HOW DO I REALEASE IT ON STEAM?

furrynote

HI, im writing a game using twine 2 and im curious how im going to put it on steam. any help thank you.

greyelf

I would suggest that you contact Zoe Quinn, the developer of Depression Quest, and ask her what process she had to follow and tools she used to convert a HTML file into something that Steam would allow to be released on their platform.

It is the only Twine game that I know of that has been released on Steam.

Aleks_S

I sadly can't imagine Zoe Quinn having a lot of time to answer questions these days, but maybe it's worth a shot. You may not need to, in any case.

I suspect that what you're really asking is how to package the game as an executable (.exe file on windows). The ins and outs of actually publishing it on steam (including greenlight, dealing with steam reps, etc.) probably has a great deal more to do with PR and marketing and shaking hands than it does with the tech.

There are tools that will allow you to "wrap" an html file/app in an executable. In fact, there is even an unofficial Twine 2 wrapper available from the download page. I haven't done this myself just yet, but a google search for "wrap html file as .exe" or something along those lines should prove fruitful. I ran a similar search just now and very quickly came up with the following:

http://www.awesomium.com/

At a quick glance, it looks to be a decent solution that is also free to use for devs that make under $100K (a year, I assume, but needs to be verified - a pretty generous margin either way). I'm sure there's other stuff out there as well.

greyelf

I believe it is a little more complex that just converting your HTML into a EXE using tools like node-webkite and Awesomium.

I believe you also have to integrate the Steamworks SDK (FAQ) into your application, which you gain access to via Greenlight. Creating an installer for the game may also be required.

Which is why I suggested talking to someone who has actually done it. Another place to ask would be Greenlight and its community.

furrynote

that helped out alot thank you all. feel free to add more suggestions

furrynote

what about this http://www.htmlexe.com/Home

furrynote

Hi everyone i contacted zoe quinn and all she said is "webkit". I wanted a little more in depth response but no reply after that.

greyelf

Webkit is a web browser engine, it can be used by applications to display/render HTML.

A tool like node-webkit is one way to build one of these applications, this article will walk you through the steps.

samahstan

If this is your first time releasing a game I would suggest releasing it on itch.io, it allows HTML games but still let's charge money.