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Introduction

What SteamForge does and how it is put together.

SteamForge is an Unreal Engine 5.7 plugin that puts Steamworks in front of you as Blueprint nodes. Lobbies, achievements, stats, leaderboards, cloud saves, the Steam overlay, friends, Rich Presence and Steam Input, without writing a line of C++.

What is different about it

It cannot break when Valve changes the SDK. SteamForge does not link steam_api64.lib and does not include Valve's headers. Every Steamworks function is looked up by name at runtime from whichever Steam library is loaded in the process. When Valve removes a function, one feature reports itself unavailable. Your project still compiles.

It works alongside OnlineSubsystemSteam instead of replacing it. If your project already uses the engine's Steam plugin, or AdvancedSessions, they keep working. If it does not use them, you do not need them.

It works with no Steam client at all. A built in mock backend implements achievements, stats, leaderboards and lobbies with no Steam running, no App ID and no network. That is what makes these features testable in the editor and on a build machine.

What you can build with it

  • A lobby browser where players host, search, and join each other.
  • Achievements and stats that unlock and upload.
  • Leaderboards with paged score downloads.
  • Save games that follow the player between machines.
  • Friends lists with avatars, and a Join Game button on your friends' entries.
  • Controller button prompts that show the right glyph for whatever pad is held.
  • Where to go next

  • Installation to get the plugin into your project and set your App ID.
  • First steps to confirm Steam is actually connected before you build anything on top.
  • Blueprint basics for the three patterns every other page uses.