting in Steam because their profit margin is too small as it is, by using Steam they could lose their profits and Valve would get it.

    Publishers are not going to get with Steam because they can set up their own digital distribution network, EA already done so and its clear that beside some people this is really not what consumers want.

    Its funny because when Steam come out there was the whole "OMG! retailer is doomed!!!" and ... nothing happened, also beware because Gabe Newell worked for 13 years on Microsoft and Valve was build out of Windows money, Valve is as rotten as Microsoft and please ...

    Valve done Half Life, Counter-Strike and Half Life 2 ... that is it, you want to brag on that ratio then you are a idiot.