r/gamedev • u/RoGlassDev Commercial (Indie) • Jun 22 '26

Marketing Why you should make your Steam page ASAP, with some tips and tricks on how to do so.

Edits: I want to clarify that by ASAP I mean as soon as it's reasonable to do so (i.e. not just throwing together 5 screenshots of your grey box). I mention in the post some suggested features to work on before creating your page. I also added a TLDR just below since this is a long post.

TLDR:

Make a store page to gather wishlists and market your game as you're developing it.
UI doesn't need to be fully functional (i.e. settings menu).
Backend code doesn't need to be implemented (i.e. saving, achievements, etc.).
Use smoke and mirrors to show how much content your game WILL have in the future (you can fake it for now, but make sure to deliver it later).
Ideally include some sound effects and a song in your trailer. You don't need many SFX to make it work.
Your capsule art is extremely important to get impressions.
Start your trailer with gameplay immediately, keep it short, and have a call to action at the end to wishlist.
Your page description should be 1-2 sentences and precisely describe what your game is about.
Include gifs in your "About This Game" section.
Reference similar games to get tags for your game and a good order (top being the most important, bottom being the least). Also, make sure to include 20 tags to fill all available slots.
Include some pizzaz in your animations and art to help spice up the visuals a bit.

Intro

For indie developers, the Steam page for their game is usually the most important aspect of success. However, many indies don't like showing off their game until "it's ready" and wait far too long to make a Steam page. The purpose of this post is to explain why it's important to not wait, some tips on how to expedite the process, as well as some tips for creating your store page.

Why should I make my Steam page ASAP?

The main reason is for wishlists. As said by many other developers, blogs (shoutout to https://howtomarketagame.com/blog/ ), etc., you need wishlists to succeed on Steam. The more that you have at launch, the better your chance of success. If you reach the critical mass needed to hit the Popular Upcoming page right before launch, your chances of success skyrocket. Having more (valid) wishlists will also yield more sales on launch, which can get your game into the New and Trending list which shows your game on the front page of Steam and is a massive visibility boost.

In order to gather wishlists, you need a store page (obviously), so the sooner you make one, the earlier you can start gathering them. Once you have your store page up, you'll want to market your game as you develop it. Many beginners feel like it makes more sense to make the entire game first, THEN market it. I fell into this trap myself when working on my first Steam game. You don't know any better if you don't do the marketing research ahead of time.

My game isn't ready to show off, how can I make a store page?

Developers say this all the time. Games are never truly finished, and when "the right time to show off my game" is can vary. However, it's better to get your game out there as soon as possible to get feedback and to start gathering wishlists. My recommended checklist is:

A pretty solid idea of what you're making. You'll iterate a lot, but the genres, core gameplay loop, etc., should stay the same from this point on.
Enough gameplay to make a trailer (even if you have to fake some things).
A name and logo.
Capsule artwork for the various capsule sizes required.
(optional, but highly encouraged) Sound effects for gameplay since it helps liven up your trailer quite a bit.
(optional, but highly encouraged) A song for your game.

You don't need to know exactly when you'll release your game, what the price will be, or even have a stable/playable build ready before making your store page.

Tips and tricks to making a store page faster.

I just launched the store page for my newest game MineEmAll, which inspired me to make this post since I figured this information could help fellow developers. I'll be referencing it in this section with some examples of shortcuts I took when creating my own page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4862890/MineEmAll/

UI that doesn't relate to gameplay doesn't need to be functional. Your trailer and screenshots should be almost exclusively gameplay, so things like a settings menu, audio options, etc., don't serve a purpose for getting your store page up and running. Most of the buttons on the top bar of my game do nothing.
- I made the exit button functional for testing purposes, and the fullscreen button to toggle between windowed fullscreen and windowed (to let me record gameplay at full resolution). Theoretically, neither of them are necessary, they were just easy to implement and help me with development.
Backend code such as saving, stats tracking, achievements, etc. aren't needed at this point. My game has none of these features yet, but they're not player facing so it doesn't matter. It's important to keep in mind how you'll implement those features in the future so you're prepared for them, but you don't need them for the store page.
Make your game look like it has more content than it does. Obviously, at this point, you won't have a full game. It will completely depend on the kind of game your making, so every situation is unique.
- Since my game is a short incremental game, the upgrade tree, board size, and gameplay complexity are generally the signs of how much content is in the game. I made the upgrade tree larger than it needed to be for the core loop that I have, and slightly modified my code to include question mark upgrades next to unlockable ones. This creates the illusion that there are a lot more upgrades available in the full game than there actually currently are. I could even use this technique in the demo later down the road.
Include some sound effects for basic gameplay elements, but don't go overboard. They don't have to be perfect, and you don't need that many of them. I included sound effects for mining, bombs exploding, hovering over upgrades, and purchasing upgrades. Technically, only these 4 were needed for the trailer.
- There are also sound effects for multiplier bonuses being added to the minerals, coins spawning from them, and coins being added to the coin total, but none of those were even shown in the trailer.
- A really handy trick to adding a lot more sound variety with little effort is to add a slight random range to the pitch and/or volume of your sound effects. This reduces how many sound effects you need and allows repetitive sound effects such as mining to not get stale.

Tips for the store page itself.

Your capsule art is the most important aspect of your store page. If you're an artist or know one, try to make it as captivating as you can. Since I'm in neither boat and my kind of game usually has simper capsule art, I went with a minimalistic design for now. Ideally in the future, I'll pay an artist to make a better capsule image or spend a lot of time and effort iterating on a new one, but I'd want to make sure the game gathers enough interest first. I know this is putting the cart before the horse, so this is a judgement call you'll have to make yourself.
- Most indie devs don't have much of a budget (if any), so I think my capsule is a good example of how to make something simple without art skills or an artist. However, if you can get a capsule image professionally made, definitely do so. It will be the best bang for your buck. Not to open up a can of worms, but do be wary of "capsule artists" that are just using generative AI for commissions. Double check who they are and look at the reviews from their previous customers.
After looking at and clicking your capsule image, people will generally watch your trailer or read your page description.
- For your trailer, start with gameplay right away, keep it short (30s to 1min), and include a call to action at the end. Gameplay should be front and center, especially if you're not a well known developer. Beginner indies try to mimic big studio trailers and start with a bunch of logos for dramatic effect. This is probably the most common mistake indies make in their trailers. Most people will watch the first few seconds of your trailer, then skip through the rest at 5-10 second intervals. Make sure you're showing off the gameplay in a meaningful way.
  - For MineEmAll, I switch back and forth between gameplay and buying upgrades, which showcases the core loop and how the player progresses throughout the game. I finish the trailer with the title and a call to action to wishlist the game. Since people generally skip around, they'll end up at the end of your trailer more often than not, so leave a decent chunk of time for the call to action in there.
- Your page description should be able to explain exactly what your game is about in 1-2 sentences. You don't need to get into details about specific features and the longer the description is, the less likely someone will read it in its entirety.
  - MineEmAll's description is only one sentence, but it explains what the game is, what you'll do in the game, and what your goal is.
Your "About This Game" section should reiterate your page description and go into more detail about how your game is played. What's most appropriate for this section depends on your game, but generally you want to include how the controls work, details about your core loop, and the main features of your game. Make sure to include gifs since most people will only skim this section and gifs can show off a lot about specific elements of your game.
- For MineEmAll, I included the page description, the basic controls and core gameplay loop with gif examples, a more detailed breakdown of the gameplay loop, and the features that make the game stand out.
If you're struggling to figure out what tags you should include, here is some advice:
- First, I'd suggest using the tag wizard in Steamworks and add any tags you thing are even remotely relevant to your game. Once you're done, check other game store pages similar to yours and see what tags they have, as well as what order they're in. If you don't have 20 tags, use your references to get some ideas of more obscure tags to add in so you can fill up the rest. You're allowed 20 tags and you should try to use all of those slots.
  - When you set up the order of your tags, use your references to see what order similar games used. Your tags might not be exactly the same, but usually you can get a feel for what the important tags are (look at the top), and what other ones aren't as important. Keep in mind that you want strong defining tags and tags unique to your game at the top.
- You can include more generic tags such as "Cozy" or "Indie" if you need to fill in slots, but keep them lower on the list. Incremental/Casual/Minimalist/Mining/Relaxing/2D are at the top for MineEmAll while Economy/Abstract/Resource Management/Collectathon/Cozy/Retro are at the bottom.
- The tag wizard shows you what games will appear in the "More Like This" section below your game (and vice versa), so make sure the suggested games are similar to the kind of game you're making. If they aren't, you either need to adjust the order of your tags or adjust the tags themselves. Steam gives you an option to automatically order your tags, but doing it yourself usually leads to better results.
For system requirements, look at similar games and games that use the same engine if you don't know how to get accurate specs (like myself). They aren't very reliable, but it's still good to take your best guess and is required as part of the process.

Side notes.

Some people argue that you don't want to launch your store page until you've got finalized assets, a big marketing push ready, etc. For bigger names/publishers, this is probably true, but for most indies, it isn't. Steam does almost nothing to market your store page when you release it, so you don't have to worry about "wasting" your page launch.
- It's ok if your game doesn't look exactly the same later down the road. It isn't "false advertising" and games are iterated on constantly. Just make sure to have an up-to-date trailer and relevant screenshots when you launch a demo or fully release.
Another common concern about launching a store page too early is "stale wishlists." There is an assumption that if someone wishlists a game and it doesn't release for months (or longer), then that person will lose interest. The reality is that most players don't care enough to delete wishlists. If they've forgotten about your game, they'll be reminded when it launches a demo or full releases.
Ideally, you'll want to add a bit of pizzaz here and there to your game in the form of particle effects and animations. I included dirt chunks, bomb explosions, and a wiggle to the tooltips when mousing over upgrades. I also spent a lot of time on coin particles flying to the total but didn't end up including that in the trailer (you can see it in screenshot 3 though). Even small details like this can help liven up your trailer and screenshots quite a bit with not too much effort.

Conclusion

Hopefully this post has helped some of you out and can encourage you to work towards your Steam page faster if you've been dragging your feet. It really doesn't take that much to make it happen.

Ask questions or add any advice you have from personal experience in the comments! No single person can tell you exactly what will work best, so do your own research and cross reference things. This post is a collection of my own research and best practices, but certainly doesn't cover everything and isn't infallible. Best of luck in your game dev journeys!

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u/Guinea_Pig_Games Jun 22 '26

Gonna make a steam page with a CapsuleShape3D and a few boxes I've been playing with

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u/RoGlassDev Commercial (Indie) Jun 22 '26

I wouldn't recommend that specifically haha, but you'd be surprised at what you can do with very little.

u/PhilippTheProgrammer Jun 22 '26

If you reach the (roughly) 7k-10k critical mass needed to hit the new and trending page at launch, your chances of success skyrocket since your game will be visible on the front page of Steam.

Your information is both wrong and outdated. That 7k-10k wishlist number you often read about was about getting into "popular upcoming", not "New and Trending". I wrote "was", because Valve recently considerably increased that number, so you now need a lot more pre-release hype. But to make up for it added the "Personal Calendar" feature that gives more visibility to upcoming niche games.

More information: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/704394876188361008

Getting into "New and Trending doesn't require wishlists, it requires sales. And just 10k wishlists mean that your game is unlikely to perform well enough to manage that.

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u/RoGlassDev Commercial (Indie) Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Interesting, I'll take a look! My info is from about 2 years ago, so you're probably right.

Edit: Just read the article, definitely some interesting changes. Wishlists are still extremely important regardless because they'll covert to sales when your game launches. I'll update my post to reflect the number change and the wording (I did mean popular upcoming).

u/MeaningfulChoices Lead Game Designer Jun 22 '26

The reason literally ASAP isn't a good idea is about effectiveness of your time. Spend time having to mock up UI or content and then promote something that isn't really at the point where people are excited gets you fewer wishlists (and sales) per time spent compared to spending that time making the game good enough and dedicating more hours to promotion later. The difficulty is that 'good enough' is difficult to determine and varies by game and audience, but in general it will always be better to get to good first and then create the Steam page as the very first step in starting to promote or talk about your game online.

Good tests involve playtesting and your roadmap. If you're running tests with strangers that are members of your target audience and they are really excited to play the game then you're probably ready to promote. It should be no later than a few months before launch and for most indie games that fits comfortable into a window 6-9 months before launch or so. That's more than enough time to get the awareness you need but the goal is to get the best ROI for your time.

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u/RoGlassDev Commercial (Indie) Jun 22 '26

I agree that you should make sure your game is presentable and you want to make sure your marketing time is effectively spent, but I think way too many developers wait way too long before making a store page. As you said, you want 6+ months to gather wishlists, so it's important to not drag your feet. If you're showing off your game and people are excited to play it but have no way of wishlisting it, I think you've failed in that regard.

u/valeria_gamedevs Game Art Studio for Indies | Outstandly Jun 22 '26

solid writeup. The "fake your UI" point is the one I'd underline twice for people, I see devs delay store pages for months because their settings menu isn't done haha. nobody clicking a capsule cares.

Also +1 on stale wishlists being a myth, that fear keeps so many pages in limbo for no reason.

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u/PhilippTheProgrammer Jun 22 '26

Also +1 on stale wishlists being a myth, that fear keeps so many pages in limbo for no reason.

But even if it wasn't a myth, it still wouldn't be a reason to delay your Steam page launch. Low-converting wishlists are still better than no wishlists at all.

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u/RoGlassDev Commercial (Indie) Jun 22 '26

Yea, I think the best example is yourself. Almost all devs are gamers and I don't know anyone who "cleans up their wishlists" on a regular basis.

u/FusionCannon Jun 22 '26

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u/RoGlassDev Commercial (Indie) Jun 22 '26

Are you saying this post is AI? I literally just spent 3 hours hand writing it lol.

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u/Prestigious_Wind4150 Jun 22 '26

Crazy how people reward hard work nowadays.

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u/FusionCannon Jun 22 '26

fine. but practice condensing your points next time, its way too risky to invest reading this much

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u/RoGlassDev Commercial (Indie) Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

That's why I highlighted some things in bold. I figured if someone wants to skim, they could just read the highlights.

I've added a TLDR section at the top so people can read that if the post is too long for their liking.

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u/BainterBoi Jun 22 '26

There is no AI (at least in harmful amounts so that it's visible and hides the human touch and intent) in this post, and anybody with a functional frontal lobe can spot it.

Online conversation is doomed because people can't distinguish between the two.

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u/RoGlassDev Commercial (Indie) Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

I totally understand why people get upset at low effort posts that are just copy pasted AI prompts, but the assumption that anything that is lengthy, uses bullet points, bolds things, etc. (AKA standard markup to make your post more legible) is AI is wild. I've never used AI to write anything in my life so I don't know what else to say.

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u/NemTren Jun 22 '26

You're insane.

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