Steam Next Fest page checklist: what to fix before your demo goes live

Next Fest puts thousands of demos in front of players for one week. Most players never press Play. They scroll a list of capsules, open a few store pages and decide in seconds whether to wishlist, download or move on. That means your store page converts the traffic and your demo converts the curious. A great demo behind a weak page gets few downloads, and every visitor who leaves without wishlisting is gone for good, because the fest ends and the traffic stops.

Use this checklist about two weeks before the fest. Each item is something you can check in a few minutes and fix before the traffic arrives. For the dates and deadlines of upcoming fests, see our Steam Next Fest dates and countdown.

• Readable at 120×45. Shrink your small capsule to that size and show it to someone who doesn't know the game. Can they read the title? If not, simplify the logo or make it bigger.
• Genre is obvious. A horror game should look like horror at a glance, and a cozy game should look cozy. A beautiful but ambiguous capsule gets skipped.
• Every size is uploaded at current dimensions. Header 920×430, small 462×174, main 1232×706, vertical 748×896. Check with the Steam capsule size checker.
• No review quotes, award badges or "Demo available" text on the art. Valve's rules allow only the logo and artwork, and pages with extra text can be rejected.

More detail: Steam capsule sizes and art guide.

• Genre in the first five words. "A co-op roguelite…", not "In a world where…".
• One clear hook. The single thing that makes your game different from the other demos in its genre.
• Two or three gameplay verbs. What will the player actually do in the demo?
• Uses most of the space. Aim for 200 to 300 characters. Under 120 usually means you're leaving the pitch unfinished.
• Matches your top tags. If your first tag is Roguelite, say roguelite.

Paste yours into the short description checker for a score and three rewrites, and see Steam short description examples for patterns that work.

• Gameplay in the first 5 seconds of the trailer. Players autoplay it muted on the store page. Skip the studio logo and slow lore intro.
• Trailer works without sound. Add short on-screen text if the hook depends on narration.
• First 4 screenshots show gameplay, not menus, concept art or logos. Only the first few appear above the fold.
• Screenshots show variety: different areas, enemies, mechanics or moments, so the page doesn't look like a single level.
• At least 5 screenshots and 1 trailer. Check with the screenshot and trailer checker.

• Your top 5 tags describe the core game, in order of importance. Steam weighs the first tags most when deciding where to show you.
• No aspirational tags. Tagging "Open World" on a linear game sends the wrong players, who bounce and train Steam to show you less.
• Use all 20 slots, including sub-genre, theme, art style and player mode tags.

Run them through the Steam tag checker.

• Demo is a separate app linked to your main page, so wishlists go to the full game. Check the "Download demo" button shows on your main store page.
• Time to fun under 2 minutes. Cut long intros and tutorials from the demo, or make them skippable.
• Ends with a wishlist prompt. A final screen that says "Wishlist to get the full game" with a button that opens the store page.
• Works on Steam Deck if you can manage it. Deck players are a big share of fest downloads, and verification badges help.
• Crash-tested on a clean machine. A crash in the first minute often becomes a negative comment you can't undo during the fest.

• Release window is shown ("Coming Q2 2027" beats "To be announced"). A date tells players the wishlist will pay off.
• About section starts with a GIF or image and bullet points, not a wall of text.
• Links to Discord or a mailing list for players who want to follow along.
• Price is not set yet or is realistic for the genre, if shown.
• Languages listed correctly. Machine-translated store pages in languages you don't support hurt reviews later.

• Stream on your page during the fest if you can. Livestreams pin to the top of your store page and the fest lists.
• Reply to every demo discussion post in the first days. Active devs earn trust and follows.
• Check Steamworks traffic daily: impressions, click-through rate and visit-to-wishlist rate. If impressions are high but clicks are low, the capsule is the problem. If clicks are high but wishlists are low, it's the page.
• Fix things during the week. You can update the short description, screenshots and capsule mid-fest. Change one thing at a time so you can see what worked.
• After the fest: keep the demo up, post a thank-you update and note your wishlist total so you can work out your expected launch sales with the wishlist to sales calculator.

A free WishlistLab audit runs most of this checklist automatically: it scores your capsule, short description, trailer, screenshots and tags out of 100 and tells you the 3 fixes that matter most. See real examples in our Steam page audit gallery, and read how to get more Steam wishlists for the bigger picture.