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Building a Steam Purchase Server


Josh

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One of my main goals in 2016 is to build a built-in store for Leadwerks users to buy and sell 3D models and other items through Steam. It took me a while to understand how this works:

  • The client (Leadwerks Editor) sends a message to the Leadwerks.com server requesting that a purchase be made.
  • The Leadwerks.com server sends a message to the Steam server requesting that a purchase be initialized.
  • Steam displays a dialog to confirm the transaction in Leadwerks Editor.
  • The Steam server returns the result of the transaction to the Leadwerks.com server.
  • If the transaction was successful, the Leadwerks server stores a record of the transaction in an SQL database on the server.
  • The editor receives a message confirming the transaction and downloads the purchased item.

 

It's sort of complicated, and it's not really something I am used to dealing with. The first step is to restore our SSL certificate, which I let lapse because we aren't using it for anything anymore. I have a web developer I talked to a few months ago about this project, and put it on hold because of the holidays, but will contact him again soon.

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I'm a bit confused.

Do you see the content (items for sale) in the editor and not the Workshop? Why do you need Steam if the message goes from Leadwerks.com to Steam to Leadwerks.com?

 

Still looking forward to this.

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I would assume Steam is the infra that's holding the items and managing the sale itself. Josh could skip Steam and do his own thing but then he'd have to manage the storage of items and sales transactions himself, which he could do with a little more work. That way we would get more of the profits since Steam wouldn't need it's cut.

 

I have to imagine there is a shopping cart that you can control vial web api calls that can be integrated into the LE editor just the same as the workshop would be.

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I would agree with Rick to exclude the element of Steam from the whole thing, but there would be less exposure of items, and the fact you don't need to submit your payment options to another website. I'm one of those people who doesn't like to submit their payment information to a lot of websites.

 

Although there would be more slices of the pie to go around, Steam is still the better choice for the content creator (More Exposure) and the customer (Easy to find items and pay for them).

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That's what I'm wondering about though. I mean if it's in the editor then it gets the exposure to LE users. I never look at the workshop in steam. I do it from the editors interface which at that point I don't really care where it's coming from/stored. The question is does having steam house the workshop items give people a more fussy feeling about LE than if it had it's own storage place for things and you added/edited/put up for sale from the LE editor?

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it's easier to buy if you don't have to enter card details. It doesn't seem like real money.

So through steam you would pick up more sales.

 

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it's easier to buy if you don't have to enter card details. It doesn't seem like real money.

So through steam you would pick up more sales.

 

Yep. The user never has to sign up or enter their CC number. That convenience will make a 10x difference in your sales vs. just having a website.

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This is what paypal is supposed to be. I use it for most all online purchases because of this, but I know not everyone does that.

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This is similar to how the game creators do their asset store for GameGuru. You can log in with a site account or link a steam account. Then you can either use PayPal to add credits, or use the linked steam account to add credits or just b buy the specific models.

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That's what I'm wondering about though. I mean if it's in the editor then it gets the exposure to LE users. I never look at the workshop in steam. I do it from the editors interface which at that point I don't really care where it's coming from/stored. The question is does having steam house the workshop items give people a more fussy feeling about LE than if it had it's own storage place for things and you added/edited/put up for sale from the LE editor?

 

I'm not a fan of the current editor workshop interface, or the amount of control that you don't have.

 

In the editor, it's as barebones as it gets. You can only search. You can't sort or look through categories. You can't look at what other things an author has done, or can you see if they are part of a bundle.

 

Also the way private items DON'T actually work. I wanted to set a project to private and share it with my testers. In steam they could see the project, but in editor and the game player it did not show up. So now I have to place it on a file share site and distribute links.

 

These are some things that must be settled before a store where people are parted with their money is released.

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The final interface will look more like the game launcher UI, and include some of the features it has like categories and sorting options.

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i think steam is the wrong place.

also i do not like everything depending to steam.

the assetstore from unity is very well as role model except lv11.

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i think steam is the wrong place.

also i do not like everything depending to steam.

the assetstore from unity is very well as role model except lv11.

Your sales with Leadwerks will be a lot higher, because it's on Steam and the user doesn't have to enter their credit card number or create a new account.

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