Steam Publishing Checklist 2026

Plan, shoot, and check every image on your Steam store page so each one shows your game clearly and follows Valve’s rules.

This is a different slice from our earlier Steam publishing post: that one walked through store review, depots, and builds, while this one covers only the store-page art, meaning what each image has to show, what to leave out, and the order to make them in.

There are no builds, uploads, or Steamworks settings here. There is no money talk either. This is the folder of images you hand to the store page, and how to make each one earn its spot.

The rules and sizes below come from two Steamworks pages read for this article: Store Graphical Assets and Graphical Asset Rules. Valve updates them. Before you export anything, open the current versions in your Steamworks account, download the templates offered there, and copy the sizes from that page, not from here.

Know the pieces

The Store Graphical Assets page lists these as required:

• Header capsule. Shown at the top of your store page and in places like recommendations and Big Picture browsing. Listed size: 920 by 430 pixels. Steam generates smaller versions from it.
• Small capsule. Used in search results, top sellers, new releases, and other lists. Listed size: 462 by 174 pixels. Steam makes two smaller sizes from it.
• Main capsule. Shown in the large carousel at the top of the Steam home page. Listed size: 1232 by 706 pixels.
• Vertical capsule. Can appear at the top of the front page during seasonal sales and on sale pages. Listed size: 748 by 896 pixels.
• Screenshots. At least five. Listed as 1920 by 1080 minimum, at a 16:9 aspect ratio.

A page background is optional. If you skip it, the page says Steam builds one from your last screenshot.

Library images, the ones players see in their own Steam library, are a separate set with their own documentation page. Treat them as a second checklist after this one.

What every capsule must show

Valve’s rules for base capsules are short. Content is limited to game artwork, the game name, and any official subtitle.

That rules out a lot of things people like to add:

• No review scores, from Steam or anywhere else.
• No award names, symbols, or logos.
• No discount or sale text.
• No calls to action, such as asking people to wishlist or preorder.
• No text or images promoting a different product, including your other games.
• No other miscellaneous text.

The general rules add two more. Every capsule must have a readable logo or name, and every capsule must use art Valve describes as PG-13 appropriate.

For the header, main, and vertical capsules, the asset page asks for key art and a logo that tell the customer something important about the game and give a sense of how it plays. In practice, that means one clear scene, one clear character or object, and your logo where it can be read.

If you want to promote an update or a seasonal event on a capsule, the rules point you to Artwork Overrides instead. Those must be temporary, limited to one month, and any text on them must be localized into your game’s supported languages. Leave the base capsules clean.

The small capsule is its own design

The small capsule is the image most people will see first, in search and in lists. It is also the hardest to read.

The asset page says the logo should be readable even at the smallest generated size, and that in most cases the logo should nearly fill the capsule. It also says the small capsule does not need to use the same art as your other capsules.

So do not shrink your header and hope. Design this one around the logo. Keep the background simple and dark or light enough that the letters stand apart. Thin fonts and outlined letters tend to vanish at small sizes.

Check it by viewing your export at its smallest generated size on a real monitor, at arm’s length. If you cannot read your game’s name, nobody scrolling past will.

What screenshots must show

The asset page is direct about this. Screenshots should show only gameplay.

Leave out:

• Concept art.
• Pre-rendered cinematic stills.
• Images with awards, marketing copy, or written descriptions.
• Menu screens, unless they are a unique part of how your game plays.

Valve also notes that showing your in-game UI can help players understand how they will interact with the game. The line to draw is between UI in play and a UI dump. A health bar and a hotbar over a fight is play. A full-screen inventory grid or a settings menu is a dump.

Watch for tiny text. Damage numbers, quest logs, and chat panels that look fine on your monitor turn into unreadable smudges in a thumbnail. If a screenshot depends on reading small text, pick another moment.

The page also asks you to review age suitability. Mark at least four screenshots as suitable for all ages if they qualify, meaning no gore, violence, or suggestive themes. Valve warns that without enough flagged screenshots, your game may not appear in some places on the store.

An order that saves rework

Make the images in this order. Each step feeds the next.

1. Screenshots first. They must come from the real game, so they force you to find your best moments. Play through and capture far more than you need. Pick five or more that each show something different: the core action, a quiet moment, a new area, a tough choice, a big set piece.

2. Pick your key moment. From the screenshots, find the one scene that best says what the game is. That scene is the seed for your key art.

3. Make the key art. Build one larger illustration or staged render of that moment, with space left for the logo. Keep the main subject near the middle so it survives different crops.

4. Crop the wide capsules. Make the main capsule and the header from the key art using the templates. Place the logo, then check both at their real sizes.

5. Rebuild for the vertical capsule. A tall frame needs its own layout. Move the subject and logo instead of squashing the wide version.

6. Design the small capsule last. By now your logo is final. Build this one around it.

7. Background, if you want one. Keep it quiet. The asset page says it should not compete with the page content.

A final check before upload

Lay every image out at once and go down this list:

• Sizes match the current Steamworks page, copied from there.
• Every capsule has a readable logo and no extra text.
• Screenshots show gameplay only, with no tiny unreadable text.
• At least five screenshots, with the age-suitability marks reviewed.
• Nothing promotes another game.

Then ask one person who has never seen your game to look at the small capsule for a second and tell you the name. If they can, you are ready.