Steam Workshop

Steam Workshop
Website Info
URL:	http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse

Steam Workshop is a mini-site that enables users to submit modelled items for in-game release and displaying online. The site went live with the Manniversary Update & Sale on October 13, 2011, and aims to make item contribution more open to the public by allowing all users to view and rate submitted items. Currently, only items for Team Fortress 2 will be considered, and items must be in the form of weapons, hats or miscellaneous items.

Submitted items can be viewed in the gallery of the site, sorted by the most recent or highest rated submissions. Items submitted to the site are chosen based on the quality of modelling, texturing and animation, and attributes such as damage statistics and weapon functionality are determined by Valve before release, in order to consider game balance.

The Steam Workshop site was created to replace the Contribution page on the TF2 Official Website, and to make it easier for users to receive feedback from Valve and the wider community regarding specific entries.

Submission guidelines

File:ColorPalette.gif

Color swatch to follow when creating hats.

To sustain the visual style of the game, the Team Fortress 2 team has established a few submission guidelines. All of the following should be considered when designing and submitting items:

• Theme
  • 1950s style design.
  • Maintains character personality and bio.
• Modeling techniques
  • Realistic but slightly skewed proportions to add visual draw.
  • Details may be over or underscaled.
  • Keep it simple and clean.
• Texturing techniques
  • Maintain texture quality; nothing higher or lower res than what is next to it.
  • Hats are to use team specific or neutral colors.
  • Textures should be simple and not a distraction.
• Technicals
  • Hat models under 1000 polygons.
  • Weapon models under 6,500 polygons.
  • Textures no larger than 512x512 pixels, 256x256 being preferred.
  • Steam avatars must be 184x184 pixels and saved in .JPG format.
  • Source files must be included for models and materials.
  • Thumbnails and in-game images must be 256x256 pixels.
• Submission page.
  • Max file size permitted is 4MB (raised from the original 2MB limit).

Submitted items

Main article: List of community-contributed items

As of the First Community Contribution Update in March 2010, up until the Manniversary Update & Sale in October 2011, 165 submitted items have been accepted and added to Team Fortress 2.

Gallery

• 

  Former 'Contribute!' page icon

• 

  How the Steam Workshop hub appears on the main menu.

• 

  The Steam Workshop hub with submitted items.

• 

  The Steam Workshop submission window.

Update history

October 17, 2011 Patch

• Fixed not being able to retrieve Steam Workshop items if any item had been deleted
• Increased Steam Workshop preview image size from 256x256 to 512x512.

Links

• Steam Workshop
• Workshop instructions for TF2
• Steam Workshop on Manniversary Update & Sale page
• Modeling Tutorial for TF2