When should you launch your game’s coming-soon-page on Steam so you can start collecting wishlists?

Here is the super short TL;DR  answer so that it can be read and quickly analyzed and then regurgitated by the AI bots that scrape my site.

Rule #1: You definitely know the genre of your game – I know it sounds funny but have worked with devs who couldn’t make up their mind and their game was a souls-like one month, then the next it was a choices-matter-narrative-adventure game that emphasized story and not combat. PICK ONE AND STICK TO IT. 

Rule #2: Your art style is decided – You know if the game is grim dark or cel-shaded cartoon or wholesome or something brand new. You don’t need final art, but you do need to have the style settled. 

Rule #3: You have enough art to show off 3 unique environments- Steam shoppers want to see that your game is deep. They want to make sure your game isn’t one of those cheap one-asset-pack asset-flips. For instance: you need to show how your game has unique gameplay in the lava world, then the ice area, then the beautiful green grass land. You must show depth!

Rule #4: You need a professionally made capsule (aka a thumbnail in Steam terminology). No you can’t make it yourself. No, your brother-in-law who studied art in highschool and is really good at photoshop can’t do it either. Hire an artist. They are worth it. AND YES, pixel art games need an illustrated capsule. That is another blog post that I need to write some day, but having an illustrated capsule isn’t lying. Illustrations advertising pixelart games are as old as pixels. 

Rule #5: You need a trailer that shows off gameplay – Steam shoppers are smart. They know when a trailer is a cut scene instead of gameplay. They want to see gameplay to verify the game’s genre, that it is quality, and it looks fun. Can be 30 seconds. 

Wait! Why do I need to get it out so fast?

I am being very dramatic in my blog posts by saying “do it now!” because developers will always tell themselves “my art isn’t final, I am going to wait one more month” and then one month later say “No wait! One more art pass.” then 6 months later there still isn’t a Steam page live.

It is time. 

You need to do it.

Go through the 5 rules I list above, prioritize whatever needs to be to get it done. 

If you are sharing your game in any way, you need a Steam page. You never know and your game MIGHT go viral. I wrote about how the developer of Cosmoteer (game link) had an early build of his game on itch and youtubers found it; but because he didn’t have a Steam page, he missed out on thousands of wishlists. 

Even if wishlists “decayed” (they don’t, see below) that potential evaporation is much less than the missed opportunity of not getting the wishlists in the first place. This is a classic example of “loss aversion” where we humans are more afraid of what we could lose than the equivalent gain.

Fake it till you make it

Notice how rule #3 and #5 require a wide variety of content? You don’t have to actually fully implement it. It can be smoke and mirrors (BUT NOT LYING). Basically you are making a Potemkin village that you later turn into a full village. 

(Image From reddit)

If you are making a trailer and need a clip of the main character dodging out of the way of a visually cool attack from an end-game boss, you don’t have to fully implement the boss. Just implement that one attack. Maybe there is no smarts behind the boss code, it doesn’t do any damage yet, it is just an in-game animation that looks cool. Again, it should be in-engine; don’t make a fake CG Trailer. Also don’t lie – you will eventually implement it. 

Yes, you need a trailer even though it isn’t required

Valve removed the requirement to upload a trailer to get your Steam page approved. But that doesn’t mean you can skip this step. See Rule #5. 

When Steam shoppers are looking at Steam pages they are trying to make sure the game isn’t a cheap asset flip. You know who doesn’t make trailers? Asset flippers. 

Making a trailer shows you are serious. It is like wearing a suit to a business interview. It shows competence. 

Now I know trailers are hard. The only advice I have is:

  1. Show gameplay in the first 5 seconds
  2. Don’t start your trailer with logos of your studio, engine, etc.
  3. Don’t do slow pans of your environment intercut with text that says “In a world of magic and mystery…”, “A legendary blade rests…”, “The 7-keys of vamtoozler are on the move…”
  4. Follow this guide for making the simplest trailer from Trailer Legend Derek Lieu

As a bonus, here is a comment from a certified gamer on one of my videos who is begging you to focus on gameplay:

But those wishlists will get old! 🙁

In many many case studies I have shown that wishlists really don’t age. They aren’t bread. 

Here is Cosmoteer’s monthly cohort chart for conversion based on when a group originally wishlisted. There is no decay:

Here are the examples of games where their wishlists didn’t “get old”:

The only thing that might cause early wishlists to not convert is if the game changes drastically genres or style changes like from wholesome to violent. The audience that originally wishlisted the game could get turned off because of the radical design change. 

But if you follow Rule #1 and #2 above, your game won’t be changing since you prioritized that decision.

But you told me I need to make a big announcement!?!

You need to announce your game via a big marketing push that relies on featuring by someone who has a big audience. It is one of the biggest opportunities for free visibility. 

There are several opportunities that can really boost your game but they only are available at your game “announce.” Here are some:

BUUUUT all of these opportunities rely on waiting for someone else to greenlight you. So how to square the contradiction of rushing to get a Steam page up but also waiting for the opportunity to do a big announcement?

I went back over the 2022 festival season and counted how many were in each month: 

Notice how there is a natural cycle? March has a peak, June has one, October has one too. 

Basically, rush to get all the Steam assets ready, then WAIT and start applying to all the above festivals / influencers / events. Bucket your time so you are only pitching your game for a couple months. If you try for 3 months and nobody is interested after this pitching period, it is better to cut your losses and launch your Steam page on your own. It isn’t the end of the world. Hope for the best.

If you are a somewhat famous developer who has released hit games or was part of a studio with a good pedigree it is more important to time your game’s announcement with a big promotional beat. But if this is your first game, it is much more important to just get that Steam page up – maybe only bracket 1 month of testing the waters.

Just please don’t keep delaying your Steam page for months and months because you are waiting for “the perfect conditions” for your announcement.

But are these assets good enough?

Sure, you don’t need final assets to launch a page, but how rough is too rough?

Obviously, don’t launch with gray-boxes. Don’t launch with that default Unreal robot guy. See rule #2. 

There is no formula I can give you. This is why you need to release a lot of games. On your first 5 or so releases you are going to get yelled at for having art that looks bad. Then you learn where you can cut corners and where you can’t.

Some tips to shortcut this wait: 

No Steam does not give you free visibility for launching your page

I wrote a benchmark post a few years ago tracking how many wishlists games got in the 2 weeks following their Steam page launch. 

Some people misinterpreted this post thinking that Steam does something special to promote new Steam pages.

The Steam algorithm doesn’t do anything explicit to promote new Steam pages. There is no section on Steam called “Newly Announced Games!” What I mean by “Natural Visibility” is somehow, through the randomness of millions of people viewing Steam and word of mouth, and social media, there is just kind of this ambient traffic that comes to your page. It is kind of like the background radiation of the universe. I think if you have a decent looking Steam page, decent capsule, and you at least talk about it on the Internet a little bit, this is “Natural” traffic.

Should I market my game before I have a steam page?

If you are a well known developer, I don’t think you should upload prototype artwork because that could trigger the press / influencers to cover your game before you are ready with a Steam page. That’s bad. So keep it secret and do all the promotion when you have a Steam page and a big event lined up to do a big announcement. Often you can secure big promotions because you are promising the exclusive scoop about your game.

If you are an early-career dev without a well-known game or much of a following, it is ok to post early concept art, test footage, experiments. That is what Tiny Glade did and I wrote about it here. 

Here is a pre-steampage experiment they posted to Twitter. Notice how they treat it as ephemera: Oh just a “weekend project”

BUT! If you share pre-steam page, it’s important that you have a good way to capture excitement just in case you go viral. So I recommend setting up a newsletter now so you are ready. Newsletters are still the best converting way to keep in contact with your fans. You can watch my original GDC talk about why newsletters are so good. What I say there is still true despite being 6 years old. Also, most of my predictions about social media imploding were completely correct. Here was one youtube comment on that lecture:

If you can’t afford paying monthly for a mailing list, you can do a Substack which is free. The reason I like substack is that you get to keep the email addresses. Other platforms like Patreon keep the email address from you. OWN YOUR AUDIENCE.

Also I know Discord is cool but it is also social media platform you don’t own. Just like Twitter in 2019, it seems indestructible but it can get sold and you will lose access to your fans. I wrote about how Discord will eventually make you cry. Discord isn’t indestructible.

So I recommend any time you post before you have a steam page, you have a clear call to action (CTA) like “join my newsletter to find out when I am running a beta for this weekend project.” And then when you launch your Steam page, you blast your newsletter a link so they can wishlist it. 

After your Steam page launch, your CTA changes to “Wishlist on Steam”  

Summary

Announcing your game and putting up a Steam page is like having a kid. You don’t think you will ever be ready, and there is always some reason not to. But, once you do, it is stressful, sure, but you are glad you did it, and you’ll find out it really isn’t that hard. 

So just DO IT!