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I want to create a game using Java and later put the finished product to Steam Direct.

How does the whole process work after the game is finished and running on Eclipse?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Steam just provide the ecosystem around your game and ensures your bits are correctly present at the users machine. You still need to do all the rest. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
    Commented Jun 21, 2014 at 17:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ I saw that you just updated this question from 9 years ago. Perhaps you should also update that Steam Greenlight is no longer a thing and was replaced by Steam Direct. But that does not change the technical problem of how to package a Java application so that it can be distributed and run using Steam. \$\endgroup\$
    – Philipp
    Commented Apr 27, 2023 at 14:27

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I assume you really want to know two things:

  1. Will Steam accept my Java game?
  2. What do I need to do to make it work on Steam?

The answer to #1 is "yes." Steam hosts other Java games (like Spiral Knights).

For #2, I suggest you package your game using launch4j. This will provide you with native (Windows, Linux) wrappers around your application. Other benefits include (from their home page):

The wrapper also provides better user experience through an application icon, a native pre-JRE splash screen, and a Java download page in case the appropriate JRE cannot be found.

You can get the latest version from Maven for your maven/gradle builds.

Also, note: Greenlight is not some magic marketing machine. You have to market your game really, really well to get it greenlit.

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If your game is running only on Eclipse, start by packing the .jar, the assets and all that come with your game and try your game on different OS (or ask other people to do it).

You will have a good return about the technical problems ("game's not working", "laaag") and the gameplay problems ("not funny enough", "what am I supposed to do ?", "boring...").

Then you have to pay a fee, for the Greenlight submission.

In my opinion it is even better if you have a native launcher, but that is a bonus.

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