Steam Indie Discovery Settings: Tune Your Store

Steam’s indie discovery settings—the preferences you set under Store Preferences—directly control which indie games appear on your storefront, and tuning them correctly can noticeably improve the quality of your recommendations. By adjusting your preferred tags, excluding genres you dislike, and actively using the “Not Interested� button, you train Steam’s recommendation algorithm to surface more of the indie titles you actually want to see. This article explains how those settings work, how to configure them for better indie finds, and what to do when the store still seems off.

How Steam’s Discovery Queue and Recommendations Work

Steam’s storefront uses a combination of your play history, wishlist, friends’ activity, and your explicit preferences to generate a personalized discovery queue and the “Recommended for You� rows on the home page. The algorithm weighs factors like:

• Tags you’ve set as preferred (e.g., Indie, Pixel Graphics, Roguelike, Story Rich)
• Tags you’ve excluded (e.g., Anime, Horror, Sports)
• Genres and categories you’ve selected or deselected
• Your playtime in games that share those tags
• Your interactions with the store: clicking “Not Interested,â€� ignoring a game, or adding it to your wishlist

Steam’s algorithm is not a simple filter—it’s a learning system that adjusts over time. The more signals you give it, the better it becomes at predicting which indie titles you’ll like. However, the system has known quirks, and many users find that without tuning, the store shows mostly AAA titles or popular indies that don’t match their taste.

Where to Find and Adjust Your Store Preferences

To access your discovery settings, open Steam and go to Steam > Settings > Store Preferences (on Windows) or Steam > Preferences > Store (on macOS). Here you’ll see two main sections:

• Preferred Tags – A list of tags you can select to tell Steam what you like. You can add up to 20 tags.
• Excluded Tags – Tags you want to avoid. You can add up to 20 tags here as well.

Below these, there are checkboxes for content types (e.g., “Games,� “Software,� “Virtual Reality�) and a slider for “How much do you like [tag]?� that appears when you click a tag. The slider lets you set a preference strength from “Not important� to “Very important.�

You can also manage your preferences directly from the store page by hovering over a game and clicking the “Not Interested� button, or by using the “Hide this game� option. These actions feed into the same recommendation system.

How to Choose Tags for Better Indie Finds

Selecting the right tags is the most impactful step. Here’s a practical approach:

1. Start with broad indie-relevant tags like “Indie,� “2D,� “Pixel Graphics,� “Story Rich,� and “Atmospheric.� These are common among indie titles.
2. Add specific gameplay tags that match your favorite genres—e.g., “Roguelike,� “Metroidvania,� “Survival,� “Crafting,� “Turn-Based,� “Tactical.�
3. Exclude tags that consistently lead to games you dislike—e.g., “Anime,� “Battle Royale,� “Sports,� “Racing.�
4. Set the slider to “Very important� for your top 3-5 tags. This strongly biases the algorithm toward those.
5. Use the “Not Interested� button liberally on games that don’t appeal to you. This is a direct negative signal.

Keep in mind that Steam’s tags are user-generated and sometimes misapplied. A game tagged “Indie� might be a AAA title, and vice versa. So, your preferences are a starting point, not a guarantee.

Common Problems and Misconceptions

Many users report that Steam’s recommendations still miss the mark even after tuning. Here are common issues and what’s actually happening:

• “I excluded a tag but still see those games.â€� Exclusion is not absolute; Steam may still show games with that tag if it thinks you’ll like them based on other factors. The tag is a strong negative signal, but not a hard block.
• “I set my preferred tags but nothing changed.â€� The algorithm takes time to update. Give it a few days and interact with the store (click games, use Not Interested) to speed up the learning.
• “The store still shows mostly popular AAA games.â€� Steam’s home page includes a “Popularâ€� section that is not personalized. Your preferences affect the “Recommended for Youâ€� rows and the discovery queue, not the top sellers list.
• “I don’t see the slider for tag importance.â€� The slider appears when you click on a tag in the Preferred Tags list. It’s not shown for excluded tags.

A common misconception is that Steam’s recommendations are broken. In reality, the system relies heavily on your behavior, and many users don’t provide enough feedback. The store’s default settings are broad, so without tuning, you get a generic mix.

Using the Discovery Queue Effectively

The discovery queue is a curated list of games that you can browse by clicking “Discover� on the store home page. It’s one of the best tools for indie discovery because it gives you a direct way to influence recommendations. When you go through a queue, you can:

• Add to wishlist – Strong positive signal.
• Click “Not Interestedâ€� – Strong negative signal.
• Click “Followâ€� – Moderate positive signal.
• Ignore – Neutral, but still counts as an interaction.

Going through a queue and providing feedback trains the algorithm faster than any other action. Many users find that after a few sessions of active queue browsing, their “Recommended for You� rows improve noticeably.

Alternatives and Additional Tools

If Steam’s built-in settings still don’t give you the indie finds you want, there are a few community-driven alternatives:

• Steam Labs – Valve’s experimental features include “Interactive Recommenderâ€� and “Deep Dive,â€� which let you explore games by similarity and genre. These are accessible from the Steam Labs page and can be used alongside your preferences.
• Third-party curation sites – Websites like SteamDB and various Reddit communities (e.g., r/IndieGaming) offer curated lists and tags that can help you find hidden gems. These aren’t official, but they often surface games that Steam’s algorithm misses.
• Wishlist and Follow features – Following indie developers and curators on Steam can populate your activity feed with new releases and recommendations.

Remember that no algorithm is perfect. The best way to discover indie games is a combination of tuning your settings, actively using the queue, and seeking out community recommendations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Steam’s “Not Interested� button permanently hide a game?

No, it’s not permanent. The button tells the algorithm that you’re not interested in that specific game, but it doesn’t hide it from search results or store pages if you navigate directly. It mainly affects recommendation surfaces like the discovery queue and home page rows.

Can I reset my Steam store preferences?

Yes. In the Store Preferences settings, you can manually remove all preferred and excluded tags. There’s no one-click “reset,� but removing all tags and clearing your discovery queue history (via the “Clear� button on the queue page) will effectively reset the system. Your play history still influences recommendations, though.

Why do I see the same games over and over in my discovery queue?

Steam’s queue algorithm sometimes repeats games if it has a limited pool that matches your preferences. To get more variety, add more preferred tags or clear your queue history and start fresh. Also, make sure you’re not excluding too many tags, which can shrink the pool.

Do my Steam preferences affect search results?

No, search results are based on your query and filters you apply manually. Preferences only affect recommendation surfaces like the home page, discovery queue, and the “More Like This� sections on game pages.

Is there a way to see why Steam recommended a game?

Steam doesn’t provide an explicit explanation for individual recommendations. However, you can look at the game’s tags and compare them to your preferred tags to infer why it appeared. The “Recommended for You� row often shows a small tag icon that hints at the connection.

Will tuning my preferences affect my friends’ recommendations?

No, your preferences are personal and only affect your own storefront. Your friends’ recommendations are based on their own settings and behavior.

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