Steam changes the presentation of the game trailers and encourages to show gameplay

Valve has released a new update to Steamworks, the set of tools and services that help developers and publishers build their games and take advantage of distribution on Steam, with the ultimate goal of making it easier to find a title in the title tabs. trailer with gameplay where the gameplay is shown. The novelties are already implemented in the store and the two main changes are two: a maximum of two trailers before the captures and name and category to identify the videos.

As of today, a game’s listing on Steam can only display two trailers in the row of thumbnails to the left of the screenshots. The remaining footage will come out after the captures. Consequently, it is urged to order the trailers to give priority to those that are most useful to potential customers. Developers and publishers are free to upload the videos they want and order them or not, but Valve recommends showing action and sequences. gameplay.

“Ideally, you want to show players how your title is played in the shortest amount of time possible,” Valve recommends. “We recommend that your first trailer primarily feature gameplay and clearly demonstrate what players will be able to do in the game and how they will interact with the world you have designed. Save your company logos and storylines to show up later, once you’ve earned the interest of the players.”

On the other hand, developers can now choose from a predetermined list of categories for each trailer. “If a category is selected, the video player on your game’s store page will now display that category, followed by the name of the trailer,” Valve explains. There are four categories available: General / Cinematic (where most of the videos that include cinematic sequences and gameplay fall), Trailer (the teaser announcement with little content), Gameplay and Interview / Dev Diary.

For Valve these changes are important on different levels. On the one hand, it makes it easier to manage the trailers that are shown to players, something that is useful for both new games and those that have been around for a long time, and on the other, it offers more information to users. “With this update we want to address both of those issues and help players get more familiar with the games they are interested in,” Valve says.

This is not the first time that Valve has taken steps to make developers or publishers more direct, honest and orderly when it comes to showing their games to store customers. For example, since last year Steam has not allowed excessive text, award logos, or scores to be included in title images. All this information already has a dedicated plot in the games tab.