Store page guide

How to improve your Steam page: 9 store page tips for indie games

By Launch Tavern. Published October 29, 2026.

Your Steam store page does most of its selling without you. A player sees a capsule in a list, hovers, maybe clicks, scans a sentence and a few screenshots, and decides. Most of the fixes below take an afternoon, need no new code, and are the same things we look for every time we review a real indie page.

1. Make the capsule readable at small sizes

Your capsule art is the first thing most players see, and it often appears small: in search results, on sale pages and in recommendation shelves. Valve asks for a header capsule of 920 x 430 pixels and generates smaller versions from it, and says the logo should be easily legible against the background, with no quotes or other text beyond the title (see Steamworks: Store Graphical Assets).

A quick test: shrink your capsule to the size of a thumbnail on your screen and look at it from arm's length. Can you still read the name? Can you tell roughly what kind of game it is? If not, simplify the art behind the logo or make the logo bigger before you change anything else.

2. Name your genre in the first sentence of the short description

The short description sits right next to your capsule and trailer, so it is one of the most-read pieces of text on the page. It is also the place where many indie pages describe a mood or a story setup and forget to say what kind of game it is.

Try to fit three things into it, in this order:

• The genre, in the words players search for: "a roguelike deckbuilder", "a cozy idle mining game", "a co-op horror game".
• What the player actually does most of the time, using real verbs.
• The hook that makes yours different from the other games in that genre.

Then proofread it out loud. A typo in your first sentence is small, but players notice it, and it is the easiest fix on this whole list.

3. Do not repeat the short description in the About section

It is very common to paste the short description in as the first line of the About section. Players reading top to bottom then see the same sentence twice, and you lose a chance to say something new. Open the About section with a one-line hook instead, then go deeper.

4. Structure the About section for skimming

Few players read a store page like a book. They scroll, look at the images and read the headers. Give them something to catch:

• A short opening paragraph that explains the core loop.
• Three to five feature sections, each with a concrete header ("Hire workers who run the mine for you" beats "Grow your operation").
• Animated GIFs or short clips between the sections, so the page shows rather than tells.
• Nothing that is not in the game you are shipping. Valve's review checks that the page only describes content that will be available (see Steamworks: Review Process).

5. Capture screenshots that show real gameplay, cleanly

Valve requires at least 5 screenshots, asks for a minimum of 1920 x 1080 in a 16:9 ratio, and says screenshots should exclusively show gameplay, not concept art, pre-rendered cinematic stills, awards or marketing copy (see Steamworks: Store Graphical Assets).

Beyond the rules, a few habits make a big difference:

• Capture in fullscreen. A window title bar or a desktop showing at the edges makes a game look unfinished.
• Turn off debug overlays and anything that is hard to read at a glance, like a screen tint or a menu full of small text.
• Show variety. Different areas, different stages of a run, early game and late game.

6. Put your best screenshot first

Order matters as much as quality. The first few screenshots are the ones players flip through before they decide, and Valve notes that screenshots also appear on other pages where your game may be featured, not just your own store page. Lead with the moment that best shows the promise of your game, the busy late-game base, the big combo, the funniest scene. Menus and close-ups can go at the end.

7. Open your trailer with gameplay, not a logo

Trailers often start playing on the store page as soon as it loads, and the first few seconds decide whether someone keeps watching. A long studio logo, a slow fade from black or a loading screen spends those seconds on nothing.

A simple structure that works for most indie games:

• The core loop in the first two or three seconds.
• A quick run of your most interesting moments.
• One surprise or escalation near the end.
• The logo, release date and "Wishlist now" at the very end.

Keep it short. You do not need new footage for this; reordering what you already have is often enough. Valve's Steamworks trailer documentation covers the technical requirements.

8. Use your tags as targeting, and use more of them

Tags decide which lists, shelves and recommendations your game can appear in. According to Valve, you need at least 5 tags before launch, up to 20 are recommended, only the top 20 are used, your top tags are used to describe your game, and some store filters look at the first 15 (see Steamworks: Steam Tags).

Three practical steps:

• Fill the slots you have. If you are using 11 tags, you have 9 more chances to show up in the right places.
• Only add tags the game backs up. If your store page says "low-poly" or "co-op", the matching tags belong there. If it does not, they do not.
• Sort by relevance. Put the tags that describe what makes your game distinct near the top, and look at the tags on two or three games you would honestly compare yours to.

9. Keep the page consistent with what players see in game

Small mismatches add friction: a trailer titled in a different language from the store page, a window title in screenshots that does not match the game's name, a feature mentioned in the text that is not in the build. Before you publish, read the page from top to bottom as if you had never heard of your game, and fix anything that would make you pause. Remember that Valve reviews your store page before it goes live, typically in 3 to 5 business days, so leave time for it (Steamworks: Review Process).

A quick Steam page checklist

• Capsule logo readable at thumbnail size.
• Genre named in the first sentence of the short description, proofread.
• About section opens with something new, then skimmable sections and GIFs.
• At least 5 clean, fullscreen gameplay screenshots, best one first.
• Trailer shows gameplay in the first seconds.
• Up to 20 accurate tags, sorted by relevance.
• Everything on the page is in the build you ship.

For the bigger picture, including Coming Soon timing, Next Fest and outreach, read our guide on how to launch an indie game on Steam.