This gives games the opportunity to do things like pause the music or lower the volume, when an important cut scene is shown, and start playing afterwards. See [doclink=features/music_player][/doclink] for more information. [section=functions]Member Functions[/section] Member functions for [code-inline]ISteamMusic[/code-inline] are called through the global accessor function [code-inline]SteamMusic()[/code-inline]. …

[section]Key Visibility Elements[/section] Which things matter most in making your game more visible within the Steam store? Here are a few of the most important: [subsection]Players and Purchases Matter[/subsection] Are people buying and playing your game? This is a strong signal to Steam that there is interest in your game and that Steam should try showing it to more players. …

[subsection]Wishlists (Mostly) Aren't a Factor[/subsection] With a few exceptions like the Popular Upcoming tab, wishlists are [b]not a factor[/b] in your game's algorithmic visibility on Steam. However, wishlists are still important. Customers who wishlist your game will receive an email notification when your game launches or transitions out of Early Access, or when your game is discounted at 20% or greater. …

. [*] [b]The description will need to be detailed and coherent.[/b] It's important that customers know what to expect before they purchase your product. You should not include links to other websites from this section. …

[section]Overview[/section] The Steam DRM wrapper is an important part of Steam platform because it verifies game ownership and ensures that Steamworks features work properly by launching Steam before launching the game. …

[section]Dedicated Servers in Known Data Centers[/section] The peer-to-peer APIs work just fine even when one "peer" is a dedicated server! But there's one important catch: if your dedicated server is not near one of the data centers where we are running relays, then the best relayed route might be slower than the default IP route, and there will be at least some players whose latency is worse than the status quo. …

Making reconnection to the gameserver robust against these common failures is especially important for games that penalize players for leaving the game. [/list] A ticket-based connection to a dedicated server over SDR works like this: [list] [*] When your game server logs into your game coordinator, it sends up its [apitype]steamnetworkingtypes::SteamDatagramHostedAddress[/apitype], which is an opaque blob that contains physical routing information. …

This gives you a way to publish a list of smaller or mundane changes to your game without pushing it in front of all players. This way, players can more easily find your bigger, more important updates and announcements. [subsection]Sale/Discount Events[/subsection] These events are intended to be for prospective players, so they appear primarily in places where potential players will see them, such as on your game's store page and in your community hub. …

[section]Steam Deck™ Branding Requirements and Logos[/section] Last Updated: May 2,2022 [docimg=300.jpg]300.jpg[/docimg] [docfile=steamDeck_guidelines_042922.pdf]Click here[/docfile] to view the Steam Deck Brand Guidelines [docfile=Steam_Deck_Logo_TM.eps]Click here[/docfile] to download Steam Deck logo files [section]Steam Early Access Branding Requirements[/section] We work hard to make sure that customers understand what they are buying when they get an Early Access title on Steam. We feel it is equally important that customers buying Steam Early Access titles in other places also understand what they are getting. For that reason, we require that you include the following information anywhere you sell Steam keys for your Early Access title: [olist][*]Display one of these Steam Early Access logos: [docimg=Logo_SteamEarlyAccess_Stacked.png]Steam Early Access[/docimg] OR [docimg=Logo_SteamEarlyAccess.png]Steam Early Access[/docimg] (download [docfile=SteamEarlyAccessLogos-All.zip]SteamEarlyAccessLogos.zip[/docfile] for all languages) [*]Include this text, clearly legible on the page: [b]This Steam Early Access game is currently not a finished game and may or may not change significantly over the course of development. …

If you have a participating trusted server then you can use a privileged Steam API key on the server and grant explicit items for appropriate situations. It is still important to keep in mind that you can't trust your own clients so you can only do this when the server is the master of the state of the game. …

Please see [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/pricing#5]Early Access Pricing FAQ[/url] for more information. [callout]It's important to be transparent to your community about your pricing decisions, especially if you plan on raising the price in the future. You may not run a permanent discount while in Early Access. …

We take our relationship with customers seriously, so if you choose to cancel development of a game and retire it from the store, we will not republish it again later and we may offer refunds to any users who purchased it. Treating customers fairly is the most important thing to us. [/list] …

[docimg=2019-09-17_8-17-04.png]2019-09-17_8-17-04.png[/docimg] Note: With YouTube, we have a few additional formatting options via the [previewyoutube] tag accessible via the toolbar's import YouTube icon. [subsection=store]Store Product Page[/subsection] Inserting the URL for your Steam store product page will inject a widget that will let users wishlist (if coming soon), buy or play (if free-to-play) your game right from the event page. …

The artwork used for the Daily Deal is our standard "Header Capsule" 460px x 215px, and is imported from the associated game or bundle automatically. Daily Deal discounts run from 7 to 14 days. [doclink=marketing/discounts/dailydeal]Learn more here.…

[/list] Ultimately there is no one-size-fits-all solution to discounting. It's important to manage your discounts as best fits each game's unique content, community and marketing plans. More on this in [doclink=marketing/discounts#bestpractices]Discounting Best Practices[/doclink] above. …

[/list] [section]Steam Key Rules and Guidelines[/section] [list][*]You should use Steam Keys to sell your game on other stores in a similar way to how you sell your game on Steam. [u]It is important that you don’t give Steam customers a worse deal than Steam Key purchasers.[/u] [*]You can request Steam Keys only for content that is available for purchase or download on Steam. …

[u]Keys are only available for download by the user that requested them.[/u] [subsection]Tagging Keys[/subsection] It’s very important to tag your keys correctly so that you can keep track of them in the future. For example, if you are requesting a batch of keys to be sold at retail in France, you can choose the France tag. …

The detail level indicates what message to invoke your callback on. Lower numeric value means more important, and the value you pass is the lowest priority (highest numeric value) you wish to receive callbacks for. Except when debugging, you should only use k_ESteamNetworkingSocketsDebugOutputType_Msg or k_ESteamNetworkingSocketsDebugOutputType_Warning. …

You can control the detail level for various subsystems (perhaps only for certain connections) by adjusting the configuration values k_ESteamNetworkingConfig_LogLevel_Xxxxx. [b]IMPORTANT[/b]: This may be called from a service thread, while we own a mutex, etc. [i]Your callback function must be threadsafe and fast!…

[subsection]Defining an accessory[/subsection] Because each accessory is actually an ItemDef, you can use existing tools to define the appearance of the accessory - including most importantly the [code-inline]icon_url[/code-inline] property and localized names. The generated description of customized items will use the information from the ItemDef. …

This tool allow you to load game builds directly from your development machine to your device, as well as perform other development activities. [callout][b]Important: [/b] Before uploading and testing your own title using the instructions below, we recommend installing and running another title from Steam that uses Steam Play(Proton) on Steam Deck or Steam Machine. …

Click on the key and select the Steam server account you just added. Repeat this step if you have multiple locations. [*][b]Important:[/b] Ensure that the "Country" you select for your site location matches the actual country that your site server will operate in. …

[docimg=Portal2TrailerExample2_1.jpg]Portal2TrailerExample2_1.jpg[/docimg] [section]Best Practices[/section] Trailers are important in marketing your product on Steam. You want to think about the context of where your trailer will appear. For example, the customer may be going through their Discovery Queue and looking at games that are recommended to them, and you may have less than 10 seconds to make an impression. …

[/b] Changes of less than 24 hours will not impact your featuring on the calendar. [subsection]Other Important Details[/subsection] [b]Games on a Player's Wishlist[/b] Any game already on a player's wishlist automatically appears on their calendar as a reminder that it's on the way, unless the player has chosen to hide wishlisted games. …

Over 60% of Steam users use it in a language other than English, so tailoring your experience for those users is important. [section]Types of localization[/section] Steam supports two separate types of localization - store page and in-game. You can use either independently of each other, but supporting both is ideal. …

Instructions to do so are available in [doclink=features/auth#account_linking][/doclink]. It is important that you do not trust user identity in messages sent directly from the game client to your game server, as these messages can be tampered with. …