Looking for Help on Uploading my Game to Steam

[MisterWolf]

I already paid the fee and I did some basic stuff in steamworks but I am having some trouble. The guides I am looking at are not clear enough for me. Just looking for someone who already got their game on steam and would be willing to help me out a bit. Thank you.

[Moga CMDR]

Did you download steampipe?

Also there is a youtube video in the documentation section as well. Did you see that?

Where are you having issues?

[MisterWolf]

Yep. I downloaded steampipe. I looked at the videos but they're all from 2016. A lot has changed since then. Right now, I am looking at my depots. First, I had just one depot and it was referenced by three packages. I want my game to be for Windows, Mac and Linux. I understand that for each one I need a separate depot. So, I created two additional depots. Neither one was referenced by any packages, I did some reading and changed some stuff and now the second and third depot are referenced by one package each. So, I am wondering if it's alright like that. Right now I have the Windows depot referenced by three packages, while the Mac and Linux depot are referenced by one package each. Is that correct or am I supposed to have each depot referenced by three packages? Thank you.

[Moga CMDR]

Yes, the depots are confusing either way. You have the whole developer/beta packages versus the consumer ones.

It took me a lot of clicking around to fully understand how that all works. Typically all my depots, other than test depots, are referenced by all packages. I make sure my true test depots are only assigned to my developer package...

Typically you have Store package, Reviewer, Beta and Developer packages. However getting to them sometimes feels hidden with all the stuff in the steamworks account.

You can go to Apps & Packages> View Packages

In there you see how many depots each package has. If it is missing something, you can fix it here. You can click on the small package ID number and it takes you to where you can add more depots to that package.

Hope that helps, let me know if that explains it.

[MisterWolf]

Thanks. Now all the depots are referenced by three packages. I am going to list the names of the three packages just so you can check that it all makes sense. Under CD Key Packages I have Developer Comp and For Beta Testing. Under Steam Store Packages in the Other Packages subsection I have a package with my game’s name on it.

I am looking at the checklist and I see that I am supposed to have one depot that is not language specific. Does it matter which one of the three I choose? Thanks again for your help.

[Moga CMDR]

Well, I only do English.. So I make all my depots "All Languages".

I believe it is common to use "All Languages" if you only have one language, and only to use the language options if you support more than one. (and have specific depots that support that language)

Steam's game review teams have never told me to do it any differently, so if you only have one language, I would do that too.

[MisterWolf]

These are instructions from the guide I am using. https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/how-to-publish-an-rpg-maker-game-on-steam.109918/ I am just wondering if they are accurate

Uploading a Build
To upload a build, first, download the Steamworks SDK. There are a lot of parts of this package you won’t need for an RPG Maker game, but it comes as one package.

Open the SDK > Tools > Content Builder > Content folder and paste the game files into it. These are the files that you deployed from RPG Maker. Make sure to keep a separate a folder for each platform.

I pasted three folders in here, each for a different OS.

Then, Open the SDK > Tools > Content Builder > Scripts folder. Edit both the app_build_ file and the depot_build_ file with the appropriate App and Depot IDs and Content path. Your app_build_ file will end with the app ID, and the Depot ID file will end with the Depot ID.

Here I am a bit confused. In the guide the guy has an APP ID consisting of 6 numbers but my APP ID on steamworks is 7 numbers. And the Depot ID in the example is also for some reason 6 numbers instead of 7 numbers.

[Moga CMDR]

OK, one tip is to use the SteamPipeGUI app (assuming you are on PC). it comes with the steamworks stuff already, just hidden.

sdk\tools\SteamPipeGUI

its about 100 times easier to use than manually editing files.

Also with this you can pick the folders and not worry about copying your projects into specific folders.

Yes APP ID's are currently 7 digits

Try the GUI solution, its way easier, I don't know why it's not more prominently featured.

[MisterWolf]

Thank you. What should I have as build description? Just the name of the game?

[Moga CMDR]

It shows up in the admin console. So it can just say 1.0 if you want.

I use it when I am testing features, say achievements. "Achievement Test" or "Controller Fix"

It doesn't show up to players. So whatever helps you sort your uploads is fine.

[MisterWolf]

What do I need to do about these? Do I live them blank?

Set Live on Non-default Branch

Steamworks SDK Content Builder Path

Do I need to generate VDFs?

[Moga CMDR]

Set live on non default branch would be used for beta testing for example, technically can be used for other stuff but that is risky once the game is live. I've had beta branches and by setting that there it would automatically go live (in the beta branch) without extra steps later. you can leave it alone for now.

My builder path is like this
\sdk\tools\ContentBuilder - You may need to have the full path like C:\Users\ETC, ETC ETC

I generate VDFs each time I upload. They seem to still be a requirement per the steam documentation. They only take a second to generate and are really small files.

[MisterWolf]

So, I used the Steam Pipe Build Uploader to upload my build, but I don't see it in steamworks. So, should I upload it again? Thank you.

[Moga CMDR]

Did you keep an eye on the command line? Or was there any errors in the logs in the GUI? Sometimes there are connection errors and they show up in the log.

If you don't see it in a few minutes, something could have gone wrong during upload. Normally it is instant. I've only had one or two uploads that didn't show up instantly, at those times I think steam was just having some issues.

If the game is small then it won't hurt to upload again. You can always delete builds you don't need later.

[MisterWolf]

This is what I got. ERROR! Build for Depot 1361132 failed : Failure
Then underneath in yellow it says this.
CWorkThreadPool: :~CWorkThreadPool: work processing queue not empty: 1 items discarded.

The depot mentioned is for Mac.
I am not sure if it's important but right now my steam desktop application is showing no connection, not sure if it's related to this problem.

[Moga CMDR]

Sounds like it was potentially a networking issue. You can try to upload again. Personally I leave all the settings the same in this case. Meaning you can leave the PC and Linux version in the setup.

When it sees there is no difference to the PC and Linux ones it won't upload them. So no harm there. (other than it will take time to check them, but in the long run its easier to leave it all alone than to change the settings just for verifying the Mac one right now)

And if it sees part of the Mac is already up, it will just take care of what has changed.

So yeah, try again and hope the network is fine.