For the past 3 months one of the most common questions I got from developers was “I am participating in the June Steam Next Fest (SNF) where I will get the most exposure to my game, should I launch it right after it to capitalize on my HYPE?” At the Continue Reading

At the conclusion of the June 2024 Steam Next Fest, Valve created a special page commemorating the 50 most-played demos during the fest.  In this mid-week mini-blog I am taking a look at some of the trends I noticed while browsing those charts. (The first thing I noticed was there Continue Reading

One of the longest running mysteries around festivals like Steam Next Fest was whether people deliberately play games and carefully evaluate each or do they just spam the “wishlist” button as they browse? For instance Valve has made it exceedingly easy to wishlist games: they added that blue button with Continue Reading

Steam Next Fest is over and I had a chance to talk to Xalavier Nelson Jr. about his company’s latest game I Am Your Beast and the strategy they used to propel it to the 16th most-played-demos during the June Steam Next Fest 2024. In less than a week I Continue Reading

I know I know I write about wishlists a lot. But, if you are a heart surgeon you have to talk about blood a lot too. Pre-release, wishlists are an integral factor in Steam visibility. After release, total sales are the most important factor. Sometimes people misinterpret my extensive writing Continue Reading

I always say that the Steam player base is “hard core.” They love deep games with lots of content. They like UIs that are complex and cluttered.  If you asked me for a screenshot that perfectly encapsulates the types of games that the Steam player base loves, it would be Continue Reading

On October 18th, 2022, a game developer named Blake (discord handle Tisbury) released Backrooms: Escape Together (BET) on Steam after having his Steam page live for only 2 weeks. During that 2 weeks he gathered only 500 wishlists. The game didn’t get into Popular Upcoming. or New & Trending. The Continue Reading

In today’s post I will explain how to get one of the biggest prizes on Steam: The Weekend Deal. Last week I wrote about the Steam Daily Deal which typically earns games $10,000- $70,000 during a 24-hour period of featuring. The Weekend Deal lasts during the four busiest days on Continue Reading

Everyone wants “exposure” for their game. Mostly, they just want their game pinned on the front page of Steam. In today’s blog I am diving deep into the way you get that front-page featuring in the form of the “Special Offers” section (Pictured below) but specifically Daily Deals! (I cover Continue Reading