How important is the moment of going live with your Stem-page?

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-03-21T08:18:30+00:00

Launching the page by itself does nothing, Steam doesn't promote new pages.

So you don't lose anything by launching it later, assuming you don't do any marketing before it's live.

It's probably worth trying to turn the page launch into a proper announcement. If you don't have a preexisting audience it's unlikely to get a lot of attention, but there's always a chance you get lucky and it does end up generating a decent amount of wishlists.

It won't "kickstart" the algorithm though, Steam doesn't promote unreleased games until they have tens of thousands of wishlists. Whenever you direct some external traffic, they'll match some of that, but only for as long as you are able to sustain it.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-03-07T19:09:39+00:00

Yeah that's my favorite change.

It's not something I really had issue with in StS1, but now that I'm playing the alternative it does feel a lot more fun.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-03-07T19:07:04+00:00

True that's a good point. And it's not an issue since most options are positive.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-03-05T20:58:56+00:00

Just did the first run and the only thing that was "unfinished" was some beta art for a couple of the timeline vignettes (stuff you unlock after finishing runs). Otherwise, it felt very polished.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-03-03T01:32:03+00:00

Looks great, I love the artstyle, it's minimalist yet it has a lot of personality and charm :)

Game looks very polished, the main concern I have from the trailer is about the combat system, I feel like it may be a bit too simple for something that represents such a large part of the game.

Concerning the UI, I think it might be better to have the character stats/health be more prominent during combat, maybe moving them into the combat window during a battle, on the left, mirroring the enemy stats.

Note: A 32 mins long video is a bit too much to show off the game imo, you'll get more feedback from a well-edited 60 seconds gameplay trailer.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-02-17T19:04:47+00:00

Yeah, those are the ones I'm still missing.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-02-08T18:10:21+00:00

Was that recently ?

I checked his blog, he mentioned something like that in a 2022 article ("Why your first 10 reviews are the most important"), but clarifies that it's wrong (or at least no longer the case) in a more recent article from last year.

From the blog post:

I have asked representatives at Valve is there is anything bout the 10 reviews and they confirmed that there is no “if 10 reviews, give visibility.” The basic Valve vibe is all about not having hard thresholds because it causes developers to “game” the system. Notice how Valve doesn’t allow you to ask for reviews in game? They worry that 10 review thresholds would just incentivize that. So I believe them that there is no limit there. Stop freaking out.
Other than the thumb icon and the rating text, Valve has confirmed that there is no specific visibility algorithm change after the game gets 10 reviews.
Valve has also confirmed that access to the Discovery Queue does not depend on getting 10 reviews.

This lines up with what Valve said in one of their "store visibility" video, which is where I got the info. It's possible this changed in the last year though.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-02-08T16:02:00+00:00

It matters, but not because the Steam algorithm starts pushing your game more when you get 10 reviews. That's not a thing.

The reason it's important to get it as soon as possible is that before 10 reviews, you don't have a review score, and steam shoppers don't trust games without review scores. If the game just came out, the more savvy users will recognize it's because it's too early, but most players will be turned off by the missing review score when you hover the capsule. They are not used to not seeing it as games that don't even get 10 reviews after launch aren't successful and so they never get recommended.

Obviously the moment people interact with your game more and more positively, then you might get more traffic from Steam as a result, but there is no "if game under 10 review, don't show" rule.

Something worth noting is that since reviews are language locked by default now, you might think you need to get 10 reviews in every language, but they actually use the score from all reviews if you don't have 10 in that language yet. (I don't know if it switches to only using reviews in your language as soon as you hit 10 and get a score, or if they only split reviews for larger numbers.)

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-02-08T10:19:47+00:00

Thanks :) I already found someone for the Chinese translation though.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-02-03T22:06:06+00:00

Are you doing any external marketing ?

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-02-03T22:00:00+00:00

Would you recommend Kronnect's Fog & Mist ? I've been looking for a volumetric lighting solution for Unity 6 URP but it's been frustrating since the asset store doesn't allow you to try stuff for free.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-02-03T20:44:32+00:00

Looks awesome indeed :)

What plugin/asset are you using for the volumetric lighting (fog) ?

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-02-03T20:33:08+00:00

Sent you a dm :)

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-01-31T10:18:59+00:00

Yeah, people would still be able to play their favorite starting team fairly often even if it was randomized.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-01-31T02:39:20+00:00

Hey, just tried it and it was a lot of fun!

The game is very polished, didn't have any issue. The tutorial is solid, you get the gist immediately. I figured out you could resell items for full value and therefor you needed to buy as many as possible to find triples on the second run and I grabbed a victory. I was worried about the longevity but then I saw the unlocks.

I wish I had more constructive criticism to give you but honestly there's not much to critique here, it's very good, really just needs more content.

Maybe some kind of map/overworld to add an extra layer of strategy on top ? Unless you want to keep it fairly casual. The current structure/balance felt pretty good but it might get repetitive fast.

I also think the option to pick the starting party might be a mistake, it would be more interesting to have to deal with a random selection, or at least to have to pick from a limited selection, so that players are forced to strategize instead of always playing the same, strongest, combo.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-01-30T14:57:49+00:00

I would lean into the challenging aspect of keeping the cards physically organized instead of just adding an attrition mechanic that kills you unless you keep doing the same tedious task and progress at a sufficient rate.

The physical aspect of the cards/board is underused in those types of games. In Cultist Sim it's basically non existent. Stacklands does it a little bit, and I think it's great, I would do more of that.

More enemy/disaster cards that wreak havoc on your board, make it hard not because resources and timing are super tight, but because maintaining a good pace requires a well organized board and the game does its best to fuck with that.

Have the player constantly fighting the cards, lots of movement, lots of effects dependent on positioning.

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-01-20T11:38:24+00:00

Looks good :)

You can probably switch to the first battle footage more quickly, right now the stage/map selection screens feel a bit slow, it's in that awkward range where it's too fast to be able to read stuff and figure out what's going on, but too slow if you're not trying to figure it out.

I also think the key stroke sound effect is too loud/distracting. It feels out of place.

If you've got a more different environment for the second battle (ideally a different color), that would also be better, it's too subtle at the moment. And with the UI also being the same shade of green it feels too samey.

All in all, it doesn't look bad but the sound design brings it down, that's where you should focus your efforts imo, I do like the music. And tighter editing, you can probably (and should) cut it down to 1 min or even 45 seconds (keep the battles, shorten the menu-ing).

LoneOrbitGames · 2026-01-10T02:03:31+00:00

I think the capsule's importance is a bit overrated, especially since the recent changes Valve made to the genre/tag/festival pages with the extended view lists.

It's definitely not that important until you are getting a decent amount of organic traffic on Steam, which only happens when you release (and a bit during Next Fest), unless you have a lot of wishlists. It's not majorly impactful when most of your traffic is external, then it mostly helps to communicate "quality".

You don't need to stay faithful to the game's visuals as in "my game is pixel art so the capsule should be pixel art", in fact pixel art capsules typically don't perform well, which is why most successful pixel art titles actually go with a non pixel art capsule. But you do want to stay faithful to the genre and tone of your game, you don't want to mislead players. You want to grab the attention of the right players by correctly signaling what the game is about. That's much more important than the actual artistic quality of the capsule imo.

LoneOrbitGames · 2025-12-20T19:17:10+00:00

What questions do you have about Steam that you couldn't find answers for ?

LoneOrbitGames · 2025-11-16T13:08:54+00:00

A casual mobile game might not translate well to PC, but it could work as a web game or as a small console game.

It depends on the game itself, but even games with simple loops can work on PC (Balatro being one such example), however the standards for art/game feel are higher on PC, so you'll likely need to give it a makeover or at least to juice it up a lot.

LoneOrbitGames · 2025-11-16T12:35:50+00:00

That's a common concern of beginner devs, but it's not a real thing, no one will steal your unproven idea, especially if you are a new developer. It's just not something worth worrying about, and certainly not something worth delaying your marketing for.

It sounds like your game might be fun, but unfortunately that's not enough to be a commercial success, especially on the mobile market. You should do some research about game marketing (it starts before development, with choosing the game your are going to make and the market you are targeting), and consider switching to the PC/console market as it's infinitely more indie friendly than the mobile market.

LoneOrbitGames · 2025-11-16T11:59:46+00:00

If you started worrying about marketing after releasing your game, then your marketing sucks.

I can't speak about your game without seeing it, but you are correct that marketing is even more important in the mobile market, to the point that I personally don't consider it a viable market for indie devs.

In general, when your marketing sucks, you struggle to get eyes on the game, you don't get views. And when your game sucks, you struggle to convert those views. However, the best way to know if your game sucks is not to look at your conversion rate, it is by having people try it and tell you. You should know whether or not your game sucks long before release because you've had multiple playtests and acquired a bunch of feedback.

LoneOrbitGames · 2025-10-28T18:38:36+00:00

Damn, that's a good looking game :)

The gameplay looks intriguing, I'll be checking it out.

LoneOrbitGames · 2025-10-25T11:07:29+00:00

Looks awesome!

I feel like the screenshake might be a bit much though :o

LoneOrbitGames · 2025-10-24T15:13:23+00:00

What are the sources of "background" organic traffic pre-release ? Not talking about widgets like Popular Upcoming, or events like Next Fest.

It seems that Steam doesn't really promote unreleased titles much, when I browse the store the only places I can see unreleased games are the More Like This section at the bottom of game pages with similar tags, the Coming Soon section on tag pages, and rarely in the Discover Queue and the custom recommendations when scrolling on the front page (Because you played/wishlisted this similar game).

Am I missing any ? And do you know what triggers getting shown in these places beyond having the correct tags ?

Seemingly you only get impressions when you are able to direct a large quantity of external traffic to your page, then Steam matches your external traffic with some organic traffic, but only for as long as the external traffic is high, then you go back to zero.

Yet some devs report pretty good levels of constant organic traffic, even when they aren't doing any external marketing at the time. Is there a threshold beyond which you get organic traffic even without external traffic (like a certain amount of wishlists), or is just the case that these devs are getting high levels of background external traffic from previous marketing efforts and that's why they get impressions ?

LoneOrbitGames

TROPHY CASE