Steam Workshop: Create, Share, and Discover Mods
Steam Workshop is part of Steam, one of the largest game-oriented digital distribution platforms worldwide. Steam attracts tens of millions of users every day. It gives gamers a reliable place to find the latest titles. It also helps developers publish their games and gain recognition.
However, many users don’t realize that Steam also includes another side: the Steam Workshop.
What is the Steam Workshop?
The Steam client integrates the Steam Workshop, a community-driven tool. Developers and players upload and download mods, maps, skins, and more.
The Steam Workshop is completely free to use. Your only real limits are your imagination and your gaming library.
How to Access Steam Workshop?
As you know, you can only download games and software if you install the Steam client on your PC.
However, this restriction doesn’t apply to the Steam Workshop. You can access it through the Steam client or directly from the Steam website in any browser.
However, if you choose to access it through your browser, you need to be logged in first.
Can anyone add content to the Steam Workshop?
Long story short, anyone with a Steam account can add content to the Steam Workshop. You just need to sign the binding agreement that appears whenever you upload something new.
The only real limitation is whether the game supports mods. Fortunately, it’s easy to find out if it does.
Is the content on the Steam Workshop any good?
As mentioned earlier, both game developers and players add content to the Steam Workshop.
As a result, the content varies in size and quality. Still, you shouldn’t disregard user-created content.
In fact, some even turn a profit through the Steam Workshop by creating top-notch content and selling it.
The thing about premium content is that you can also refund it. Steam applies the same refund policy it uses for games.
Fortunately, those of you that are on a tight budget can also opt for free content, which is quite abundant anyway.
Where is Steam Workshop? How do I use it?
In the example below, we will be using a Steam favourite called DotA 2, and we will show you how to download community-created custom maps:
- Launch your Steam client, or go to the Steam homepage on your web browser
- Go to the Community Hub, and select Workshop from the drop-down list
- Search for the DotA 2 Hub in the Find Hubs search bar
- While in the DotA 2 Hub, go to the Workshop tab
- If a game you are looking for lacks the Workshop tab, it means that it lacks mod support
- Look for an item that you wish to at to your base game, and press Download
- If you don’t currently have the base game installed, the button will be listed as +Subscribe instead
- If you don’t currently have the base game installed, the button will be listed as +Subscribe instead
Once you download custom content, the game makes it available in the corresponding section, depending on the type of content (skins, custom maps, etc.).
Just like with any Steam game or software, you can leave reviews, rate Workshop items, and read feedback from other players.
Ratings play an important role in Workshop items because, just like with the base game, they influence popularity, determine which items Steam suggests, and shape how those items appear in search results.
How do I remove an item?
- Go back to the DotA 2 workshop tab as you did in the previous solution, and click on the Browse button
- From the drop-down list, click on Subscribed items
- Look for the custom content that you want to remove, and hover your mouse over the Subscribed button
- Press the Subscribed button to unsubscribe from it
Is the Steam Workshop worth it?
Since it’s completely free, we recommend giving it a try—you never know what fun content the community has created.
Plus, Steam Workshop works like gaming fanfiction, and you can upload or download anything as long as you follow Steam’s community guidelines.
And if paid content doesn’t meet your expectations, simply request a refund—Steam will give you your money back, so there’s really nothing to lose by giving it a go.
CONCLUSION
The Steam Workshop offers great potential for hosting interesting content, so you might as well take advantage of it.
Have you ever tried any custom content from the Steam Workshop?
If so, let us know what you found interesting in the Steam Workshop by sharing it in the comments below.
