Understanding Steam Keys, Branches, and Playtests

Steam Keys are unique codes that can be redeemed on Steam to unlock your game. You can generate Steam Keys in the Steamworks Partner Portal and distribute them to players. FirstLook is a great way to distribute these keys while keeping track of who has access to your game.

Understanding Steam Key types

There are multiple types of Steam Keys, and it’s important to understand the differences between them. You can read about Types of Keys in depth on the Steamworks Documentation. In short and in relation to playtests, you’ll need to know about:

Default Release Keys (or standard release) should never be used for playtests and only used to grant access to the final version of your game (you could choose to give playtesters a copy of the final game as a reward). Limited to 5,000 keys per game.
Release State Override Keys (or beta keys) are useful for granting access to a game that is about to be released or is in a beta state. Limited to 5,000 keys per game. Recommended for Press and Influencers, when you are planning to release the game soon, or for a closed beta.
Developer Autogrant (or devcomp) are very limited and meant to provide access to developers and QA testers that are not in your organization. They are not meant for playtesters.
Steam Playtest Keys are the best choice for playtests. You can grant access to a playtest branch of your game without needing a public store page, and can revoke access once the playtest is over. You can generate up to 50,000 keys per game before Valve needs to approve more.

Understanding the Steam Branches (Betas) Feature

Steam Branches (Betas) let you give different groups of players access to specific builds of your game. This is ideal for running multiple playtests in parallel, limiting new features to select groups, or testing fixes post-launch before rolling them out to your entire player base. Branches are also managed through the Steamworks Partner Portal where you can create and configure them, then share the password with players. You can read about how branches work in detail on the Steamworks Documentation.

FirstLook makes it easy to distribute Steam Keys and branch passwords, letting you control who gets access based on roles, specific conditions, or manual approval.

Using the Steam Playtest Feature

While the above will work fine, they are not ideal for large-scale playtests. Instead, we (and Valve too) recommend using the Steam Playtest Feature. This feature allows you to create a playtest branch of your game and generate keys that will only grant access to this branch. Once the game is released, the Playtest will be removed from the player’s library.

While typically you’d use this feature to advertise your playtest on the Steam Store and gather playtesters on Steam, you can also use it with FirstLook while hiding the playtest from the Steam Store. This way you benefit from far more control over the playtest and knowing exactly who has access, as well as being able to communicate with them directly.

Learn More about Steam Playtests and Keys Steamworks Documentation

Additionally, Steam Playtests have a few more features that make them ideal for playtests:

You do not lose the Wishlists status of players that access the playtest. When you’d use Release State Override Keys, you’d lose the Wishlist status of the player as they essentially get a copy of the game.
A playtester’s review will be counted as a normal review once the game is released and they acquired the game. Release State Override Keys reviews are not counted towards the final review score.
Playtest keys work like normal Standard Release Keys, meaning you can control the playability of the game by toggling the Playtest Status: Playable.