Steam

Features

• Automatic project upload

Upload To Steam

The Upload To Steam task enables you to upload your game to Steam. To proceed, ensure you have the local SDK installed. Pipelab will automatically log you in if you are already connected through steamcmd; otherwise, it will prompt you for your credentials.

Rich Presence configuration

Steam Rich Presence allows you to display custom status information for players in their Steam friends list. To set this up, you need to configure a localization file and use the appropriate actions in your game.

1. The Localization File

Steam uses a .vdf file to define the strings and tokens for Rich Presence. This file must be uploaded to the Steamworks partner site under App Admin > Community > Rich Presence.

Here is a basic example of a localization.vdf file:

"lang"
{
    "Language"  "english"
    "Tokens"
    {
        "#Status_InMenu"    "In the main menu"
        "#Status_Playing"   "Playing on %mapname%"
    }
}

• Tokens: Keys starting with # that will be replaced by the values defined in the file.
• Variables: You can use variables like %mapname% which can be set dynamically from your game.

2. Special Tokens

There are some reserved tokens you should be aware of:

• steam_display: This is the main token Steam looks for to determine what to display. It should usually point to another token (e.g., #Status_Playing).
• steam_player_group: Used to group players together (e.g., in a lobby).
• steam_player_group_size: The current size of the player group.

3. Setup in Construct 3

If you are using the Pipelab Construct 3 Plugin, you can easily update the Rich Presence status using the dedicated action.

1. Add the Pipelab Plugin to your Construct 3 project.
2. Initialize the integration using the Initialize integration action at the start of your game.
3. Use the Set rich presence action to update values:
   • Key: The name of the token or variable (e.g., steam_display or mapname).
   • Value: The value you want to set (e.g., #Status_Playing for steam_display, or The Forest for mapname).

Example:

To display "Playing on The Forest", you would call:

• Set rich presence("steam_display", "#Status_Playing")
• Set rich presence("mapname", "The Forest")

4. Testing your configuration

Steam provides a web-based tool to test your Rich Presence configuration without needing to launch your game or upload a build.

You can visit the Steam Rich Presence Tester to see how your tokens and variables are being resolved for your account in real-time. This is extremely useful for debugging localization issues or ensuring your variable names match between your game code and your .vdf file.

TIP

Make sure the keys and values you set in your game match the tokens defined in your uploaded localization.vdf file.