Releasing Hillside on Steam (Patreon)

Hi everyone,

In this week’s progress report, I said I would write a post with more details about releasing Hillside on Steam.

First, Patreon and Subscribestar supporters will still get the latest versions just like they do now. Nothing will change there. Releasing the game on Steam only means that people who are not supporters will be able to buy it (or part of it).

There has been some confusion about this, but as I understand it, Steam no longer allows adult games to be released in Early Access. Only finished products can be sold. Because of that, my plan is to split Hillside into two parts and release them separately once they are finished.

Version 0.18 is a natural break point in the story. Once v0.18 is complete, part one of Hillside would be submitted to Steam (subject to approval — more on that below). After that, development would continue on part two, but it would only be available to Patreon and Subscribestar supporters while in development. Part two would only be added to Steam once it, and Hillside as a whole, is fully finished.

As I understand it, Steam does not offer second chances if they reject a game for its content. If they object, the game is rejected and cannot be resubmitted. Because of this, it’s important to be cautious and get it right the first time.

The main potential issue I can see with Hillside is Emma. Her physical appearance should be fine, but her language and behaviour might be a problem, and the look of her college environment definitely would be. Hopefully, updating the college setting and checking her dialogue for anything that sounds too childish would be enough to avoid outright rejection.

As for timing, other developers suggest putting your Steam store page up at least six months before release, to allow time to build wishlists. So this is not something that will happen soon, which means the required work can be spread out and shouldn't have a major impact on development.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

DB