In case no one heard, Grass Simulator got released today.

Steam notified me that the Grass Simulator steam page made an announcement so I checked it out, turns out the game was released and people were asking where their keys were.

When people found out where their keys were - or more specifically - what they had to do to actually get their keys, they were understandably pissed.

You see, the Grass Simulator devs obviously never thought about HOW they were actually going to get the keys to the thousands of people who voted up and joined the group so the solution they naturally came up with? Get everyone to post their email addresses in a public announcement - obviously...

After reading through 37 pages of stupid people posting their email addresses in a semi public group, I got bored and went on to do other stuff.

When I came back I was greeted to another notification - Grass Simulator had posted again!

Apparently they were blissfully unaware that getting people to post their email addresses in public breaks several steam (and probably the majority of other forums) rules and have since apologized.

My question is, how can devs make a promise like that (Vote up & get key once greenlit) and not actually have any freaking (can I swear on here? I'm gonna guess no) clue on how they're actually going to deliver their promise.

No previous thought went into how the keys were going to get to the people, just a "we'll deal with it on the day".

I just do not get it :(

10 years ago*

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10 years ago
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I will commend them for actually trying to fix the situation though, they did try to hand out they keys but my guess is since it's their first time doing this or even releasing a game on this platform (or at all) they had no idea how to approach it. Their intent was good, their execution was bad.

10 years ago
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wow. . .ain't you a chivalrous knight of some sort. . .you should n't stop voting for those "promoted" greenlight games at all costs.be there a free key on the table(at least hypothetically)or not,games that feel decent in build n done with a tonload of passion will always get my attention. . .the crappy ones,however,I skip immediately.

10 years ago
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While the game seems like it has little-to-nothing to actually do apart from roam around with a gun (maybe you're a tree with a gun? But why do I have flesh colored hands?), the graphics were good and the short gameplay demo they showed didn't seem to have that many glitches or frame rate issues.

There are some games that even a free key could not get me to join a group lying about my vote cough fucking cat simulator cough .

If a game like that ever actually got released, it would be a new low in video games I don't think the industry could ever recover from.

10 years ago
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You can keep voting. Vote a thumb down. ;)

10 years ago
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Valve is terrible when it comes to checking the devs. A lot of crap can pass these days.
Regarding "the promise": They don't have to deliver anything. Who is going to punish them? Bad reviewers? Valve? Don't be ridiculous.

10 years ago
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They actually did try to give the keys out they just have no idea how to do it. Before running promotions like that they should google it or even ask other devs (gahh socializing) to see how it's done properly and if they feel they can manage that then go ahead with the promotion. I do feel kinda bad, they wanted to make the next big thing in a genre that got boring months ago and make people happy with free keys but so far, they've failed to achieve either.

10 years ago
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There is no way to do this properly, because they don't have a way of checking who did and who didn't upvote their game. The easy solution would be to tell people to upvote ad if the game get greenlit, then make a giveaway of (for example) 1000 keys. They could do the giveaway here, but they should make it private and put the link on the greenlight page.

10 years ago
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"Vote to get a key" Greenlight projects are complete shit. My solution? Ignore these. Don't vote, just ignore. If everyone ignore, they don't get votes. If they don't get votes, they don't get Greenlit.
of course, all this is pretty much wishful thinking, but eventually this Greenlight crap has to end soon enough. So for now, might as well ignore it.

Also, most "common" swearing is okay. For example, you can say fuck, crap, shit, but just don't insult a certain person or group of people. (Example: "Faggot" isn't tolerated. Now I hope this doesn't get me banned.)

10 years ago
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Yeah they are all shit but if it's free it's free. I wasn't really sure on the swearing because I don't see anyone swear on here so I assumed it would get you banned. I guess this is just a nice enough community that people don't have to swear? There are dark forces at play here.

10 years ago
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The best kind of swearing is where you just combine two random words. Like FartMonkey.

10 years ago
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So I've heard... On Imgur.

10 years ago
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Damn, the SuckRocket knows where I get my material.

10 years ago
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Those diskmuggers on Imgur are appleditched with material.

10 years ago
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wouldn't that make a lot of peoples steamnames "swears" by default....your name is practically 4 words combined, making it a double swear

10 years ago
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BlooshNugget is right

10 years ago
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What's wrong with having a glovestacking swear username? Do you think it's too tatoomusher for Steamgifts?

10 years ago
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Generalisation ahoy

10 years ago
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Not always, e.g. Artifex Mundi got several of their hight quality hidden object games on steam by giving keys to the first one.

However I would like Steam to stop this, as this breaks the point of Greenlight. I'd see this as cheating.

On the other hand it's bad that Steam has such a monopoly. Many smaller games that try to get through greenlight could easily be sold on Desura, Itch.io, Indiecity, GOG, and others, but all other places combined aren't as big as Steam.

10 years ago
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What you get for supporting HERESY!

10 years ago
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greenlight games are always from '90s but its perfect for free exp on steam ;f

10 years ago
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Welp i got mine so cant complain ;p

10 years ago
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Is it great?

10 years ago
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Didnt had the time to try it yet xD

10 years ago
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I, for one, hope Valve scraps Greenlight altogether & lets developers freely post their games on Seam. It's going to be great watching everyone wine more than they do now. If you think there are too many "shit" games on the storefront now, then just wait until Greenlight is scraped. Oh, boy... I'll have my popcorn ready.

Not sure about everyone else, but I've received a key for every game that I've voted for that offer a free key.

10 years ago
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I've gotten around 30% of the keys for games I have voted for. Usually they do some lame 24 hour window to claim the key, or some public drop that gets scraped within minutes.

10 years ago
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Honestly, the devs who make those kinds of offers to people don't deserve to have their game greenlit :/

10 years ago
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Eh, saw many great games getting through with such promotion

10 years ago
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You're probably right but I think there are just easier ways to market a game and get results as long as the game is good.

10 years ago
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Majority of greenlight games that asks for people to vote in exchange for free keys are typically done be amateur individuals, many of the times never have released a game on steam before. If they were both truly confident in their game as well good at marketing (spreading awareness), they wouldn't have to do this. If you want the free game key badly enough, it should be no hair off your back to vote for it. If you don't want the game, you wouldn't go through the process and you shouldn't care that someone else's dream of a game being released to public is coming true.

I don't go after EVERY free key out there, but some I was most excited for did some bullshit last second that pissed me off. I didn't get a key for one game because suddenly, despite what was initially advertised, I had to join other groups, post in them, etc. basically stuff they knew most people wouldn't do or know about until it was too late and thus not getting a free key.

10 years ago
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Yep, exactly what happened to me a few times. Here you go, an obscure short window to jump through these hoops. Missed it? Well tough luck regardless of what was original stated! Did you come back to join the group we just made today after you voted 6 months ago? No? Shame, it's closed now so you can't get in even though you did vote and a good number of those that got in to the group didn't!

10 years ago
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I think its a pretty scummy thing to do.

Just never mind about the quality of the game or if you like the concept, just vote it up for a free game.

10 years ago
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Apparently I never joined the group.. slightly saddening :/

10 years ago
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A couple of months back the Devs stated the game was going F2P and there would be no keys. The group was particularly spammy so a lot of people left at that point.

10 years ago
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I only vote when devs use WGN, if they do not use WGN I will not vote, that join into group bla bla bla is something I do not trust, I trust when I vote on WGN, they deliever keys on email and I do not need to track announcements in steam group every day.

TLDR: Vote only via WGN and Carl ! <3

10 years ago
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I didn't get a few of the keys through that system that I was supposed to get so it isn't perfect either. I did do all the steps and still didn't get it, even though I had proof I did everything. Not sure if it has gotten better since then because the promos using WGN seemed to dry up a bit (or I am just not seeing them posted any more). I still get the odd keys from WGN though so I am happy about that.

One thing I hate about key giveaways being done by WGN is that that is one of the short window things. Ask you to vote a few months back on the Greenlight page itself, then they stuck it on WGN for a day or so for a final push, only those that hit the button on WGN got it, those that did it months before got nothing despite following all steps that it asked for in the original post. That's not WGN's fault though.

10 years ago
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Grass Simulator keys will be distributed through WGN now. Read their group announcements.

10 years ago
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That is good move by them, cant read coz I'm not in their group.

10 years ago
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I just saw a gameplay on youtube... I don't believe I voted for this, theres so many great games that not get through greenlight :(

10 years ago
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All hail the mighty spinning cows at the sound of dubstep music

10 years ago
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I never vote for games, just to get a key. Most of this games are bad. And I always wonder, why people vote for such a crap ? Are you gamer or just a crap collector ?

10 years ago
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Same cases to Slaughtering Grounds...People vote for shitty games

10 years ago
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Where's my key?

10 years ago
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Well i hate that the most stupid games get greenlit because of this trick. But I'm mean. I vote for the games. But i just vote them down. And then when it still gets released i still get a key even tho i didn't really support it lol. There were a few games i did vote up because i thought they were cool tho!

10 years ago
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Can't wait for the sequel. Paint Drying Simulator.

10 years ago
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I had the opportunity to talk with the developer, and he said that "well, if you voted you are going to get the game, same as if you didn't" - what shows how incompetent those devs are. They don't know about Steam rules, they don't know how they will release their game, they don't know how they'll distribute what they promised. (and they make a shitty game that has no sense whatsoever)

10 years ago
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keys are being distributed this sunday it seems as they presented a nice solution so no complains here

10 years ago
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I left the group after he claimed the game was going F2P. Oh well. :P

10 years ago
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I think that's what happened with me too.. feel a bit ripped off but w/e

10 years ago
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10 years ago
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