How To Add custom games and icons to Steam

If most of your games are on Steam and you are used to using the platform to organize and launch your games, you might want to add your non-Steam games to the platform as well. Thankfully, Valve offers that option without having to download any extra software or to even tweak with the platform. The steps are simple and they will not only allow you to add and organize the games but also to set your own custom icons and artwork for them and even your Steam games.

To begin with, open your Steam client, click on the Games tab and choose the “Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library…” option. The list that will appear will have both your non-Steam games and any other programs that you might have installed. This is because Steam itself has support for a number of applications and you might want to integrate something to Steam like a Game Booster. You will need to check the box next to the games or programs and then choose the “Add selected programs” option.

The first thing you will notice is that Steam does not provide artwork for your custom game like it does for the ones you bought in the platform. For most games, it will provide a small icon taken from the executable file in the List view. If it doesn’t, you can right click on the game, go to the Properties window and choose an icon for it. The dimensions for it should be outlined in the box.

Other display modes will either have no icon at all or will use the extremely small icon of the executable file which obviously will not look good. Adding custom icons in the other display modes is very easy. Simply right click on the game and choose to “Set custom image”. Then browse your computer for the images you want. Most games will have at least some splash art available in their folders so you can choose that. Keep in mind that even though the recommended dimensions are 460×215, you can insert an image of whatever size you want and Steam will resize it to fit the box.

In the pictures you might have noticed that I have added Don’t Starve to Steam. Although the game is actually offered in the platform, I have bought if from GOG and not Steam. So even though Steam offers it, it does not offer its original art because it does not download files from it using the platform. Do not expect games that are offered on Steam to have their art because they will not. Following these simple options, however, will let you organize all of your games and even set custom art for them so don’t worry.