Of all the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 winners, Schedule 1 arguably stood out as one of the most unique – after all, it is about running your own drug empire… but, what if it wasn’t?

After launching into Early Access on Steam, Schedule 1 took the web by storm and currently sits with “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews eight months on. Players praise it as a fun management game, with many spending over 100 hours in-game. At the Golden Joystick Awards, Schedule 1 further proved itself with a win and a nomination, bagging the Breakthrough Award and going up as a Best Early Access Game contender.

    • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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      17 hours ago

      Worth stating, Australia’s censorship didn’t phase him… but Valve’s would have.

      Australia is a significant but minor market. Steam is ‘be on this service or fail.’

    • Senator Collins@aussie.zone
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      18 hours ago

      Yeah, that’s not ████ ███████. I’d like to ████ ████ █████.

  • Sausager@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    I enjoyed the demo but had no idea it was doing this good. I’m glad to hear it! It’s on my wishlist but I’m just not sure I want to get into a management game atm

    • Unforeseen@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      I played the demo no problem on Linux and I went to buy it and it wouldn’t launch saying windows only. I had to refund.

      It might have been my problem somehow but troubleshooting a new game is not something I’m willing to spend my time on.

      • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz
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        7 hours ago

        In the future, you just need to make sure the game is running on Proton. You might need to change the Proton version.

        Just clicking those drop-down options will be the majority of “troubleshooting” you’ll have to do to get games working.

  • dukemirage@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

    But weed has medical uses, hasn’t it?

  • Hannes@feddit.org
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    16 hours ago

    Another prime example of why Steam has an absolute Monopoly on the market.

    A single distributor should not have that kind of influence over game development

    • judgyweevil@feddit.it
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      16 hours ago

      The real problem are the payment networks. If VISA and Mastercard put limits on porn and drugs in games ( as they have already done) no shop can sell it

    • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      This kind of game becoming successful would have been impossible before Steam. In the old days the brick-and-mortar stores would refuse to stock any game that was even remotely controversial in content or age rating. Steam has been hands-off regarding what they allow outside of things that are illegal (or, recently, that their payment processors disapprove of - if you want to talk about influential monopolies that shouldn’t exist…).

      San Andreas and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion were even pulled off of store shelves temporarily due to their age ratings being adjusted. Places like Walmart are a hundred times worse gatekeepers than Valve has proven to be.

      • cardfire@sh.itjust.works
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        16 hours ago

        That’s the thing. Steam didn’t do ANYTHING to traditional distribution channels. They all put themselves out of business, or out to pasture.

      • mech@feddit.org
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        16 hours ago

        https://dosgames.com/game/crime-fighter/
        In this, you play your way to become a crime lord. You make money by pickpocketing, pimping, dealing drugs, stealing car stereos, breaking into banks, kidnapping children for ransom money and killing cops to get their guns.

        Back then, you didn’t buy games from Walmart (the gaming market wasn’t big enough for that), you bought them via mail order.

      • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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        13 hours ago

        In the old days the brick-and-mortar stores would refuse to stock any game that was even remotely controversial in content or age rating.

        Either you’re too young to have experienced “the old days” or you live in a very conservative area.

        There was absolutely a mature section for nearly every store I went to, they either had sleeves to cover the games with printed/handwritten titles, or were collected and kept in their own area that was in view of an employee to tell kids to stay away.

        Places like Walmart

        Oh, you meant department stores, not actual local game stores.

    • Feydaikin@beehaw.org
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      14 hours ago

      And yet, it’s still the best we have. And I can only imagine the shenanigans if any of the competing storefronts held the position Steam does.

      I’m fairly certain the gaming scene would be far worse if, say, Microsoft had the leading storefront.