Market a game launch

This guide follows a Steam launch from the first plan to the weeks after, using Hollow Oak Games and its game Lanternfall. A mobile launch follows the same route with the Google Play and App Store pieces. Each step links to the page that goes into it.

You need the game as a project in the publishing console, in the same org as the brand. Linking asks you to be an owner of both.

  1. Open the brand's Settings.
  2. Under What this brand markets, choose the game in Choose a project and press Link.

The Steam area now appears in the sidebar, and the game's stores appear in Store bundles. Brands and kits lists everything the link adds.

2. Connect the numbers you want to watch

Plans can carry goals on a store's figures, and Numbers draws them. To get the figures:

  1. Connect the stores on Connections: Steam sales and wishlist reports, and for a mobile game Google Play and App Store Connect. Each takes a key.
  2. Open Numbers, then Imports, and find Store numbers. Say which app each store reports on. Its numbers then import every day for the first game the brand markets.

Do this before you start the plan if you can. A plan made from a template leaves out a goal on a figure the brand does not report yet, and tells you which.

3. Start from the Steam launch plan

  1. Open Plans and find New plan.
  2. Keep From a template and choose Steam launch.
  3. Set Day zero to launch day.
  4. Give it a Name if you want one, and press Make the plan.

The template lays out the phases from the Steam page through wishlists, a demo, Steam Next Fest and launch to the weeks after, each with milestones and tasks dated from day zero. The form shows how far before and after day zero it reaches. Change anything once it is made. For a mobile game, choose Mobile launch. Plans and Tasks cover the rest.

4. Work the store page

Open Steam. Valve has no way to change a store page from outside, so every tool ends in something to paste or upload in Steamworks, with a checklist. Mark each change done once you have made it in Steamworks, and it goes on the brand's timeline beside the numbers it might move.

  1. In Settings, give the Steam app id and the Planned release day, and write the Pitch, which the tools draft from.
  2. Work through Store page checklist, Tags, Description, Screenshot order and Capsules. Languages, Event art and Price and discounts come later.
  3. In Library, open Store bundles. It lists every picture each store asks for at its exact size. Download each one and upload it in the store's own console, ticking the list off.

Steam store page, Steam toolkit and Store bundles go into each. Some tools draw pictures and cost credits, with the price shown first. See Credits.

Write posts in Posts as in Plan a week of posts. Two things are particular to a game:

  • Put the Steam store page link in the text. A tracked link to a Steam store page carries the campaign the way Steam reads it, so Steamworks can tell where visits and wishlists came from. Import its report under Numbers, Imports, as Steam UTM analytics.
  • Steam announcement is a channel you post by hand. The composer writes it in Steam's BBCode. When it is due, a task tells whoever posts it what to do in Steamworks, and closes when you paste the address it went out at.

6. Reach press and creators

  1. In Press and creators, add contacts with Add a contact. Under its Settings you can switch discovery on to find who already covers the game.
  2. In Keys, under Import keys, choose the Game, the Store and a Batch name, drop the file and press Import. For Steam, the file is the text file inside the zip Steamworks gives you. Keys are kept sealed: nobody here sees a code after import.
  3. Give a key to a contact with Give a key. Each key goes to one person, who sees it once on their own page.

Only an admin sees Keys. A creator can also ask for a key on the brand's public press page, and you decide under Key requests. See Press and creators, Keys and Press public pages.

7. Launch day

  • Post on every channel with tracked links. An admin schedules them ahead of time.
  • To stream the launch, Live needs GreenMind's approval for the brand. Ask from the Live page early; everything else works while you wait. See Live.
  • To have a post drafted whenever the game goes on sale or a Steam festival comes round, start a pipeline from the Steam sale to a post template. It writes the post with AI, which uses credits, and leaves it as a draft for a person. See Pipeline templates.

8. Read what happened

  • Numbers draws sales, wishlists, installs and downloads with every post, event and stream on the same days.
  • The Steam tools Reviews, Wishlist forecast and Price and discounts read from Steam. See Steam insights.
  • Close the plan's milestones and tasks, and read its goals against the figures.
  • The weekly digest summarises the week.