First Steam, now there's the Greenhouse
Leigh Dyer explains why the Penny Arcade Greenhouse project could be the most interesting gaming platform to hit the Web since Steam.
Thanks to the Internet, there's a wealth of independently developed games available to buy and download, but life has been tough for some of the developers involved. Not only do they have to develop their own payment and distribution systems, but they also have to get noticed somehow.
Valve Software solved a lot of these problems in 2004 with the launch of Steam. Valve wanted an Internet-based delivery system for direct sales of its own games, but the service quickly expanded.
Independent developers have flocked to Steam for the simplicity and exposure it brings, and at least one developer, Introversion, was rescued from financial ruin by the influx of sales brought on when it joined Steam. There's just one problem with Steam -- it's Windows only, which leaves Linux gamers to find their gaming elsewhere.
However, the founders of gaming web comic Penny Arcade are hoping to change that. Like Valve, Penny Arcade needed a platform to sell its own game, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, but from the outset, the game had been aimed at Mac OS X and Linux as well as Windows. The answer was to develop its own digital distribution service, called Greenhouse, which launched alongside the Penny Arcade game a few weeks ago.
Unlike Steam, which uses a client application, Greenhouse is entirely web-based, which keeps its platform-neutral from the outset. It's not as feature rich as Steam, but it still handles the basics -- credit card sales, account management, and the actual hosting of the downloadable games.
It also includes simple copy protection that uses a one-time online activation when you first install a product, and that allows you to re-register the product on reinstallation, within limits.
Precipice is the only title available at the moment, but we'll definitely see more in the future, starting with further titles from Hothead Games, who developed Precipice in conjunction with the Penny Arcade team.
Discussions are also underway with other developers, and if the promise of a simple service that delivers greater royalties to the developers holds true, I'm sure they'll be very successful, and I hope many of those developers choose to follow Penny Arcade's lead and support Linux and Mac OS X, as well as Windows. If they do, Greenhouse could become the home of independent gaming on Linux.
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