'Golden goose' indie games get Gabe Newell's attention, says Steam expert: 'You're like a little goblin that has a magical power to turn straw into gold'

I occasionally find myself counting my lucky stars that I'm not a videogame developer, largely because trying to finesse the Steam market sounds like an abstract nightmare. And after listening to indie game advisor Chris Zukowski, who gave a talk at GDC this year (via GamesRadar+) I'm not convinced that sorcery isn't involved.

Some Steam hopefuls, according to Zukowski, are "golden goose" games—the implication being that they are eggs yet to hatch, but have the potential to rake in cash for Steam, thus drawing its attention. The tipping point is around $150,000 sales in six months alongside 500 reviews—humble amounts compared to the big boys, but enough to start gathering moss.

"Your relationship with Valve will change overnight," Zukowski explains. "Gabe cannot buy yachts with wishlists. And you will have so many wishlists after you launch a golden goose game. Gabe will need you. He needs you and your golden goose, and that's a nice thing to have."

He then begins to talk about the process as though the developer in question has been plucked out of the pages of a storybook: "You have power now—all of the sudden you're like a little goblin that has a magical power to turn straw into gold. And Gabe needs you to convert those wishlists into gold. Gabe needs the gold. He will say to you, 'oh god, please spin these wishlists into gold.' And it is up to you to do it. He cannot do it for you."

The process, he argues, is something he calls "the breath of Steam," which is to "inhale wishlists, exhale money." The inhale being Steam's promotion cycle, the exhale being sales—which, fair enough. If I'm on the fence about a game, a sale is the most likely thing to get me to hop on it.

The power of a sale is so strong, in fact, that Zukowski apparently has data to suggest that as many as one to two discounts a month lead to more bulk sales for these golden geese overall.

You might even get a special weekend deal: "I think Valve uses weekend deals to really juice up the games that are going viral," Zukowski explains, before sharing a quote from a dev that states their game's weekend deal raked in more cash, daily, than their launch.

Still, having made it to this status doesn't sound any less stressful—the opposite, actually. Being selected as a golden goose apparently starts a rush to keep the momentum going with, DLCs, bundles, promos, collabs—anything you can throw at them that might stick, really.

"Some people seem to cringe at this," Zukowski admits, and while I'm certainly flinching myself, he's also argued that communities, like the ones behind Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, are happy for more: "They do tons of DLC, and they asked the community, 'are we doing too much DLC?' And the community's like, 'oh please, give us more.'"