Uploading to Steam - Pelican-Party/steam-web-wrap GitHub Wiki

Steam Web Wrap builds can be uploaded directly to steam without any modifications. All the files of your game can be hosted online and the --url= parameter can be provided via Steamworks settings. Users are not able to see this url in the Steam UI. It can still be obtained through other means though, so you should not expect the url to remain secret.

This is not a comprehensive guide on how to publish to steam. You can find more info on how to get started on the Steamworks documentation pages.

Most of the settings related to Steam Web Wrap are located under the Edit Steamworks Settings button:

Or you can also click the Steamworks Admin link in the list of your games:

Adding Depots in Steamworks

The first step is to create two depots for your game. Head over to the SteamPipe -> Depots tab:

Click the Add New Depot button and configure them like so:

Finally, don't forget to click Save afterwards!

Using Shared Depots

If you plan on releasing multiple games using Steam Web Wrap, you might want to reuse these depots as a 'shared depot'.

The Steamworks documentation mentions that if you want the Steam client to keep only one copy of the content on the user's disk, you should reuse the same 'Install Folder' for all your games using this depot. This setting can be found under Installation -> General Installation:

You might also be able to change the name of your install folder later, but we decided to group all our games under the 'Pelican Party Games' folder from the start.

For you first Game, you can just follow the Adding Depots in Steamworks instructions above. Then when the time comes to publish your second game:

  1. Head over to the SteamPipe -> Depots tab again
  2. Click the Add Shared Depot button
  3. Type the name of your first game
  4. Select one of the depots you created for your previous game.
  5. Repeat the process for all architectures
  6. Add at least one (non-shared) depot, you can use any name or settings, as it can be removed later.
  7. Don't forget to click Save.

[!NOTE] We'll fix the red warnings later in the Adding the Depots to Your Packages section below.

If you are making changes to this section, note that the red warning are always visible, but they should disappear once you click Save.

[!NOTE]
You need at least one (non-shared) depot which is unique for every game. Without this, you'll run into issues while trying to complete the 'Your Game Build' checklist. Specifically the 'At Least One Build Configured' item will contain a note saying 'You need to have a build set as the default public build in the builds tab of the Steamworks settings'. Unfortunately, this tab will be missing a lot of the UI required to configure the default public build.

To solve this, you can create a (non-shared) depot for your second game. Then in SteamPipe -> Builds, simply upload an empty zip for this depot. Instructions for this are similar to the Uploading Steam Web Wrap instructions. Don't forget to set the 'Set build live for branch' dropdown to 'default', as this is what completes the checklist item.

If you forgot to do this, you can still do this under the Builds tab. Set the -- Select an app branch -- dropdown to 'default', click Preview Change and click the Set Build Live Now button.

It seems like this step purely exists to satisfy this checklist, since the Steam client appears to launch games without non-shared depots just fine. Heck, it seems like you can even delete the depot you just created without getting the checklist item unchecked again.

Adding the Depots to Your Packages

The depots you just configured are just that, a configuration. But we still need to tell Steam who should have access to these depots.

Head over to your App Admin page -> View Associated Items and click All Associated Packages, DLC, Demos And Tools

Click on the title of your package:

Then click the Add/Remove Depots button and make sure the two depots you just created are checked:

[!NOTE] This screen only lists depots which have been configured for your app. If this is your second game and you are making use of shared depots, you'll have to complete the steps in Using Shared Depots first.

And finally do the same for your development and beta packages:

Configuring Launch Options

Finally, Steam has to know which executable to launch and its command line flags. On the same page (under Installation -> General Installation) you can add the following two launch options:

Make sure to point the --url= argument to your page.

Publishing Your Configuration

Now let's publish the changes we have made so far. Doing this will not release the game, only its configuration, which is needed for the next step.

  1. Head over to the Publish tab
  2. Now submit your changes using the Prepare for Publishing button, followed by the Publish to Steam button.
  3. Then enter 'STEAMWORKS' in the small text field.
  4. And finally click Really Publish.

Uploading Steam Web Wrap

Download the Linux and Windows build from the releases page. And head over to SteamPipe -> Builds again.

Since Steam Web Wrap is under the 2GB upload limit, you can upload it through the web interface. Click the 'here' link on the Builds page:

[!WARNING] If you get an unhelpful error message while uploading, it is probably because you haven't published your new configuration for your depots yet. Check Publishing Your Configuration for instructions.

Upload the two builds and optionally leave a note (such as the build version). Make sure to also set it live for the 'default' branch (if you want the changes to be available immediately) and then hit Commit.

Once this is done you should be able to download the game from the Steam client using an account which is in the "Everyone" group in your Steamworks partner accounts.