The developer of Frozen Synapse believes that Steam is nothing short of essential to the success of independent game developers.

Paul Taylor of Mode 7 Games says that while many developers see Valve's digital distribution service as a monopoly, the platform's willingness to experiment with alternative sales methods—such as giving away a free game with the sale of new ones—is attractive to players and developers alike.

"That's one of the best things about Valve, they don't say 'you are doing this'—which they could very easily—they'll say 'this is the kind of thing we want to do, this is why, how do you want to go about it?' It's great, it lets you try stuff.

"We're doing some stuff on Steam that people don't normally do, like the free key for a friend thing, or offering the soundtrack as a separate thing you can upgrade to. They're quite different, and Valve had to do some actual system-related stuff to allow us to do that. For any indie game that doesn't have a lot of clout, they're surprisingly flexible and that's great.

"When you're a company with that much power and that size, you ahve to strike a balance between doing things that benefit you and things that create a good eco-system for everyone."

"It is astonishing just how important they are in terms of the PC, he said. "Steam is really essential for indie games at the moment."

The rest of the interview can be read here [registration required].