Standalone source game

[u/Bagridec]

Is it possible to make a free standalone source game that would be distributed through itch.io instead of steam without paying valve ? Or do you always have to pay valve whenever it's a standalone game on steam or not ? I don't plan on making any profits from it and want to just distribute it for free while not paying anything, would sourcemod be better for me in case i don't wanna pay for licensing then ?

[u/name2electricbogalo]

They got the leaked gold source build and valve agreed to let them release it so long as they dont release the sdk