All three (after giving them a shot.)

And I can understand your frustration. As a developer of course you feel that your game didn't get a real chance and wasn't judged fairly.

But on the other side I can also understand GOG. after all they are a store and want to make money.

As one member of KoL's existing fanbase, I can tell you that the devs were not counting on the fanbase for more than just selling enough copies to break even on WoL and some word-of-mouth advertising. They were genuinely worried that no established names (other than Steam who accepts everything) would even consider West of Loathing.

Wait, THAT's why we never got Mercenary Kings?

GOG you were imbeciles to turn down Wizorb.

Rejecting every other game under the sun and losing those sales to Steam is not exactly a great plan for making money. Gog versions of games being behind in patching to the Steam versions doesn't help either.

Excelsior: Phase One - Lysandia
Excelsior: Phase Two - Errondor
Flatspace
Flatspace II: The Rise of the Scarrid
I can't find the original rejection notices for these games anymore, but these devs did approach GOG and were turned down.

Here are two relevant posts by Marioface5 from the previous thread:

"You can add They Bleed Pixels to the list. I emailed the developer about bringing the game here, and was told this:

'We'd love to bring TBP to GOG if they'd take it! Unfortunately they tend not to take indie games after they've been around for a few years and currently aren't interested in distributing They Bleed Pixels. If you really want to see it on GOG I'd suggest letting them know that you'd like to see TBP added. If enough folks do they may change their mind ;)'"

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_gog_has_passed_on_that_deserve_a_second_chance/post75

"I messaged Support about They Bleed Pixels and my frustration with the approval process. I got this:

'I'm sorry to see that you are disappointed by our decision, but we must be very selective with what games we accept for release.
GOG has a boutique approach to games and our goal is to give justice to each game we release. Due to this, we have to limit the amount of releases, and to do this, we unfortunately have to reject many of the submissions, so that those that are approved get proper exposure on the storefront. Our BizDev and QA teams thoroughly research and evaluate every incoming title, but I'm afraid that I am unable to disclose the details as to how exactly they make their final decision. I appreciate your understanding.'

Now, I know that Support can only tell us what they're told to tell us in cases like this, so I have nothing against them for this message. That said, let's evaluate the two reasons I was just given for a game being rejected:

'GOG has a boutique approach to games and our goal is to give justice to each game we release. Due to this, we have to limit the amount of releases, and to do this, we unfortunately have to reject many of the submissions, so that those that are approved get proper exposure on the storefront.'

Why not just delay releases then? This is a pretty flimsy excuse for rejecting a game, because there's no reason that they couldn't just tell the devs that the release will take a few extra weeks or even months because their schedule is already full.

'Our BizDev and QA teams thoroughly research and evaluate every incoming title'

This doesn't really help us understand the process better, because we still have a lot of inconsistencies with what's on the store and what's rejected. To be honest, I don't even believe this claim. Cook, Serve, Delicious! was rejected for being "too casual", but most people who have spent a decent amount of time on the game will tell you that's not true. Meanwhile, Surgeon Simulator is up for sale. Aside from inconsistencies like that, there's still the issue of games that are very well-received elsewhere getting rejected or ignored here, such as many games mentioned in this thread.

I've replied to Support asking about why they don't just delay releases, but I didn't bother trying to dispute the other reason since I know it wouldn't do any good. I'll let you guys know if I get a response."

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_gog_has_passed_on_that_deserve_a_second_chance/post87

Why is GOG paying for testing and making offline installers? The publishers and/or devs should be paying 100% of those costs and doing all that work themselves. GOG shouldn't be doing any of that.

Keeping games up-to-date on recent OSes doesn't seem to be much of an issue any more since most (I think it's most?) games released on GOG nowadays seem already to have that covered without GOG having to do anything about it.

As for this thread in general, it's very eye-opening. I had idea GOG rejected so many games, much less that they do so for dubious reasons.

I find it very shocking to learn that they "curate" games solely based on screenshots and trailers.

All the more reason why they should scrap curation entirely and let users decide for themselves what games they want to buy or not.

I think the excuse that all games need "proper exposure" on the storefront is weak. If people want to buy a game on GOG, then they are going to search out if it is available on GOG. Their purchase isn't going to fail to occur because they never saw the game "exposed" to them on the storefront.

This thread also helps me understand much better why most devs had a very low opinion of GOG on the devs' survey, presuming that GOG "curation" played a role in why they hold that opinion.

Behold the creeping disappointment from the dev of The Fall Of The Dungeon Guardians:

11th of November 2015:

"I think with the last update of this morning, it should be (nearly) ok. And I will be able to finally get some rest, before doing a bit more bug hunting (text input doesn’t work on Linux coz of an Unity3D engine bug :roll: ), and then switch to Modding support (SDK + Steam Workshops) and getting the game published in other Stores (GOG, Humble Store, Mac AppStore).

In term of sales, the game did an ok start, but nothing fancy, I’m still not on my way to buy a Porsche (or more important, fund a more ambitious sequel). But within 6 months or 1 year, I may be able to get my investment in money and time paid back.

Hopefully, it’ll catch on with Christmas season, with the help of the additional stores and maybe a bit of marketing (if I get some ideas or get lucky :) )."

https://www.managames.com/DungeonGuardians/2015/11/11/49th-weekly-update-steam-release/

17th of November 2015:

"Dungeon Guardians should arrive soon on the Humble Store (but still through Steam Keys), and I contacted GOG but still haven’t got any answer from them."

https://www.managames.com/DungeonGuardians/2015/11/17/50th-weekly-update-patch-week/

23rd of November 2015:

"I still didn’t hear back from GOG. I’m not sure if it means they’re not interested, or if they are crawling under the game submissions, or if they are just very busy with the end of year business. Hopefully, I’ll know soon enough."

https://www.managames.com/DungeonGuardians/2015/11/23/51st-weekly-update-blogs-1st-anniversary-time-to-look-back-a-bit/

29th of November 2015:

"I got the answer from GOG: they said it looked like a good & interesting game, but were afraid it was too much of a niche game for their store (translation: it didn’t sell enough on Steam). :(

Actually, sales on Steam are not too bad and I’m relatively confident we’ll get to the point where the game will be worth the money and time invested in it."

https://www.managames.com/DungeonGuardians/2015/11/29/52nd-weekly-update-modding-sdk/

7th of December 2015:

"an user set up a wishlist for Dungeon Guardians on GOG ; it seems only a couple hundred of votes may help the GOG Team to reconsider the game, so don’t hesitate to vote for it if you’d like to see a GOG release: http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/the_fall_of_the_dungeon_guardians"

https://www.managames.com/DungeonGuardians/2015/12/07/53rd-weekly-update-store-stories/

13th of January 2016:

"I will also try to contact GOG again, now that the wishlist got more than 300 votes. Maybe it’ll be enough to make them change their mind. If not, maybe knowing that Dungeon Guardians is the best selling FPV Dungeon Crawler released recently will help as well… :P (ok, this is a relatively easy feat, as there’s not much FPV Dungeon Crawlers, but still, it’s nice 8-) )"

https://www.managames.com/DungeonGuardians/2016/01/13/final-weekly-update-treasure-hunt/

I approve of Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King; the others I am not so sure of as they are similar to games already on the market but if they got enough wishlist votes I'd approve them later per community demand.

What if they aren't aware the game exists? They would have no game title to search for it by. With the redesign, myself and other users have mentioned it seems more difficult to find games, particularly given less text including the title of game itself. If users go to one of their favorite genre categories, say, RPG, wouldn't you agree it's easier to browse the selection available here as it is instead of the selection + 1,000 RPGMaker games sprinkled in with no rhyme or reason?

In theory maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to toggle curation as an option, selected by the user as to whether they want to see "all games" or just "curated games". But I still fear the same effect would happen to casual users who are interested in deep games...I think the curation setting couldn't justifiably be on by default (otherwise a ton of games being sold would be hidden...developers wouldn't stand for this), and thus games would inevitably get lost in the shuffle.

That said, I agree with the idea that developers should be the ones testing and developing the offline installers. Unfortunately that is only something we would see in an ideal world. It is hard enough to get them to consider ANYTHING but Steam monopoly release; this topic alone provides examples of how developers will release on Humble...but not DRM-free, only Steam-key, thus, essentially a Steam release. That is what is really sad to me in all this.

GOG often make stupid typo and sometimes release uninstallable installers.
So I can sure, they are semi-automated at best.

I will not be surprised if GOG still make all those installers manually.

What is most helpful about this thread is knowing games that I would be cool grabbing soonish opportunity on Steam.

Did not know Fall of the Dungeon Guardians was rejected, yet Legend of Grimrock with its irritating timed tile puzzles made it through no issues.

One of the few times something I've seen on the internet has made me say "What the fuck" out loud. I've said it before and I'll say it again, GOG. I can't speak for everyone here, but I'll buy them day 1 if you ever reverse this utterly bizarre decision.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/mushihimesama
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/deathsmiles
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/dodonpachi_resurrection

And I'll throw this in here for good measure

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/darius_burst_chronicle_saviours

NeonXSZ
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/neonxsz
Question: "Any chance of this game coming to GOG any time soon?"
Intravenous Software: "Unfortunately, not. I put in an application to GOG, after the game was complete, and their reply was although the game looks good they felt is was "too niche" for their audience. I think it would require a large number of gamers requesting that they take it before they would reconsider."
https://steamcommunity.com/app/296010/discussions/0/1480982338947757868/