Make content for Dota 2/TF2, and help fund the Blender Foundation.
Starting today, item creators in Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 Workshops may choose from a selection of toolmakers, communities, and mentors and allocate a percentage of revenues from in-game item sales to the toolmakers who aided in the items’ creation.
Since the Steam Workshop launched in October of 2011, over 1,200 items created by members of the community have been made available for sale in Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2, producing over $10 million in royalties paid to item creators.
However, creating high quality content for games is rarely a solo endeavor. Along the way, item creators often make use of specialized tools and receive help, guidance, and feedback from various communities and individuals. We’ve heard from a number of item creators that are looking for a formal way of recognizing and rewarding the toolmakers and service providers that have helped them. Now they can!
When submitting an item to the Team Fortress 2 or Dota 2 Workshop, item creators can select from a list of companies, organizations, or individuals to receive a portion of revenue from that item’s sales.
The contribution will be made from a set percentage that is redirected from Valve to the toolmakers, not taken from the item creator’s royalty.
There are a lot of organizations and companies that provide valuable tools and services to aid in the creation of game content. But it’s usually not obvious to us which of these organizations are providing the most value for any individual content creator. We’ve started with a basic list (links below), but we’d like to hear about others from item creators such as yourself. Jump into the TF2 and Dota 2 Workshop Discussions and tell us what other communities, individuals, or companies have helped you along the way that you’d like to be able to compensate.
If you already have an item in the Team Fortress 2 or Dota 2 Workshop, you can add and set these royalty splits by visiting the page for your item in the Workshop (only available for items that have not yet been accepted for sale in-game). Click here to view all your workshop items.
That’s interesting. I’m embarrassingly ignorant on this whole Dota 2/TF 2 stuff, but perhaps I’ll look into it and see if I can’t get Blender some cash.
This alone can trump BF’s current funding levels from its donors by no small margin. It is entirely possible for the BF to get serious funding from this. I’m talking about 7 figures here. I bet Ton is feeling pretty comfortable right about now. =)
Kudos to Valve for listing the BF as a potential beneficiary. But don’t Valve usually take something like 10 years to produce a game? Years well spent, but still.
Btw I notice on the Foundation’s Steam profile they have spent 0 hours playing games. Tsk.
Not quite. Portal 2, Left 4 Dead 1-2, Dota… these are all came out quite fast in regards to development time. Additionally, its not really about the games and whether the BF is playing them… in fact it has nothing to do with playing the game… and everything to do with creating content for the game.
Basically the steam workshop is an online marketplace in which game artist can make assets for characters (hats, swords, props…ect) and sell them on the market place. The creator of the asset gets royalties from every purchase, and Valve will dedicate a portion of the profits they make to fund one of those groups.
I do encourage everyone to support Valve though if at all possible. Gabe Newell is very pro open source and is creating a way for users to create their own content for games they like while also making a living from doing so. Additionally, they are able to use that platform to fund groups and open source software that normally cant get that kind of exposure and levels of funding. Basically its like a major game publisher funding and backing an open source project.
I’m terribly happy about Valve’s latest decisions (native linux client, now this)…
But I find it a bit strange. I don’t think there is another company doing such decisions.
Only now people create the content and it must be at fraction of cost compared to professional developers. But hey, who cares, the plan seems to work and people are not against of being ripped off.
There are guys making a living out of TF2 and DOTA2, how is that being ripped off? It also prolongs the life of the game as the dev does not have to sustain it and can make something else. Everybody wins, I don`t see anyone being ripped off here.
It’s like those “Design me a Logo” contests. Everyone designs a logo, but only one person gets a prize. Everyone who doesn’t get picked did design-work for free.
I haven’t gone through all the stuff on this to know if it applies or not.
Actually I have made some hats and weapons to tf2 but none got into the actuall game, so yes only the best can make liwing of it. But back then, I needed some stuff into portfolio so it was not all wasted.
EDIT: Though there are no specific “logos” that must be created, you are free to do what ever, you only need to follow their guide lines. If your stuff is good, community will like it and it may get implemented by Valve if the technical requirements are met.
When you make content for Dota 2 or TF2 (and its still a new system they are creating) is has to be passed through a quality filter. Additionally, they have to check to see if the artist is ripping off someone elses work as well. They benefit from getting your content through, since they take a piece of every sale when its put on the market. Realistically we have to accept that not every asset will be made right or would be at the level that it should be to fit in with the rest of the game’s content. Valve is carefully opening up the market to more content but prefers quality over quantity, and as this system is tested and opens up more, you will be able to create more content for more games and they may or may not be as picky.
xrg: it does not apply in the slightest. You can make something if you want to, and if the community likes it, it will be added to the game. At that point, you get a (decent) cut of the profits.
It’s a marketplace, not a competition.
I was just clarifying what Krice stated. It’s like those Stephen Silver videos that were making the rounds awhile back. From what I understand it works like this:
Valve has a ton of design work rolling in that they aren’t compensating artists for.
Out of that big pool of designs, Valve gets to cherry pick the stuff they want. The assets they do select they still don’t compensate the artist for their work.
Instead, they give the artists selected a chance to compete in a marketplace in order to be compensated by revenue sharing off the sales it generates.
Maybe I’m wrong in my assumptions though. As Krice said though, it works and people don’t seem to mind it. It’s probably a whole lot cheaper than paying professional artists to make DLC.
