Steam Store Page Checklist for Indie Developers
Reviewed against the linked Steamworks documentation. Steam can change its rules; the linked pages are authoritative.
A checklist you can work through on your own Steam store page at your own pace. Items marked Steam rule paraphrase Valve's Steamworks documentation and link to it. Items marked Our advice are our optional suggestions for clarity: they are opinions, not Steam requirements.
What a checklist can do: catch missing or rule-breaking pieces and make the page easier to understand at a glance. What it cannot do: predict wishlists or sales. Nobody can promise that a page change will move those numbers, and this guide does not.
1. Capsules and screenshots
- Steam rule Header capsule is 920x430, small capsule 462x174 and main capsule 1232x706 (Steamworks: graphical assets). Steam generates smaller versions from your uploads, so the small capsule is also shown at sizes like 184x69 and 120x45. All store and library sizes in one table: Steam capsule art size.
- Steam rule The game's logo or name is readable on the capsules (graphical assets).
- Steam rule Base capsules contain only game artwork, the game name and an official subtitle: no review scores, award logos, marketing slogans, calls to action such as "wishlist now" or other text (Steamworks: asset rules). The rules page describes separate, limited exceptions for some temporary or localized artwork; read it before relying on them.
- Steam rule At least 5 screenshots, showing gameplay, at 1920x1080 or larger in 16:9 (graphical assets).
- Our advice Put the screenshots that show the core activity of your game first. The first few are the ones most visitors see without scrolling, so a menu, logo card or cutscene there says little about how the game plays.
- Our advice Make the first screenshots show different situations (a fight, a build, a puzzle, a map) rather than near-duplicates. Steam sets a minimum, not an ideal count; add more only when each one shows something new.
- Our advice Look at each capsule at the size it appears in lists. We use a half-size 231x87 check of the small capsule as our own proxy; it is not an official Steam size. See the capsule art feedback guide for a full self-review.
2. Short description
- Steam rule It is a short synopsis that tells players the genre and what makes the game unique, in plain text, without time-based text that goes out of date (Steamworks: store page description).
- Our advice The first sentence says what the player actually does ("You run a night-shift ferry between haunted islands") rather than a mood line that could fit any game.
- Our advice Genre and tone are clear without the screenshots. Test it: show only the text to someone and ask what kind of game it is.
- Our advice One specific hook beats a list of adjectives. "Every room is hand-built and changes after each death" is checkable; "an unforgettable adventure" is not.
3. About this game
- Steam rule Skimmable and concrete about what the game is and what players do (store page description).
- Steam rule No external links, no images that imitate Steam's own interface, and no advertising for other games (store page description).
- Steam rule Valve advises keeping the total size of screenshots and GIFs embedded in the description under 15MB (store page description).
- Our advice Lead with the strongest concrete information, then use short headed sections or bullet lists so a skimming reader can find modes, length, controls and content.
- Our advice Replace promises with features you can show: "3 biomes, 40 handcrafted levels, local co-op" instead of "hours of fun". Only state numbers that are true for the current build.
4. Tags
- Steam rule At least 5 tags applied before launch; Valve recommends using up to 20 (Steamworks: tags).
- Steam rule The most relevant tags are in your top 5, and specific tags are preferred over vague ones. Your top 20 tags influence where the game appears in browsing and which games Steam treats as similar (tags).
- Steam rule Players can also apply tags; you can review and reorder them with the Tag Wizard (tags).
- Our advice Compare your tags with a handful of games that are genuinely similar to yours, and move generic tags (for example "Indie" or "Casual") below the tags that describe what the game is.
5. Does the page tell one story?
- Our advice The capsule, first screenshots and short description promise the same game. If the capsule says cosy farming and the screenshots show combat, a visitor has to work out which is true.
- Our advice A stranger who looks at the page for a few seconds can say the genre, the tone and what the player does. Ask two or three people who have not seen the game; ask "what kind of game is this?" rather than "do you like it?".
- Our advice If you have a trailer, its first seconds show gameplay rather than logos.
What this checklist does not cover
It does not cover pricing strategy, release timing, community building, festivals or paid marketing, and it does not replace reading the Steamworks documentation linked above. Passing every item means the page is complete and clear by these checks; it does not mean the game will get more wishlists. For what wishlists do and how to measure conversion honestly, see Steam wishlists.
Want an automated pass?
The free structure check runs the structural items on this list (tags, screenshot count and resolution, trailer, About structure, languages, OS) against your live page. It does not look at images. The optional one-time paid pack adds an AI review of the actual capsules, screenshots and text on a published rubric; it is a clarity review, not a sales forecast.