Get your game live

Two things happen here, and they're separate on purpose: you register the game, then you prove it's yours. Nothing is public until the second one is done.

Why it works this way

Because anyone can type an App ID. Registering a game costs nothing and proves nothing, so a registered game stays private until you show you can edit its Steam store page — the one thing a stranger can't do. That check is the reason creators can treat everything in Browse as real.

Because your store page is the source of truth. Name, banner, description, developer, release status — all of it is pulled live from Steam rather than typed into a form, so your page here can't quietly drift out of date with the one you actually maintain.

Because the tags are the product, not paperwork. The seven tag steps are the same seven axes creators rate themselves on, and they are what put your game in front of the right people. A game with thin tags doesn't rank badly — it ranks neutrally, which is worse, because it means nobody sorting by fit ever sees it. See How discovery & matching works.

And your first verified game verifies your studio. Controlling the Steam page is taken as proof of the studio too, so there's no second wait: verify, and you're discoverable.

Before you start

You need the Steam App ID — the number in store.steampowered.com/app/{ID} — and edit access to that game's Steamworks description.

On the Free plan you can have one game in play at a time; a game counts whether or not it's verified, and archiving one frees the slot. Pro is unlimited.

Register the game

From your studio dashboard, Add Game. It's a ten-step wizard with Back, Skip and Next along the bottom, and a progress bar telling you where you are.

Step 1 — Sync from Steam. Paste the App ID and press Sync. Your name, banner, description and release status appear; check that it's actually your game before continuing. Two things to know:

• The App ID is locked once you register. Changing it later means asking support.
• Your phase comes from Steam, not from a dropdown — "Coming soon" makes the game Upcoming, a released store page makes it Released, and a public demo is detected automatically.

Steps 2–8 — the tags. Genre, Structure, Theme, Art Style, Emotional Impact, Play Formats, Learning Curve. Five of them need at least one tag; Structure and Theme offer a Skip. Every axis takes a maximum of three.

Pick what the game is, not everything it touches. Scores are averaged per axis, so a fourth loosely-true genre doesn't add reach — it dilutes the three that were true.

Step 9 — Market Positioning. Similar games, by App ID. Skippable, and worth doing: it's how you say "players of this will get it" in a form the platform can read.

Step 10 — Logistics & Rewards. Planned release date, press kit URL, and your first reward packages. Nothing here is required — packages have their own guide and are easier to write once you've seen the hub.

The final button is Register Project, and it drops you back on the dashboard.

Your game now exists but isn't public. Open it and you'll see only the Overview tab, with a note that Events, Community, Partners and Keys unlock once it's verified.

Verify ownership

Still on Overview, in the Verify Steam Ownership panel:

1. Generate your code — a short string, with a copy button next to it.
2. Paste it in your Steam description. Steamworks → your game's full description → anywhere in the text. The very end is fine; nobody reads that far, and visitors won't notice it. Save and publish the change on Steam.
3. Verify Ownership. We fetch your live store description and look for the code.

On success the game goes live immediately, the rest of the tabs appear, and you can delete the code from your Steam page — it has done its job.

If it doesn't work:

No Steam page yet? Verification needs one. Contact support and we can verify the game manually so you can start working with creators ahead of your store launch.

Once it's live

Your game is in Browse and creators can apply; you can go recruiting from Partners → Recruiting. Your studio profile is verified and public too, if this was your first game.

Everything except the App ID stays editable — tags especially. If the game changes direction during development, come back and re-tag it; the match scores follow.