Lova Widmark Feb 22

I have started a blog! The idea is to post a bunch of technical articles there, and first out will be a series of blog posts talking about my experience of using the Steam SDK.

I was kind of baffled to find how bad the documentation is, and that there are no good publicly available examples of how to use it.

My first article explores the SteamGameServer API and server queries https://blog.avoidpointer.com/how-does-one-use-steammatchmakingservers-anyway/

#gamedev #steam #blog #cpp

How does one use SteamMatchMakingServers anyway?

So you've worked on your Steam SDK powered multiplayer game for a while now, and you're thinking... wouldn't it be nice to add a server browser or something ...

aVoidPointer
Show threadKevin Karhan Feb 22
@znurre becaise most of it is #NDA'd for no good reason?
Show threadLova Widmark Feb 22
@kkarhan I guess so yeah. Maybe this breaks the NDA, actually 😅
Show threadKevin Karhan Feb 22

@znurre granted I think it would really help #Valve & #Steam if they were more open about it - even outside industry sites like #Gamasutra which cover nieche stuff like "How to Program #PS3's Cell-SPEs"…

  • After all said #API is worthless without a SteamAppID & SteamUserIDs to utilize it with!
Show threadLova Widmark Feb 22
@kkarhan Yeah, agreed. All of the documentation is also available to non-partners already. The only thing that might be questionable here is me quoting from the header file documentation, which is more up to date and more accurate than the publicly available one.
Show threadKevin Karhan Feb 22

@znurre granted, you talking about it ain't endangering #Valve's commercial interests and it's not like "leaked sourcecode" wuere you didn't 'legally obtain' it and even there Valve doesn't go after those reporting about it - at least not to my knowledge…

#NotLegalAdvice

Show threadLova Widmark 

@kkarhan I hope it will be seen that way. I added a disclaimer to the top of the blog post which I hope will clear out any possible misunderstandings.

I'll definitely think about how to phrase myself for my coming articles though, cause they are going to go even deeper.

Feb 22 at 1:28pmWeb
Show threadKevin Karhan Feb 22

@znurre granted, #Valve isn't #Nintendo and they'd likely send you a cease-and-decist before any suing, plus they likely understand that #developer #documentation is more #advertising than harm to them.