And that turned out well...

it still takes resources, and most small companies uses third party to handle that side, even if the third party looks 'invisible' (BMT Micro, for example). And resources are not finite, a small indie need to take a decision what to focus on - business side or coding. Some manages to do both, but as a general rule - some of the best coders are not always the best outwards facing or business personalities...

Well, it did, far as I know. Sure, it's a problem now, but Desura has been around for quite a few years and provided an avenue for indies to publish games which can then be offered in bundles. I'm pretty sure that's done some good for the devs involved, even if selling directly on Desura was never of much use.

That's probably why Desura was not profitable in the first place. When most keys come from sales on other sites there's not much to keep the platform afloat. I figure that's why itch.io serves more as a sales platform that leaves the execution to devs.

This really depends on GOG themselves...........

Because itch.io is pretty much hassle-free if you just need to make a game page with payments included compared to setting up a website yourself.

Doing It Yourself:
- Make a research on various webhosts (costs, reliability, etc.)
- Choosing the most convenient service within your website host (bandwidth, e-mails, options, etc.)
- Setting up technical aspects (whois, google analytics, etc.)
- Learning to code in html and css (coz wordpress and such aren't always the best option)
- Choosing through various "embeddable" payment services (BMT Micro, Humble, Itch.io, etc.)
- Doing the paperwork stuff between you and the payment company (the amount of paperwork depends of service)
- Last but not least, promoting your webpage for good SEO

Itch.io:
- Open an account
- Setting up the payments option
- Making up your page following the templates
- Job Done :o) (SEO and analytics are integrated)

Also, the possibility of bundling your games from a determined limited quantities is cool too.

I hope not, part of the problem of Desura (at least it seem to me) is their lack of standards, they simply accepted any game and while they have a lot of good ones (which are mostly already on GOG) this reflect bad on the store.

To be honest, I hope not. There's a lot of just total dreck on Steam, masquerading as "indie vignettes," and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind it'd drag quality levels down immensely. There was also a lot of total dreck clogging Desura, that I absolutely would not want to see on GOG. The last thing we need is more clone of a clone of a clone of a clone of a clone of Castlevania, but without anything remotely resembling the source materials' actual appeal.

Those are called exceptions, not the rule. Games like Shovel Knight, Braid, Limbo, Bastion, Amnesia are also GOOD games, and not what the vast majority of lackluster pixelshit that Desura and Greenlight get clogged with. A good game will sell regardless of who makes it.

>People will always pay for an indie game.
Not necessarily. Many of them find their way into collections by getting bundled with more desirable games, because the entire thing was dirt cheap.

Not to mention, with the whole refund thing happening on Steam, this will actually let developers know if what they produce is good or bad. Curating your catalogue is NEVER a bad idea.

Honestly I wouldn't have a problem with this if GOG was to either buy Desura and run it as a separate store front or make a separate store to handle those types of games. That could be quite a win-win especailly when it comes to games like Hatred or alot of Visual novels and other games GOG doesn't see being worth selling on the store but still sell them on Desura/whatever the second store will be. Lord knows it should hopefully cut down on the bitch posts everytime GOG rejects random indie game number #2,00,099

I'm still sad that GOG rejected Hovertank for some reason.

Curation can take a long walk off a short pier. It brings nothing of value to me as a consumer, and it will convince many developers that Steam is their best and only option for distributing their wares. I wager that the bulk of the Desura and Japanese developers will end up on Steam or Playsim, not GOG. Should any of that multitude become a mega-hit, GOG will not have their name attached to that success.

That is a recipe for GOG to become isolated. After all, the only thing that GOG offers to consumers is DRM-free - which is meaningless if there is a lack of games that people want to play. By readily rejecting developers, GOG is tainting their brand as aloof, unfriendly, and inflexible. Given a decade or two of this behavior, odds are that developers will ignore GOG by default due to reputation alone.

And lack of curation can go fuck off. Just because a game or the types of games you personally want are rejected doesn't mean that the best course of action is to just open the flood gates and let everything in. That has never been a good move, hell it's what did the console market in in 1983-84 and it only bounced back because Nintendo curated their platform making it harder for developers to flood the market with crap again, it's also probably what helped do Desura in as to many Desura was a joke because of the mountains of crap littering it's store front with the good,and if Valve wasn't in such a strong position that it is in now probably would of hurt them too. Why? because the majority of people are lazy and don't want to sit there and waste their time rummaging through the piles of shit to find something worth their while.

Not to mention it's not good for most devs either, sure they like having a lower bar for entry but on the same token they also like it when it's easier for their work to get noticed, it's why so many for years fought through the horrid Steam curation system and would keep submitting again and again till Valve finally decided "okay your in" because when they did their game got listed on the new releases and often would stay there for a few days and they would often have a big graphic on the front page to grab peoples attention. Now that Steam is a open platform they don't get that and most of the time a good game like say Serpent in the Staglands, Sunless Sea, or even a Terraria get's quickly burried underneath a flood of crap that was tosses together with store bought Unity assests by some ass hat trying to make a quick buck but doesn't want to put any real work in.

So unless they get lucky and have some popular youtuber praise their game or even get solid word of mouth they have less chance at making decent sales then they would in the past.

Not to mention I rather have a store reject the occasional good game for stupid reasons then one that will allow the kind of shit Steam is letting in like Day one Garry's incident or Temper Tantrum or War Z or even Survival Z.

Do I like it, no and truth be told they are better, more sensible solutions then what you keep suggesting and letting everything in and let us sort it all out. In my 20 plus years of gaming I have seen first hand what that is like and so far GOG is one of the few remaining bastions that doesn't do that and I rather it stays that way, you don't like it no one is saying you have to stay here and keep buying stuff. But don't try to force the rest of us to deal with the same crap we have just about everywhere else now just because your pissed that GOG is rejecting a genre of game you personally are interested in.

Besides honestly there are better and more sensible solutions to this issue, as I pointed out GOG could offer a greenlight style system for rejected titles can be put to a vote by the customer base here but a curated one where the games rejected for being broken, something cobbled together with store bought unity assests, being unfinished, ect. will not be open to voting by the community thus preventing scumbag devs like Digital Homicide from cheesing the system like they do with Greenlight now.

That is a example of a more sensible solution then what you keep bringing up. Since it's a win-win the community can decide that if GOG is wrong and we can keep the flood of shit down.

Reputation ? That's just gossip. Did you actually submit a game ?
I'm working on a game and plan to submit it to gog (i want to sell it here) but i won't until the game is nearly finished (with videos, demos, etc.). They obviously reject crap games and are right to.

GOG throwing dice to decide to accept or reject games hinders their growth potential.