_Journeyman_

After being around for sometime, I'll try to answer a simple question: why should an Indie Developer choose Desura to Distribute his games, instead of Steam?

Well actually you shouldn't, as Steam has something like HUGE user base compared to Desura (like an Elephant compared to a molecule); so let me rephrase: Why should an Indie Developer choose Desura to Distribute his games, alongside more famous stores?

An answer may be that Desura is more focused, with Steam your game has a huge audience but due to the release of an AAA title may go unoticed, while on Desura it would recieve more attention. Another answer is the price: indie followers knows when the price is right, but on famous platforms there are not only indie lovers but also a huge number of people that think a game only worth 60 cents.

Another answer could be the fame. Yes the fame, as Desura and IndieVania are growing in popularity for being respectivly the indie version of Steam and GamersGate; the growing numers of developers using them as distributors is the proof of their good services. Also Desura supports GNU/Linux, and as the humble bundles demonstrated the community around this OS is more than willing to spend more on games to have them working on their platform.

Maybe because it may helop you polishing your game, giving you funds you need through the alphafunding program, without the risk of an unpleasant mistake by your payment provider, like the guys of IndieStone and Goldhawk had.

A good answer could be that Desura support modding, and many Indie teams came out the modding scene; or because moddable games never dies and sell even after time (look only to the HL2 modding community), and when it comes to modding the simplest is the best.

But if all these reasons don't count, there's the last: Desura is indie like you are, they don't belong to evil dev-devouring corporations; also they don't develop games they only distribute them, so there's no risk that as the distributor publish his own game it "hides" in his flashing promos yours.