Re: Enigma on Steam

[Andreas Lochmann]

Hi Alex,
Hi All,

thank you Alex, we were thinking about Steam as well a while ago. It 
would be a wonderful platform to showcase Enigma. The distribution fee 
is not off-putting to me.

However, if I understand the following document correctly, we cannot 
directly distribute Enigma via Steam due to license incompatibilities:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/uploading/distributing_opensource

We would need to release Enigma under another, secondary license, which 
permits linking to their non-free library. (I don't know why linking to 
their library is necessary, but it seems to be mandatory.) There were 
too many people involved in the creation of Enigma to ever see this 
happen: Enigma cannot be re-released under another license.

However, it might be possible to just distribute an installer or "Enigma 
maintainer" app with Steam under some liberal license other than GPL. I 
don't know of any prior examples. Do you think, something like this is 
allowed by Steam? After all, we would promote Enigma, but "sell" only 
the installer, not Enigma itself. ("sell" might mean "selling for 0", 
but I think you get the gist.)

Best,
Andreas


Am 26.02.23 um 21:15 schrieb me@alex0.net:
> Hi All,
> Wanted to send this email into the mailing list to gather opinions. I’m a 
> long-time player (and fan) of Enigma, and it makes me really quite sad that it 
> doesn’t get more attention. I’m also a Steamworks developer that’s familiar 
> with Valve’s Steam platform. I’d be willing to pay the distribution fee ($100) 
> in order to get Enigma onto Steam, optimise the game for controller and Steam 
> Deck support, and implement achievements into the codebase.
>
> I think putting the game on Steam as a free title would make it visible to a 
> lot more potential players. However, while Enigma is an open game and I could 
> publish it to Steam independently, I wouldn’t want to do it without seeking 
> approval, as that’d be bad form. If this isn’t something that developers/code 
> owners want to happen in general, I’ll respect your wishes.
>
> Best,
> Alex