Valve has published a resource on its Steamworks dev portal that aims to give developers advice on how to best market their games on Steam, both before and after release.
It’s a handy roundup that looks at the different features and marketing-centric tools built into Steam and how each of those come into play throughout a game’s lifetime.
The documentation itself notes that marketing on Steam can be a unique beast since the content being promoted to the platform’s users is driven by the store’s algorithm rather than paid placement.
Valve argues this means that any “curated promotional visibility is the result of proven customer interest,” but that also means an understanding of Steam’s tools is vital to effectively existing on the platform.
The company breaks its advice down into four categories: pre-release marketing, release day marketing, ongoing marketing, and tools and resources outside of Steam, while also pointing devs towards other Steamworks guides on topics like Store Visibility and Marketing 101 for additional guidance. Each runs down things like making the most of wishlists, live streaming both on and off of Steam, boosting visibility for updates, using alpha and beta testing tools, and more.