How to write a Steam short description that makes people wishlist

Why the short description matters

The short description is the paragraph that sits beside your capsule art and trailer at the top of your Steam page. Many visitors decide whether to scroll, wishlist, or leave after reading it, so it has to say quickly what the game is and why it's interesting.

Steam limits its length, so every phrase has to earn its place. Steam's own documentation has the current rules.

A simple four-part structure

1. The hook: the one-line fantasy or twist ("Tilt the world, not the ball").

2. The genre in plain words: what kind of game it is, so the right players self-select ("a first-person incremental game").

3. The core loop: two or three verbs describing what you actually do ("loot, build your loadout, survive").

4. The differentiator or stakes: what makes runs, stories, or levels feel different ("hero death is permanent").

Rules of thumb

Lead with the most unusual true thing about your game. Don't open with lore or the studio name.

Prefer concrete nouns and verbs over adjectives like "epic", "unique", or "immersive".

Name the genre in the words players actually search for.

Make it match the first seconds of your trailer and your first screenshots, so the page tells one story.

Read it aloud. If you stumble, cut words.

Before and after (fictional example)

Before: "Embark on an epic, immersive journey through a mysterious world full of secrets in this unique adventure."

After: "Ferry lost souls across a flooded, overgrown world. Patch your raft, chart the fog, and choose who reaches the far shore in this cozy-melancholy river management game."

The second version names the fantasy, the genre, and the loop. The first could describe almost any game.

A fill-in template

[Hook in one short sentence]. [Genre] where you [verb], [verb], and [verb]. [What makes it different or what's at stake].

Test it

Show the description (without the art) to a few people who haven't seen the game and ask them to describe it back to you. If they can't name the genre and the main activity, revise. Update it when your game changes. It's not set in stone.