Third-party developers are getting a little more encouragement to develop and release titles with the Steam online distribution platform in mind, Valve lifting the lid on Steamworks this week.

A full suite of development and publishing tools are offered, and the pack is available free to third-party firms. The tools will assist retail-released games as well as those created for promotion via Steam, too.

"Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," offered Valve president Gabe Newell. "Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing."

Steamworks offers sales stats, gameplay numbers and product activation tools. There's also region locking, encryption, auto-updating, community features and more to aid game makers.

"As more developers and publishers have embraced Steam as a leading digital distribution channel, we've heard a growing number of inquiries regarding the availability of the platform's services and tools," added Jason Holtman, director business development at Valve.

By Luke Guttridge

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