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They did it again. Valve, the software house that launched the Steam platform back in 2003, has opened its second Game Festival in 2020. Hundreds of indy games will be available to players from all over the world to test for free in the second week of October. Autumn is here, days are getting shorter and colder, but luckily the online world is full of entertainment opportunities. Gamers can also easily grab a Harrah’s casino promo code and discover the world of one of New Jersey’s best playing resorts. All this while staying warm and comfortable at home. A great way to dispel those autumn blues, especially for beginners.
On the other hand, experienced players and developers can find more than games at the Steam Game Festival. The event also offers chats with developers, live streams, information about upcoming games on Steam. Indie developers can get a promotional space for their productions, an opportunity that benefits above all the small creators. That was the spirit behind the spring Game Festival, which tried to fill the gap left by the cancellation of the official Game Developers Conference (GDC) last March.
The first edition of the Festival took place alongside The Game Awards in December 2019 and launched free-testing of 12 games. The spring edition was a big jump forward since it featured more than 40 indie games. Geoff Keighley, The Game Awards executive producer and host, announced the spring Festival on Twitter on March 17. Keighley said the Festival aimed to help feature games from indie developers who lost the opportunity to demo their titles at the canceled GDC in San Francisco.
Now the autumn Festival is a much larger event that allows developers to get early feedback from players. The other bonus is the possibility to build an audience for future releases.
Engaging the audience will be facilitated by interviews, special gameplay and commentary. These bonus features will be available for the whole duration of the event. Some of the more prominent titles include Garden Story, Alpaca Ball: Allstars, Ghostarunner, Cake Bach and Smash Ball.
The Festival page on Steam features a live broadcast of the current event, accompanied by a list of the next scheduled ones. Featured demos are just below, followed by the Interview and Commentary section. There are about 120 demos in the “featured” section, but Steam’s whole list is a whopping 1142 items. Players will not have time to get bored. Registered users of the platform can log in and be presented with a Wishlist containing a series of additional items selected specifically for them.
Valve is a maker of both software and hardware. They released their first title, Half-Life, in 1998. More than 50 games of the year awards followed. PC Gamer referred to Half-Life as the Best PC Game Ever. Dozens of titles have been created and marketed by Valve since then.
In 2003 they created Steam, a platform designed to serve as a digital content distribution channel. App stores did not exist at that time. Steam has evolved into a platform for thousands of creators and publishers to deliver content and establish direct relationships with their customers. Today Steam is a community where millions of players share entertainment and ideas while making friends with fellow players.
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