After 20 years of utilizing Steam, I might prefer to suppose I do know my manner round Valve’s launcher. I’ve tweaked libraries, reorganized my collections, dug round in its settings and options to enhance the expertise, and admittedly, I’ve spent extra time staring on the video games I’ve purchased as an alternative of taking part in them. One way or the other, although, I utterly missed the truth that Steam might be custom-made far past what Valve offers you out of the field.
By way of Steam plugins, I’ve managed to make Steam really feel like my launcher as an alternative of one thing Valve designed for everybody, and it is despatched me down a rabbit gap I genuinely did not look forward to finding. I’ve solely just begun experimenting with them, but it surely’s already made me surprise how I spent this lengthy utilizing Steam with out ever fascinated by customizing it within the first place.
Millennium is what turns “simply Steam” into “my Steam”
The customization rabbit gap begins right here
To get began with tailoring my Steam launcher in keeping with my wants and fancies, I downloaded Millennium. It’s basically a customization framework for the Steam desktop consumer that allows you to modify the interface and add performance that Valve by no means constructed into it. You put in it immediately into your present Steam set up, and it integrates with the consumer as an alternative of changing it with one other launcher like Playnite does.
As soon as put in, Millennium added its personal part to Steam’s settings, and gave me a central place to handle themes, plugins, customized CSS, and different mods. I positively recognize how everything of the change was condensed to only a new menu inside the Steam launcher I’ve identified all my life.
Millennium is third-party software program that is not made or endorsed by Valve. Putting in such software program all the time carries some danger to your machine, however the mission is open-source and auditable.
As soon as I had Millennium up and working, I began with the one change that may be most palpable — customized CSS themes for my launcher. I modified the colours and fonts whereas experimenting with themes and different visible particulars till Steam felt just a little extra mine. Some choices, like with any software program that allows you to experiment with themes, had been a bit cheesy, however I quickly discovered the best mixture of classiness and daring customized colours I appreciated. That is after I determined to actually start altering issues, and headed to the Plugin Supervisor for Steam.
I began fixing the little issues Steam will get improper
My library turned way more helpful instantly
As soon as I spotted plugins might change what Steam really did, I began noticing how a lot data I used to be lacking. The HowLongToBeat plugin was a direct win right here, because it places estimated completion instances immediately into recreation pages on the Retailer web page. I like the concept of buying a new game that appears prefer it checks the best packing containers for me, however as somebody with a full-time job, I’ve all the time used the HLTB database to assist inform my shopping for choices. The HLTB plugin for Steam lets me do precisely that however with zero clicks concerned, for the reason that numbers I want are proper there underneath the Purchase button.
Plugins like Steam Librarian and Collections+ take a distinct method. They’ve made my huge Steam library significantly simpler to prepare and navigate. Now, the dynamic collections feature in base Steam is fairly nifty, and one I take advantage of commonly, however these new plugins let me take issues a number of steps additional with extra granularity and management over what I see each time I open my Steam library.
These plugins have not essentially modified Steam, however they’ve added options I by no means knew I wanted.
Then there are the tiny additions that should not matter practically as a lot as they do, however they’ve made your complete expertise a lot extra polished and informative. The Measurement on Disk plugin, as an example, tells me how much space a game consumes in my library with out having to right-click on the sport, go to Properties > Put in Information, after which see the space for storing it is occupying — 5 clicks changed with only a single new plugin.
None of those plugins have essentially modified Steam for me. However they’ve crammed the gaps I’ve realized to work round over time, and added nifty new options I by no means even realized I wanted within the desktop consumer within the first place. Paired with the customized themes and fonts, my Steam launcher now genuinely stands out as utterly tailored each time I open it.
Steam is extra customizable than I ever realized
Valve clearly left the door extensive open
The Extendium plugin is the place the rabbit gap turned deeper, as a result of it enabled Chrome Net Retailer extensions inside Steam. I used that so as to add SteamDB’s web page for worth historical past and present worth data — a tiny addition that sits within the Retailer web page and I’ve come to like. Extra importantly, although, there’s now an unlimited ecosystem of extensions simply ready for me past the Steam-specific plugins.
Non-Steam Playtimes is one other plugin I instantly appreciated, particularly for my GOG video games, and, nicely, “different” non-Steam video games. Steam now retains monitor of how a lot time I am spending with these titles, too.
It is necessary to know why all of this works so seamlessly, and that is as a result of Steam’s desktop consumer is constructed on Chromium — that is the identical open-source browser foundation behind Chrome and numerous different Chromium-based apps. Successfully, it implies that the Steam launcher interface is actually an internet app working contained in the desktop consumer, which is what makes CSS themes, browser extensions, and all the opposite modifications surprisingly simple to combine.
That realization is what makes Millennium really feel so acquainted to me. It jogs my memory of Jellyfin and the self-hosting rabbit hole: begin with one thing completely usable, then hold tailoring it till it suits precisely how I wish to use it. I’ve solely simply began doing that with Steam, and I already love what’s attainable.
I am not going again to inventory Steam
I’ve spent an absurd period of time with Steam with out ever questioning whether or not the launcher itself wanted to stay precisely as Valve shipped it. That is likely to be the strangest a part of this whole rabbit gap — we have change into so accustomed to software program being a completed product that the concept of creating it match us can really feel virtually… overseas.
I am not all of the sudden eager about endlessly tweaking each single menu in Steam, or putting in each plugin I can get my arms on. Nevertheless, I do love understanding that when Steam inevitably does one thing I do not notably look after, I won’t have to easily stay with it.