Publishing to Steam

Process

  1. Join Steamworks Distribution Program

    1. Legal name and identification
      • Legal identification. This can be your personal information (if signing up as an individual) or your company information (if signing up as a company).
    2. Payment information
      • Bank information, such as routing number, bank account number, and bank address so we know where to send payments from sales of your application.
      • You will need to open a bank account for a company before you can proceed (if applying as a company).
    3. Tax information
      • Used to determine your tax status and withholding rate.
      • US citizens and corporations will need information similar to that found on form W-9. Individuals use Sole Proprietor.
    4. Steam Direct Fee
      • Pay a $100.00 fee for each product you wish to distribute on Steam (the "Steam Direct Fee").
      • Not refundable, but will be recoupable in the payment made after your product has at least $1,000.00 Adjusted Gross Revenue for Steam Store and in-app purchases.

  2. Get Approved (1 - 5 days)

    After you submit paperwork, paid the fee, receive your appID, and are verified by Steam, you can start to create a store page.

  3. Prepare Your Store

    See this developer's guide to releasing a Steam game

  4. Upload Build

    1. Steamworks.net - C# framework for:
      • Ensures it only launches from steam
      • Leaderboards
      • Achievements
      • Other integrations
    2. Steamworks SDK

  5. Store Page Review (1 - 5 days)

    Before your store page or game build can go live, there is a brief review process where we run your game, look at your store page, and check that it is configured correctly and running as expected and not doing anything harmful. This takes between 1-5 days.

  6. Additional Timing Issues

    There are a couple of additional timing requirements before you can release your first few title on Steam:

    1. A 30-day waiting period between when you paid the app fee and when you can release your game.
    2. You’ll need to prepare your store page and put up a publicly-visible coming soon page for at least two weeks. This will help you start building your audience

  7. Release!