Getting Started with Directories

The directories are the quickest way to browse everything Game Oracle knows: every game on Steam, every developer and publisher behind them, and hundreds of curated game-design features. Use them to size up a genre, scout the studios you admire, or find inspiration for your next mechanic, then dive into the full report on anything that catches your eye.

This guide also covers the search bar in the navigation bar and bookmarks, which work hand in hand with the directories.

Opening the directories

Open your dashboard and look for the Directories row, just below Your Tools. It has three tiles:

• Games: every game on Steam, released and upcoming.
• Developers & Publishers: every studio, ranked by estimated revenue or number of games.
• Features: the curated library of game-design building blocks.

The directories are open to every signed-in account, including Free. Opening a game, studio or feature shows you a preview on the Free plan and the full report on a paid plan.

How the directories behave

• Search as you type. Type at least 2 characters into the search box and the results update automatically.
• Keep scrolling. More results load as you scroll. When you reach the end you’ll see a line like “That’s all 1,234 games.”
• Nothing matching? Each directory tells you when your filters are too narrow. Loosen the search or filters to see more.
• Filters reset when you leave. Your filters aren’t saved in the page address, so a directory link always opens with the default view.

Game Directory

The Game Directory lists every game on Steam as a card with its capsule art, headline performance figure and review score.

Searching and sorting

• Search for a game by name using the box at the top.
• Show switches between All, Released and Unreleased games.
• Sort by ranks games by Sales (or Downloads, see below), Wishlists, % Positive Reviews, Uniqueness or SteamDB. Click the arrow button beside it to switch between Highest first and Lowest first.

Advanced Filters

Open Advanced Filters for more control. A badge shows how many are active.

• Free-to-Play: Include free-to-play games alongside paid ones, Exclude them, or show Only free-to-play games. Free-to-play games show estimated downloads instead of sales, and the volume sort changes its label to match (Sales / Downloads, Sales or Downloads).
• Bookmarks: switch from All Games to Bookmarked only to browse just the games you’ve saved. Subscribers only.
• Tags: search for tags and add up to 10. Games must have every tag you choose, so each tag narrows the list further.
• Release Date: set a From and To date to focus on a launch window.

Reading a game card

• The headline figure is Est. Sales for paid games, Est. Downloads for free-to-play games (marked with a Free to Play pill), or Wishlists for games that haven’t launched yet.
• The percentage shows the share of positive Steam reviews.
• Art for games marked NSFW is hidden unless you’ve chosen to show NSFW content in account settings.

Click a card to open the game’s page.

Developer & Publisher Directory

The Developer & Publisher Directory lists every studio on Steam. It’s a great way to find studios of a similar size to yours, see who publishes in your genre, or track down a potential publishing partner.

• Search for a developer or publisher by name.
• Show switches between All Studios and Bookmarked only (subscribers only).
• Sort by Lifetime Revenue or Number of Games, with Highest first or Lowest first.
• Open the Games & Revenue Filter to narrow by Number of Games (Any, 1, 2–5, 6–20 or 21+) and Lifetime Steam Revenue (Any, under $10K, $10K–100K, $100K–1M, $1M–10M or $10M+).

Each card shows whether the studio is a Developer or Publisher, a collage of its games, its number of games and its estimated lifetime Steam revenue. Click a card to open the studio’s page.

Feature Directory

The Feature Directory is a library of curated game-design building blocks: the mechanics, systems, settings and presentation styles that games are made of. Each one links to a detailed feature report.

• Search features by name or description.
• Filter by category using the pills. Each pill shows how many features it holds. Choose All to see every category.
• Subscribers can switch on Bookmarked only to see just their saved features.
• Features are always listed alphabetically.

Each card shows a short animation of the feature in action (hover over it, or scroll it into view on a touch screen, to play it), its category and its name. Cards open the feature report in a new tab, so you can keep your place in the directory.

Searching from the navigation bar

Subscribers have a search bar at the top of every page, so you can jump straight to a game, studio or feature from anywhere in the app.

• Choose what to search. Click the icon button at the right of the search bar to cycle between games, devs & pubs and features. The placeholder text tells you which one is active, and hovering the button tells you what you’ll switch to next.
• Start typing. Results appear after 2 characters and show the closest matches first. Features show their category in brackets.
• Pick a result to open its page. If your text exactly matches a result’s name, pressing Enter opens it too.
• If you switch scope mid-search, the results update straight away.
• The search always starts on games when a page loads.

On a Free account, the search bar is replaced with a Subscribe to search button. On smaller screens you’ll find the search bar inside the menu.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks let you build a shortlist of games, market gaps, features and studios as you research. Bookmarking is available on paid plans.

Adding bookmarks

Look for the bookmark button on:

• game pages
• Game Gap segment cards and segment pages
• feature reports
• developer and publisher pages

Click it again to remove the bookmark.

Finding your bookmarks

• Your Bookmarks on your dashboard shows four lists in a grid: Bookmarked Games, Gaps, Features and Studios. Each is sorted by name and shows 5 at a time. Click × to remove one.
• Each directory has a Bookmarked only filter, so you can sort and filter your shortlist just like the full list. If nothing you’ve bookmarked matches your other filters, the directory will tell you.

Game and studio pages

Every card and search result leads to a full page for that game or studio.

• Game pages start with the store facts, screenshots, a summary and the Features found in this game. Subscribers also get estimated sales, revenue and wishlists, peer rank and uniqueness scores, review summaries, player-count history and the most similar games. The Metric Guide explains every figure.
• Studio pages show a developer or publisher’s full catalogue and estimated lifetime revenue.

Free vs subscriber access

• Free accounts can browse all three directories and open any game, studio or feature to see a preview: a game’s store facts, screenshots, summary and features, a studio’s headline details, or a feature’s overview. Look for Upgrade to unlock the full analysis to see what’s included.
• Subscribers get the full game, studio and feature reports, the navigation bar search, bookmarks and the Bookmarked only filters.

See the pricing page for plan details.

If you have any questions about using any of our tools, drop us an email at support@game-oracle.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.