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SteamDB: A peek at the new Steam Store

A

ashecitism

Member
http://steamdb.info/blog/48/

A few months ago when Steam tags were first introduced, there was a short link to a "v6" stylesheet.

Seeing the Store is currently on it's 5th theme, this means Valve is hard at work at a 6th version of the Steam Store theme.

After getting a tip of another stylesheet for the new store, we decided to see if we can get it (sorta) working in a state where it gives us a feel of the new design.

Keep in mind that we're only checking out new stylesheets, this is only half of the Store's design (the other half being done in HTML and JavaScript) but should still give a good feel as to what it'll be like.

This is very much a work in progress, we have no idea how far along Valve is with the new design. It might launch tomorrow, or in a month.
Click to expand...

Discovery queue
Discovery queue seems to work in a similar fashion to Greenlight's queue. You can change your preferences and filters to generate a queue of games that match your preferences. While you are exploring, you can jump to the next game and follow or ignore each product.

New store tab "Followed Games & Software"
We're unsure how this will work, but it might be related to your wishlist.

Curators
Curators are individuals or groups. Any group can become a curator, and by default the officers can add recommendations. Curators can recommend games to their followers. Recommendations can also include links to a longer review on their website. Steam will also recommend other curators for you to follow.

Personalised frontpage
Besides customizing your discovery queue and following curators you will be able to change sections of the frontpage to display different stuff. This includes:

Popular New Releases
Games
Software
Downloadable content
Games not in your account
Games already in your account
DLC for your games & software
Products you've recently viewed
New On Steam

Search revamp
You can now narrow your search by the following things:

Feature
Operating system
Language
Tag
Number of players

On an unrelated note; two factor authentication
As you might know, SteamGuard is a 2-step authentication method, but this update brings alternative ways of authenticating besides email. The Steam Mobile app will have a built-in authenticator, but you can also use apps such as Google Authenticator (provided your phone has a camera to scan a QR code).
Click to expand...

Screenshots

Seeing Valve has only accidentally published the stylesheets, that's all we can show for now. This means that any page with actual layout/feature changes will probably seem really broken and unfinished.

The more broken a page looks, the more it gets changed in this upcoming store update.

Our previews are in no way a good representation of what the final version might look like.
Click to expand...

frontpage said:
frontpage.png
Click to expand...

app page said:
app.png
Click to expand...

recommended said:
recommended_new.png
Click to expand...

search said:
search.png
Click to expand...

update:
Followed products
As some people have already noticed, there's a new tab called "Followed" in your games list on Steam Community. This following feature basically means there are no more "official game groups", they are being removed in favor of game hubs. Instead of joining an official group, you are now able to follow the game. Developers will still be able to post announcements, however we don't know if there will be an option to disable notifications for these announcements.

Owned product highlighting (source)
Looks like instead of highlighting the game (like some third-party extensions do), it will be a small icon displayed next to the product. Along with owned products, there are different flags: whenever an item is in your wishlist or cart.

Icons:

Owned product
In wishlist
In cart

Dynamic store (source)
This is just a 2 line reference, but this only confirms that the frontpage will be highly customisable and tailored to each user.
Click to expand...
 
L

L~A

Member
Oh? So that new look for the Steam client is just the tip of the iceberg, huh? Really looking forward to that.
 
Q

quantumnerd

Member
Not the biggest fan of the color palette, but it's looking good. I'm especially excited for curators and generally better discovery. Hopefully they let us refine searches by tons of filters at once (including tags) this time.

Also: reviews visible on mobile this time? :/
 
T

Tetranet

Member
Discovery queue
Discovery queue seems to work in a similar fashion to Greenlight's queue. You can change your preferences and filters to generate a queue of games that match your preferences. While you are exploring, you can jump to the next game and follow or ignore each product.
Click to expand...

This is a pretty good idea. With the growing number of titles on Steam, especially little-known-but-worthwhile indies, this will be a handy tool in finding new things.
 
G

gelf

Member
I'd worry for any new games that don't fit into a convenient pigionhole not being visible to a lot of people with this system as everyones getting their own narrow focus of preferred genres. But then it's not like such a game would be any more visble now either.
 
D

Durante

Member
The discovery queue seems like what they should have been doing ever since opening the floodgates.

If they manage to be as good as Amazon they'll actually recommend me the exact stuff I want to buy whenever I go to the store page (it's kind of scary how good Amazon is after over 10 years of using it).
 
B

brotkasten

Member
I can't wait to see the new store. The current one is such a slow and ugly mess. I really avoid to browse anything other than the first half of the Featured Games on the first page (rotating games, Spotlight, Today's Deals). I don't even scroll down to see what else is there (unless there is a sale going on).

A customizable front page would be fantastic.
 
M

M3d10n

Member
I've been thinking about this recently. With that much content, it makes zero sense for everybody to see the same games on the storefront. They need to pull an Amazon and tailor the display based on the users' taste. I'm not talking about tunnel vision, but about prioritizing what is displayed, how much of each type of game is displayed and how much space it takes. If the system detects I'm interested in a certain genre more than other, then cycle through older games in said genre in the storefront, for example.

Apple and Google should be doing the same, it's the only way to break the unhealthy dependency on the download charts and recent releases for discovery.
 
D

Durante

Member
I feel like I've been posting about how much better Amazon is at managing and presenting an inventory than any digital game store for years. And the thing is, there's no reason for that to be the case. With how many games I've bought, played and rated at Steam, they should in fact be even better than Amazon (which is pretty damn good) at figuring out what I like. They have all the stats.

That's also my main argument why you don't need any curation/inventory restrictions beyond basic functionality.
 
M

M3d10n

Member
Durante said:
I feel like I've been posting about how much better Amazon is at managing and presenting an inventory than any digital game store for years. And the thing is, there's no reason for that to be the case. With how many games I've bought, played and rated at Steam, they should in fact be even better than Amazon (which is pretty damn good) at figuring out what I like. They have all the stats.

That's also my main argument why you don't need any curation/inventory restrictions beyond basic functionality.
Click to expand...

This. We have online stores selling millions of different books, movies and music for different audiences in ways that don't degenerate into everyone buying the same stuff over and over because that's what in the top 10 or got "featured" by the store managers. Why can't we do the same for games?
 
N

NIN90

Member
So.. it's blue now? Don't see any other changes on first glance.

Edit: Dynamic store sounds very interesting.
 
T

TC McQueen

Member
Fucking finally. The only bad part is that jshackles isn't there to help push the new version even further and make it something really great.
 
D

Dolor

Member
I just love that I can highlight multiple games, set multiple categories, and hide games I don't want to see anymore.
 
A

ashecitism

Member
Heads up: There were some recent backend changes connected to this which makes Marlamin from SteamDB confident this will go live next Tuesday.

Of course don't forget Valve Time :p
 
E

ElTopo

Banned
Hope they include a fighting game category. Steam is running a lot better then it was even a year ago. It seems like they got most of the kinks worked out.
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
ashecitism said:
Heads up: There were some recent backend changes connected to this which makes Marlamin from SteamDB confident this will go live next Tuesday.

Of course don't forget Valve Time :p
Click to expand...

Next Tuesday? Is that not just the pricing localisations being applied or is it actual full on overhaul of the store?
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
I can only assume the new store will launch coincident with Greenlight being given the flick. It'd explain why there hasn't been a new batch in well over a month and instead Valve's just been hand-selecting a few things here and there.
 
K

Knurek

Member
JaseC said:
I can only assume the new store will launch coincident with Greenlight being given the flick. It'd explain why there hasn't been a new batch in well over a month and instead Valve's just been hand-selecting a few things here and there.
Click to expand...

Let's hope they keep it working for at least a few more months - there are still few Greenlight bundles running ATM.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Knurek said:
Let's hope they keep it working for at least a few more months - there are still few Greenlight bundles running ATM.
Click to expand...

I'd wager those who already have Greenlight access will be moved over to the new system and therefore will be free to upload their games. Valve isn't going to hit the reset button and ask them to pay another $100.
 
D

Dolor

Member
My hunch is that this update will also have something to do with increasing the role of the Steam marketplace with tradeable inter-game items. A number of games are releasing in the next weeks that look poised to take advantage of it (Defense Grid 2 is the most blatant/clear example).
 
P

PandaPedinte

Member
ashecitism said:
Heads up: There were some recent backend changes connected to this which makes Marlamin from SteamDB confident this will go live next Tuesday.

Of course don't forget Valve Time :p
Click to expand...

Interesting, I can't wait for the "overhaul" and I hope the Valve Time doesn't make us wait more.
 
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