I'm launching a game on Steam. So I built the tool I couldn't find.

I'm building a game called The Outer Line. It's a space RTS, coming to Steam in December 2026. First game. No publisher, no marketing experience, no real idea what I'm doing on that side.

About a month ago, I stopped coding to figure out the launch plan. I thought it'd take a weekend. Read some articles, make a checklist, get back to the game.

Two weeks later I was still at it. And by the end I had a spreadsheet with 70+ tasks, a timeline I wasn't sure about, and the creeping feeling that I was still missing something.

The information exists. The organization doesn't.

The knowledge is out there. Zukowski has great stuff on wishlists and Steam pages. Steamworks docs cover every technical step. Reddit is full of postmortems with real numbers.

The problem is it's all scattered. 50 different sources, none of them telling you the full picture: what to do, in what order, by when.

I spent days jumping between browser tabs. Steamworks partner site for the review process timeline. Zukowski's blog for wishlist benchmarks. A Reddit postmortem for Next Fest tips. A GDC talk for algorithm insights. Each source was valuable on its own. None of them gave me a complete picture.

The spreadsheet that got out of hand

So I made a spreadsheet. Every task I needed to do before launch, organized by phase. Create Steamworks account. Get capsule art done. Submit the page for review. Register for Next Fest. Set up a content calendar. Announce the release date.

Then I added deadlines. Some are hard deadlines from Valve (Next Fest registration closes on a specific date). Some are best-practice deadlines (your Coming Soon page should be live at least 6 months before launch). I calculated everything relative to my launch date.

Then I added a content plan. When to post devlogs. When to share screenshots. The launch window sequence: trailer two weeks out, gameplay clips one week out, countdown three days out, launch day push.

Then I added wishlist tracking. Weekly velocity. Projected count at launch. Whether I was on track for the 7,000 threshold.

At that point it wasn't a spreadsheet anymore. It was an app trying to escape a .xlsx file.

So I built the app

I'm a developer. When a spreadsheet stops being enough, I build software. It's what we do.

SteamLaunch started as a weekend project. A simple checklist with deadlines. Then I added the knowledge base: 500+ rules from Steamworks docs, Zukowski, postmortems, and GDC talks, all structured and verified. Then guides that explain the reasoning behind each task. Then a content calendar that generates a publishing plan based on your dates. Then a wishlist tracker with projections.

It stopped being a weekend project pretty quickly.

Why not keep it to myself

I thought about it. I could just use it for my launch and move on.

But every week I see the same posts on r/gamedev. "I launched with 500 wishlists, what went wrong?" "Is 3 months enough to build wishlists?" "I missed Next Fest registration, when is the next one?" The questions are always the same. I wrote about the most common patterns if you want the full picture.

The tool already exists. I built it for myself. Might as well put it out there.

What SteamLaunch actually does

A roadmap. 71 tasks across 6 phases, from "create your Steamworks account" to "opt into your first seasonal sale." Each task has a priority and a link to the guide chapter that explains why. 15 deadlines with countdown that recalculate when you move your launch date. Color-coded urgency so you see at a glance what's overdue, what's coming up, and what's done.

Guides that actually explain things. 5 guides, 26 chapters, 500+ rules. Steam Page (how to write a description that converts, what your trailer needs in the first 3 seconds, capsule art that reads at thumbnail size). Next Fest (registration timeline, demo preparation, livestreaming). Launch Day. Marketing. Algorithm. Every rule links back to the roadmap task it belongs to, so you're never reading theory without knowing what to do about it.

A content plan. You set your dates and SteamLaunch generates a full publishing schedule: what type of post to make and when, posts around the launch window, devlogs and visuals in between, intensity that ramps up before Next Fest and launch. Three modes: use the auto-suggestions, import your own schedule from a spreadsheet or AI, or build it manually. I use the import mode for my own launch to bring in my schedule and then let SteamLaunch track it.

Wishlist tracking. Log your count, see your weekly velocity, and a projection of where you'll land at launch. Set a revenue goal and SteamLaunch translates it into wishlists needed.

AI integration. This came later, after I realized I was constantly switching between Claude and the app. SteamLaunch has an MCP server, so your AI assistant (Claude, Cursor, whatever) can read and modify your data directly. Check deadlines, schedule content, log wishlists, all from the chat. I wrote more about why I added this.

Will it work?

Honestly, I don't know. I've never launched a game before. Maybe I'll do everything on the checklist and still end up with 200 wishlists. Maybe the game just isn't what people want. There's no tool that fixes that.

But I figure having a plan is better than not having one. At least I won't miss a Next Fest registration because I forgot to check the dates. At least I'll know my wishlist velocity three months out instead of panicking the week before launch.

I'm using SteamLaunch for my own launch right now. If something doesn't work, I'll know firsthand. And I'll fix it.

If you're in the same situation, give it a try. Worst case you have a checklist you didn't have before.