The Steam Workshop: it exists. Over 3,000 games and millions of people use it, Valve reminds us all in a new blog post, but it could be better. Valve wants it to be better, so it’s rolled out a new, still-in-beta version of its modding emporium in the hopes that trying mods and other user-made content via Steam will be more appealing.
“Today we’ve updated the Steam Workshop to make the browsing experience quicker and easier to use,” Valve announces. You can try the new version of the Workshop by opting into the beta via any browse page. Just look for the “View Workshop Beta” button.
“While we’ve added features and updated the Workshop over the years, we felt it was time to make some bigger improvements to the overall user experience,” Valve says.
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To that end, the company’s made Workshop pages more readable and quicker to load. The browsing page is wider, showing more mods with clearer previews, and faster, “making it update more quickly when applying filters or changing sort orders.”
“We’ve completely rewritten the page,” Valve says, working around the full reloads that previously bogged down the Workshop browsing experience.
The mobile and Steam Deck versions of the Workshop also got special attention, Valve says, and the filters for certain types of items have been improved. Developers can now “define which types each filter should apply to,” roughing out a more navigable library for players to peruse.
Additionally, there’s a new “quick view” magnify button for Workshop items, letting you pull up some screenshots and details without clicking through to a whole new page.
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I don’t see a bazillion people leaving the likes of Nexus Mods over what is ultimately a UX update, but it does seem like more than just a new coat of paint. This is probably the biggest Workshop anything released in several years. And when the Steam Workshop works, it can be very convenient. For the millions of people apparently using it, this is pretty nice.
Valve has another Steam “refresh” up its sleeve, revamping its storefront with new sections that look way cleaner – and honestly, I kind of love it.
