Question for those who published on Steam

For those of you who have published on steam, I'd like to know how does the process go?

After 16 months of work on my project, I think I can finally see the end approaching, and I'm starting to plan out the roll out and the advertising. Of course, I was planning on publishing on steam. So here are a few questions:

1) How long does it take for them to review your game?

2) Is updating your game afterward easy? I plan on adding side quests, balancing, debug, etc.

3) System requirement? What do you guys put in minimum pc requirement?

Thanks!

[move]Commercial RPGMaker Discussion[/move]

I think it took Valve about a week or so to review mine. But this was during the final wave of Greenlight, so I don't know how Steam Direct works firsthand.

As for the updating, it's kind of a pain. Every update requires you to use steam command, followed by steam works. In short, it's a convoluted hassle. One that definitely takes an afternoon learning how to do. But once you figure it out, you'll be able to update all you want.

As for the system requirements, I don't know how demanding your game is, or even what engine you're using, so that is something you'll have to figure out yourself. A good place is to start, is to look at other RM games that are similar to yours.

I hope this helps. Good luck on your game.

Alright, thank you!

I suppose I'll have to test my game on different computers. Because I rebuilt almost every system in rpg maker mv, I suspect it's a bit heavier to run than other games, especially my battle system.

But updating only take about 2 minutes between both Direct and Works. It's really not that big a deal.

If I may make a suggestion... take the time now to put all the extra add-ons in now. The players will appreciate it so that they aren't missing achievements, and it will make your game longer and more detailed for the early birds who like to get in and be the first to review the game; you want them to experience the complete game so that the best/most eager to review people can have the full experience.

Yeah, I was planning on doing that. It's just that there are some many skills, abilities on heroes, and abilities on skills PER skills, and each ability have different effect and can be leveled up, so balance is going to be a challenge and I want to be able to nerf and buff what I can after the release.

Plus, I have a similar quest system as witcher 3 (with main quests, side quests and contracts), so I was also planning on adding maybe a bit of contracts and small side quests sometimes.

2 minutes??? O_O

There is no way you replace the content folder, login into steam cmd, upload the changes, login into steam works, change the build, and then hit publish button in 2 minutes. If so, you are a wizard my friend!

Edit: Oh, you mean everything after the uploading part? Cause if so, yeah, that takes about two minutes. More if you want to test it, which you should.

1. We went through the greenlight process and it took us approximately about a month to get it greenlit by Valve.
2. Yes, updating the game afterward is very easy and straightforward. There is a bit of a learning curve in using steamworks though.
3. It depends on what RPG maker engine you are using and probably would have to do some testing on older computer. I would say follow other RPG maker games minimum system requirements if you do not know.

Hope that helps!

Grand Wizard. <3

In all seriousness tho, it’s easy. Definitely under 5 min! No need to be intimidated! Tho setting it all up I needed assistance, that’s for sure. And I made myself real familiar with Steam and all its pages for about a month.

Luke

The first thing is to create a Steamworks account or to link your existing Steam account to Steamworks (this is where most of the dev processes take place): https://partner.steamgames.com/

Then you have to buy a Steam Direct slot for your game release. Ever since the Greenlight was scrapped, now you can release games directly on Steam but you have to buy a slot, which is $100 per game release. Keep in mind that there need to be at least 30 days between buying it and being able to release your game. So make sure to buy it at least a month in advance.

Once you have that, there are two main tasks to do: 1) Add all the necessary info to your game's store page and set it live, and 2) Submit your game build and get it approved. Only once both of those have been approved by Steam, then you can release the game.

The store page requires all the info about your game, including screenshots and a trailer. And it has to be live for at least 2 weeks prior to release, so you have to plan this accordingly. Steam usually takes just under a week to approve it.
The game build submission requires you to use Steam's software Steamcmd. It can be a little fiddly, but once you got a hang of it, it's all good. Feel free to ask if you're confused about it. I'm sure I can offer some tips. It takes just under a week for them to approve your game build too.

Updating the game build is quite simple. Steam makes it pretty easy. You just upload the updated version through Steamcmd as you did with the original. The updates get published directly and do not require approval from Steam. Steam will then update the game for all those people who have it installed, and only the changes get downloaded rather than the whole thing, so it's pretty great.

For the minimum requirement I personally put the minimum requirements of the RM engine you're using, except for the hard drive space, which depends on how big your game folders are (make sure to set it at slightly higher than your actual game size, since the size will increase as you add various other files to it associated with Steam integration).

In my experience, I've only had a demo of my game released on Steam, it took them about a day to review and approve my demo. Not sure I got lucky or if it really is that quick. Your Steamworks page should tell you that on average it takes 3-5 days to review a game. Once you figure out the Steamworks SDK, which I had trouble with at first, I'll admit, updating your game is pretty simple. Just plop an updated version of your game into the content folder, run the Steam Command or GUI, and Steam automatically updates your build with the new version you just pushed. Players just download the changed or new files into their install.