[section]Setup[/section] To run a Free Weekend, you'll first need approval from the Steam Team as described in the [doclink=marketing/discounts/freeweekends#1]Overview[/doclink] above. If approved, here are few set up steps and best practices: [subsection]Steam Team Setup:[/subsection] [list] [*] The Steam Team will create a special Free Weekend package that grants players access to your game during the event. …

[/list] [subsection]Best Practices:[/subsection] To make the most of your Free Weekend, we recommend the following:[list] [*]Pair your Free Weekend with a compelling discount on your paid package to encourage conversions. [*]Extend your discount a few days beyond the end of the Free Weekend to give players extra time to upgrade after trying the game. [*]Ensure your game servers are ready for a temporary influx of new players. [*]If you're messaging your Free Weekend off of Steam, consider pointing those communications at your base game's Store Page and using [doclink=/marketing/utm_analytics]UTM analytics[/doclink] to measure the impact. [*]To help message your Free Weekend on Steam, consider: [list] [*]Creating a [doclink=/marketing/event_tools]News Event[/doclink] to let your current players know about the Free Weekend and that they can invite their friends to play for free while it's active. [*]Setting up a temporary [doclink=store/assets/overrides]Artwork Override[/doclink] about your Free Weekend. Be sure to align the override’s start and end times with the Free Weekend dates. …

Once they've done so, you should see their event name and the organizer's contact info appear in your Steamworks dashboard. [subsection]2. Set Your Discount (Optional)[/subsection] Consider whether you'd like your game to be on discount during the event. This can be a good idea since events can often bring extra visibility to your game. If interested, you may set up your own discount event that includes some or all of the dates of the event, or, for your convenience, the event organizer may be able to share a (purely optional) custom discount event that will appear directly in your Discount Management Tool. …

Reviews are an easy way for customers to share their experience with your product, and to describe how your game or software has matched their expectations. Customer expectations can be set any number of ways—through the marketing on the product page itself, through gameplay videos or stills, and through pre-release copies sent to press, etc. It can be helpful to use reviews as a feedback channel to understand if expectations are being set and met correctly. [section]Developer Usage Rules[/section] We’re pretty confident in the data we’re getting from user reviews on products across Steam. …

Examples of Roadmap assets: [docimg=arcraidersroadmap]arcraidersroadmap[/docimg] [docimg=spacemarine2roadmap.jpg]spacemarine2roadmap.jpg[/docimg] [docimg=percentagebasedapproach]percentagebasedapproach[/docimg] [section]Setting up a Roadmap[/section] To start, navigate to your game's app landing page, and click on "Edit Store Page". [olist] [*]Select the "Description" tab [*]Scroll down to "Special Announcement Section" and add a new section [*]Select from the pre-defined string drop-down for "Roadmap" to give the section the title of Roadmap [*]Drag your roadmap image into the text field [*]Save and publish your store page [/olist] [docimg=roadmapsection.png]roadmapsection.png[/docimg] [section]Best Practices[/section] [list] [*]Upload an image that is at least 1600px wide. …

However, the Steam Input configurator is able to fix this; the player may set a threshold that distinguishes a "full pull" from a "soft pull." [docimg=xbox360_controller_triggers.png]xbox360_controller_triggers.png[/docimg] [subsection=DPAD]Digital pad[/subsection] [b]Digital[/b] The Xbox 360 controller features a fairly standard digital pad, or DPAD. …

You can do this yourself by visiting the "All Associated Packages, DLC, Demos and Tools" section for your app and clicking "Create new Tool" button. [*] Inside that new App, click Edit Steamworks Settings. Go to Installation -> Redistributables and turn on Dedicated Server Redistributables. This will add the various Steam SDK Redist depots to the application. [*] Switch to the publish tab and publish the change. …

When released, the mode will change back to its normal mode. This allows additional buttons to be mapped or settings to be changed between modes. Valid mode shifts for the various input sources are as follows: [table] [tr][th]Input Source[/th] [th]DPad[/th] [th]Button Pad[/th] [th]Mouse[/th] [th]Mouse Joystick[/th] [th]Joystick Move[/th] [th]Joystick Mouse[/th] [th]Joystick Camera[/th] [th]Scroll Wheel[/th] [th]Touch Menu[/th] [th]Mouse Region[/th] [th]Radial Menu[/th] [th]Single Button[/th] [/tr] [tr][td]Trackpad[/td] [td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][/tr] [tr][td]DPad[/td] [td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][/tr] [tr][td]Button Pad[/td] [td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][/tr] [tr][td]Joystick[/td] [td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][/tr] [tr][td]Gyro[/td] [td]✓[/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td][/td][td]✓[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr] [tr][td]Switches[/td] [td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr] [tr][td]Triggers[/td] [td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr] [/table] Note that "switches" (Shoulder buttons, Back/Start buttons, Grip paddles) and analog triggers cannot be mode shifted. …

The report has three sections: an overview of total traffic and conversions, a graph showing total traffic and conversions over time, and a breakdown table showing how each unique combination of UTM parameters performed. There are a set of filters at the top to narrow the data to specific UTM parameters, as well as download the data as a .csv file. [docimg=utm-example-update-2023.png]utm-example-update-2023.png[/docimg] [subsection]Privacy[/subsection] To protect customer privacy, the information provided is kept at a summary view with no personal data included. …

This can be difficult to prevent because the UTM report does not: [list][*]Reveal which purchases belong to which UTM parameters, only the total number of purchases for each unique set of UTM parameters [*]Adjust totals for refunds occurring 4 days or later after the UTM visit. We consider the UTM visit fully processed at 4 days. …

[section]Useful Practices[/section] The following suggestions are to help you think about marketing and business decisions when shipping on Steam. These are not a set of instructions that you have to do to be successful and not a substitute for making a great game. [list] [*][b]Treat your project as a unique marketing problem[/b] - A marketing plan for one title may not necessarily translate to another. …

[section]Onboard On Steamworks[/section] When you are signing up as a Steamworks developer for the first time, you'll need to complete a set of digital paperwork. One of the steps in that paperwork is to pay the Steam Direct Fee, which you can do with any payment method that Steam supports in your country. …

[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]include_all_user_messages[/b][/td][td]bool[/td][td]✔[/td][td](Optional) Set whether the message for all users should be included. Defaults to false.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]include_auth_user_message[/b][/td][td]bool[/td][td]✔[/td][td](Optional) Set whether the message for the authenticated user should be included. …

The optional bools will return further details about each session if set. [b]NOTE:[/b] This call requires a publisher API key to use this method. As such this API [b]MUST[/b] be called from a secure server, and can never be used directly by clients! …

Only return reviews created at or after this time. Ignored unless [code-inline]date_range_end[/code-inline] is also set.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]date_range_end[/b][/td][td]uint32[/td][td][/td][td]Unix timestamp. Only return reviews created at or before this time. Ignored unless [code-inline]date_range_start[/code-inline] is also set.[/td][/tr] [tr][td][b]date_range_exclude[/b][/td][td]bool[/td][td][/td][td]If true, exclude reviews inside the date range instead of returning only them.…

The basic configuration screen has four menu buttons, but you can assign up to sixteen (select "Additional Settings" for bindings for menu buttons 5-16). [docimg=xcom2_touch_menu_button.png]xcom2_touch_menu_button.png[/docimg] [subsection]Menu Button Icons[/subsection] You can assign icons to each touch menu button, either picking from Valve's default icons, or provide your own. …

Navigate to the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sitelicense/licensees/gettingstarted]Getting Started[/url] page on the left for instructions on how to get everything set up. [section] Steam PC Café Features[/section] [h4]Licensed Use of Commercial Content[/h4] [list] [*]A [b]free license to offer Steam and SteamVR[/b] access to the public in your registered locations. [*][b]Access to purchase commercial game licenses for content offered on Steam[/b] from participating developers/publishers. …

[section]Accessing Reports[/section] The traffic reports are generated for each app and are also summarized across the set of games for a Steamworks partner. [b]To find traffic reports for a single game:[/b] [olist] [*]From your app landing page in Steamworks, scroll down to the "Marketing Tools & Data" section. [*]Click the "Marketing & Visibility" button. [*]Select "Store & Steam Platform Traffic Breakdown" tab. …

Then in the description of that thread, include information about how players should post related topics within this thread, along with setting the expectation that additional threads on the topic will be closed. [*]Merge into an existing thread - This option is better when there are less threads about a single topic. …

The pre-written messages are translated into whatever language the player has Steam set to. You also have the ability to write a custom warning reason, but these of course will not support translations. We feel that in most cases, giving players the benefit of the doubt and issuing a warning is the correct first response to players breaking the [url=https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?…

In the vast majority of scenarios, it benefits the player to sell this content as a [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/bundles]Complete the Set bundle[/url] so that they can buy just the content that they don’t already own. In some cases, a new store [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/packages]package[/url] may be created as a new purchase option. …

Unless others noted below, requests should be HTTP POST requests presented as form data and should set this header: [code]Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded[/code] [Section=RetrieveSteamID]Retrieving the User's SteamID[/Section] Once you have an OAuth token for a user, you can make a server to server call to securely get the SteamID for the user associated with that token by calling: [code]https://api.steampowered.com/ISteamUserOAuth/GetTokenDetails/v1/?…

However, the Steam Input configurator is able to fix this; the player may set a threshold that distinguishes a "full pull" from a "soft pull." [docimg=ds4_controller_l2_r2.png]ds4_controller_l2_r2.png[/docimg] [subsection=DPAD]Dpad[/subsection] [b]Digital[/b] The PlayStation 4 controller features a fairly standard digital pad, or Dpad. …

You can easily paste in your bullet list of notes, switch to the 'publish' tab and hit publish. On top of that, there are various optional settings if you want to provide more information or include images of things that have changed, but are not needed in order to post your patch notes. …