Steam Greenlight to let the community choose what gets accepted

Valve will allow the community to vote on what games get released onto Steam starting this August.

Steam Greenlight is a new system that allows developers to publicly post information, screenshots, and videos for their game, and the general populace will decide what they'd like to see accepted onto the store.

In order to be listed on Steam Greenlight, all a developer needs to do is submit the following:

• A square branding image (similar to a box cover) to represent the game in lists and search
• At least one video showing off the game or presenting the concept
• At least four screenshots or images
• A written description of the game along with tentative system requirements

There's no specific amount of votes a title will need to be accepted. Instead the system will help Valve prioritize what games need to be made available.

"We're going to be reaching out to developers as we see their games getting traction regardless of whether they have achieved a specific number of votes or are sitting first or second place at any given time. We are most interested in finding the games that people want, not requiring them to always hit a specific number of votes," said Valve on the official Steam Greenlight website.

If a game isn't accepted right away, it remains on the list indefinitely until the developer chooses to remove it.

Developers are encouraged to post about their game as early as they'd like, with different categories for concepts and playable builds.

"We ask that you only define your game as 'playable game' if you have a playable build that demonstrates the gameplay mechanics and at least one level of your game. Otherwise, please classify your submission as 'concept' until its far enough along that the community can reasonably evaluate the mechanics, scope, and style of your game. Either way, you will probably get great feedback and a good start in building a community of fans around your game."

As far as requirements are concerned, all games must run on Windows PC. "You can be also developing for any other platform you like, but we are only able to support PC & Mac releases at this time,' Valve noted.

The only restrictions are the game must not contain offensive material or violate copyright or intellectual property rights.