Submitting my first Steam game

This month, I submitted my first game to Steam. The process was more involved than expected, so I want to document what I learned in case it helps other first-time developers.

Joining Steamworks

Before I could upload anything, I had to set up a Steamworks account. That includes:

providing bank information,
paying the $100 submission fee,
submitting tax documents, and
verifying my identity with a photo of my ID plus a selfie holding it.

It’s a thorough onboarding process, but it moves quickly once you have all the documents ready.

Game build

The build side of Steamworks has a lot of moving parts: depots, launch options, install directories, and packages.

I created a depot for each supported platform (Windows, macOS, Linux):

Steam depots for Windows, macOS, and Linux

I was able to upload the depot contents as ZIP files through SteamPipe > Web Uploads since they’re less than 2048MB compressed:

Steam depots upload

One thing I didn’t realize at first is that you must publish the build or several features will stay blocked.

Steam build

Assets

Steam needs a surprising number of images for the store page, library page, and events. I was able to reuse the same header image for both the store and library pages, but I had to create unique assets for everything else. Here’s the official documentation of all the graphical assets and you can download the templates from Dropbox.

Steam store small capsule

For the trailer, I reused a trimmed version of my gameplay trailer. After uploading it, the conversion took several minutes, even though the file was not large, so it seems like the processing is queued rather than instant.

Installation and launch options

I added launch options for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The tricky part was making sure each executable path matched its depot exactly for my Ren’Py game named knitbone:

macOS: knitbone.app
Windows: knitbone-1.1.0-win\knitbone.exe
Linux: knitbone-1.1.0-linux/knitbone.sh

I also had to double-check the platform support settings to make sure the operating system flags lined up with the builds I uploaded.

Packages

Packages were another place where it’s easy to miss a step. To complete the package setup, I had to make sure the Store and Devcomp packages matched and included depots for Windows, macOS, Linux, and SteamOS.

To fix missing depots, I went to Apps & Packages > View Packages, clicked each Package ID, and added the missing macOS and Linux depots.

Steam Package Details

Release

I submitted both the Store Presence and Game Build for review and they were approved within a week (it could take up to 2 weeks).

Then I published my store page as Coming Soon. That lets customers see the page and add the game to their wishlist, and it also satisfies Steam’s requirement of at least two weeks between when the store page becomes visible and the earliest possible release date.

Steam publish

Steamworks checklist

Here’s the checklist that Steam provides that serves as the minimum work items needed to prepare your application for release on Steam.

Your Store Presence

Required items for listing as “Coming Soon” as well as for full release.

Store:

Basic Info
Descriptions
Content Survey
Planned Release Date
System Requirements
Controller Support Description
5 or More Screenshots
Capsule Images
Library Assets
Support Info
Developer and Publisher Names
Store Page Descriptive Tags

Community:

App Icon
Shortcut Icon

Your Game Build

This checklist, in addition to the one above, should serve as a list of the minimum work items to prepare your application for release on Steam. For a more comprehensive view of preparing for release on Steam, please see the Step-by-Step guide.