We Are Building a Vetted List of Steam Curators (and We Need Your Help)
Every indie developer who has opened Curator Connect knows the feeling: hundreds of curators with twenty thousand followers each, all asking for a copy, and a month later two of them wrote a sentence that reads like your own store description. We got tired of guessing which ones are real, so we are building the list ourselves, from data, and we would like your help filling it.
Founder, Mad Octopus
Why a list at all
Curator Connect itself is safe. No key ever leaves Steam, the curator gets the game added to their account and nothing can be resold. The problem is not the key, it is your time and your launch window: a copy sent to a curator who never plays it is a copy that did not go to one who would have. 11 bit studios stopped handing keys to curators entirely for this reason, and most small studios quietly do the same after their first launch.
We ran a first pass over three of our own games this week. Eighteen curators had reviewed them. Fourteen were the same ring: around 1,900 reviews each, zero negative verdicts in years, the same three games reviewed within the same days, blurbs that could be swapped between any two games without anyone noticing. That is what the top of Curator Connect looks like when you sort by followers, and it is why a follower count tells you nothing.
Where the data comes from
We have one thing most people do not: a pool of more than 450 indie games whose developers sit in our Dev Hub. Steam lists, for every game, which curators reviewed it, what they wrote, when, whether they received the copy for free and whether they were paid. So we pull that for every game in the pool and aggregate it per curator.
That gives us, for each curator, the numbers that matter: how many small indie games they actually reviewed (not how many AAA titles they clicked recommend on), how long their reviews are, whether they ever say no, when they last wrote anything, and, crucially, who they move in lockstep with. Rings show up immediately: groups of accounts that review the same games within days of each other, every time.
On top of the scan comes the part no algorithm does well: developers telling us what happened after a Curator Connect copy. A review appeared, or it did not. We already use that loop to ban key farmers from our creator base; the same 👍 / 🚩 rating will sit next to every curator.
What vetted means here
- They review small games. At least a couple of titles from the pool, games with a few hundred reviews, not only the releases everyone covers.
- They say no sometimes. A curator with two thousand recommendations and zero non-recommends is not reviewing, they are stamping.
- Their reviews have substance. A few sentences that could only be about that game, not a paraphrase of the store page.
- They are alive. Something written in the last ninety days.
- They are not part of a ring. No lockstep reviewing with a cluster of lookalike accounts.
- A developer vouches. Someone on our side sent a copy and saw a review come back.
The list has one hundred slots and we will fill only the ones we are sure about. If that means it launches with twenty names, it launches with twenty names. A short list you can trust beats a long one you have to vet yourself, which is the situation we are trying to get out of.
How the list will work in the Dev Hub
It will live under Developer tools, next to the key checker, and it will show per curator: name and link, followers, the genres they cover, how many pool games they reviewed and when, a one-line description, the vetted badge, and the ratings other developers left after sending a copy. Next to each name, the exact steps in Steamworks: Curator Connect, search the name, send. Later on, our Bundle Autopilot extension may click through that for you; first the list has to be right.
The list stays behind the Dev Hub sign-in, for the same reason the game pool does: a public page of names and links is a gift to scrapers and to the rings themselves. Signing in is free and takes two minutes.
How to get on it, and how to help
If you run a Steam curator page: send us your curator link and three recent reviews of games with under 500 reviews. That is the whole application. We check the page, we check the pattern, and if it holds up you are in. We cannot promise a yes, and we will not argue about a no: the data is the data.
If you are a developer: recommend a curator who reviewed your game after a Curator Connect copy. One line with their page and your game is enough. A recommendation from a developer is the strongest signal we have, stronger than any number Steam shows.
If you know a ring: tell us that too. Names of accounts that took copies and never wrote a word, or that write the same sentence for every game, go straight into the suspect pile and save the next developer a copy.
Both go to info@madoctopus.fun with the subject "Curator list", or into the Dev Lounge inside the hub if you are already signed in. I read every one of them myself.
FAQ
Is Steam Curator Connect safe to use?
Yes. A Curator Connect copy is granted to the curator's Steam account directly; there is no key to resell. The only thing you can lose is a copy that never turns into a review, which is exactly what the list is for.
Will the list be public?
No. It lives inside the Dev Hub behind a free sign-in, so that neither scrapers nor the rings can harvest it. Developers and curators on the list can see it; nobody else needs to.
Does it cost anything, for curators or developers?
Nothing on either side. Curators cannot pay to be listed and developers do not pay to use it. The moment money enters that equation the list stops meaning anything.
How do you tell a real curator from a key farm?
Mostly by what they review and how: small games, real sentences, an occasional negative verdict, no lockstep with other accounts. Follower counts are the least useful number on the page; the rings have the biggest ones.
When does the list go live?
The scan of the pool is running now and the first confirmed names go into the Dev Hub as soon as we have checked them by hand. It grows as curators apply and developers report back; it never fills up just to look full.
No mail app opening? Copy the address: info@madoctopus.fun