💊The Ultimate Steam Store Capsule Template💊

✨NEW! VERSION 3 IS LIVE✨

What the template looks like in Photoshop

WHAT YOU GET:

• All the assets in ONE Photoshop file, well-organised and easy to work with.
• All the various Steam store assets and variations in one place
• The template includes example artwork, guides and references.

Handy Extras:

The template includes all the various images required by to do a Steam page + a slew of nice-to-haves. Version 2 of the template includes a few handy extras:

• Game splash
• Steam page headlines
• Steam page development roadmap
• Thumbnail
• (Unauthorized) Steam Store buttons for your web site

How to use the template:

• Double-click and edit the included Smart Objects in the Layers menu to add your artwork
• Close and save the Smart Objects to update the contents across the various capsule and banner sizes and formats.
• Choose File > Generate > Assets to autogenerate .PNG's of all the Artboards on the fly, or leave it off and export manually.

Instructions on how to use the template are also included in the Photoshop file.

The template is based on the official Steam guidelines and templates found at https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/assets. Please read through these pages to learn about exact requirements and guidelines.

Here is a peek at the various layers:

New in Version 3:

• Adapted capsule sizes to this announcement from Valve: Now Supporting Larger Store Graphical Assets
• Improved guidance added to event_header and library_hero
• Improved tag placeholders
• Tidied a bit here and there

New in Version 2:

🕹️Build a Better Business Case Faster💰

This Google Sheets template will serve as a quick way to structure and strengthen your process with comparative analysis and building a business case for your indie game.

The template is based on Rami Ismail's approach to business cases, seen in https://ltpf.ramiismail.com/pitch-template/, and on VGinsights' revenue calculator.

How To:

1) Make a copy of the document before using it.

2) In the 'Comparative Analysis' tab only edit fields marked with green and/or framed with a gray border.

3) Start by adding your total budget. Then go to 'Comparative Analysis', scroll to "GUIDE: PRIMARY COMPARABLE TITLES, and look at the target performance numbers for comparative games.

4) Next, scout for games in the same genre with roughly the performance numbers indicated in the guide section. I use VGinsights.com for gathering data on games. The numbers in this template are tuned roughly according to the numbers generated by VGinsigts.

5) List relevant games in the Comparable Games tab.

6) Select the 3 games that fit your case the best, and add them to "PRIMARY COMPARABLE GAMES" in the Comparative Analysis tab

7) Along the way you can fill in the 'Business Case Overview' tab.

Finally, don't forget that both you and whoever you ask for funding, should be able to make money from your game. This might seem obvious, but it's awfully common to think that reaching a 100% return on investment is enough is someone else has put their money into it. It's not.

Backstory:

This template grew out of my own frustrations and banging my head against the wall, as I tried to build a decent business case for a game.

The culmination was a slightly embarrasing pitch meeting with a friendly publisher, where a couple of obvious flaws in my analysis was pointed out. I needed to make a better tool for myself.

One thing I had struggled with was finding actual relevant comparable games. I guess that's often a case of "my game is unique" syndrome. That, and the fact that I found it utterly overwhelming. So many games, so much data to dig through...

With this spreadsheet, combined with data from VGinsights, it feels much more manageble. I hope you'll feel the same way.

Credits:

The Comparative Analysis is based on Rami Ismail's pitch template and model that can be found here: https://ltpf.ramiismail.com/pitch-template/ - Specifically this slide. Thanks for sharing, Rami!

The Revenue Calculator is based on the one from VGinsights.com. I've found their 'Indie Access' paid tier worth the subscription fee. I've also found https://games-stats.com/steam/tags/ super useful when exploring the right tags.

50 64 to the point lessons and insights from my 20+ years in the business of video games.

What is it?

A 68 page pamphlet that takes you through some of the lessons and insights I wish I had known and internalised when I started my first company. 

I started fresh out of high school, stepping in every bear trap in my way. Here I share some best practices and reflect on some of the mistakes I made and problems I've walked into, and some ways to avoid them in time.

The Structure:

64 Short, concise and easy to remember statements, fleshed out and unpacked in less than 200 words each.

Updates for free:

Once in a while I update the pamphlet with more content. You will get future updates in your mailbox for free.

Right for you if you:

• are thinking of, or have recently started a company
• know how to make games (or the product you make), but 
• don't know much about how to build a company

Focused on: 

• starting and growing a game company (applicable to other businesses too)
• things you need to learn and think of as a founder 

Get 5 things for the price of 1 thing. All the game dev related stuff in one sweet bundle. What's not to like?