Valve has launched its Steam Greenlight service to enable users to select which games will be available on the digital distribution platform.
The community voting scheme has been designed to create a more open approval process, as well as letting more developers gain access to Steam.
The move could also help devs find out more about the potential popularity of their games before release.
“We’ve been working on this feature for the last few months with the input from a group of indie partners, and the response has been extremely positive,” said Valve’s Anna Sweet.
“With the additional help of beta testers, we are able to launch with a solid line-up of titles for the community to start viewing and rating.
"And, as we’ve done with all Steam features, we intend to continually grow and modify Greenlight as more and more developers and community members have a chance to get involved.”