How the Steam Algorithm Works! (Explained by Valve themselves)

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

🎮 Play my Steam game! cmonkey.co/dinkyguardians ❤ Watch my FREE Complete Courses kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYumk6B4a9Sjrrs Steam Visibility: How Games Get Surfaced to Players kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5zQcqR4q7p1hdk 🔴 RELATED VIDEOS 🔴 The MOST IMPORTANT Skill to be a Successful Game Developer! (How to go Full Time Game Dev on Steam) kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2eQd4SteKp2m9U Quick Sales Numbers Reveal! (Steam First Week Revenue) kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGncdXmnmtJmm5I How to SURVIVE as a Game Dev for a DECADE! (Over $1,000,000 Revenue!) kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZenZYCDe8iYmKc My Game Dev Journey (40+ Games! | mIRC to Flash to Steam) kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqvWlIOclLpkjLs What a FAILED Steam launch looks like! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqHWpp-Ogb2pgKs

[@hackerman3511]

I don't spend money on games, but I would like to let you know that I support you by prayer, even if you don't believe in God. Hope you're having a good week!

[@n00bc0de7]

After watching this, I am definitely going to take localization more seriously. I haven't localized it at all. I recently had to push my launch date back because my composer is still working on some tracks so I am taking this extra time to get as many languages as possible supported.

[@immatoll4375]

If you have a active community (and may have a game with longevity via mod support etc.) you can just setup something like "Weblate" (e.g. Voxel Tycoon does this). There are ton of people that actually love suporting indie games with translation support.

[@RedDuelist]

A good thing to add is, you do get a visibility boost if you get 10 reviews as soon as possible. This will add your game to the Discovery Queue for example, which means more impressions.

[@atomvoid8728]

Excellent video! One thing I'd like to add from my experience publishing to Steam is that having 50+ reviews is critical for an indie game with low marketing. That batch of reviews might be the only thing to sway the opinion of random people landing on your page while browsing a similar category. I've asked many people on their behavior of visiting a Steam page and the usual response is screenshots (skip the trailer) -> price -> reviews. The time they spend on a page is under a minute. I'm still trying to figure out a better way to request more reviews from my players outside of Discord, it's surprisingly difficult.

[@AsteriosChardalias]

I know this is not the focus of the video, but since there was a mention to it, I'd like to point out that equating localization with translation is too narrow an approach. Localization should take into account aesthetic sensibilities of the target audience and cut across the entirety of the product, even touching upon areas beyond text. But even if we stick with language alone, giving a simple text file to a translator and expecting them to 'localize' with no extra context can't work; especially if you're forcing them into line-by-line translations. I've been involved in such projects and it was a nightmare. Simple considerations like grammtical gender can mess things up if there are no provisions for them. Then there are more nuanced aspects like puns or pop culture allusions. Good luck having them make sense to a speaker of a foreign language without explicitly planning for it in advance. If you are to localize, please don't do it as an afterthought, chucking it on top just to tick a checkbox. As a native Greek speaker, I'd prefer to play a game in English than one poorly 'localized' for Greek.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup correct, there are a ton of nuances in language which is why I don't think something like Google Translate is good, unless the game has very little text. Yup I did give the translators context for what the game is and what are the main objects/goals in it.

[@AsteriosChardalias]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thanks for affirming the basic idea behind my comment. Of course it wasn't meant as criticism/advice for you. I'm sure you can navigate this just fine. ;) It was more of a heads-up for aspiring creatives in your audience now considering localization for the visibility boost, as per your video suggestion. It would be a bummer if they were to rush into it only to find out it's not as clear cut a process as it might sound when one hasn't tried it before. :)

[@CamrunThomas]

thanks for bringing attention to the localisation package. Thanks

[@AN_DigitalDev]

Thanks for this info and for all of your valuable tutorials. I'm very grateful, to be honest.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

I'm glad my tutorials have helped you! Thanks!

[@AN_DigitalDev]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thank you, cheers

[@galotta8475]

In case of localization: would you recommend using a translator like DeepL when you are short on money?

[@ShiNijuuAKL]

or chatgpt(?)

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

It probably depends on the game. If it's something where the text isn't extremely important, like a game where the main focus is on mechanics instead of story, then it might work. But if you use some automated translation on a game with a heavy story, you are likely to receive a ton of negative reviews because people will be able to tell the translation is sub-par. Although of course you can always add it later, so maybe you can start with a tool like that, then after the game is out, based on feedback/reviews you can either remove hte language or get a professional translation.

[@escapeundergroundgame]

🎮 Good video! I like the way you have explained every aspect that steam talked about.

[@greatgameplayswalkthroughs660]

Will watch later. Just commenting for the algorithm gods !

[@arcday4281]

It's already ready, you can read it!

[@vendolis]

While you are right that Wishlist only really affects your direct release, it also can be an indicator if sales might trigger people who have you on their Wishlist. I can at least see that for my behavior, where I will put interesting games that I have no time for atm on my Wishlist and buy them when they get in a sale.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup, although after release your call to action should be "buy my game" instead of "wishlist my game"

[@magicgameart]

Incredibly useful, thanks !

[@RootGames]

Hey, I have some great tutorials about Localization 😉

[@The6thRonin]

Another great and helpful tutorial. Thank you.

[@jbldvdplay2]

great video, thx so much

[@hackerman3511]

Thanks Code Monkey! I really enjoy your content!

[@NightsoftInteractive]

Very insightful! 👍

[@CraftBasti]

Why does nether the stream video nor you mention localized prices? That is a huge point as well!

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup it's a very important part, but it's also completely automated so that's what I didn't even think to mention it, I just set the prices to whatever Steam thinks is fair based on the USD price

[@VyvyanTheGreat]

Great and insightful video! Thanks!

[@okamichamploo]

Honestly if your game is Anime, yes Japanese is good, but most Japanese gamers who like the anime style will probably just play the Japanese native games. Oppositely if you have something more western, western fantasy in particular, I think that could possibly be even more popular with Japanese steam users.

[@smbiplob9476]

Thank you so much.

[@edumichelondev]

as always a great video, thanks for the content 🙏🙏

[@alexsilva42361]

Really nice video! Very enlightening! So, I still need to put money in Marketing to make the "ball rolls" in Steam!!! Thank you so much!

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup marketing is essential, although I wouldn't advice paid marketing in the form of paid ads

[@vincentdev3973]

This is a great video, But my question is how this works with a Free Game launch. Because you are saying it's based on revenue but free games are always low revenue

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

It's the same thing, instead of game sales you have microtransactions or any sort of in-game revenue, that's how for example Counter Strike or Apex Legends which are free to play, are always on top of the charts. For the Steam algorithm money is money whether it be through game sales or mtx.

[@vincentdev3973]

Thanks for the response! @@CodeMonkeyUnity

[@AnthonyTopper]

I think saying review score is "Not a factor" is kind of odd. It's not a direct factor in the algorithm. But if the algorithm is all about sales, then the review score is a major factor obviously (because it converts).

[@floriancazacu4504]

they're saying they don't directly punish games with an average review score. Not that it's not important.

[@technobrawlofficial]

When is the character customization video coming out? I thought it was droppoing at the end of october?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

I've written it but still need to prepare the tutorial scene and record it, so maybe within the next 2 weeks

[@smsalabm]

Great video as always! Could you make a video about localization someday? I've seen many assets, but it would be nice to hear about the workflow from a professional.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup! I'm planning to do a video on how the Unity package works and how I implemented it in my game, it's surprisingly easy

[@vergilw7009]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity a question for the localization, if I do it manually , will it be possible ??

[@emmanuelrenquin2567]

Good to know, even for general knowledge. Now I understand why most games get a discount at release time since few years. It is only to boost sales in a short period and so boost visibility. Very sad that money is all that matters and not actual quality. Our world economy is getting worse and worse over the time.

[@cognos23]

Hey man, super video, as always! 🙂👍 What do you think, does a demo version that you have running for up to a year also count as "early access"?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Nope, those are completely different things. I don't believe Demos impact visibility at all, except of course the goal of a demo is to gather wishlists which does impact visibility before release

[@Cemilbasarr]

Hi code monkey, are you planning to make me tutorial videos about making online games using unity netcode and steam transport?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

You just swap out Unity Transport for Steam Transport, you don't have to touch the netcode at all, all the netcode logic is the same regardless of transport unitycodemonkey.com/kitchenchaosmultiplayercourse.php

[@Cemilbasarr]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity In other words, after changing the transport, we can use the same netcode codes as in your tutorial. Did I understand correctly? EDIT: Also, does this apply to all transports? and which transport should I choose for Steam?

[@Cemilbasarr]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity Do we need to do anything extra when changing transports?

[@blaster_pro]

In short, steam takes 30 percent cut without any investing or risk taking... the developer has the burden and steam has easy profits... it is what it is, but hopefully this could change...excellent video as always though

[@blaster_pro]

The only thing that drives me insane are the steam fanboys... makes no sense at all

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Sort of, on the one hand yes they technically don't do anything until you get the ball rolling, but the sheer size of the Steam audience is definitely worth something. I know I tried selling my first game off Steam because I hadn't yet passed Greenlight and I only managed to sell 10 copies. When that game finally got on Steam it sold several thousand. I do really wish they had a lower cut for indie devs, since the dev is the one doing all the work to get the ball rolling, they should really get something like 90% for the first $10k or something

[@mccheong7288]

Also for non US game dev there is an additional Withholding Tax of 0% to 30% depending on whether the country have a trade treaty with US or not.

[@Gsaber72]

How do you know what type of games a specific audience likes? You mentioned Germans tend to like tycoon games, but where do I find more information like that?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

I don't think there's any super scientific studies on it, just anecdotal data From my own stats, I can see how for my game Blueprint Tycoon, which is a decently intense simulator game, has 10% copies sold in Germany, that's quite a bit higher than the 2.74% from the Steam stats.

[@littleowlgaming-unity-tutorial]

idk, the if a game is mostly positive reviews, its ok, it might be good, might not be good. but if its mixed. instantly I get warning signs, if I'm interested in the game, I go read the reviews, then decide.

[@Haapavuo]

Localization is a myth. At 30k wishlisters, we had 10M impressions, and only an English Steam page.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

What is the myth? Yes there are millions of people who use Steam in English, and millions more who don't. You can absolutely find success with just English, and you can find more success with some localization.

[@Haapavuo]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity Steam surely gave us plenty of visibility even without any localizations. Those 10M impressions could only come by Steam suggesting our game to its users. That is why I call localization a myth since we managed to gain so much impressions through Steam algorithm even without localization. Of course localization may add some more but in our case I am a bit sceptical about that. The major thing affecting must be those +30k wishlisters which caused our game to be presented on Steam front page. This has nothing to do with the localization.

[@zhongyisun222]

​@Haapavuo Your game works without localisation because it is not made of everyone anyway. Even if you localize, you won't sell well in those countries. It's that type of trash(but funny) game that people buy just for laughing. But localisation in general does make huge difference, Just because it don't work for you doesn't mean it is not important.

[@mszczesnik]

OK, I'm buying Dinky Guardiands just because I learned it has Polish localization :)

[@watercat1248]

I I'm not exactly sure how the steam algorithm work's However I already know many people that want to try my wip project 😅 and I'm happy for that As for the stuff you mention location and controller support My game I will definitely have full controller support. since I will implement local multiplayer with split screen up 4 players for each computer And yes I have plan to make this to work with network 🛜 as well. The other system I want to add to my game is lan game not only online since my game I will be host base I think this the best option As for the location at this point my game is only in English, if truly want to I'm able to add Greek since is Language I seeking and grow up. However my game have very few words it's not text Base game most off those words for menus. And other common words like kill death damage ECT. also most Greek people make fun with translation video game with Greek Don't even use this option even those don't understand English. especially for that doesn't have Mach text like my game I don't think I need to add Greek language as option. But I will definitely add I few Easter eggs for Greek people add other Countries

[@bsdrago]

What about a vídeo about localizarton package?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup I'm planning to do it

[@xetra1155]

Funny that I immediatly recognize the Dall-E 3 generated thumbnail background. We are still some time away from having undistinguishable AI generated art :D

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

heh yeah if you look at it in fullscreen you can definitely see some strange things, but when seen just as a thumbnail in the related videos tab it looks pretty good! I always hate making thumbnails so for me these AI tools have been quite helpful!

[@xetra1155]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity I really can recommend Dall-E 3 for minimalistic styled Logos with Text. Using it for my research papers and unity asset logos

[@fluffy6923]

I don't think steam marks players as gamepad or keyboard/mouse players. So I don't think that gameplad support affects promotion algorithms on steam.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

I don't think it's as intense as localization but it is a factor, just open up Steam on a Deck or just in Big Picture mode and you see a difference in the games that are recomended.

[@fluffy6923]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity Hm... Makes sense. I've forgot about big picture mode in steam. Thanks for the info. Have you mange to somehow count what percentage of players plays your games with gamepad?

[@DeclanTKatt]

Sounds like a great way to support your educational content is to simply buy your games on Steam.

[@Surkk2960]

There is an ongoing joke in the TF2 community that people can always trust the localization files to be updated in every update. I now understand why Valve does this.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Really? heh that's interesting!

[@hackerman3511]

Do you have anything against Alex Hormozi or Thomas Brush?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Hmm no? Why do you ask?

[@sealsharp]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity I can understand the quesion about Thomas Brush because people love stupid drama but that Alex guy, why him?

[@genichiroashina6372]

Thomas feels like a sleezy salesman.

[@sealsharp]

@@genichiroashina6372 I tried to learn a bit about selling stuff because a lot of marketing is in the "I can't imagine that works" space for me. Thomas does it really well, that's exactly what works and what you should do. And if you find that sleezy and almost dishonest, I absolutely understand it, because that's what marketing done right feels to me.

[@hackerman3511]

​@@CodeMonkeyUnity Sorry, I just had this strange occurrence with a comment being flagged for no reason. I suggested (not advertised) Alex Hormozi for more on marketing, and it was mediately flagged as spam content. I wasn't so interested in the comment, but tried it again to see what would happen (this time worded differently), and it was flagged once again. I then tried a comment that didn't have anything to do with that, and it was not deleted. Even though this happened, I did not want to jump to any conclusions, and planned on still watching your videos--though I did think it odd. Basically, the problem was, someone flagged my comment, and I thought only you could--when in reality this was false...glad to see this man!

[@nikoart1561]

Hello. Can someone tell me how to translate scriptable objects strings? I have tried Dictionary but is it a real solution or there better way? I have no found any tutorial on this. I think having your game translated is really necessary why no one cares :(

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

What do you mean by that? A scriptable object by itself is just an object, it has no "translation". Whatever you want to translate depends on whatever data you want to translate, not where it's stored It could be as simple as using the Unity Localization package and in your scriptable object store a LocalizedString instead of a String

[@nikoart1561]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity let's say my scriptable objects depends by Dialogue with a various player interaction each scriptable objects contains a list of dialogues which is a string. How would I iterate through them all in order to translate each string foreach dialogue? Or how would you translate a runtime text? As a static text is easy to translate but what about other stuff... Why this topic is so obscured in development?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Instead of a string you would simply store a LocalizedString, that's it. Alternatively you would have different scriptable objects for different languages.

[@nikoart1561]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity yes thank you I figured out yesterday on how this work. I combined it with Google Sheets using their API I changed pull and push the changes so it make more quickly to translate all the stuff. The only thing that I don't like about LocalizedString is that you need to subscribe to an event in order to change the language correctly but I have many functions that depends on instantiate GameObject which contains textmeshpro UGUI so I can't directly access to string in order to subscribe an event for localizedString

[@buttonsoftware496]

My game crossed the 50 reviews milestone, but after 3 weeks I still don't see a difference in sales. If this is really a milestone it's not having much of an impact for my game.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yeah it seems to depend heavily on the game, back in 2019 for my last game I did see a big boost, but now for Dinky Guardians I didn't see it. So maybe it did used to have a boost which thye have since removed

[@averagecagemain]

Cool!

[@lilgamedev]

Wait did you change the thumbnail?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yeah, the video has a strangely low clickthrough rate so Im experimenting with a different one, although honestly not much change It's odd because I thought people would be extremely interested in this topic, but I guess not

[@sinoplumelodi1500]

Hello, I know you have a lot to do, but maybe you'll read this message. I had a work-related accident, and since then, I'm unfortunately unable to work. My English isn't the best, but I've started studying computer science. However, due to my health situation, I can't attend the university in person. Currently, we have a group project that's supposed to be done by six people, but I don't have a group because I can't be there in person. I wanted to ask if you could possibly send me your code or the entire file for Snake in Unity - maybe I can work with the file if it's okay with you and simply transform the snake into a worm. It would be cool if the background resembled a digital world, as I've already written my game concept. I'd only need to adjust the file, change the snake to a worm, and I'd also like to add a ladybug that acts like a kind of Pacman. I'm grateful for any help. Kind regards.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yes you can download the project files unitycodemonkey.com/video.php?v=Iz22-o7l6bc

[@shafindev]

Love it

[@Haapavuo]

No invite to daily deal after 300k+ USD gross sales.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Interesting, over how long? I've also had some games surpass $200k gross but they did it over many years, so I think velocity might also play a part.

[@avatharbehemoth]

so youre saying that if the game sells well, steam wont promote. if the game does not sell well steam wont promote. that seems like an editing error.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

If it sells it will promote, if it doesn't sell it won't promote. Steam acts like a multiplier on your own efforts

[@avatharbehemoth]

@@CodeMonkeyUnity that seems like an editing error.

[@PPSFerfax]

I dunno the steam algorithm likes to show me every DLC for games I have marked as "not interested"

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Does it? That's odd, definitely doesn't make sense

[@sealsharp]

Jesus Christ yes, for some reason Steam thinks i am the biggest fan of Payday 2 in the universe.

[@reigota]

Did you said Portuguese you do yourself?? Where are you from my friend??

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup! I'm Portuguese myself, I live in Lisbon

[@reigota]

ahh mas a cena de jogos tuga está mesmo fantástica!! Qualquer dia vamos tomar um café!

[@StigDesign]

only thing with language is when having dyslexia, i know english and norwegian but i have dyslexia in both so hehe :D

[@Ts1nd]

Why do you not port your games to mobile? It's relatively low effort for doubling or tripling the sales.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

It's not really low effort, it requires a massive rework to get the game playable with touch input. I could easily add on screen controls but that would be terrible and people would not enjoy a barebones port. And it wouldn't really triple sales, Mobile is even more difficult than Steam, there are literally hundreds of new games every single day.

[@sealsharp]

1) Android users tend to not pay so it's only the apple ecosystem that makes sense. 2) you do not target "everyone with an ipad" but rather "everyone with an ipad who cares about games but does not have a gaming pc or a console" and if you are and indie and you reach your audience a lot directly instead of a massive marketing campaign, you have people who care a lot about certain types of games so the target audience is "people who really care a lot about games to be in parts of the internet where people are enthusiastic about games, but do not have a gaming platform but an ipad". @CodeMonkeyUnity did you ever make a poll about your customers preferred platform?

[@DBROstalos]

It's funny that 10% of BG3 sales come from Russians, and that's exactly 10% + the translation is super cheap, but for some reason people prefer not to do this, choosing 4 times less popular languages.

[@sealsharp]

The local pricing makes a difference. 10$ for US customers = 385 ruble which is ~4.2$ Also "sales" are not customers, because sales include people who VPN to profit from regional price differences and resellers who would also buy in markets with a conversion rate that makes the games cheap. In case of BG3 it would be interesting to know where the games are bought compared to which languages are used to actually play.

[@shafindev]

2nd

[@artemrzhanov6315]

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE add russian and Ukrainian localization languages

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Yup I'm planning to add those in a future update

[@arcday4281]

Why don 't you have a Russian translation ? According to statistics, you lose 9% of potential buyers.

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

For Russia, while the number of users is indeed very high, in terms of revenue it's usually pretty low because the prices are so much lower. But it is a sizeable audience so I am indeed planning to add it in a future update.

[@arcday4281]

This view of the "Algorithm" is superficial. All these things have been known for a long time. The main claim to the "Algorithm" is "Genre discrimination"! I mean, for example: If your game is "metroidvania", then "Algorithm" will not show your game to those who clearly love this genre according to statistics. Despite the fact that there are not so many games with this genre, especially for millions of fans of this genre. The developers do not mind that their game is ignored for showing to those who are not an obvious fan of their genre. But the genre audience should be shown at least minimally. This is the main problem of the "Algorithm". From an economic point of view, they would not have lost anything. Why would I, as a player, show 100 times a day, for example, "Hollow Knight", driving players to nausea and epilepsy, is it impossible to show other games at least sometimes?

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

What is known to you might not be known to others, things that might be obvious to you might be the first time someone else is learning. Like Valve mentioned in the video it's up to you to get the ball rolling, if you don't have a good launch then it's unlikely Steam will help sell your game. That sucks but that's how it works

[@buttonsoftware496]

My games never fit inside a well defined genre, which will probably lead to what you call "genre discrimination".

[@pewpew518]

Hentai Rina