Steam

Information
Steam

Release Date	WW: 12 September 2003

Status	Supported

Manufacturer

Type	Storefront ( / )

Drawn to Life Games
Navigation
Predecessor None	Successor None

“Anyone can ship anything.”

–Valve

Steam is a PC game storefront and distribution service developed and maintained by Valve Corporation since it's initial release in 2003. It is currently the largest video game distribution platform for PC games, with a majority of today's AAA, AA, and Indie titles being released on the platform. Steam is home to just one Drawn to Life game, the most recent entry Drawn to Life: Two Realms, although the series' development teams 5th Cell and Digital Continue have released other titles on the platform.

HistoryEdit

Early FormationEdit

Steam was originally developed as a software client to provide updates to Valve's games, as they realized simply releasing patches for their multiplayer games wasn't the most efficient as players would be logged out until the patches were installed, sometimes for days. This system would prioritize automatic updates, as well as anti-piracy and anti-cheat measures to ensure people owned the game legitimately. After getting rejected from multiple clients, they started development on it themselves and released it to the world in 2003. Valve would also begin to release their own games exclusively through Steam, starting with Half-Life 2 in 2004. Steam eventually expanded towards its' more well-known game distribution format the very next year, with even more features and enhancements being added over the next two decades. The platform would go on to become the biggest current platform for PC titles, and would receive dedicated hardware such as the handheld Steam Deck and the console/PC hybrid Steam Machine.

Development on Drawn to Life: Two RealmsEdit

Drawn to Life: Two Realms was the first - and, to date, only - game in the series to have a version produced for PC. While the Nintendo Switch was the platform Digital Continue was most focused on for the game's foundation, every version of the game was made identical so each one would feel similar, including the mobile ports. This has resulted in a gameplay style that differed significantly from previous games, although many past developers of the older titles would return to produce this entry. Development lasted around 18 months according to director Joseph M. Tringali, although the cavalcade of development issues the game faced suggested development wasn't smooth.

This included time crunch, a number of assets being either replaced or removed, issues with Draw Mode integration, resource allocation issues, ideas and concepts being changed constantly - sometimes while previous ideas were already in the game - and even the marketing releasing with some concepts and characters cut from the final game. While unconfirmed, the COVID-19 pandemic is also believed to be a contributing factor. Prior to the launch build's completion, a number of ratings boards classified the title, with the first known case being the Australian Classification Board's rating occurring on September 1st, 2020. It's Taiwanese rating, given by the Game Software Rating Management Regulations (GSRMR) board, was leaked on October 22nd, with the French 505 Games YouTube channel accidentally releasing the reveal trailer on November 3rd, before revealing it for real three days later.

Aggregated Scores
Critical Scores
	60/100 (PC)
	53/100 (Average)	18% (Reccomended)
	Mixed (40% Positive Reviews)

The game received middling-to-negative reviews everywhere, with the Metacritic score averaging at 60% on PC, and the OpenCritic average sitting at just 18% of critics recommending it across all platforms. The Steam rating currently sits at a "Mixed" score with 40% positive reviews from 220 players, just one percent from a "Mostly Negative" score. Many critics and fans alike were critical over the lack of draw-able objects relevant to the story, inconsistent art direction, the game's plot containing hole and contradictions from previous entries, controller input latency when using a controller, a number of bugs and glitches present at launch and the gameplay and story generally being unrefined. Many of these issues would be fixed via the Creation Pack, a series of two free updates that also added new levels, stickers and Hero templates. It was later found, however, that some content in these packs were already accessible in the game files, with these updates serving to unlock them.

As a result of a release on Steam, the game released with a digital soundtrack available to purchase separately, along with emoticons and wallpapers available through the Points Shop. It is also the first game to receive achievements, with 20 able to be unlocked as the player goes through the game. This wasn't free of issues, however - players have reported bugs in some achievements, making them impossible to obtain without save file modification. This was most notably seen with the All the options in the world achievement, and the Raster Hero achievement faced similar problems.

Prior to the game's release, Tringali expressed interest in an expansive sequel to Two Realms and a remake of the previous Drawn to Life games for the Nintendo Switch. These, however, were determined based on the game's critical and commercial performance; with Two Realms' terrible critical reception and the lack of sales figure information available, it's believed to be a critical and commercial failure. It is currently unknown if Steam was also where Digital Continue intended for future entries to release on.

Notable GamesEdit


Game	Developer	Publisher	Release Date
Half Life		Self-Published	Nov. 19, 1998*
Half Life 2		Self-Published	Nov. 16, 2004
Portal		Self-Published	Oct. 10, 2007
Team Fortress 2		Self-Published	Oct. 10, 2007
Left 4 Dead		Self-Published	Nov. 18, 2008
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive		Self-Published	Aug. 23, 2012
			Nov 13th, 2012
Dota 2		Self-Published	Jul. 9, 2013
	/		Sept. 24, 2013
			May 30, 2017
			Jan. 11. 2018
		Self-Published	Sept. 19, 2018**
Half Life: Alyx		Self-Published	Mar. 23, 2020
			Dec. 7, 2020
		Self-Published	Jan. 14, 2021***
****		Self-Published	Mar. 3, 2021
Deadlock		Self-Published	Upcoming

*Preceded Steam.
**The game has since been rendered unplayable following Mixer's closure, but is still accessible and available for download.
***This game was released on the Epic Games store in 2019, but was released on Steam in 2021.
***Castlehold is still available on Steam, but remains in Early Access. It also appears to have connection issues upon startup after completing the demo, rendering the game unplayable.

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TriviaEdit

All five of Digital Continue's games saw a release on Steam.
- Additionally, all three 5th Cell series that began on the Nintendo DS received at least one title on Steam.
Drawn to Life: Two Realms is only compatible for the Windows and Linux versions of Steam.
The Steam version of Two Realms is the highest-rated version on Metacritic.
- The Steam version also allows for touch support on computers that have touchscreen functions.
The game was reported to be playable on the Steam Deck, although Valve has yet to confirm this on the game's Steam page.
With only one title under it's belt, Steam is among the platforms with the least amount of Drawn to Life games.