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you don't need a business licenses or a llc for that matter you can sign up as a Sole Proprietorship, however as far as i know creating an llc is free in the US.
you obviously need tax and bank papers because you are making money legally and as such you have to report that to the IRS so you would need those information.
regarding payments:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/finance/payments_salesreporting#2
so basically here is why they need your bank details, since they wire the money straight to your bank.
but i think, i might miss the point about what you mean when you asked about paypal and such and it might be related to microtransactions, if yes, then valve provides you with a way to integrate that:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/microtransactions/implementation#5
(i actually believe you have to use their microtransaction)
how steam has evolved over the past 2 years has clearly had an impact on how they advertise new games, which has resultet in valve imo doing a bad job for smaller indie games but the higher AAA studios are getting more advertisement.
so i would not rely on having the game on steam be enough any longer, it was enough prior to the discovery 2.0 update but now you will need to reach out to youtubers/game reviewers ec yourself.
alternative, would be to seek out a publisher so that you wont need to handle most the tedious stuff yourself.
How would advertising it on its own page be useful? Or are you talking about something else?
www.ParadiseCityOnline.com
Frankly, if you can't figure out how to release a game through Steam Direct, I question your ability to design a game in the first place.
Considering the infinite amount of rubbish that releases on Steam nowadays, it can't be too hard. Once upon a time ago, releasing on Steam was one of my main goals. Nowadays, its hardly an afterthought, considering they seem to let literally anything on.
Still, they want 100 dollas, when I'm a poor hobo, and tax information, which I may or may not have, so I'm throwing some investogations around. Plus API integration, which I don't think will be possible on my end.
As for making a game, that bit is free and easy. The engine I use may be the worst engine still in existance, 20 years past its prime, but I am an expert at it.
Hope so, there's some conflicting info in the help files.
"Steam places no restrictions on what you sell or how you sell it nor does it preclude the use of whatever other mechanisms your game has for selling items."
"For any in-game purchases, you'll need to use the microtransaction API so Steam customers can only make purchases from the Steam Wallet."
if you fail to understand that, then you should not be posting a comment.
I have personally been in well over 17 steam game releases, so i speak from experience, one can surely acquire multiple skills and abilities such as developing the game and do the marketing themselves.
the OP might be very skillful in the engine he is working in along being decent / skillfull at the graphical aspect but can struggle with the marketing aspect.
whom are you to say one has to be able to do it all? do you have a bachelor degree in marketing or a bachelor in computer science? have you ever made game yourself? if yes, how about you share that with us, so we can see how you did your marketing and how much a success your game was.
so before you tell others what they may be doing or not look at yourself first and ask whether or not you are within your range of abilites to question his skills.
this is true, so you wont need to integrate these steamworks features however if you wish to have microtransactions you will need to integrate that feature.
so his confusions are valid the documentation is not so much a yes or no, it is a lot to read and can be overwhelming to understand.
i had a look at it and it looks pretty alright, and yes i agree it is a bit silly valve charges 100 dollars for a free 2 play games, something that has been debated a lot amongst the devs.
You missed the original post prior to the edit. If you fail to understand that then you should not be posting a comment. :)
so before you tell others what they may be doing or not look at yourself first and ask whether or not you are within your range of abilites to question his skills. Clearly your basic observational skills are indeed lacking.
Currently, it has a monthly subscription system. Basically $5 for premium status. However, based on my previous releases, it seems a subscription based business model is counterproductive to development, so will probably sell Gold instead. Either way, I would say yes.
As a friend, or...?
I have a programming degree, and do the gameplay design and programming myself. Little-to-no experience in marketing though. For my most successful game, all I did was make a single YouTube trailer, and being ahead/best/only of its kind, at the time, carried itself in views (~600k). I'll have to get PewDiePie to play this one. He's still a thing, right?