Like an elderly contest judge at a village fête, Steam Greenlight has spluttered awake and handed out prize ribbons to another fifty games. Embossed on those ribbons? The phrase "I'm the best, and, at an unspecified time in the future - determined by both my own level of completion, and a conversation between my developer and Valve about the business strategy of my launch - I will be added to Steam." They're pretty big ribbons. This time, highlights of the current crop include Depression Quest, avant-garde stealth game Tangiers, and frighteningly detailed plane-'em-up X-Plane 10 .
Depression Quest is a particularly interesting pick. Developed by Zoe Quinn, it's a moving and revealing insight into what it's like to live with depression. It was also developed with the choose-your-own HTML tool Twine, and is available to play in your browser, for free . The Steam listing gives it a better chance to be seen by a wider audience, which given the subject matter of the game, can only be a good thing.
It's also great to see that the definition of what constitutes "a Steam game" continues to warp and evolve. Frankly, it's nonsense to think of Steam as some curatorial institution that needs protecting. Curation implies quality, something that a large percentage of Steam's existing library just doesn't offer. And anyway, the acceptance of Twine leads to the genuine hope that one day CRY$TAL WARRIOR KE$HA will be listed on Steam. We can but dream.
You can see the full list of 50 here . Anything you're looking forward to?
