How to Publish a Game on PC Gaming Platforms (2026 Step-by-Step)

Most guides on publishing a PC game jump straight to "create a Steam account." That skips the part that actually decides whether you can publish at all: do you have a build? A storefront page is a few hours of form-filling. Producing a working, exportable Windows executable that runs on a stranger's machine is the real gate, and it is the step that stops most projects.

This guide covers the whole path in order. First the prerequisite almost no one mentions, then a clear-eyed comparison of the five PC platforms that matter, then the exact steps to ship on each. The examples use Summer Engine, an AI-native game engine that is compatible with Godot 4, because it produces a real project you own and a standard PC build you can upload anywhere. But the platform steps apply no matter what you built the game in.

{/* IMAGE: A finished PC game's storefront page mockup side by side with the exported build folder showing the .exe and pck files. 1200x675, illustrative */}

The Step Everyone Skips: You Need an Exportable Build

You cannot publish a game that only exists in an editor or a browser tab. Publishing means handing players a file they run on their own computer. So before any storefront, you need an export: an executable plus its data files, packaged so it runs without your project, your tools, or an internet connection to your servers.

This is exactly where browser-only "make a game with AI" tools fall down. If the game lives inside someone else's website and cannot be exported, there is nothing to upload to Steam. Ownership and export are not nice-to-haves for publishing. They are the entire premise.

A normal PC export produces a small set of files: the executable, the packed game data, and any runtime libraries. For a Godot-compatible engine like Summer Engine, that is a .exe and a .pck (or a single combined executable), which you zip and upload. Before you touch a store page, do three things:

1. Export a Windows build. Use your engine's export to a Windows desktop target. If you want to reach Mac and Linux players too, export those builds as well, but Windows is the one every PC storefront expects first.
2. Test it on a clean machine. Run the exported build on a computer that does not have your editor installed, ideally one that is not yours. This catches missing files, hardcoded paths, and assets that only existed in your project folder. A build that works on your machine and nowhere else is the most common launch-day disaster.
3. Add an icon and set the window title. A default engine icon and a window titled "Untitled Project" signal "unfinished" instantly. These are five-minute fixes in project settings.

If you are still building, the AI game maker page shows how a project goes from a sentence to a playable, exportable game. Once your build runs cleanly on a machine that is not yours, you are ready to pick platforms.

The Five PC Platforms, Honestly Compared

There is no single "best" platform. They trade reach against cost, curation, and effort. Here is the real picture.

Platform	Cost to publish	Revenue cut	Review	Best for
itch.io	Free	You choose (default 10%)	None	Fast first release, demos, jams
Steam	$100 per game	30% (lower at scale)	1 to 5 days	Largest PC audience, serious launches
Epic Games Store	Free (self-publish)	12%	Curated review	Lower cut, smaller PC crowd
GOG	Free	30%	Manual curation	DRM-free fans, classic-style games
Microsoft Store	$19 one-time dev fee	12% to 30%	Certification	Windows-native and Game Pass reach

A few honest notes on the table. itch.io's audience is smaller and skews toward jam games and experimental work, but its zero friction makes it the obvious first stop. Steam is where the money and the players are, and the $100 fee is genuinely refundable, but it is also the most competitive shelf on earth. Epic and GOG are more curated, meaning they can say no, and their PC audiences are a fraction of Steam's. The Microsoft Store matters mainly if you are targeting Windows-native distribution or hoping for a Game Pass conversation later.

Path A: Publish on itch.io (Free, Same Day)

itch.io is the fastest way to have a real, payable PC game live. Do this first even if Steam is your eventual goal, because it forces you to test your actual build in front of real downloaders.

Step 1: Create an account and a new project. Sign up, then choose "Upload new project." Set the kind of project to "Downloadable" so players get your build rather than a web embed.

Step 2: Upload your zipped build. Drag in the zip of your exported Windows files. Tick the "This file will be played in the browser" box only if you also exported an HTML5 build; for a desktop game, leave it unticked and mark it as a Windows download. itch.io can tag the platform so the right download button shows for each visitor.

Step 3: Set pricing. Choose a fixed price, "no payment," or "pay what you want" with an optional minimum. Pay-what-you-want is a friendly default for a first release.

Step 4: Write the page and publish. Add a cover image (the recommended size is 630 by 500), a few screenshots, and a short description. Set visibility to Public and save. Your game is live and downloadable. There is no review queue.

That is a complete, sellable PC release. Now you can gather feedback and fix the build before the higher-stakes Steam launch.

Path B: Publish on Steam (Largest Audience)

Steam reaches the most PC players by a wide margin, which is why it is worth the fee and the wait. This is the condensed version; for the full walkthrough including SteamPipe builds and store-page image specs, see our dedicated Steam publishing guide.

Step 1: Pay the Steam Direct fee and verify identity. Create a Steamworks account at partner.steamgames.com, pay the one-time $100 fee for the game, and complete the bank and tax forms (a W-8BEN if you are outside the US). The identity check takes a few days, so start it early.

Step 2: Build your store page. Steam needs a specific set of images (a capsule, header, and library art at fixed sizes), a short and long description, system requirements, and at least one trailer or screenshot set. Submit the store page for review.

Step 3: Upload your build with SteamPipe. Steam uses its own SteamPipe tool to upload builds rather than a drag-and-drop box. You point it at your exported Windows files and it uploads them as a depot. Set that build live on a default branch.

Step 4: Put up a Coming Soon page and gather wishlists. This is the step that decides your launch. Most developers run a Coming Soon page for two to six months before release, because Steam surfaces games with more wishlists on launch day. Do not skip straight to release the moment your page passes review.

Step 5: Set price and release. Once the build passes review and your wishlist window has done its job, set your price and press the release button.

Path C: Epic, GOG, and the Microsoft Store

These are worth adding once your game has traction, not for a first release.

Epic Games Store offers a much lower 12 percent cut and free self-publishing, which is attractive, but its PC audience is smaller and the onboarding is more curated. Good as a second or third store, rarely a first.

GOG is the home of DRM-free PC gaming and a loyal audience that values it. Submission is manually curated, so expect a real review and some back-and-forth. A strong fit for narrative, retro-styled, or single-player games.

The Microsoft Store costs a small one-time developer fee (around $19 for an individual) and gets you Windows-native distribution. It involves a certification pass that is stricter than itch.io's nothing and looser than a console. Mainly relevant if Windows integration or a future Game Pass pitch is part of your plan.

The good news across all of these: the build is the same. Your exported Windows files go to every storefront. Adding a platform is mostly another store page, not another engineering project.

A Realistic Publishing Order

Putting it together, here is the sequence that works for most first-time PC developers:

1. Finish and export the game. A clean Windows build that runs on a machine that is not yours. This is 90 percent of the work.
2. Launch on itch.io the same day you finish. Free, instant, and it forces a real-world test of your build.
3. Fix what itch.io feedback surfaces. Crashes, missing files, confusing first minutes.
4. Set up Steam in parallel and run a wishlist window. Coming Soon page up two to six months before launch.
5. Add Epic, GOG, or the Microsoft Store later if the game earns the extra effort.

Multi-platform sounds like five times the work. It is closer to one build and five store pages.

You Can Only Publish What You Own

The thread running through all of this is ownership. Every step above assumes you can produce a standalone PC executable and put it wherever you like. A tool that traps your game inside its own website, watermarks it, or claims a forced cut of your revenue cannot take you through this guide, because there is no file to ship and no clean rights to sell.

That is the practical reason Summer Engine outputs a real, ownable project. You describe the game in plain language, the AI builds it as a genuine Godot-compatible project, and you export a normal PC build with no watermark, no revenue share, and no lock-in. The whole build experience is usable on the free tier; paid plans add more AI usage and generation, not the right to publish.

Browse the templates to start from a working game, build it until your exported build runs cleanly on a machine that is not yours, then come back to this guide and pick your platforms. Publishing is the easy half. The build is the half that counts, and it is the half worth getting right first.