Developers say they are feeling benefit of Steam's Discovery Update

Indie developers are already feeling the benefit of Steam's new Discovery Update.

Andrew Spearin, creator of the successful shooter Insurgency, posted a blog showing how much the new update has popped his metrics, overnight.

"Visits to our store page (recorded by Google Analytics) went from 5,800 on Sunday to over 21,500 on Monday. Tuesday was 83,284 ... Another valuable number is being on 138,000 user wishlists, as that will help estimate copies sold during the next sale."

Steam's Discovery Update now delivers personalized recommendations based on recent gameplay, past purchases, suggestions from friends and select games highlighted by Steam Curators, the new "tastemakers" of the Steam Community.

Spearin, whose first-person combat shooter has sold over 400,000 copies to date, said he was unsure how far curators and recommendations had made a difference, but noted that 94 curators, including some leading commentators had recommended his game.

"This Curators list represents high priority targets to become a cornerstone of our marketing efforts. We now need those top Curator recommendations. They represent a potential new audience to reach that is already a few clicks away from purchase."

Robert Boyd from Zeboyd Games tweeted that a quarter of his traffic this week came from Steam curators. Comments and blog posts from developers generally express satisfaction with the new systemn, which lessens their dependence on front page appearances and Steam sales.