Game development diary: Running on Steam

I slipped under the wire and got a demo of "Character Limit" submitted to Steam just in time. That wasn't the stressful part.

In April, the development of Character Limit had reached a point where it could be tested by actual players. It did fantastically well at Dreamhack Birmingham, and I had also started doing testing on iPhone and iPad with Testflight.

However, later that month, registration for something known as Steam Next Fest was coming to a close. It's a promotional festival held a few times a year, focused on getting players to try out demos for games that have yet to be released.

Since I want the game to be completed long before the busy fall iPhone season, that meant the next Next Fest I could take part in was in the middle of June. I figured there was plenty of time to get the Dreamhack demo to a better and more robust state, so it could be downloaded to players' computers to try out.

But, since WWDC was also happening the week before Next Fest, that meant I would face a busy time here at AppleInsider, which would impact any development.

So, the decision was made to leave the Testflight build ticking along on iPhone, and to return to it when the game is in a much better place. Instead, I allocated my time to focus just on the Mac and PC demo.

It was both a very good and very stupid decision.

Fixing the demo

Getting the demo working as perfectly as possible for Next Fest wasn't just to ensure the game got more promotion through a major digital storefront. It also forced me into shoring up the demo so it could be used by the actual public.

So far, the game was made with my hardware and setups in mind. To make it work for practically any player in the world, I had to make sure anything that would break or be an edge case was handled gracefully, since any combination of hardware would be thrown at it.

Cue a few weeks of fixing bugs in number distribution, making an actual tutorial screen, and localization foibles that I had missed before.

It was then sent to some colleagues and friends for testing. And I'm glad that I did.

William Gallagher of this very site tried the game demo out. Partly because I had to work out how Xcode notarization worked, which was tricky but not difficult.

It turns out that William has an insane display ratio because he uses an ultrawide screen. Due to the way the game functioned, playing full-screen meant you missed the bottom and top sections of the interface.

For a word game, it helps if you can see the letters you're turning into words. Or even just see the Quit button on the main menu.

This was fixed quickly by making a floating section of the interface that was the correct aspect ratio, that would be visible in the middle of the screen when viewed by an ultrawide. All the content of the game would then be put into that box, similarly anchored to the center.

This worked surprisingly well and was practically the last stumbling block for the demo itself.

While not everything has been fixed, it's just got enough "done" to be usable as a proper demo.

As a consequence, I have many changes to transfer from the demo into the full game. It's work I would've had to do anyway before release, so doing it all now rather than later was a good move.

Steam pains

While making the game and working with Apple's Notarization system is one battle, Steam is quite another.

The tricky process of setting up a Steam page for the game has already been done. While you can set up a separate store page for a demo, you could also just add the demo download button to the main sales page.

There are reasons to go either way, but I went with the one main sales page approach. Partly because it would focus traffic onto that one page, partly from laziness.

However, for some reason, Steam requires you to submit effectively everything you would need for the separate store page for the demo, even if it doesn't exist. That includes the text for the page, which I had to write.

Other elements make sense, like platform specifications, capsule art images, and the name, since they would be used elsewhere.

Then it came time to upload the demo, which led to a multitude of problems.

The first issue was administrative, as I previously had to transfer the game from one Steamworks account to another, due to having signed up wrongly to begin with.

A personal account and one owned by a limited company differ in many ways, which meant a second account had to be made and the store listing transferred over.

It turns out that you can transfer the game as one listing, but the demo is a separate listing and doesn't necessarily get transferred over with the main title. I spent so long failing at uploading the demo because of this missing element, and then I had to wait most of a week for it to transfer.

The second problem is Steam's uploading system. There is an option to do so from the website, but there's no documentation explaining how to use it properly, so it was a no-go.

The usual way is a SteamPipe upload, using the Steam SDK. This is a process that involves a ton of work, including installing a command-line version of Steam, constructing a build and an upload script, and then setting the launch options.

I understand fully that this is a system designed more for the big developers with massive teams and people who truly know what they're doing. For a first-time indie, this is massively intimidating.

That is, until you realize that the SDK download includes a graphical interface that does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Except it's Windows-only and not available on the Mac.

I had a Windows PC nearby, so it wasn't a difficult procedure. But it is disheartening that there's not a macOS graphical interface available from Valve.

After getting the game demo uploaded, both it and the store details were submitted for review. The demo was apparently fine and dandy, but the store section was not.

Apparently, while you're encouraged to make the images of the capsule art be different so that players can tell the demo apart from the main game, you also cannot add more words to the art other than your game name.

They objected to me using the words "Demo Edition" in the art. Also, my logo was being covered by a demo corner banner that wasn't really mentioned previously.

Sure, my mistake for not fully understanding. It meant some tweaks and a few more days of waiting for a re-review and eventually being accepted.

On June 9, the second day of WWDC, Steam's email confirmed that the store page met its requirements, and that the demo could be published. That evening, Character Limit became available to play in demo form on Steam.

Happiness and trepidation

I have written before about how Steam is a big deal for me. As a gamer with a Steam account value that could buy a reasonably priced car at current prices, I am very familiar with Steam,a nd have used it for many, many years.

Registering and having a Steam listing for something that I made was an emotional experience. Just that hit hard.

I didn't expect putting the demo live to hit even harder.

I can now open my Steam library on my Mac and see "Character Limit Demo" on the long list of (mostly unplayed) games. I can now click it and open the game on my Mac or my PC.

Seeing it on there did actually make me weep a little bit. A stupid little game that I have been noodling on for most of a year is now in an application I regularly open up.

It's probably a feeling that authors get when they see their work on Amazon or in their local bookstore. Except it's a game and I can't walk into a physical location and hold the game in amazement.

After walking around the block for some air, I checked it ran OK, and it does.

This was an extremely big and happy moment for me. But it was cut short with the daunting realization that this isn't the finish line.

The rest of the game has to be put into place for the final version. Research into more languages and modes for future updates, too.

Then there's the ever-continuing slog of marketing and promotion before the game's release. That's an inevitability.

But, more immediately, there's the fear that the demo will not be well received by anyone. The last thing anyone creating anything needs is for people to complain about your baby, even if it's entirely justified.

Writing on the Internet for over a decade certainly gives you a thick skin for criticism of your words. But this is a level of apprehension and worry that I've not had to deal with in a very long time.

That's not even taking into account the eventual battle to get the finished product in the App Store. That's next.

Here's hoping Gabe Newell's money-generator audience is somewhat kind.