We can all agree that video games are an art form. Each game is a mix of visual flair, storytelling, engaging soundtracks, and technical wizardry. It’s this unlimited scope for creativity that makes games so hard to define when we’re researching what is out there and what we should be building as developers. The pre-defined labels we’re required to use when we publish on Steam can be very misleading.

Imagine that you want to create an exciting horror game with online co-op and stunning 3D graphics, and you want to get inspiration for mechanics that players love as well as find the games that already exist - your potential competition.

You might start by thinking of relevant tags and browsing the Steam catalogue or using online tools to check out reviews and sales. You might even have a game in mind that inspired you in the first place, but unfortunately, your search will always be shaped by your own gaming experiences or those of your friends and the research that you compile might feel incomplete. This might leave you wondering if you’ve really found all the potential game mechanics, story opportunities, or audience needs.

We’ve definitely felt this way during our market research and game development. We knew that there must be a better way to explore the Steam catalogue and that’s why we created the Steam Map.

The Steam Map

The Steam Map is 3D structure of the entire Steam ecosystem built using our statistical models. It pulls in all the data from a game’s Steam page including tags, genres, labels, descriptions, and even images because we’re dealing with artwork here, not just software!

In the Steam Map, every data point is a unique video game and the distance between points (seen in the image below) shows how similar two games are. Where the game appears on the map depends on more than just genres and user defined tags, it’s also influenced by the game’s description and visual style from the gameplay images.

If the points are far apart, it means the games don’t have much in common in terms of visual style and gameplay description. On the other hand, points that are close together indicate games with similar features, art styles, and gameplay. The real strength of the map is its ability to measure the similarity between games. This lets us uncover patterns, identify the boundaries between genres, and most importantly, spot gaps in the market.

Our first product - Data Explorer - is coming soon and will give you unlimited access to the Steam Map so that you can explore it and analyse the games on Steam at any time during your game development process. You can stay up to date with the launch of Data Explorer by subscribing to our newsletter.

The Problem With Tags

Just how tricky are tags when it comes to finding the games you’re interested in creating? Let’s revisit our earlier game development example.

Inspired by the success of games like Phasmophobia, you want to develop a 3D online co-op horror game. So, you head over to Steam and search for games with the tags: ‘3D’, ‘Horror’, and ‘Online Co-Op’. The search brings back 403 titles which you can visualise on our Steam Map.

The problem is immediately clear. In the main cluster (right-hand side of the image) we can see lots of games highlighted, but there are many games closer, and therefore similar to those highlighted that are not being captured by our selected tags. On the left-hand side of the image we see a separate splatter of games that are also tagged as ‘3D’, ‘Horror’, and ‘Online Co-Op’, and if we focus in on one of these ‘outliers’ we find a remarkable game called ‘The Egg’.

While The Egg does look hilarious (we definitely want to try it out), would it be the first game you’d think of when brainstorming ideas for a Phasmophobia-inspired game? Probably not. It also wouldn’t be very helpful for gauging performance and revenue estimates for games similar to Phasmophobia. Yet, the developer has tagged it with ‘3D’, ‘Horror’, and ‘Online Co-Op’.

In this example, relying solely on tags and genres to research the game I’m interested in creating has left me with two blind spots. First, if I don’t meticulously examine every game in my search, my estimates for the number of releases, pricing, reviews, and revenue might be skewed by irrelevant titles like ‘The Egg’. Second, and perhaps more importantly, my understanding of what similar games are available for this audience misses out on horror games that are not using the tags from my search.

Now let us consider an alternative approach.

Games And Their Similar ‘Neighbours’

With the name of a game that inspires us and a map of the entire Steam catalogue at our fingertips, we can zero in on the ‘neighbourhood’ of games that closely resemble our inspirational title. The image below shows the 100 games most similar to Phasmophobia when we use the Steam Map in Data Explorer to find them.

Our Data Explorer tool lets you discover up to 1,000 games similar to the title you searched for, ensuring that no stone is left unturned. With a cluster of games that are truly relevant to your project, you can start to get a clear picture of competitor pricing, the expected ratio of positive-to-negative reviews, and estimated revenue for the type of game you want to create.

More importantly, you can zoom in and ask, “What’s missing? What hasn’t anyone else thought of doing in this space?”

The Steam Map can reveal literal gaps in the gaming landscape, sparking inspiration for your next title.