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gramps 9611cee199 docs(steam): record the real onboarding state — a wait on Valve, not a task

The docs described Steamworks onboarding as pending work. It is pending VALVE: the partner account
exists, identity verification is under review, and the tax interview is in their queue with a quoted
turnaround of up to 30 business days. No app IDs are assigned, no store page exists, and Release
entitlement therefore still fails closed — by design.

Distribution.md §2 becomes a status table plus the critical path computed from Valve's own published
windows (30 business days verification → fee/app IDs → up to 12 business days store review → page
public ≥2 weeks before release → up to 12 business days build review). Earliest realistic launch:
early-to-mid February 2027, leaving ~7 weeks before the 2027-04-01 launch price ends.

Nothing in this blocks the code; commercial.md, TASKS 54 and HANDOFF now say so instead of implying
Steam is an outstanding coding task.

2026-11-05 15:08:53 -08:00

8.6 KiB

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Distribution & release mechanics

How the build becomes an install on someone's PC. Policy — prices, entitlement, why Steam is the only channel, support — is docs/ai/commercial.md. This file is the how.

Superseded twice on 2026-10-31. The 736-line Polar/MSIX/obfuscation plan is in git log -- Distribution.md; the zip-plus-winget plan written earlier the same day is in the same place. The reasoning that survives lives in commercial.md and docs/ai/decisions.md.

1. The artifact

A self-contained win-x64 publish plus the bundled ffmpeg\ folder, uploaded to a Steam depot. No installer, no admin rights, no zip for anyone to mirror.

dotnet publish ytLive.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true \
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true \
  -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true \
  -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true \
  -p:PublishReadyToRun=true -o artifacts/steam-stage

PublishTrimmed stays OFF. Trimming breaks WPF's XAML reflection (Binding, DataTemplate, StaticResource). Expect ~110–150 MB in the depot; that is the cost of "no .NET install".
ffmpeg stays outside the exe — ffmpeg\ beside it (the app's locator contract, see output.md → "FFmpeg locator").
steam_api64.dll ships beside the exe and is loaded at startup; without it the app cannot read DLC ownership. Its absence must degrade to the free profile, never to a crash.
WebView2 is the one machine dependency. Valve's Common Redistributables configure the Evergreen bootstrapper as a prerequisite, so the depot declares it instead of us shipping it.
AssemblyName is LlamaCasty (renamed 2026-11-01, before the first depot because Steamworks warns about renaming a live exe) → the artifact is LlamaCasty.exe plus its ffmpeg\ folder. scripts/publish.sh stages both and refuses to finish if either is missing.
⛔ ExcludeFromSingleFile="true" on the ffmpeg content. Without it, PublishSingleFile + IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract swallow the libav*.dll family into the exe — a 182 MB binary with no ffmpeg\ folder beside it, so the locator finds nothing and every stream fails at runtime. The publish output is ~257 MB: 127 MB exe + 129 MB ffmpeg.
Portable mode (portable.txt → .\data\) survives as a feature for a copied install; it is not a delivery vector.

2. Steamworks setup, once

The SDK zip is the only download. It is ~24 MB and contains the runtime (sdk/redistributable_bin/win64/steam_api64.dll) and the release tooling (sdk/tools/ContentBuilder/ → steamcmd.exe for Windows, steamcmd.sh for Linux/macOS, plus the app_build_*.vdf / depot_build_*.vdf templates). There is no separate "ContentBuilder download" on the partner dashboard — the dashboard's Downloads page only re-offers the SDK.

Reference links, so nobody hunts again:

What	Where
SDK zip (sign in to partner first)	`partner.steamgames.com/downloads/steamworks_sdk.zip`
Docs home	`partner.steamgames.com/doc/home`
SteamPipe upload (steamcmd + VDF fields)	`partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/uploading`
Demo configuration	`partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/application/demos`
Paid app ownership (`BIsSubscribedApp`)	`partner.steamgames.com/doc/api/ISteamApps#BIsSubscribedApp`
Store artwork sizes	`partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/assets/standard`
Coming Soon / 2-week public window	`partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/coming_soon`
Wallet rule (in-app purchases)	`partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/microtransactions`
Recurring subscriptions	`partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/pricing/subscriptions`
Partner support	`help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithPublishing`
Steamworks.NET (managed wrapper)	`nuget.org/packages/Steamworks.NET`

Status (updated 2026-11-05 — this is a WAIT on Valve, not a task of ours)

Step	State
Partner account created	✅ done by the creator
Identity verification	⏳ pending — Valve reviewing
Tax interview	⏳ submitted; Valve quotes up to 30 business days to review
$100 Steam Direct fee (per app)	not yet — a store page cannot be configured before it
App IDs (paid app + free Demo)	not yet assigned
Store page	not created
Build review	not started

Critical path from 2026-11-05, using Valve's own published windows:

identity + tax review — up to 30 business days (~6 calendar weeks) → mid-December
fee paid, app IDs assigned, store page built and submitted
store page review — up to 12 business days (Valve's current backlog; docs still say 3–5)
page public ≥2 weeks before release (Valve's rule)
build review — up to 12 business days

Earliest realistic launch: early-to-mid February 2027. The launch price ends 2027-04-01, so there is roughly seven weeks of buffer — provided verification clears in the window Valve quotes. If it slips, the promo date is the thing to move (see docs/ai/commercial.md), not the code.

Nothing below can start until step 1 clears; none of it blocks the app work.

Store page configured and made public two weeks before release — Valve's rule, and it is the window where wishlists accumulate.

3. Release

publish → steam-stage → steamcmd + app_build.vdf → build upload → set live → announcement

Upload the depot with steamcmd +login <user> +run_app_build ..\scripts\app_build_<appid>.vdf +quit. The VDF names the app, depot, content root and branch.
Set the build live in Steamworks → Builds → the new build → Set Build Live on the default branch. That is the release; there is no artifact to hash and no manifest to submit.
Announce with Steam Events (release notes appear in the library and on the store page).
Verify: install the Demo from a clean Steam account, confirm paid-app ownership is false, then test with an account that owns the paid app and confirm the higher tiers unlock.

Updates are the same upload with a higher build ID. The app keeps no self-updater and no version banner — Steam is the update path, and that policy has not changed.

4. Entitlement wiring

IEntitlement reports IsAppOwned. Debug uses a fake owned result; Release checks the paid app ID through BIsSubscribedApp. MainViewModel.IsAppOwned is the app-wide binary ownership flag.
The paid app ID is not yet configured. Until it is assigned, the Release path fails closed without touching the native library.
Fail closed on every path: no id, no client, missing DLL, thrown load, not owned.
The EULA should expressly allow commercial/monetized streaming use; confirm with counsel or Valve that this satisfies the Steam Subscriber Agreement's software terms.
Never gate a feature. The only delta is the output profile.

5. Release checklist

Build clean, 0 warnings (./scripts/verify.sh), tests green.
steam_api64.dll present; app starts without Steam and falls back to the free profile.
Paid-app ownership false → free profile; true → higher output tiers offered.
LlamaCasty.exe rename landed (never rename a live exe).
Clean Steam install on a second machine, then an update pushed and observed.
Store page public for the full two weeks; support contact and announcements configured.
Portable mode: portable.txt present → data lands in .\data\.

6. Legal and takedown

LICENSE (EULA) forbids redistribution, resale, reverse-engineering and circumvention, and disclaims warranty.
PRIVACY.md must name any third party the app contacts — Google/YouTube. Steam itself is named by Valve's own policy, not ours.
THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt stays shipped and shown in About; the ffmpeg pin stays lgpl-shared; no GPL component may be linked (see product.md → "Licensing").
DMCA: a takedown needs only the notice — host, link, good-faith statement, signature. Statutory damages need a registration ($65). Worth doing once there is something to pirate.
What actually protects the product is in commercial.md → "Anti-piracy posture": a useful free tier, Steam's own delivery, and Steam ownership of the paid app. Not obfuscation, not a native DLL, not hardware locking.

7. Effort, once

Step	Effort
Steamworks onboarding + $100 fee	0.5–1 day, mostly waiting on verification
Publish profile + `steam_api64.dll` + `IEntitlement` Steam path	1 day
Depot + first `steamcmd` upload	0.5 day, then ~15 min per release
Store page + assets (screenshots, capsule art)	1–2 days
Clean-account Demo install + paid-app ownership test	0.5 day

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