STEAM is probably the coolest thing you haven’t heard of and are all confused about. As AnnMaria previously pointed out, it’s not steam as in the vapor that consumes your mirror when you walk out of the shower, nor is it STEAM as in the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math. STEAM is actually a gaming platform and “a place where you buy, play, discuss, and learn about games on the internet,” according to Common Sense Media. They also describe it as a “social gaming network.” It’s basically a portal where you can buy, play and update games. You can make friends, chat, etc.
Here are just a few of the cool things about STEAM:
Social
Part of what makes the gaming platform popular with some many games is that it’s truly built its own community. Users interact both within games and online forums. You can play with your actual friends and/or create a completely new community of fellow STEAM users from around web (and the globe). From
Always Up-to-Date
Often, it’s a bug fix. Occasionally, it’s an almost complete overhaul (like say, Fish Lake v. 2.0). But video games aren’t something developers just wash their hands of once they go live. There’s a seemingly never-ending stream of tweaks and fixes over the life of a game. With STEAM, you don’t have to worry about if you have the latest version, because the platform performs auto-updates for you! (That said, you can also turn this feature off.)
Cross-Platform Ownership with Steam Play
If you buy a game on Steam, you can own it across platforms. If you have a Mac and a PC, you don’t have to buy two versions. As The Game Agent Blog points out,”Owning a Steam Play-supported game on one OS will get you copies of the game to play on other OSes, like Windows or Linux, for no additional charge.” If you own a game that later supports Steam Play, you’ll get access to all supported OSes without any further work or purchase. Sometimes (though not always) this also means that you can play a game cross-platform with other players (meaning Mac and PC players can play together).
Despite all these great features one of the greatest thing about STEAM is Steam Greenlight. Steam Greenlight is where members of the STEAM community can vote and help pick some of the new games that will be released on the website. Let’s say you’re this super cool company that’s working hard on creating games that make you smarter, you can go on Steam Greenlight post information of the game, screenshots and video for people to give their input and support for your game to get “greenlit.” It also helps the developer get feedback from potential customers.
We’re super excited to announce that our game, Fish Lake has been greenlit! As of this Friday, you will be able to find it on STEAM’s website. Definitely, go check out STEAM and don’t forget to check out our other cool games on our site.