Hey, first post here. I'm trying to spread the word about my Kickstarter project for saving your PC games on the cloud.
Essentially, it's a simple way to backup/sync your game saves for games with no Steam Cloud support. It uses its own cloud storage servers made specifically for storing game saves.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2116167676/gamestow-save-your-pc-games-on-the-cloud
Thanks for checking it out!
So essentially it's GameSave Manager + Dropbox, but all in one? What makes your service better?
That's a great question, glad you asked. It does have similar functionality to GSM+DB, but I feel like needing to download two different programs and then figuring out how to link the two turns a lot of people off. This service is designed to do one thing and to do it as simply and elegantly as possible.
Another benefit is that you don't need to worry about running out of storage space everytime you want to cloud sync your save data. Lets say you have a Skyrim game save that's 50 MB. If you depend on dropbox you'll always need to make sure that you have enough space for your game save files or else you risk losing progress. With the free tier of my service, you'll be able to save 'X' number of games on the cloud and not have to worry about how big the save files are.
Any funds raised will go toward running the servers during the beta test while we figure out a sustainable business model and determine the value of 'X'. But seeing how cheap storage is these days, I'm betting 'X' will be enough for the majority of users.
I gotta say, i think this is an excellent idea.
I will be sure to spread the word about your Kickstarter. I eagerly await to see where this project goes. :)
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This is why I don't see this working out nicely. GameSave Manager and Dropbox both do one thing and do it well. Dropbox is great with file synchronization (it even transfers stuff over the LAN for maximum speed!). GameSave Manager seems to be great at managing game saves. If you're capable of beating Dropbox at their own game, go for it, but I really doubt it. Even if you are capable of doing that, I doubt that you'd be able to get a nice set of customers. Why would someone subscribe to your service when they can subscribe to Dropbox and get a larger featureset? Do you do backups of saved games? Will you support 'custom' games or can I only synchronize games that Gamestow officially supports? If I have my own back-end solution for backups and synchronization, can I use that instead of yours?Originally Posted by ChezMix
That said, I'd be willing to back this if it was cross-platform or open-source.
I'm glad there's some sensible discussions going on about this.
Although I think there's a limited market for this idea - given that Steam has such an enormous software library now, and the Steam cloud service is both seamless and transparent - I applaud you for giving this idea a shot.
The world needs more people thinking up original ideas and trying to improve the infrastructure for the industry. Developers have often been blighted with the fractious vagaries of data storage on various platforms and devices - it would be good to have a well backed and developed source for them to move to.
I do agree with some of the above comments though. Despite your offering of the 'unified' service; that service alone has to best the amalgamation of the two. It's not like sticking a Ferrari engine into a Bentley. You have to take the best elements of both and improve on them in such a way as to offer a unique ISP that encourages gamers / developers to both move to your platform and help you support it, beyond the simple fact of it being a simple combination of both. I don't think the unlimited storage idea is enough of a sell, even in these days of cheap storage - simply because of the vastly cheap nature of solid state memory (not drives, but sticks). One 8gb stick alone would happily store 163 50mb save game files.
Good luck with your idea, I hope it works out for you and all involved.
Last edited by pixelprime; 15-03-2012 at 08:51 PM.
You guys do bring up some very valid concerns.
I guess the best way to address it is that we're not trying to beat Steam Cloud, DropBox, or any other service at it's own game. We're trying to fill a void that currently exists in the market. On one hand you have a very closed yet robust Steam Cloud product that seems to just work magically. On the other hand, you have GSM+DB that lets you implement a do-it-yourself solution, but requires more technical knowledge than the average gamer possesses (If you asked a random gamer what is a symlink is, what are the chances they would have even heard the term before?) You can think of my service as a compromise between the two sides, more flexible than Steam Cloud but less flexible than any do-it-yourself solution could ever offer. With that said, there's nothing currently stopping us from allocating storage for game backups or eventually supporting 'custom' games. Down the road that could very well be a feature.
I see forum threads all the time complaining that X doesn't/will never have have Steam Cloud support. Those people are really the target audience.
As for the pricing model, yeah I'm still not sure about that. But that's what beta tests are for. =) Anyways thanks for the support and feedback. I really do appreciate it.
Last edited by ChezMix; 15-03-2012 at 11:30 PM.
Just an update: we're 91% funded with 5 days left! We've also allowed people to create temporary accounts here and try out what we have so far. Not everything is implemented yet, but the syncing functionality should be working.
If anyone gets a chance to try it out, I'd be really interested in hearing some feedback.
Brian Fargo doesn't hide behind a nickname. When you want to promote a Kickstarter project, you should state your first name and last name. You want money, you take responsibility. Your name would also be used to judge your credibility.
Their names can be found on the Kickstarter page (Brandon Chez & Andrew Prelusky), putting their full names as their username on here would be strange/wouldn't fit.
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