Steam game description template: how to write the About This Game section (with Valve's rules)

Your Steam page has two written descriptions, and they do different jobs. Valve's Store Page Written Description docs put both under Store Presence › Edit Store Page › Description in Steamworks.

• The short description sits next to your header capsule at the top of the page and in other places where space is tight. It is plain text only, a few hundred characters long, and its job is to say what the game is and why someone should keep looking. We cover it in how to write a Steam short description and short description examples.
• About This Game is the long-form section further down the page. It supports headings, bold text, lists, images and looping animations. Valve's advice is to think about what players need to know after they have looked at your trailer and screenshots, because anyone who scrolls this far is already interested.

This guide is about the second one: a structure you can copy, the rules Valve enforces and the asset specs that keep the section fast.

Steam does not show your whole About This Game section by default. When we checked the code of a live store page on 29 October 2026, the section sat inside a collapsing container with a maximum height of 850 pixels. Anything below that is hidden until the player clicks to expand it.

The description column is also narrow. Valve's extra asset docs describe it as 780 logical pixels wide. So in practice the first screen of your description is roughly one heading, a short paragraph and one or two images. Put the things that sell the game there:

• What the player does, in one or two sentences.
• One image or short loop that shows the core action.
• The first one or two feature headings.

Story background, credits, edition details and long feature lists can live below the fold. Players who want them will click.

This structure follows Valve's own best practices (keep it short, make it skimmable, add visuals, avoid jargon). Replace everything in square brackets. The example lines use a made-up game, a lighthouse-keeping sim, so you can see the level of detail to aim for.

1. Hook heading. The core fantasy in a few words. [Keep the light burning through the longest winter]
2. Opening paragraph (2 to 3 sentences). Genre, what you do minute to minute and what makes it different. [A cosy survival sim where you run a remote lighthouse alone: fix the lamp, ration fuel and guide ships through storms you can see coming on the horizon.]
3. One textless image or loop of the core action, 1170px wide.
4. Three to five feature blocks. Each one is a short bold heading, one or two sentences and, if it helps, an image or loop. Lead with a verb and say what the player does, not what the engine does. [Read the weather: barometer, clouds and radio chatter warn you before each storm hits.]
5. Modes and scope. Single-player or co-op, roughly how long a run or campaign is, whether there is a sandbox or endless mode. Only state what is true today.
6. Editions (if you have them). Valve suggests About This Game as the place to explain what each purchase option includes.
7. Early Access or roadmap note (if relevant). Keep it factual. Steam has a separate Early Access section for the detailed answers.
8. Closing line. One sentence that restates the fantasy. Do not add links or fake buttons, see the rules below.

Want the copy done for you? Our done-for-you Steam page includes a written About This Game section ready to paste into Steamworks. Prices are on the pricing page.

These come straight from Valve's description rules and the store page editing docs. Breaking them can hold up your store page review.

• No links to other websites. That includes links hidden in images, QR codes and URLs spelled out in text. Use the website and social media link fields in the Basic Info tab instead.
• No images that mimic Steam's interface. No fake Wishlist or Buy buttons, no mock game capsules and no fake price or discount overlays.
• No advertising other games. No text, images, links or widgets pointing to other products on Steam, including your own. Related games belong in the DLC or "More from" sections, bundles or a developer homepage.

The short description has one extra rule worth carrying over: Valve asks you not to use time-based text such as "Now available" or a specific date, because it goes out of date. The same logic applies to About This Game. A line like "Demo out this weekend" will still be there months later unless you remember to remove it.

From Valve's Store Page Extra Asset Management and written description docs, checked 29 October 2026:

Two habits make a big difference. First, prefer MP4 or WEBM loops to huge GIFs when you can, since they are usually much smaller for the same clip. Second, add alt text to every image. Valve's editor has a button for it above the Upload Custom Image area, and it is exported with the rest of your text for translation.

Do not reuse your trailer's opening shot or your capsule art as the first image. Players have just seen both. Show something new, such as a mechanic the trailer only hints at. Our Steam trailer tips cover what belongs in the trailer instead.

Since September 2024 Steamworks has a visual description editor that previews About This Game as you type. You can paste from Google Docs or Word and keep headings, bold, italics and bullet lists, and drag images straight in. Images added this way are also saved under Custom Images.

The editor still saves BBCode underneath, and you can switch back to the BBCode view if you prefer. Valve warns that the code the visual editor writes is not tidy to read, so pick one editor per section and stick with it.

Formatting tips that follow Valve's guidance:

• Bold your feature headings so skimmers can read only those and still get the pitch.
• Keep paragraphs to two or three lines in that narrow column. Valve's docs warn against walls of text.
• Use a list for modes, platforms or edition contents, not for your main selling points, which read better as heading plus sentence.
• Explain genre terms. Valve reminds you that many visitors are new to your game and possibly to its genre.

Valve's localisation docs say over 60% of Steam users use Steam in a language other than English. You can enter your description in each language from the language drop-down in the editor.

Text inside images is the expensive part. Valve points out that any words baked into an image have to be translated and re-uploaded for every language, which is why it recommends textless images. If you do need text in an image, upload the translated versions as one localised image group so the right version shows for each player's language. If you want your page in more languages, see Steam store page localisation.

• The first 850 pixels say what the player does and show it.
• Every feature heading starts with what the player does.
• No links, QR codes, spelled-out URLs or fake Steam buttons.
• No mentions of other games on Steam, including your own.
• No dated lines such as "out now" or "coming this Friday".
• Images are about 1170px wide, each under 5MB, and the page total is under 15MB.
• Loops are 12 seconds or shorter and don't repeat your trailer's opening shot.
• Every image has alt text, and images with words have translated versions.
• You checked it in "Preview changes in store" before publishing.

Then check the rest of the page. The free Steam page audit scores your page out of 100 and gives your top 3 fixes in about 20 seconds. The short description checker covers the text at the top, and the screenshot and trailer checker covers the media above it.

Is there a character limit for the Steam About This Game section?

Valve's documentation doesn't publish a character limit for About This Game, only for the short description, which it describes as a few hundred characters. The practical limit is attention: the store page collapses the section at about 850 pixels high, so most players only see the first heading, paragraph and image or two.

Can I put links in my Steam game description?

No. Valve doesn't allow links to other websites in store page descriptions, including QR codes, links inside images and URLs written out as text. Use the website and social media fields in the Basic Info tab of the store page editor.

Can I use GIFs in my Steam description?

Yes. You can upload GIF, MP4 and WEBM animations up to 12 seconds long. They only play in About This Game and Special Announcement sections. Keep each image under 5MB and all screenshots and GIFs under 15MB in total.

What size should images in a Steam description be?

Valve recommends 1170px wide, which is the 780px description column at 150% display scaling. Images up to 4096px wide are accepted and get a full-screen option.

Can I mention my other games in my Steam description?

No. Valve doesn't allow store page descriptions to advertise other products on Steam. Use the DLC or More From sections, bundles, franchise pages or a developer homepage instead.