Create a new item in Steam Workshop

 

– Select the model for a new item –

After importing your model to the Unity project, you can give your item a shape.

1.) On the House Flipper Item Explorer click the button Create a new item in the Item Exporter window.

2.) Pick your model from the list. You can import as many models as you like.

As soon as you pick it, your model should be immediately visible in the scene view and added to the Hierarchy tab.

3.)  If everything loaded properly, go to the Item Exporter window where some new fields will become available for you:

– Define your item in the game –

Now the most important part – give your fresh, new item an identity! To do so provide more information regarding your item in each field.

Thumbnail

This will be the image shown both on the Steam Workshop and on the House Flipper tablet, where you buy items in the game. To create the thumbnail you have to take a photo with the tool.

1.) Adjust the camera around your item on the scene and once you are happy with it, simply click Create thumbnail from the current scene view.

2.) The other way to create a thumbnail for your item is to use the Add own thumbnail button to add the image from your disc. The important thing is to use the image in .png format with the required resolution of 256x256 pixels.

If you wish, later you can add more pictures to your item’s page on Steam Workshop. 

Item placement

As we’ve mentioned before your model needs to be designed to be placed on floors, ceilings, or walls. Choose the right placement option in the tool.

After that, you can mark a checkbox if you want other items to be able to be placed on your item or if your item can be placed on other items.

Item category

Item category determines where in the in-game store a player can find your item. Each item has only one category. Choosing a category for your item is mandatory.

Tags

Tags have an impact on how the item is seen by the in-game buyers. We recommend picking them if you consider your item as more than decoration, but overall tags are optional. Each item can have multiple tags.

Name and game price

In this field, you have to add the item's name. It will work both as the mod’s name in Steam Workshop as well as the name of the item in the game’s tablet. Right below that set the in-game price for your item. The important thing is to select which currency the value should refer to. The price will be adjusted for other players playing with different currencies.

Steam visibility

Steam lets you decide who will be able to see your item in the Workshop. By default, it’s public, but you can change it to private if you only want to share a mod with your friends or play it on your own. The visibility can also be changed in the Workshop directly.

A description is very useful for other players and we always recommend using it. It tells other players everything they need to know before downloading your item. For the description you need to select the language you use.

Later on, if any updates come to your mod, you can always include the changelog. It’s good to keep people updated on what has been changed!

– Add colliders to the model –

We’re almost ready! To make your item behave properly in the game, you have to set up the colliders. They will prevent the item from sinking into walls, floors, and other items on the scene. The colliders are set outside the Item Exporter window. We will use Unity.

1.) Go to the Inspector tab on the right side of the project (preferably right next to the Item Exporter, if you embed the window before). If your model is not active, you can activate it from the Hierarchy tab on the left.

2.) Scroll down to the Add a new component button. Then using the search field look for the Box Collider option. Like in the screenshot below.

3.) The collider box will be automatically added to your model on the scene. Adjust its dimensions and positions to fit your model. If you would like, add more colliders to make your item more spatial. However, the default collider is enough for the item to work properly.

– Upload your item to the Steam Workshop –

Now, the final part is to upload your item as a mod to the Workshop, where other players can subscribe to and download it.

1.) Make sure your Steam is running and you’re logged into your account. 

2.) Return to the Item Exporter. Scroll down and with Steam running you should see your account name right above the Export item button. When you have provided all the details and are ready to upload the item, just click it.

It takes a couple of minutes to upload the mod to the Steam Workshop. After that, you should see the below message from Unity as confirmation.

Congrats! Your new item is now available on Steam Workshop.

If you would like to test it in the game, you will need to subscribe to it in the Workshop.

– Updating the item –

At any time, you can make minor changes to your item details on its page in the Steam Workshop.

However, with major changes, you will need to work on the item file saved on your disc through the project on Unity. To view the file location go to the Item Exporter window in Unity and then Browse item directory button.

To update your project, click the Update existing item button and select the given item file. The file already has all the information of your item including item Steam Workshop ID. It means that the Item Exporter tool in Unity can publish all the changes directly to your existing Workshop mod instead of creating a new one.

Happy creating and flipping!