Your Steam page is the most important marketing asset you have, but most devs unintentionally make it harder for the algorithm to help them. In this session, I’ll walk you through five dead-simple tweaks you can make right now to boost your CTR, increase wishlists, and get your game recommended to the right players.

We’ll look at capsule art clarity, the “verbs first” short description rule, choosing screenshots that actually sell your game, tag alignment, and a couple of keyword tricks that helped Modulus hit 100k wishlists.

Attendees will walk away with a clear checklist, real examples from Modulus and other indie titles, and a better understanding of how small, thoughtful changes can dramatically increase your visibility, wishlist velocity, and long-tail discovery on Steam.

Session Takeaway

• How to apply five quick store page improvements that increase click-through rates and wishlist conversion on Steam.
  
• Useful benchmarks using proven data from Chris Zukowski.
  
• How to evaluate and iterate on your own Steam page using a simple checklist that any team can implement immediately.

Jarvs Tasker
Happy Volcano

We've all been there - grand plans for multi-channel marketing campaigns that will spread far and wide, and an eager audience across myriad platforms just ready to like, comment and follow our posts. Then, reality sets in. There's too much to do and too little time to carry out our dream marketing campaigns.

In this session, Najmah will walk through how to design a content strategy that takes into account your limited resources while still keeping up a sustainable and consistent marketing plan.

Session Takeaway

• A step-by-step playbook on marketing content strategy.
  
• How to make the best of limited marketing resources. 
• Creating a focused and impactful marketing plan.

Najmah Salam
Panda Cat Games

Getting visibility is tough and a constant battle. Steam events offer a vital way to gain large volumes of on-platform traffic both pre and post release. But how do they work? What benefits do they bring? How can you participate or run your own one? Get the lowdown from someone who has hosted six front-page featured events visited by over 10 million Steam users.

Session Takeaway

• Coverage of the different types of Steam events and their landscape in 2026.
• Learn the benefits of Steam events and why they’re an important part of discoverability on the platform.
• Understand what to look out for when participating in a Steam event, along with how to host your own.

Gary Burchell
Fireblade Software

There has been a quiet but persistent conversation as to whether PR still matters. Influencer spend went up, storefront algorithms got smarter and the focused turned to how every action linked directly to sales over building awareness through PR. Studios began routing budget elsewhere and many communications teams found themselves having to justify their existence in ways they had not had to before.

That conversation is worth revisiting, because the way players discover games is changing again.

A growing number of players are now using AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity as their first port of call when looking for something to play. Unlike a storefront algorithm, these platforms do not serve ads or optimise for commercial placement. They draw on the body of written material that exists around a game: reviews, forum threads, editorial features, community posts. The studios with a rich written record tend to surface. The ones that only ever ran a two-week launch campaign tend not to.

This is good news for video games PR, but it requires a different way of working. Short campaign bursts tied to release windows are not well suited to how these systems pull information. What actually builds visibility in this environment is sustained narrative work over time, the kind of ongoing thought leadership and community presence that most PR teams have historically been told they cannot afford.

This session will walk through how ChatGPT and Gemini actually form game recommendations, what signals they weight, and what a video games PR campaign built to take advantage of that looks like in practice. 

Session Takeaway

• Delegates will understand how platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity form game recommendations, what they draw on, why some games appear consistently and others do not, and why earned media is better placed than advertising or influencer spend to build that kind of visibility.
• Delegates will leave with a working framework for planning a video games PR campaign built around sustained narrative and thought leadership rather than a launch window burst, including how to structure content, brief collaborators and sequence activity across a longer campaign arc.
• Delegates will have a practical starting point for auditing their game's current AI recommendation visibility and a set of tactics they can bring back to their studio or agency and act on straight away.
• Delegates will have the language and evidence to make the internal case for restoring or increasing video games PR investment, including a clear argument for why the discipline is better positioned than it has been in years to demonstrate genuine discovery value.

Ravi Vijh
Bastion

For many games, launch is treated as the finish line. Wishlists convert, reviews come in, visibility spikes and then momentum quietly fades. Not because the game isn’t good, but because post-launch marketing is rarely designed to support retention, re-engagement, and long-term discovery on PC.

This talk breaks down why game marketing so often stalls after launch and what studios can do differently to build systems that keep players coming back months and years later.

Drawing from real Steam data, post-launch campaigns, and hard-earned lessons from PC releases, this session examines the most common failure points: over-indexing on launch-day hype, misreading wishlists as retention, under-utilizing Steam’s ecosystem, and treating marketing as a short-term visibility push instead of a long-term player lifecycle strategy.

Rather than focusing on paid acquisition tactics, the presentation explores how successful PC games align product updates, community, store presence, and communication into a single retention engine. Attendees will learn how to identify the signals that predict long-term engagement, how to structure post-launch beats that re-activate players, and how to turn updates, events, and community moments into sustained growth rather than temporary spikes.

This is not a theoretical framework or a “launch checklist.” It’s a candid, experience-driven look at what failed after launch, why it failed, and what actually worked to stabilize retention, improve engagement, and extend the commercial life of PC games.

Session Takeaway

• Launch success does not equal long-term success - Wishlists, reviews, and launch visibility are only the starting point. Without a post-launch system that supports re-engagement and ongoing discovery, momentum will fade even for well-received PC games.
• Retention is built through systems, not spikes - Sustainable PC game growth comes from aligning updates, community, store presence, and communication into a consistent rhythm. One-off beats and reactive marketing cannot replace a structured post-launch approach.
• Marketing works best when it is tied to player behavior, not hype - The most effective post-launch strategies focus on how players actually engage with the game. When marketing supports real play patterns and reasons to return, engagement and long-term performance improve naturally.

Mike Gallagher
Untitled Advertising Lab

It's a bit of a thankless task, trying to cut above the noise when there are now 20,000 games released each year - so how do you get publishers (and players) to sit up and take notice?

Anna Blewden, CEO & Creative Director of Games with DNA, found herself in this exact position in September last year. Disheartened by the challenge of convincing publishers there was a real audience for her game - a Wild West romance/mystery visual novel - she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Within 2 months, Anna had grown her TikTok account from 0 to 30,000 followers, even before the game's demo release. Now, just a few months later, the game has amassed more than 100,000 followers across social media platforms, with over 17M video views, and a thriving Discord community filled with engaged fans, fanart, and cosplays.

In this talk, Anna will use Love & Fool's Gold as a case study, breaking down her findings (born from successes and failures alike) into actionable Dos and Don'ts, so that you too can grow your game's following and prove its worth - to publishers and players alike.

Session Takeaway

Building an engaged online community with zero budget or marketing support

Practical tips for producing short-form content with viral potential

How to leverage the algorithm to reach your game's target audience 

Combining user psychology, marketing, meme culture, and data-driven insights to achieve sustainable growth

Anna Blewden
Games with DNA

Launching a demo on Steam can be a powerful marketing beat in indie development. In this talk, Helen breaks down the full, unfiltered data behind the public demo launch of Forbidden Solitaire, a retro FMV horror card game that hit #1 in Steam’s New & Trending Demos and broke into Trending Free, without a publisher or external marketing agency.

Drawing from internal metrics, the session walks through how a small team planned, timed, and executed a demo launch designed to maximise wishlist conversion, Steam visibility, and streamer engagement. Helen will cover how an earlier, curated streamer demo informed the public release; how the team polished and positioned the demo; and how Steam tools (wishlister emails, news posts, reaching existing audiences and streaming live video) added visibility.

The talk includes concrete results: wishlist gains and losses, downloads, completion rates, median playtime, and chart performance; alongside outcomes from press and streamer outreach, and social media. It also explores how the team used the demo data and feedback, to further hone their efforts for the next marketing push.

Attendees will leave with practical ideas for demo-driven marketing, insight into Steam discovery for smaller games, and a realistic picture of what a focused, data-led campaign can achieve for small teams, especially those working in trend-led genres like horror.

Session Takeaway

• Timing and focus matter: Demo launch + Steam tools + targeted messaging = max eyeballs & wishlists.
• Curated attention beats general noise: Thorough and thoughtful streamer & press outreach cut through, sparking genuine enthusiasm.
• Data feeds the next campaign: Campaign data and demo feedback drove game improvements and will make subsequent marketing beats even stronger.

Helen Carmichael
Grey Alien Games

Everything you need to know about working with content creators. From key distribution tips and tools for identifying creators to creative angles and creator programs.

Here are the 10 commandments:

• Plan Ahead
• Spend Time / Money
• Do Thy Research
• Know Thy Platform
• Distribute Keys
• Negotiate w/ Incentives
• Get Creative
• Consider Community
• Set Up A Creator Program
• Amplify

Timo Verschueren
Black Soup

Influencer marketing remains a hotly debated topic within the games industry. For some developers, it has driven discovery, wishlists and momentum. For others, it has been expensive, disappointing, or actively damaging to trust.

This session draws directly from real developer conversations and industry discussions, including common concerns such as creators overshadowing the game, sponsored content feeling inauthentic, or campaigns failing to convert into meaningful results. Rather than dismissing this scepticism, the talk examines why creator marketing can feel like it “doesn’t work” and what’s different when it’s approached with purpose.

The session breaks down why creator campaigns can sometimes feel ineffective, and when they can genuinely add value, helping teams assess the pros and cons before investing time or budget. It explores how creator marketing differs from traditional advertising, why disclosure and creative control matter, and why success should not be measured purely in short term sales.

Designed for developers and small teams, this talk aims to provide clarity rather than advocacy. Attendees will leave better equipped to evaluate whether creator marketing is the right choice for their game, and how to approach it without wasting budget or trust.

Session Takeaway

• The common dilemmas in creator campaigns and how to navigate them.

• A framework for deciding whether creator marketing is worth pursuing for your game.

• How to work with creators in ways that respect audiences, budgets, and long-term trust.

Beth Wain
The Path