BIG Steam Updates for Developers you NEED to know!

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

💬 Steam has put out a bunch of important updates recently. Big changes to how Demos work on the store, what visual assets you need, new review settings, and very importantly new rules for links on the description. Steam is super important so make sure you keep up to date with all their rules and best practices, check out my Game Dev Report newsletter where I cover all these changes. 🎮 FREE Game Dev Report Newsletter - cmonkey.co/gamedevreportnewsletter 🔴 Learn Steam Game Marketing cmonkey.co/howtomarketagame 🔴 RELATED VIDEOS 🔴 Steam EXPERT teaches you Game Marketing for SUCCESS! kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4GyhI2Vn812l9k Steam EXPERT explains How To Make a GREAT Steam page! (Indie Game Marketing) kzbin.info/www/bejne/hau8n4N9o6l3f80 Almost 2 HOURS of Steam Marketing GOLD! kzbin.infonPsGAeqqD64 Apple AI, Steam Algorithm Explained and 300 Game Announcements! (Game Dev Report) kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4Ssh59tqrWUn8k

[@suspecm6316]

I appreciate you putting the link in the comments as well because your descriptions are such a mess of random links it's hard to find what I'm looking for

[@ragix9307]

I’m just here Incase I somehow finish making a game 😂

[@wh0man01]

Do it brother, you got this!

[@soheil4471]

Lol same here

[@mattomwit]

This is so true. My games are over 10 years in making 😢 I could say life happens but it is just the lack of motivation.

[@waldemarlight6149]

@@mattomwit You should make a list of small tasks for yourself and try to complete them in a week, or do a few small tasks each day from the list. This will help instill discipline in the development of an indie project. For me personally, it sped up the process.

[@nah82201]

Same. 😂😅

[@connorjosephmyers]

For referencing a Discord server, I am pretty sure a big image advertising your Discord community saying something like "Join The Community Discord In The Social Link Section" would still be allowed. Maybe something like this would be the best strategy now.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Good point! That might help point people to the official link

[@ChrisJD64]

Good changes, as a steam user I hate the plague of "prologue" and "origins" shit which is basically just a demo and an attempt to get two sources of wishlists

[@Aeroxima]

I didn't initially like the idea of "no links", but it makes sense and seems fair enough. Since I wouldn't have spammed those kinds of links so aggressively, the section for other games or publisher games would only be a step up for me. Not sure I get the demo stuff but it sounds positive, will look into it more as needed.

[@DapperNurd]

I think it's for the better, since they already have the social links section. It'd be nice if they made that section stand out a little more, though.

[@NoTimeLeft_]

Great stuff C.M. Love the updates and this is def something we will factor in during the coming months as we near the launch of NTL.

[@Leomerya12]

6:33 Everyone else has to suffer because of a few unreasonable people. So many laws exist because people lack courtesy and/or common sense.

[@sealsharp]

btw. having a Developer Page also allows players to ignore you and put all of your games on the ignore list with just a single button. So obviously, assetflippers don't do that and i wish a dev page was required.

[@tiacool7978]

I saw one a couple of months ago, they had tons of "games." No developer page I believe. So I had to manually ignore all their games. Plus they often gave them ridiculous prices, so when they put it on "sale" it would seem like a steal for the customer.

[@dam_ly]

I'm not sure about demos having reviews. Previously a demo was a good way to get feedback which would be used to improve the demo. While that is still true, if you get negative reviews they will be with your demo forever, even if you significantly improve the demo experience. Which will push down further engagement. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[@tiacool7978]

I'm not seeing how that makes it different from comments posted in view of others which will remain likely forever. Reviews have dates on them, just like comments. So people can decide for themselves whether a review 2 years prior is still relevant to a demo.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

That was sort of already happening, if someone opened your demo and quit within

[@dam_ly]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity What happens if a dev puts their demo up months earlier because they want feedback to help improve it in time for Nextfest? If they get negative reviews, which remain, won't people be far more likely to skip it during NextFest? It won't matter if they improved the demo as most people won't retry a demo and change their review. Unless you're able to take it down, resetting the reviews and then re-upload an improved demo?

[@magicgameart]

Thanks for info. I updated my steam pages 👍

[@MarushiaDark316]

One thing I don't see mentioned is transitioning between solo pages and company pages. So if I recall correctly, the developer page requires you to form an LLC. Those are easy enough to setup, but the cost and maintenance for an empty shelf company could be a barrier to entry for some people (having to file and pay quarterly taxes and yearly registration fees, even if you make nothing, for instance). So they might upload games as an individual, but then later transition to a formal LLC and I don't know how easy or difficult it is to switch, if you have to redo a lot of work, if you can reassign games to another developer, etc. So like in your case, you obviously publish under Endless Loop Studios, but supposing early in your career you published under Code Monkey or even your real name. How easy / hard is it to go from that to now everything is published under Endless Loop Studios? The reason I ask is because adding games to a Steam page and requesting wishlists in marketing is super important; but if you can't upload to Steam because you don't have an LLC or are worried it's not future-proof without a ton of reworking that could cost you reviews and wishlists and metrics, that could turn a lot of people off from uploading to Steam in favor of something like Itch that doesn't have that same requirement and is easy to rename. So could you speak to that, perhaps in a stand-alone video? Maybe you or Chris Zukowski knows.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

On Steam you have access to the same tools regardless of your legal type. You just need a legal entity, not specifically an LLC. Here in Portugal I can just start working under my own name, that's what I did, no need to create a company. Steam then allows you to set whatever name you want for the "developer" or "publisher", it doesn't have to 100% match the legal entity name. I never tried changing that so no idea how hard it would be. It's really difficult to speak on those legal questions because every country has a completely different legal system so really the only possible answer is really "speak to a local attorney"

[@pewpew518]

Um I have a corporation and yearly return fee is only 12$

[@maxst9561]

In germany its like 50€ to make a private company...you just go the the local City office say you want to make a company give 50€ sign a few things like Name and what you do and thats it as long as you make under 11k a year with this company nothing else required no tax nothing... cant speak for other countrys of course but as far as I know in many countrys you can relatively easy set up a small company and don't really have to pay taxes because you dont have enough income and you kinda already pay taxes over steam

[@animanaut]

they should whitelist the links in the linkbox to be usable in the description as well. sounds like a decent middleground to me

[@pilotdawn1661]

Great info. Liked and Subscribed

[@kaijuultimax9407]

Steam knows how big of a deal NextFest is to consumers and I've been glad to see all the changes they've been making to Steam to better accommodate developers.

[@tiacool7978]

NextFest is amazing. I actually tried quite a few demos because of it.

[@kaijuultimax9407]

@@tiacool7978 It really is, I never get through all the demos I download

[@tossacointoyourwitcherOriginal]

I have been asking for this for over 3 years now

[@chocoblin5887]

to becoming a dev 🥂

[@DexEm2020]

5:13 - I think this was pushed back to October 15th.

[@suicune2001]

Thanks!

[@Ihasfinger911]

Wait, so I have to update existing capsules by November? I thought you could leave them

[@SnakeEngine]

What happens if you don't update the "capsules/banners/UI" for your already existing games?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Nothing, they keep showing what they currently have. A while ago they added requirement for vertical assets but plenty of old games just show the standard horizontal ones. It might impact visibility

[@SnakeEngine]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity Ok, thank.

[@EnderElohim]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity if it was google they would remove your game from listing :D Almost non of my mobile games kept alive because google's constant new requirements. I'm super glad i move to pc game development.

[@ClemmieTorrence]

aitutorialmaker AI fixes this. BIG Steam Updates for Developers!

[@Takiplay243]

How do you make your thumbnails?

[@KD-tj6og]

somebody knows what will happen with reviews for demo? when I deactivate it and re-activate i.e. 1 month later. will they stay or will be (or can be) reset?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

I assume they will stay, just like with normal game store pages, don't think you can reset unless you get a new Steam AppId

[@stephanreiken9912]

If I wanted a discord link anyway I would link it to a steam discussion thread that has the discord link

[@abiofficial-ws7pn]

I like code monkey. I (like to) use Godot, but I do like Code Monkey channel.

[@RobLang]

A great roundup, thank you. I think the updates are small but welcome. I am not convinced this is enough improvement to warrant 30% fee.

[@captainnoyaux]

It should be 15% below a certain threshold

[@dam_ly]

If you truly believe that the 30% isn't warranted then try selling your game outside of Steam. I bet you will make far less than if you had paid the 30%!

[@RobLang]

@@dam_ly i think a fair price for fair service. What steam has is a monopoly and that's anti-capitalist. Steam doesn't do nearly enough for their 30% cut. They were just first and thus are biggest.

[@dam_ly]

@@RobLang Do you not think the visibility of Steam is worth it? I'd like it to be less as well but I don't think it's an unfair price for the reach you're getting.

[@RobLang]

@@dam_ly I think the "visibility" is another way of saying "monopoly". If you are there only sensible option then game devs don't have much of a choice and Valve don't need to innovate. And they haven't. Steam today is laughably close to what it was in year 1. If your accept a monopoly - which we are forced to do - then there's no competition to drive down that fee and not need to innovate. It's bad for gamers. It's bad for game devs.

[@AnxMa]

You got an amazing channel and insight. Brings me back to the good old days when content was created by passionate ppl. Now real gamers're replaced by quick-insta-fame-fake-gurus. People who, back in the day, called us 'losers' cuz we were gamers or loved Anime. Now they use our tech to make sick money and destroy self-esteem of others. I made a deep dive video about X360 as the last great generation, hope I'm wrong...

[@test-rj2vl]

Devs just keep 42%? Seems like something for EU to regulate. It's excessive profit. It's almost like unjust enrichment.

[@dam_ly]

I believe it's after Steams share and local taxes, so it varies.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

That's not just a single source taking that amount. It's Steam's cut + product taxes + income taxes + refunds + chargebacks, etc

[@MxzStudio]

6:00 FucK! it so sad cross promotion is working well, when you have lot of game. Man that so sad I work with play way,..

[@devg622]

Can you make some tutorials like raft ? Thanks

[@prawingames]

how steamworks 100 $ fee(infact the whole process of putting your game on steam) works now any update on that ? for individuals and organizations. I did searched online there is not much clear information how the pay works some results show only for account and some results show for each project so do i need to pay while in the demo phase I'm bit of confused can anyone clarify it. I'm just starting out in game development. Thank You

[@tiacool7978]

I'm not sure about demos. But it's $100 per game, if I'm not mistaken.

[@prawingames]

@@tiacool7978 okay thanks 👍

[@shoop9274]

this is all nice and all but what we are seeing here is the industry being squeezed and everything moving free to play. steam is telling us that unless we give away free content it will be impossible to get visibility.

[@Dailyfiber_98]

That’s definitely not the case. They’re improving how demos work, because demos have been around forever

[@This_Guy-]

Am waiting for the day epic takes over

[@tiacool7978]

I highly doubt it will happen while Gabe is still alive.

[@This_Guy-]

@@tiacool7978 Yup even i think so

[@googleuser4720]

You are not credible, you were hating on Unity SO MUCH! Now that they are pulling back from the revenue debacle, you look so bad right now. Everyone who knows finds you a joke in the industry.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Uh? Where was I hating on Unity? Are you confusing me with someone else?

[@reessoft9416]

what are you talking about ? CodeMonkey has been using unity exclusively for years, and isn't interested in using anything else. What do you think this channel is for ? It's full of unity tutorials.

[@madaraainna]

He never takes sides. But I hate Unity so much. Unreal is better OBJECTIVELY.

[@regys9521]

@@madaraainna This fight of which one is better unity vs unreal to me it is the same as Burger King vs McDonald's

[@googleuser4720]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity Bruh, gaslighting much? Now look who's backpedaling?