How To Prepare Your Game For NextFest

While I would NOT recommend launching your demo specifically at NextFest, but if you must, then I would strongly recommend conducting Alpha Testing beforehand. During this stage, watch for one critical factor: playtime.

Steam uses playtime as a key metric for curation, because playtime is a strong predictor of whether the masses might enjoy your game. Valve (Steam's parent company) published a detailed video explaining this concept:

While the video is comprehensive, they have a direct quote in their presentation that states:

"When players spend time and money on your game, it's a strong signal to Steam that it could be interesting to other players, too."

If your playtime data looks problematic with your current demo or alpha tests, you're likely to not have your game promoted by Steam's algorithm. The algorithm favors games that demonstrate strong player engagement through extended play sessions.

Game marketer Erik Kovac of Tilt Games pointed out in his LinkedIn post what a healthy engagement curve looks like when players are truly engaged with a game. The data should show players spending meaningful time in your game rather than dropping off quickly.

If your demo is already live and your playtime metrics are low, prioritize improving player retention. If your demo isn't released yet, conduct alpha testing to understand your playtime patterns. Focus on these critical aspects:

• Analytics Setup: Do you have analytics configured in your onboarding process that track how users funnel into your game? Understanding where players drop off is crucial for optimization.
• Onboarding Process: Do you have an onboarding experience that correctly introduces players to your game in an engaging way? Do they learn all the essential game mechanics needed to begin playing effectively?
• Bug-Free Experience: Is your game mostly free of critical bugs? How are you tracking bugs, and are you keeping players updated on bug fixes and improvements?
• Community Relationship: Have you begun building relationships with players through your social media channels, Discord community, or other communication methods?

If you're conducting Alpha tests, you should start this process at least 3 months out. Work backwards from how long it typically takes you to recruit players, analyze their gameplay results, gather direct feedback, implement fixes, and then conduct another test cycle to ensure the issues you identified are resolved and no new problems have emerged.

Steam Page Optimization

Is your Steam page optimized for converting visitors into wishlists? There are several critical elements to examine here. The first is localization—making your Steam page available in multiple languages. In fact, Valve has pointed out that localization is critical in how their algorithms choose what content to show to different regional audiences.