Penny Arcade's Greenhouse

[Viin]

http://www.playgreenhouse.com/

(From wired)

Penny Arcade and Hothead Games announced Wednesday that the two companies have teamed up to launch Greenhouse, an online hub for digitally distributed PC games. While the first game for sale on the site will be Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Greenhouse will soon become a hub for indie game developers looking to share their creations with the web comic's loyal audience.

..

Holkins says that the idea is to give indie gamemakers a better financial shake. "I think that most publishing arrangements are full of shit," he says, pointing out that Greenhouse will give indie gamemakers a better share of the profits.

[Azazel]

Sounds like an Indy-oriented Steam...

[schild]

Which means they either want it to be bought by steam or completely beaten in the market by steam.

[Prospero]

Steam doesn't do Mac or Linux. That gives them plenty of room to thrive. There may only be 5 Linux gamers, but boy howdy are they desperate for entertainment. Or at least attention.

[Rishathra]

I thought it was a silly idea until the mention of it being - or attempting to be - platform independent.  A Steam-like service that works for Mac, PC, and all the consoles is a good idea.

A better idea, of course, would be just to get Steam to work on all platforms.

[schild]

A crossplatform delivery service basically requires all games on it be cross platform.

It's pretty much a stillborn idea.

Steam plz. Anything else is just stupid.

Btw, I am PIRATING the PA game. I have no shame saying it. Zero. None. Pirating. And I hope they complain about piracy on the frontpage.

[Prospero]

The problem with Steam is there are still Neanderthals who hate the fact that Steam is an application that lives on your computer. Not I, but I still hear a number of people kvetch about this. A simple web-based store is hard for people to hate too much.

They are still re-inventing the wheel, but I'm sure it will be a nice enough wheel, and the fact they are not running a publicly held company means they can try to do something interesting with the platform. Not to say they will, but there's a chance. I will be holding out for it to show up on Steam though. Download anywhere FTW!

[schild]

I just wonder if Steam detractors run iTunes.

[Prospero]

No, of course not, they are the supreme tech elite with an undying hatred of DRM. They use a version of WinAMP from before it was bought by AOL and corrupted by the corporations.

[murdoc]

I still use an old version of Winamp :(

[Teleku]

Strangely enough, so do I.

[Merusk]

I *used* an old version of Music Match.  Then Yahoo sent a patch though the auto-updater that disabled all old versions of Music match, so that you have to download their "we will share all data we collect" version.  Yeah, that sucked. It taught me about the "lifetime" of things you buy from DRM software in a very harsh way.  Thus, my aversion to Steam.

Why is iTunes different?  Because I can get around their DRM.  Sure, it's a roundabout way, but I'm never going to lose the music I buy from them the way I might lose the games I buy from Steam or DID lose the music I bought from MM.

[Big Gulp]

I still use an old version of Winamp :(

At a certain point, if you have enough music WinAmp just won't cut it.  You really do need an audioplayer with decent database functions like iTunes or Amarok.  That's really my only reason for sticking with iTunes; sure it's a memory hog, but there just isn't a feature comparable audioplayer for Windows available.

[Fabricated]

I still use an old version of Winamp :(

At a certain point, if you have enough music WinAmp just won't cut it.  You really do need an audioplayer with decent database functions like iTunes or Amarok.  That's really my only reason for sticking with iTunes; sure it's a memory hog, but there just isn't a feature comparable audioplayer for Windows available.

no.

http://www.foobar2000.org/

Also, Winamp 5.x+ is a pretty good audio player. It doesn't handle fuck-all gigantic playlists so good though.

edit: also on the PA notSteam thing - who cares

[Big Gulp]

no.

I've used Foobar, and wasn't impressed.  You just can't slice and dice your categories enough, and I didn't like the layout too much.  Also, I've got something like 22,000 songs, and believe it or not, it still doesn't scale up for a huge library like iTunes does.

[Fabricated]

no.

I've used Foobar, and wasn't impressed.  You just can't slice and dice your categories enough, and I didn't like the layout too much.  Also, I've got something like 22,000 songs, and believe it or not, it still doesn't scale up for a huge library like iTunes does.

You tried the latest version? I mean, Jesus, the Windows Itunes is a piece of shit.

[caladein]

no.

I've used Foobar, and wasn't impressed.  You just can't slice and dice your categories enough, and I didn't like the layout too much.  Also, I've got something like 22,000 songs, and believe it or not, it still doesn't scale up for a huge library like iTunes does.

Yes.  I used to use foobar and it eventually got the point where it would simply choke on my library.  It's a fantastic player though if you don't use huge-ass playlists.  iTunes though sort of runs like molasses anyways but it never seemed to miss a beat moving between playlists.  That said, I have a Zune now, and I miss Smart Playlists like you wouldn't believe.

[Fabricated]

Here's an audio player I haven't used in forever but I'm pretty sure it can handle your obscene playlists.

http://www.deliplayer.com/

[Lantyssa]

Btw, I am PIRATING the PA game. I have no shame saying it. Zero. None. Pirating. And I hope they complain about piracy on the frontpage.

Does it have copy protection?  I hear that increases the number of pirates.  Arrrr!

[Big Gulp]

Here's an audio player I haven't used in forever but I'm pretty sure it can handle your obscene playlists.

http://www.deliplayer.com/

Take a look at this image and tell me how this is an improvement over iTunes?

I want a player that'll let me select all my blues songs, and just play those.  Or sort through David Bowie, and then just his albums from the 70's.  Deliplayer looks like it's a WinAmp knock off which is fine for limited collections, but for large collections you need to have database capabilities.  If they'd port Amarok to Windows I'd switch in a heartbeat, but until that day it's iTunes for me.

[Stephen Zepp]

A crossplatform delivery service basically requires all games on it be cross platform.

It's pretty much a stillborn idea.

Steam plz. Anything else is just stupid.

Btw, I am PIRATING the PA game. I have no shame saying it. Zero. None. Pirating. And I hope they complain about piracy on the frontpage.

You're now on my watch list--it's a Torque game :P

[schild]

A crossplatform delivery service basically requires all games on it be cross platform.

It's pretty much a stillborn idea.

Steam plz. Anything else is just stupid.

Btw, I am PIRATING the PA game. I have no shame saying it. Zero. None. Pirating. And I hope they complain about piracy on the frontpage.

You're now on my watch list--it's a Torque game :P

Then I expect it for free. Because fuck PA.

[Raging Turtle]

I don't understand hating things that are free.  Like webcomics. 

[Yegolev]

Today I noticed DiRT is on GameTap.

[Prospero]

I don't understand wanting to play a game about a webcomic that he hates. Pirated or no, that just does not compute. The whole point of the game is to revel in the PA goodness.

[Sauced]

I thought the whole point was to play a game Ron Gilbert worked on.

[Mrbloodworth]

Here's an audio player I haven't used in forever but I'm pretty sure it can handle your obscene playlists.

http://www.deliplayer.com/

Take a look at this image and tell me how this is an improvement over iTunes?

I want a player that'll let me select all my blues songs, and just play those.  Or sort through David Bowie, and then just his albums from the 70's.  Deliplayer looks like it's a WinAmp knock off which is fine for limited collections, but for large collections you need to have database capabilities.  If they'd port Amarok to Windows I'd switch in a heartbeat, but until that day it's iTunes for me.

Songbird is developed by a band of experienced, dedicated software developers and designers called the Pioneers of the Inevitable. Our previous hatchlings include Winamp and the Yahoo! Music Engine.

We support the Mozilla Foundation's mission to preserve innovation and choice on the Internet.

[Mrbloodworth]

A crossplatform delivery service basically requires all games on it be cross platform.

It's pretty much a stillborn idea.

Steam plz. Anything else is just stupid.

Btw, I am PIRATING the PA game. I have no shame saying it. Zero. None. Pirating. And I hope they complain about piracy on the frontpage.

You're now on my watch list--it's a Torque game :P

Then I expect it for free. Because fuck PA.

You talking about the new game, or the one that you can get fro free of the GG website?

[Big Gulp]

Yeah, Songbird is pretty close to perfect.  Still not bugfree, but when it gets a final release I'll probably switch over if nothing else has come out by then.

[Stephen Zepp]

A crossplatform delivery service basically requires all games on it be cross platform.

It's pretty much a stillborn idea.

Steam plz. Anything else is just stupid.

Btw, I am PIRATING the PA game. I have no shame saying it. Zero. None. Pirating. And I hope they complain about piracy on the frontpage.

You're now on my watch list--it's a Torque game :P

Then I expect it for free. Because fuck PA.

You talking about the new game, or the one that you can get fro free of the GG website?

He means Penny Arcade in general--they touched him in a bad place.

Although he's not particularly excited about InstantAction either, which is a shame :P 300,000 (edited for clarity) registered accounts in a month and counting...and Legions is freaking amazing in a browser :)

[Venkman]

Why does Songbird look exactly like iTunes except with a Vista makeover?

As to PA/Steam/whatever, isn't the browser-based GarageGames one also cross-platform?

And for indie games to be cross platform is not unpossible. Depends on the motivation and depth of the game. And whether there's an audience.

[Stephen Zepp]

As to PA/Steam/whatever, isn't the browser-based GarageGames one also cross-platform?

Not quite yet, but pretty close. Internal builds of the currently available games are working on Mac, and I think the next push or two of IA itself will make the IA API Mac compliant.

Nothing on linux at the moment.

[Azazel]

Why does Songbird look exactly like iTunes except with a Vista makeover?

As to PA/Steam/whatever, isn't the browser-based GarageGames one also cross-platform?

And for indie games to be cross platform is not unpossible. Depends on the motivation and depth of the game. And whether there's an audience.

It's also browser-based, while I don't believe the PA game is.

[Venkman]

It's also browser-based, while I don't believe the PA game is.

You mean "the browser-based GarageGames" is browser-based? 

Thanks Stephen. Good to know.

[Azazel]

It's also browser-based, while I don't believe the PA game is.

You mean "the browser-based GarageGames" is browser-based? 

Thanks Stephen. Good to know.

You're missing the point, smartarse. Digital delivery, whether cross-platform or not is a different beast to browser-based gaming.