The 2019 Steam Autumn Sale is now live, with great deals across the Steam catalog through Black Friday and Cyber Monday*. Check in each day to see the new featured titles on the front page, plus personalized recommendations.
 
In addition to the thousands of great games that are on discount, join us in our fourth-annual Steam Awards and nominate your favorite games across all eight categories, and earn profile XP and badges for participating! Your nominations will help determine the finalists for each category. In December, you can vote on the winners for each category during the Steam Winter Sale. Learn more about the Steam Awards here.
 
*Offers end Tuesday December 3rd at 10am Pacific.

Another month is in the books, and with it we take a look back at the top products released in October on Steam. This list will look at the top 20 releases of October measured by the revenue they generated during the first two weeks following their release. We also included the top 6 most popular free to play releases, measured by peak concurrent player count following release.

We have quite a bit of fun watching different trends and themes develop as new products release from month to month. We've consistently touched on some of these themes in our past lists, and they are worth summarizing this month as well:

• 4 games either leaving or entering Early Access.
  
• 10 developers bringing a product to Steam for the first time.
  
• 13 different countries represented by developers this month.
  
• 13 games with some level of controller support.

This month we decided to take a more detailed look at the communities playing these games and investigate whether players play more than one of the games on this list. When we looked at the people playing these games from the Top Releases list during October, the first glaring stat is just how many people played Destiny 2 – The game peaked at nearly 300,000 concurrent players just a few days after release, putting it among the most played games on all of Steam at launch, and it has remained there ever since - https://store.steampowered.com/stats/.

Destiny 2 appears again when we look at players that have played any other game on the Top Releases list – nearly 20% of players that played other games in the top 20 also played Destiny 2. This overlap is no surprise with the sheer popularity of Destiny 2, but it's reassuring to also find an overlap between other products. While the numbers are not as high, the overlap in people playing more than one game from the Top Releases list presents some interesting correlations worth highlighting. For example, we found a lot of players enjoying both Atelier Ryza & Indivisible, which are both anime RPGs featuring turn-based combat and female protagonists. We found similar overlap in players across We Were Here Together and Trine 4, which both incorporate heavy use of puzzles with an emphasis on cooperative gameplay. Crossroads Inn & Autonauts have very different themes, but both games utilize building and simulation. For players who enjoy games with similar themes or mechanics, there is an exciting amount of choice when it comes to deciding what to play on Steam. But these examples also show that players don’t always have to choose; they often play more than one.

For the coming months, we've been playing with some ways to present these lists in a more accessible and interactive way. Stay tuned, and as always, let us know what you think!

*Update – 11/25/2019* Our initial list did not include one of the top free releases this month: NGU IDLE. This announcement and respective store page have been updated to reflect this, and now include the top 6 free releases of October.

Here is the list of October's top releases ordered by release date (we've organized this list on a handy sale page too):


Destiny 2 - Bungie (US)


Indivisible - Lab Zero Games (US)


Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince - Frozenbyte (Finland)


DORAEMON STORY OF SEASONS - Marvelous Inc. & Brownies Inc. (Japan)


MISTOVER - KRAFTON, Inc. (South Korea)


GRID - Codemasters (UK)


Pine - Twirlbound (Netherlands)


We Were Here Together - Total Mayhem Games (Netherlands)


POSTAL 4: No Regerts - Running With Scissors (US)


Chernobylite - The Farm 51 (Poland)


Disco Elysium - ZA/UM (UK)


The Jackbox Party Pack 6 - Jackbox Games, Inc. (US)


ArcheAge: Unchained - XLGAMES (South Korea)


Autonauts - Denki (UK)


Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition - h.a.n.d., Inc. (Japan)


WWE 2K20 - Visual Concepts (US)


Crossroads Inn - Kraken Unleashed (Poland)


Richman10 - Softstar Technology (Beijing) Co.,Ltd (China)


Secret Neighbor -Hologryph (Ukraine) & Dynamic Pixels (Russia)


Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout - KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (Japan)

--



Destiny 2 - Bungie (US)


NGU IDLE - 4G (Canada)


Breeders of the Nephelym: Alpha - DerelictHelmsman (US)


Walking Zombie 2 - Alda Games (Czech Republic)


Legend of Keepers: Prologue - Goblinz Studio (France)


War Selection - Glyph Woods (Russia)

--

If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release links:

• The Top Releases of April
  
• The Top Releases of May
  
• The Top Releases of June
  
• The Top Releases of July
  
• The Top Releases of August
  
• The Top Releases of September

Cheers!
-The Steam Team

Nov 20, 2019 -- After roughly one month in beta, Steam Remote Play Together is now released to all Steam users. With this feature, local multiplayer gaming is now extended to iOS and Android devices. Remote Play Together enables cross-platform play among friends across Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Up to four players, or even more in ideal conditions, can instantly join in the fun. Only the host needs to own and install the game, while additional players connect through Steam Remote Play streaming technology using their PC or the Steam Chat and Steam Link mobile apps.

In celebration of the release, Steam is hosting a Remote Play Together Sale & Streaming Event featuring streamers from around the world sharing games using Remote Play Together. In addition, hundreds of games that leverage the new feature are on sale through November 25th at 10AM PDT.

For more information, please visit https://store.steampowered.com/together.

A hearty thank you to everyone who tried out the Library during the beta. We’ll continue shipping improvements and new features based on your feedback and requests.

As an added bonus, this update also expands the Remote Play Together Beta to all Steam users.

Here’s a recap on the Library update:



The new Steam library was built with the belief that our libraries are valuable to us – for some customers, they contain more than fifteen years of games. From your absolute favorite AAA title that all your friends are playing, to that solo indie art project that only you seem to love, your Steam library represents your gaming history.

But, a good library shouldn't just be dusty shelves, it has to be a fun place to explore and find whatever it is that you're looking for. Whether you want to keep up to date about what's happening with your games, find a game to play with your friends, or explore what's happening in your game's community, your library should support you.

Today we want to introduce you to some of the biggest new library features and explain how they’re going help do just that.



The first thing you'll probably notice is that we're launching a gorgeous new landing page for your library. The new library home gives you quick access to game updates, recently played games, friends activity and your collections.



We're making it easier for you to stay on top of the changes happening to your games and who is playing what. One of things we know you love about Steam is being able to engage directly with your games as they evolve over time. The new library makes it simple to see not just if a game has been updated but, with the new events feature, what that update is and why you should boot it up and give it a shot.



We're also making it easy to see what your friends have been up to and which games they are currently playing. You can find out what games your friends have been playing right on the library home page, and see what games they are currently playing from your games list. With all this new information, you shouldn't miss out on the tantalizing water-cooler conversation about everyone's weekend replay of Portal 2.

Odds are, you've got games in your library that had incredible updates or limited-time events and you never even knew. Well, those days are over. We wanted to strike a balance between an in-library event feature that let you know about all the great things happening with the games you already own without bombarding you with notifications.



Showcasing these updates is valuable to players and also developers. If you’re a dev, it hasn’t been easy to let someone know that you've just shipped a big update to your game, especially if they've moved on to something else. Now it is. Starting today, developers will have access to all new event creation tools that will feed directly into the new library (you can read more about the new event tools here).

Not every event needs to be a big update, though. The new event tool gives you the ability to connect with players and share other things like a developer live-stream or a community challenge, or even highlight interesting fan art.

-The Steam Team

What unearthly deals will you discover beneath the floating mansion? Find out during the Steam Halloween Sale, on now until November 1st at 10am Pacific.

Get discounts on horror and Halloween-themed games across the Steam catalog. The sale also features other great games that have special Halloween-themed updates or activities that are happening during the Halloween Sale!

September’s releases have wrapped up their launch weeks, so we have another exciting list of top games to showcase. As with past months, this list highlights the top 20 products released in September, measured by the revenue they generated during the first two weeks following release. We also have the top 5 free products, measured by peak concurrent player count following release.

We talk about Early Access quite a bit in these posts, and for good reason. With eight titles this month either entering or launching from early access, this model of development continues to be a unique and valuable option for creating a product with involvement and feedback from the community.

Another theme worth highlighting is the continued success of developers launching their first products on Steam. Nine teams this month are bringing a game to Steam for the first time (Green Hell, Gears 5, Session, Ni no Kuni, Crying Suns, Noita, Flotsam, Cube World and Maelstrom). Congrats and welcome!

September’s list featured a surprising number of controller supported games – 18 in total. Supporting is one thing, but we were curious to see how many players are actually using them. In measuring the number of controller sessions for games released in September, we were quite excited with the level of engagement. As some may have expected, Pro Evolution Soccer, NBA2K and CODE VEIN are incredibly popular with controllers - all three landed in the top 10 most controller sessions for September across the entire Steam catalog. It makes sense for those games to see controller use, but other releases from a variety of genres also saw significant controller engagement - Session, River City Girls, Ni no Kuni, Blasphemous, Spyro, Surge 2 and Final Fantasy VIII all registered more than half of their September game sessions from players with controllers. There is no single way of enjoying games on Steam and this is further testament that both players and developers can benefit from a variety of input options.

This is the list of September's top releases ordered by release date (we've organized this list on a handy store page too):



Spyro™ Reignited Trilogy - Toys for Bob (US) & Iron Galaxy (US)
Spyro is bringing the heat like never before in this remastered collection of the original three games.


Children of Morta - Dead Mage (US)
Story-driven action RPG about an extraordinary family of heroes. Will you be able to sacrifice everything to save the ones you care for?


FINAL FANTASY VIII - REMASTERED - Square Enix (Japan)
The mega-hit RPG returns with new graphical enhancements and a whole host of options to customize your gameplay experience.


NBA 2K20 - Visual Concepts (US)
Best in class graphics & gameplay, ground breaking game modes and unparalleled player control and customization in this latest installment of NBA 2K.


River City Girls - WayForward (US)
There's trouble once again in River City and this time only the girls can save the day! Use a variety of attacks, weapons and items as you teach the city’s lowlifes a lesson.


Green Hell - Creepy Jar (Poland)
Coming out of Early Access - A sweltering struggle for survival in the Amazonian rainforest with realistic survival techniques, psychological thrills and a daunting and interactive environment.


Gears 5 - The Coalition (Canada)
From one of gaming's most acclaimed sagas, Gears is bigger than ever, with five thrilling modes and the deepest campaign yet.


GreedFall - Spiders (France)
Engage in a core roleplaying experience with complete freedom of progression, as you forge the destiny of a new world seeping with magic, riches, lost secrets and fantastic creatures.


eFootball PES 2020 - Konami Digital Entertainment (Japan)
Experience unparalleled realism, authenticity and a host of new features in this year's definitive football game.


Blasphemous - The Game Kitchen (Spain)
A punishing action-platformer that combines the fast-paced, skilled combat of a hack-n-slash game with a deep and evocative narrative core.


Session - creā-ture Studios Inc. (Canada)
Just arrived into Early Access - Explore iconic skate spots and master True Stance Stick controls in this authentic experience inspired by the golden era of skateboarding.


AI: The Somnium Files - Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. (Japan)
Play as detective Kaname Date on the trail of an elusive serial killer in this thrilling, sci-fi murder mystery set in near-future Tokyo.


Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch™ Remastered - Level-5 (Japan) & QLOC (Poland)
Journey back to the captivating story and all-star production in this visually stunning RPG with improved graphics and performance.


Crying Suns - Alt Shift (France)
Uncover an epic story and unravel the truth about the empire as you take the role of fleet commander in this tactical rogue-lite journey through space.


Hot Lava - Klei Entertainment (US)
Run, jump, climb, and surf across nostalgia-packed environments flooded with hot molten lava. Explore alone, or join your friends. And whatever you do, don’t touch the floor.


The Surge 2 - Deck13 (Germany)
Fight ferocious threats in brutal, unforgiving combat, slashing and tearing the limbs off your opponents to steal their equipment, as you try to survive in the devastated Jericho City.


Noita - Nolla Games (Finland)
Just arrived into Early Access - A magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated. Fight, explore, melt, burn, freeze and evaporate your way through a procedurally generated world using spells you've created.


CODE VEIN - Bandai Namco Studios (Japan)
Team up and embark on a journey to the ends of hell to unlock your past and escape your living nightmare in this action packed RPG with deep character customization.


Flotsam - Pajama Llama Games (Belgium)
Just arrived into Early Access - Scavenge what precious garbage you can from the ocean's surface and grow your city while doing your best to survive in this colorful post-apocalyptic floating garbage town survival game.


Cube World - Picroma (Germany)
Voxel-based action RPG with a focus on exploration in a procedurally generated fantasy world made up entirely of cubes.

--



I Love You, Colonel Sanders - Psyop (US)
Welcome to the most delicious dating simulator ever created. Do you have what it takes to become a business partner and win the heart of the most famous chicken salesman of all time?


Territory Idle - Aleksandr Golovkin (Russia)
Coming out of Early Access - A strategic simulation where you develop a kingdom through new tiles that yield gold, territory, perks, heroes and more.


PlanetSide Arena - Daybreak Game Company (US)
Just arrived to Early Access - Dive into PlanetSide Arena and battle online in this massive multiplayer sci-fi arena shooter, with multiple classes, jetpacks class and futuristic vehicles.


Firestone Idle RPG - Holyday Studios (Cyprus)
Just arrived to Early Access - Reclaim the firestones in this idle-rpg where you select different heroes, create battle formations, collect new gear and battle undead and orc forces.


Maelstrom - Gunpowder Games, Inc. (US)
Coming out of Early Access - Fast-paced naval battles in a grim fantasy world of leviathans, warships & magic! Upgrade ships & crew to become the most powerful warship to sail the Abyssal Ocean!

--

If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release links:

• The Top Releases of April
  
• The Top Releases of May
  
• The Top Releases of June
  
• The Top Releases of July
  
• The Top Releases of August

Cheers!
-The Steam Team

Now in Beta! With Remote Play Together, you can now invite Steam Friends to join your local co-op, local multiplayer, and shared/split screen games online. Up to four players,or even more in ideal conditions, can instantly join in the fun. Only the host needs to own and install the game, while additional players connect through Steam Remote Play streaming technology.

Then launch any of your local multiplayer games.

From your Friends list in the Steam Overlay, select Remote Play Together. Once they accept...


Their controllers will act as if they're plugged directly into your computer, and all your voice chat and game volume options are available in one place.

To keep things simple, only the game is displayed to your Friends, never your desktop or other Top Secret stuff. You can share — or limit access to — the keyboard and mouse. It’s your choice.

• Play local multiplayer games with Steam Friends online
  
• Stream video, audio, input, and voice between players
  
• Use your own controllers, or share control of the keyboard & mouse
  
• Play together across PC, Mac, and Linux

During the Beta we'll be improving network stability and compatibility across a variety of hardware. We're excited to hear feedback from you in our Discussion Forums.

So check out Steam's growing list of thousands of supported titles, and help us test when you invite a friend to Play Together today!

Since bringing Steam Remote Play out of Beta it's been exciting to see the huge variety of games that it’s being used with. For a start, games with great controller support are being widely played on TVs. On mobile we've seen that some genres are more likely to be played on phones and tablets such as RPG, strategy, adventure, visual novel, and card games. Some games work great with a simple direct or trackpad cursor. But for other games, when default touch controls aren't provided, many players launch the game and then end up playing something else.

So to improve the experience we put together default touch configurations for over 100 of the most common and desired Remote Play games. We learned a lot about how to build fun touch controllers throughout this processes and would like to share a few interesting case studies.

Launched last week, this is a classic-style RPG that plays great with a fairly typical gamepad layout. But on closer inspection there’s a few things worth pointing out.



The developers have done an excellent job implementing full Steam Input API support. This allows the game to automatically adjust the button layout depending on the current gameplay mode. For example, in menus a D-Pad appears for easy navigation, while navigating the world uses the more comfortable Analog Stick. In the screenshot above there are buttons with special icons for calling your fast travel pals. Then in battle mode the fast travel buttons automatically disappear. All of the possible actions in each mode were easy to discover and lay out because of their Steam Input implementation.

Here's another RPG with a significant percentage of players using Steam and Xbox controllers. But since it’s a native PC game its control scheme is anything but typical.



In this game the X button uses your farming tools. They're used rapidly and extremely often, so we enlarged the button to make it easy to press without looking. The arrow buttons cycle through your quick-bar items, and each of the sub menus have been given a helpful icon for quick access. The top center of the screen is sometimes used for dialog, so we moved the Steam button to the upper left. We also moved the keyboard button which is used for giving everything on your farm personalized names. The rest of the screen acts as a cursor trackpad for easily organizing the inventory.

Let’s examine one final action game with an extremely specialized control scheme. Session is a skateboarding simulator that entered early access last week. The way that each foot is controlled by an Analog Stick gives it an intuitive feel on mobile, almost like playing with a Fingerboard.



Tricks are activated using various move combinations with both thumbs, just like controlling both feet. The placement of the X and A buttons let you naturally push off with the left or right foot, and leaning is done with the Left and Right Trigger buttons. In the future we’d like to experiment with leaning using the gyroscope so that we can steer while doing our goofy foot pop shuvits.

After adding default configurations to this long list of games we’ve seen a steady increase in players using Remote Play. We've also added store hubs for phone, tablet, and TV, in addition to a Library filter so that it's easy to find the best games while on those devices.



We can't wait to feature even more games on these pages, so have a look at our partner documentation to create a default touch configuration for your game. This also includes a new API for detecting the type of device used so that the game is able to adjust resolution and UI as needed.

We're back with another round of popular monthly releases. With this list, we'll be looking at the Top 20 products released in August, measured by revenue generated during the first two weeks following each game's release. We'll also be looking at the Top 5 free titles from August, measured by peak concurrent player count following release. 

Global representation continues to be a huge theme this month when looking at where the top products are coming from. We were pretty excited seeing 13 countries represented in our last top release list, so it's great to see that number already surpassed with 15 different countries this month (check each game for details). 

It's also inspiring to see that new developers are continuing to find success on the platform. With August's list, we're welcoming 12 development teams who are bringing products to Steam for the fist time (Hide or Die, Ion Fury, Shortest Trip to Earth, We Need to go Deeper, UnderMine, Monster Sanctuary, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, Re:Legend, Steel Circus, Hobs, Undefeated and Rise of Legions).

We thought it would be interesting this month to learn more about the teams bringing a product to Steam for the first time. Many developers come into the industry in different ways, so we caught up with some of these teams to hear a bit about their diverse backgrounds. Here's what we learned:

Shortest Trip to Earth - Interactive Fate 
The original team members met at The University of Tartu in Estonia. Edvin & Toomas were teaching a commercial game design course, while lead artist, Taavi, was one of their students. 

Monster Sanctuary - Moi Rai Games
What started as a solo project for Denis, lead programmer, artist, composer, and designer, ended up becoming a family affair when his brother Anton joined to help finish the game down the stretch. 

Rise of Legions - Broken Games
The team studied computer science together, learning to code in Delphi. It's not historically thought of as a game language, but Rise of Legions is now one of the world's most-used Delphi applications.

Hide or Die - VecFour Digital
A successful Kickstarter campaign allowed the small development team to quit their day jobs and focus on building Hide or Die full-time.

UnderMine - Thorium
Working together for a combined 30 years in the game industry, Clint and Derek spent countless lunch breaks talking about their favorite game mechanics and design elements.

UNDEFEATED - Undefeated Games
Created by three students of the Vantan Game Academy in Osaka, Japan. When development began, Yuma and Daigo were beginning their second year of study, with Fuko only in her first year.

Ion Fury - Voidpoint LLC
Most of the team came from modding backgrounds with extensive amounts of time spent creating Build Engine content. Ion Fury represents their first full commercial collaboration together.


Here is the list of August's top new releases ordered by release date (we've added this list to a handy store page too):


Hide or Die - VecFour Digital (US)
Just arrived into Early Access - Large scale asymmetrical multiplayer horror. You can either fight against the darkness corrupting the world or embrace it.


Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Triumph Studios (Netherlands)
From Triumph Studios, the creators of Age of Wonders, featuring tactical turn-based combat and in-depth empire building in an all new sci-fi setting. 


Cliff Empire - Lion's Shade (Ukraine)
Coming out of Early Access - Compact city building and simulation in a sci-fi world where nuclear war has rendered surface life impossible. 


Metal Wolf Chaos XD - General Arcade (Singapore) FromSoftware, Inc (Japan)
This modernized re-release of FromSoftware's classic mech shooter features upgraded visual fidelity, refined controls and gameplay, a save system and 4K support.


Dicey Dungeons - Terry Cavanagh (UK)
In this fast-paced deckbuilding roguelike you'll fight monsters, find better loot and level up your heroes as you work together to take down the Goddess of Fortune, Lady Luck herself. 


Ion Fury - Voidpoint LLC (US)
Coming out of Early Access - Classic '90s FPS action created on Build Engine, famously known for classic first-person shooters like Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Blood. 


Shortest Trip to Earth - Interactive Fate (Estonia)
Coming out of Early Access - Embark on a perilous journey across the universe in this roguelike spaceship simulator focused on exploration, ship management and tactical battles.


Age of Empires: Definitive Edition - Forgotten Empires (US) Tantulus (Australia)
The pivotal real-time strategy game that launched a 20-year legacy returns with modernized gameplay, all-new 4K visuals, 8-person multiplayer battles and a host of other new features.


We Need To Go Deeper - Deli Interactive (US)
Coming out of Early Access - DIVE. DISCOVER. DIE. Crew a submarine with friends in a unique 4-player cooperative submarine roguelike set in a Verne-inspired undersea universe.


RAD - Double Fine Productions (US)
A 3D action roguelike set in a post-post-apocalyptic world, where humanity has faced Armageddon not once, but twice.


Remnant: From the Ashes - Gunfire Games (US)
Scavenge, upgrade and specialize in this third-person survival action shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by monstrous creatures. 


UnderMine - Thorium (Canada)
Just arrived into Early Access - Adventure deep into the roguelike adventure of UnderMine and discover powerful relics, deadly enemies, hidden secrets, and a few friends to help along the way.


ONINAKI - Tokyo RPG Factory (Japan)
A fast-paced action-RPG adventure with deep character customization, powerful in-game cut scenes and a visual system drawn to convey the drastic contrast between the ‘Living World’ and the ‘Beyond’.


Telling Lies - Sam Barlow & Furious Bee Limited (UK)
Four private lives. One big lie. Search through secretly recorded video conversations to discover the truth. The successor to the acclaimed Her Story.


Hunt: Showdown - Crytek (Germany)
Coming out of Early Access - Competitive first-person PvP bounty hunting with heavy PvE elements. Set in the darkest corners of the world, it packs the thrill of survival games into a match-based format.


Pagan Online - Mad Head Games (Serbia)
Coming out of Early Access - Pagan Online is a fast-paced hack-and-slash action RPG that will challenge your skill in brutal and satisfying combat against countless enemies and larger than life bosses. 


Monster Sanctuary - Moi Rai Games (Germany)
Just arrived into Early Access - Monster taming meets Metroidvania, as you collect, train and battle monsters in a lovely side-view pixel world.


The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan - Supermassive Games (UK)
The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of stand-alone, branching cinematic horror games. In Man of Medan, five friends set sail on a holiday diving trip that soon changes into something much more sinister.


Blair Witch - Bloober Team (Poland)
Inspired by the cinematic lore of Blair Witch - experience a new story-driven psychological horror game that studies your reactions to fear and stress.


Re:Legend - Magnus Games Studio (Malaysia)
Just arrived into Early Access - Adventure with friends in a beautiful world of wonder and fantastic creatures. Build, craft, farm, fish, raise and breed amazing pet companions!

--



Steel Circus - Iron Mountain Interactive (Austria)
Just arrived into Early Access - Players control one of several champions with unique abilities, while competing in online matches in the solar system's largest sporting event


Steambirds Alliance - Spry Fox (US)
Coming out of Early Access - A massively-cooperative bullet-hell shooter! Fly with dozens of your feathered friends in an open world full of cruel cat bosses and endless waves of deadly bullets.


Hobs - Teneke Kafalar Studios (Turkey)
Just arrived into Early Access - A unique combination of deckbuilding and tabletop turn-based strategy with endless customization options and new heroes to explore.


UNDEFEATED - UNDEFEATED Games (Japan)
Live the dream of becoming a super hero with unlimited powers as you fly through the city, patrol the streets and engage in dynamic high-speed mid-air boss battles.


Rise of Legions - Broken Games (Germany)
Coming out of Early Access - A hybrid MOBA, tower defense and deckbuilding experience with fast-paced, easy-to-pickup tug-of-war strategy. Play solo or bring a friend.


Cheers!
-The Steam Team

We’ve worked with indie game developer Lars Doucet of Level Up Labs to bring his novel Diving Bell prototype to Steam Labs in the form of the Deep Dive experiment, where it now directly leverages Steam APIs to serve up recommendations and related game information. The new experiment offers an exploratory interface to discover new games based on their similarity to familiar ones, plus the ability to use these recommendations themselves as jumping-off points to dive even deeper into what Steam has to offer. 🌊



Deep Dive leverages tags provided by each game’s creators and the Steam Community of users to identify games similar to the ones you know and love. In the interest of helping users explore a breadth of games, Deep Dive displays very similar, somewhat similar, and little-known but well-loved similar games among each set of recommendations it displays. Explore Steam’s popular new releases as a jumping off point, or log in to begin exploration from one of your own recently played games. How many degrees of separation do you find between No Thing and Everything? We count six, which checks out with Bacon’s Law.

Deep Dive’s variation from the original prototype is based on some things we learned by playtesting during development. For example, tags the base game shares in common with each recommendation are more prominently displayed to help inform both what the game is about and why it was recommended.

We’ve tried to strike the right balance between providing relevant details without overwhelming users in the process of browsing and we hope you’ll let us know what you think. We can’t help but add a few items to our own wishlists each time we test Deep Dive. (Well hello, Circa Infinity!) We suspect this is a good sign of its potential, and we’d love your thoughts on whether Deep Dive offers a compelling alternative to other forms of content discovery.

Your Steam Friends list and activity feeds are great ways to see what games your buddies are currently enjoying, but what about the rest of the Steam Community? Top sellers are one way to keep your finger on the pulse, but positive reviews can be an even stronger signal of what the Community is enjoying on Steam. With this in mind, our Community Reviews experiment surfaces the games people are actively recommending to one another on Steam.



The Community Reviews experiment provides a great overview of what’s hot on Steam, listing today’s recommendations sorted by their helpfulness to readers. Advanced controls enable users to expand the view to include this week’s, or this month’s reviews, or to limit the set to reviews written after a particular duration of playtime. For a more specific take on the Talk, users can filter the view to include or exclude particular tags. For example, check out the punishing Perma Death games people claim to be enjoying today, or catch up on the Story-rich RPGs people are getting lost in this week, or browse through the Online Co-op games players are enjoying together this month.

The Interactive Recommender doesn’t need you to interact with it before proving itself useful, so we’ve given it a chance to earn its keep right on the Steam Store home page. Simply log into the Steam store and you’ll see games our machine learning server has lovingly featured just for you based on your recent gameplay. Plus, click through to Steam Labs where you can explore titles new or old, popular or niche, with the machine’s bespoke take on your tastes, informed by thousands of other players... a lot like you.



As always, we hope you’ll check out these latest and upcoming additions to Steam Labs and let us know what you think in the discussions. Your feedback shapes our experimentation and informs the ideas which become a part Steam for keeps.