Steam Wizard:Pro tips and guides Part 1

Tip: Start a Steam page with screenshots, a trailer if available, and a game description. Do this first, without a demo or game. Also you can only release the prologue first, and keep it as coming soon, for years, to gain wishlists, you can open a short-term campaign event, as playtest,on Steam Next Festival, and then remove it, also, on the events, don’t forget to stream in the loop with https://robostreamer.com/ .

You can also create events on Steam such as a giveaway contest, you will win a Steam key for an unreleased game, by registering in our Discord community, don’t forget to add a ticket bot, in Discord. You can make the giveaway on Gleam, too, or socials, promoting the post.

Use Google Search Console to verify ownership for the domain, then index your game page on it, Google Developer Console, to take all the metadata for your game title, screenshots ,name of the game, any other information, like developer name, publisher ,release dates etc.

use https://www.codecks.io/steam-bot/ to get your steam reviews into your discord community.

Why? Because the pitch deck is meant for funding. Press kit, to have it ready, after the funding is in, and prologue for a good entry on the forums, blogs, news + press kit, etc.

The cover will be used everywhere, on socials, and for the events The trailer will be used too, at the events, and give it to influencers to post it on their socials, building the hype. Also, it can be used to stream in the loop, every day, on multi-streaming, on multiple platforms at once.Even on Steam But before all, you need a pitch to get some $ , incubators, accelerators, investors, and grants.

Another tip : change the tags every week.

Set the ‘franchise’ on each game - In the ‘edit store page’ section for any of your games (right below where you set developer and publisher), you'll need to specify the franchise name you want to use and then switch to the 'publish' tab and publish your store page changes. You only need to do this for base games--any DLC will automatically inherit the franchise name from its parent game.

Create a group - You'll first need to be an owner or officer in a group that you wish to serve as the foundation for your franchise homepage. As with developer homepages, you'll want to create a group with the name of your franchise. Create a new group or use an existing group you may have set up in the past with your franchise name. Learn more about Steam Community groups

Link your games to a homepage - Then you can use the homepage linking interface to link your franchise name to your community group to create a homepage.

Internal Testing Options

You will need to test your application yourself before release and you may have other employees that you wish to grant access to help test. The best way to enable these employees to test is by adding them to your Steamworks account. By default, the first user created in a Steamworks account is granted administrative permissions and access to the default application being worked on. That user can then add more users to help develop and test the application. You can read more about adding new users in Managing Your Steamworks Account.

Dev Comp Packages

Important Configuration Note As a Steamworks developer, you have a special type of packages attached to your publisher group. This package is called a Dev Comp Package, and it controls what App IDs and Depot IDs your developer accounts will own automatically when logging into Steam. You can see the contents of your Dev Comp packages by selecting the application from your Steamworks home page, selecting the "All Associated Packages, DLC, Demos And Tools"

External Testing Options

Setting up closed or open testing Setting up pre-release testing is easy and free on Steam, and can be configured to small private tests or large public tests, or any combination.

There are two common ways of setting up testing for external audiences:

1. Using the Steam Playtest feature.

2. Using the main game's App ID with release override keys.

Steam Playtest

Steam Playtest is a free, low-risk solution to gathering playtest data without the stress of managing email lists and Steam keys or worrying about user reviews, or wishlists. By using a specific associated appID that is linked with, but separate from your main game, you can do the playtesting you need without interfering with your main game.

Steam Playtest lets you easily gate access to your playtest. You can let in as many or as few players as you need, and deactivate the playtest app when you wish.

A Steam Playtest appID has access to the same Steamworks technical features as your main game - but with reduced store and community setup. Instead of having its own separate store page, your Steam Playtest signup will live right on your main game, so that customers can sign up and access the playtest but still Wishlist or Follow the main game.

Check out the Steam Playtest documentation for the full set-up instructions, configuration scenarios, best practices and FAQs.

2. Release Override Keys While Steam Playtest is the preferred method of enabling closed betas on Steam, release override keys are available if you want to manage your playtest off your main game's App ID and have things like NDAs in place.

3. First, upload a build of your game for your beta testers to play. Next, is strongly recommend setting up your Coming Soon page.

4. It also provides the Steam Community Hub as an easy place for your community to discuss the game and provide feedback, and makes it easy for users to Wishlist your game.

5. Request keys from your “Beta Testing” release override package.

6. Keep track of the keys you hand out. By default, users who activate a key will own the game forever, but if you want to end beta access or revoke the game from beta testers, that’s fine too. When you’re ready to end beta access, revoke the keys using the key-banning tool.

Note: If you’d like to provide a different version of the game to different audiences, that’s easy to do. For instance, you might have beta testers playing one branch, but provide Press/Influencer access to a separate branch. Learn more about enabling separate beta branches.

Consider using “steam curator connect” on Steamworks to get reviewed by them, before early access.

CHECK HERE IF SOMEONE FLAGGED ANY SCAMMER FOR STEALING AND RESELL A STEAM KEY

Testing DLC

Testing a DLC is very similar to testing a game. The DLC has an AppID, and that AppID needs to be in a Dev Comp package that you own (or acquired with a Key) to test. Some DLCs contain content and others are just used as a license check by the game to determine features to unlock.

You can toggle the ownership (license) on and off using the Steam Console (launch Steam.exe -console), and then using the command enable_license

6. Testing Game Demos

Testing your game demo works a little differently from testing a game since Steam will not show the demo if the account already has access to the full game in the library. Considering that your development accounts will already have access to the full game, the demo will not appear on the accounts.

To get around that, request release override keys for the demo to activate on a second Steam account that is not associated with your developer account. That will give you a clean install and the ability to test the demo in the same way that a new user would.

Adding Friends to Test

If you need to add brand-new Steam accounts to your friends list to test the multiplayer functionality in your game, you will need to take an extra step.

By default, new accounts are limited in how they can participate in the Steam Community 7. You can activate a Dev Comp type key for your game on one of the new accounts, which will grant the game to that account and will de-limit that account and allow you to send friend requests from it. potential testers will be able to request access to your Steam Playtest if they're interested.

You can deactivate your Playtest app when you're ready - or leave it available if you want to keep experimenting with upcoming features.

How do I set it up? 8. Create a new Playtest app from the Associated Packages & DLC page for your game. 9. Configure your application in Steamworks.

10. When you're ready, complete the release process for your Playtest app. This will include a simplified store page and build review.

Note: Your playtest will not have its own unique store page, it will only show up as a section on the base game's page. The store review checklist for a Playtest only consists of capsule images and icons. You can start allowing Steam Playtest signups by making them visible on the store page of your main game.

1. If you want to restart your Playtest after it's ended, perhaps you made some changes or increased server capacity, you can set your

Playtest to Visible again.

Signup Type

Changing from a limited-signup playtest (the default) will kick off a process that accepts any pending playtesters. This will generally start

within a few minutes.

The signup type option is also controlled from the Steam Playtest page on the partner site. You can change the signup type whenever you

need.

Coming Soon

Leave it in coming soon minimum 5 years

Use a prologue only, to launch it first, without demo,in coming soon.

Activates Community Hub: Once your store page is visible to customers, it will also enable the Community Hub. This gives you a place to

post announcements, share artwork, and gives your audience a place to share their enthusiasm and discuss your upcoming release.

NOTE: Once your Coming Soon Page is live and your release date is within 14 days, you will be unable to change your release date without

contacting valve

Pre-Purchase

Pre-purchases can be made on your website with steam keys or your build uploaded.

You can take down your game from the store at any time, by contacting the support 🔰

Early access can go without a build showing it, but you need to contact Valve before going in early access, can be posted in community events, any bug fix, or announcements

Regular steam announcements in the events store and toggling all the visibility on will get you sales

Change the tags on Steam every week, to gain more visibility

Localize the title and description in any language

A coming soon page must have streamed in a loop broadcast and can gain a partnership

Use a random email for contact, not your official one, because you will be bombarded with “curator” requests, but you need to be careful, ask for their curator connect steam link, and use curator connect from your Steamworks page app, don’t split the keys in email.

If you find some influencer that is worth it, include a steam key in the subject line and “unreleased game”

never use a gmail . com email to send emails use domain . com, that way will not go in spam

use playtest as a part of the crowdfunding reward

Include a link with an invitee to your discord server, for the game into the game page description, after you are live and approved by Valve. Make sure the invitee is set to never expire.

You need to use Q&A carefully

If your product is doing well, it may get bumped up into the Main capsule on the front page.

Your title will also get additional, organic visibility along the way.

Your title may appear on "New and Trending" lists on the front page or on

genre or category pages. It can appear on various "Top Sellers" lists if achieved. It can appear on the "Specials" sections if you are running a

discount.

It will appear in friends' activity feeds as customers make purchases, share screenshots, earn achievements, and discuss the

product.

Your title might be recommended by Steam Curators or appear in the Discovery Queue.

Any visibility your title may have in these other places is in addition to the visibility generated through Launch Visibility and Update

Visibility Rounds features.

Update Visibility Rounds

When you make major updates to your application, add new content, release new DLC, or ship new features, is a great time to remind new

and existing customers about your product.

The only exception is requesting Release State Override keys for limited beta testing or distributing cosmetic-only DLC to

crowdfunding backers.

If you want to run a giveaway on Steam, please reach out to us and submit a ticket.

Steam Keys for Crowdfunding

Steam Keys can be used to fulfill crowdfunding rewards and grant backers access to your product. If you are considering offering Steam

Release State Override Steam Keys and Alpha/Beta Access for Backers: It’s OK to request a relatively small number of Release State

Override keys that allow early, pre-release access to your game on Steam—these keys can be used to fulfill your most passionate

crowdfunding supporters so that they can help test your game ahead of launch. However, the maximum number of Release State

Override (beta) keys you can request for this purpose is generally 2,500 in total.

Crowdfunding campaigns should be time-limited.

Do you need to run a bigger playtest for your game for crowdfunding backers? Consider using the Steam Playtest feature. You can

request keys for your Steam Playtest app and distribute those to your backers.

Branches (Betas)

Branches, also known as Betas, are specific builds of your application that you have made available publicly or privately through Steam.

1. Share depots with the full app: For any content that's shared between the full app and the demo, put it into its depot and mount the

shared depot from the base app into the demo app. See the Shared Content Depots documentation for more info.

2. Share cloud storage with the full app: The saved game from the demo can be stored to the full game's cloud storage so that users can

pick up where they left off in the demo once they buy the full game. See the Steam Cloud documentation for more info.

Disabling Your Demo

If you wish for your demo to only be available for a limited time, such as during a game conference or festival, you can deactivate and

reactivate it once it has been released.

To Deactivate or re-activate a demo, find the option under 'Technical Tools' on your demo's app landing page and click "Deactivate Demo"

I recommend that the release date be on the 15th, and can be February, March, June, july, or August. only if a game has Halloween vibes, needs to be launched on Halloween, as for Christmas too. You need to stream only on holidays.

You can also do a page as coming soon, only with the prologue, screenshots, cover, and trailer, will gain wishlists even for 5 years, and also can be a

DLC to sell too.

Can go in early access without the main game to sell, like the “pre-order”, page. You can also do a pre-order page on your

website too. For Early access without a build, you must contact Valve first to get approval.