ABOUT Steamworks Development

Official Group for Steamworks Development Support

NOTE: This group is restricted and visible only to accounts with Steamworks access. Announcements however are public.

This community of Steamworks developers is intended for sharing information regarding Steam and Steamworks development.

Please use the Discussions to ask Steam and Steamworks related questions. You'll also find FAQs and responses to other common questions in there.

And we'll post announcements for relevant updates and changes involving Steamworks SDK.

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RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Steam Asset Sizes & New Preview Tool

22 January - Alden | 29 Comments

This post at a glance:

Steam asset templates were updated in August, increasing dimensions by 2x
Steam now only accepts the newer, larger sizes
New preview tool available, created by indie game developer

New Graphical Asset Dimensions

We've recently been making some updates to the dimensions of assets used to promote your game on Steam, increasing many asset sizes by 2x back in August. You can read the original announcement. Use of these new asset sizes will be rolled out across Steam in the coming months as we update key areas of the platform. These newer asset sizes are intended to help your game shine on larger and higher-resolution displays such as the Steam Deck OLED and 4k Monitors.

To support these changes in asset dimensions, we revised all of our templates. These templates are in Steam Photoshop format, and when necessary show key title safe areas.

Download Latest Asset Templates[www.dropbox.com]

New Preview Tool

We recently noticed a neat tool made by indie game developer Nick Pfisterer of Polymoon Games[polymoon.net]. Nick had realized his own needs for a tool that better previewed the Steam assets so that he could better design them for their intended use case. Along the way, he ended up making a tool that he thought could be helpful for other developers and released it as a paid template.

We agree that it's a neat tool, so we worked with Nick to buy out the tool and make it available as a free resource for any developer on Steam. It is now included alongside our asset templates.

Here's a preview of the preview tool...

This preview tool is built in Figma[www.figma.com], a free online design collaboration tool. To utilize the preview tool, simply create a free Figma account and import the template into your Figma work space (find the import button in the upper-right corner of the home screen in Figma). You can then drop your Steam assets into each of the corresponding asset templates and then switch to the 'preview' page to see them appear in little mockups of various Steam pages.

Third-Party Sales Events on Steam

11 December, 2024 - kevinc | 9 Comments

Steam regularly enables tools for third-parties to host sales events on the Store.

Unlike the Steam-hosted events (such as Next Fest or the Autumn Sale), third-party sales events are organized by gaming-industry groups outside of Steam and they can focus on a wider range of topics, including:

Publisher Sales Events - like the Super Giant Publisher Sale, the Kalypso Anniversary Sale or the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale.
Franchise Sales Events - such as the Fallout Franchise Sale or Bruce Wayne's Birthday.
Gaming Showcase Events - for example The Game Awards, gamescom or PAX.
Regional Sales Events - such as Games from Turkey or Games Made in New Zealand.
Themed Sales Events - such as TactiCon, the Cozy Games Celebration, or LudoNarraCon.

We believe that when they’re well run and well implemented, third-party sales events can accomplish several important goals at once. They make the Store a livelier and more-engaging place for players, they help developers find new audiences for their games, and they help event organizers connect with the Steam-portion of their online communities.

All in all, we're happy to see third-party sales events gaining popularity on Steam. Since the sales event tools were first introduced to partners in 2020, almost 3,000 sales events have been released on Steam, with the total number in 2024 on pace to grow 20% relative to 2023.

As third-party sales events continue to gain momentum, developers have been asking more questions about how to get involved, and event organizers have been submitting a wider range of event ideas. To help meet the growing interest, we recently outlined new documentation on the processes involved in joining and hosting these kinds of events.

This new documentation is divided into two broad categories:

Participating in Third-Party Events

Do you have a game that would like to join a third-party sales event? More details on how this works can be found in the link below. Since these events are hosted by organizations outside of Steam, you’ll need to reach out to the event host for an invite, but this documentation outlines what to expect after your game has been invited:

> Participating in Third-Party Sales Events

Hosting Third-Party Events

Are you an event organizer with interest in bringing a sales event to Steam, or growing your off-Steam gaming event with an on-Steam presence? If so, the following link outlines the steps involved, from submitting your event proposal to releasing your event’s approved sale page.

This new documentation also details the factors the Steam Team uses to decide which sales events to feature in the Store. The guiding principle, as always, is that customer interest and player data should drive such decisions, but more context and additional considerations for event organizers are shared below:

> Hosting Third-Party Sales Events

We look forward to hearing more about your event ideas in 2025 and beyond.