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Mega-Bloody Red Rose Lollipop - The Makings Of A Steam Guide
By 🦈Da Great Magician Aike🐙
This is a reference guide of how I make Steam Guides, the tools that I use and bits of trouble shooting.
   
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Created by
🦈Da Great Magician Aike🐙
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Category: Characters, Co-op, Gameplay Basics, Secrets, Walkthroughs
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
22 Jun, 2022 @ 7:59pm
15 Oct, 2023 @ 3:04pm
3 Unique Visitors
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Guide Index
Overview
Intro - Cyl Is An Idiot 
My Tool Box - Table Of Contents 
Getting Started 
Drawing Tablets 
Software 
Mega-Green Herb Lollipop - Tablet Troubleshooting 
It's Fashion? 
Chappy App Guides - Mobile Apps 
Traditional Means 
BTS: Screenshots 
Honorable/Dishonorable Mentions 
Mega-Green Herb Lollipop - Steam Guide Troubleshooting 
Appendix 
References 
References (Cont.) 
Credits 
Other Guides 
Guides Others Have Made 
Comments
Intro - Cyl Is An Idiot


This is the tips, tricks, and other methods of how I make my Steam guides. Also, probably to impart ya with a few "cheat sheets".

Note: Please help me catch any misinformation, incorrect spellings and grammar. Thanks in advance.

Don't forget to:

My Tool Box - Table Of Contents


  • Getting Started
  • Drawing Tablets
  • Software
  • Mega-Green Herb Lollipop - Tablet Troubleshooting
  • It's Fashion?
  • Chappy App Guide - Mobile Apps
  • Traditional Means
  • Honorable/Dishonorable Mentions
Getting Started
Pure Basic

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=220061282

Now Jimo is one of the gods among men, he made this thorough guide on how to make guides. His guides about making guides are spring board on what to do.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=837385938

Aevoa is the same, doing God's work as far as Steam guides are concerned.

Though pretty soon, after ya memorize the basics, you'll be able to make guides with your own distinct flare.

Mega- Green Herb Lollipop



Steam Guide Link (Non-Affiliated With Games/Software)

Non-Steam Guide Link

This is a convenience, so, it's exactly what this is. One can make "organic" guides that aren't connected to any game and software. It's a bit of an open secret.
Drawing Tablets


Now these are my trusty Wacom tablets, though I use the Intuos Comics (The one below that has the stickers) for most things concerning Steam guides. They're the leading brand when it comes to drawing tablets and are a power house in ways that I don't even know about.

Note: Wacom customer support is a of a hit or miss, it sucks. It's a good thing that I don't have a need to call them for now, judging from what others have experience.

Green Herb Lollipop



Now ya need drivers to get your tablet to work to it's fullest.

Drivers & Software (Official Wacom Site)[support.wacom.com] - This has troubleshooting tips.

Product Resources (Official Wacom Site)[www.wacom.com]

r/Wacom - This reddit community does all things Wacom, including a bit of tech support. Ask 'em for help.

Bloody Red Rose Lollipop Bits



Wacom Tablet Rivals

Technically, my view on the WTRs is "That you don't need a fancy rig when the simple just a can help you get by or does the same professional job as if you own that state of the art industry standard tablet."
Wacom has oodles of alternatives and a few are giving the Japanese company a run for their money.

Rival List

This list is just a bit of a the Wacom rival tablets and their official store sites.

Note: I never use a Wacom Alternative, so, I don't have much knowledge of how they work. If ya want a good review on them, go bug Rebel Pixels or some other guy that knows how to use them... Better than waiting for me to get one.


Note: If ya choose to go after a Wacom rival, whatever you do, don't use the driver installation CD that comes with your tablet. Go to the tablet's official website and download the current drivers from there. The WR's driver CD is terribly outdated.
Software
In The House

After buying your drawing tablets, you'll open the box and find out that the installation CD has a ton of goodies, you just gotten expensive software for free to express your creative freedom without forking in the dough (Except for Adobe, they require some sort of subscription service and are "Not Safe For Starving Artists").

Note: There's another guide that goes in dept about these tools and even mentions more tools.

Open Source

Software, like Medibang Paint Pro, Blender and Fire Alpaca, are free to download in their official site or you can choose to buy them from Steam. Ya can even customize some of them to make things easier for you.

Official Sites

Fire Alpaca Official Site[firealpaca.com]

Medibang Paint Official Site[medibangpaint.com]

Official Blender Site[www.blender.org]

Guides



Fire Alpaca SE

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2645254605

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2251792228

Blender

Now Blender has a good reason to be here, it's due to the fact that one can use the "2D Animation mode as a drawing program.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2877636660

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2820146953
Mega-Green Herb Lollipop - Tablet Troubleshooting



Official Wacom Tech Support

Wacom Tech Support (USA)[support.wacom.com]

Wacom Tech Support (Regional Website List)[www.wacom.com]

USA Customer Support: +1 (855) 699-2266

USA Technical Support: +1 (800) 922-6613

Unofficial Wacom Troubleshooting

Wacom Forum[forum.wacom.eu]


Randomly Uninstalling

If the tablet drivers act funky, mainly uninstalls itself, check your anti-virus. Put the tablet driver under "."

Stylus Accidents

If your stylus had an accident involving water, just use the rice or silica gel.

Wacom Tablet Driver Not Found - What To Do

Wacom Tablet Driver Not Found - What To Do (Ravnican Shojo Manga/Tumblr)[zeico.tumblr.com]

I am not Ravnican.

Tablet Buttons Not Responding

Sometimes the tablet buttons aren't working, just re-install the latest drivers or just restart the computer. Remember when Wacom updates their drivers, it causes the older models to act wonky (or worst, quit working entirely).

No Connection

when the tablet becomes a dead brick, mainly after plugging the USB cable onto it and the computer/lap top/phone and there's no connectivity. Just try connecting it to a different port.
It's Fashion?


Your guide needs to be eye catching, whether it's enough to call aliens to destroy the Earth or more beautiful than Miss. Universe. So, here's what I do (and rarely do) to make my guide pretty.

Note: There's things that I called "Advance Techniques", like doing some magic with the console. But I'm not touching that, due to my cluelessness, therefore I won't teach ya want I don't know or it'll be a huge risk to both me and you. Bug someone else who's better than me.

I Know You Want This:

I don't use gifs much when I make guides, since I'd like to either post the link to credit the gif maker*.

So, you want to know how to get a gif into your Steam guide, it's just like posting artworks, it needs to be in these specific dimensions. Otherwise it will come out funky or won't upload in the picture bin at all.

* Wanna learn how to make gifs, but I dunno what site, phone app or PC software to use.

Green Herb Lollipop - Dimensions



Pictures
Dimensions
Steam Guide Icon
195 xp x 195 xp or 184 xp x 184 xp*
Steam Guide Icon (gif)
498x498xp
Pictures/Artworks
2 MB and under
Gif
10mb

* Those are the correct dimensions for the guide icon, since it's similar to uploading images for the avatar profile.

Like YouTube


This will remind people to make your guide be more noticeable and easier to find for others.

Gabriel A made a ton of these "Like and fave buttons" for our use:

Gabriel A's like and fave(d) guide.

Pick a few to describe your personality for your guide.

Gifs, Just Gifs

Just upload the gif as though it's an art piece.

Green Herb Lollipop - Like And Fave



There's other places to find the "Like and fave buttons", like the Steam Workshop or Glyphy. But I don't go there, since I don't know my way around.
Chappy App Guides - Mobile Apps


These are the apps for when I make guides on the go and/or too lazy to turn on the desktop computer.

It doesn't matter what phone that ya use as long as it can run these apps:

  • Official Steam mobile app
  • Medibang Paint (mobile app)
  • Gacha Life

Note: As long as ya can create art and other measures for your Steam guide it doesn't matter if you don't have the mobile apps that I listed as long as you've the apps that you love to use to make a guide. (The insanely serious one that ya need is the Steam app, the others have alternatives).

These are the tutorials pertaining to the apps that I use.

Medibang Paint Mobile App

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2676404393

Official Steam App

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2854820155
Traditional Means

One of the hybrid arts that I have made.

The markers and pencils that I use are mainly Crayola. Here's the full list:

  • Touch Cool Twin Art Sketch Marker
  • Super Tips From Crayola
  • Sargent Art Classic Fine Tip Markers
  • Colors Of The World Markers
  • ZSCM Dual Brush Pen
  • Pigma Micron Pens
  • OTraki Artist Gloves
  • Strathomore Sketch
  • Strathmore Artist Tiles

++++

Note: I use my android phone to scan my traditional art to upload them in my guide, using the printer scan ruins the colors. Secondly, I called my artworks "hybrids" if I use both traditional and digital art in the same drawing.
BTS: Screenshots
Here's the results of what I call a "Manual Screenshot."

These are the different means of screenshooting that I use.

PC

On the keyboard, press the "Print" keyboard key. (It reads: "PrtScrn.") and paste it on your art program, like Fire Alpaca, and touch it up for your guide (Or memes on the side).

I touch this screenshot up and used it for another guide.

To screenshot games, press the "F12."



Tip: If you have another launcher, like Ubisoft Connect, be aware that you either need to toggle off the screenshots. Because, the default keyboard key for this is F12, just like Steam's. So, you could accidentally end up with dupes.

Mobile


This was from my previous Moto phone, but the "power and volume buttons" method still stands.

On mobile, I use three methods:

Tap the screen with three fingers.

Hold down both the power and volume buttons.

Or remove the stylus from the phone.

Other phones have various methods of obtaining screenshots.*

After taking the screenshot, bring it to the art program, like Medibang, and touch it up before ya upload it in your Steam guide.

* I don't know how other phones, including Iphones, work when it comes to this.
Honorable/Dishonorable Mentions
"It's nothing at all, however, according to my Trainer, KLab has been spoiling her rotten.*"

This chapter focuses on those that are totally optional. Ya don't need to follow my lead.

Guide Mascot


This is the fun part were ya pick your mascot, it can be anyone and anything. So, do worry about it, just take as long as ya need.

Green Herb Lollipop - Partially Shafted




Be aware that if the Waifu/Husbando in question that you're planning to use as your mascot is from a gacha game or something similar, there's chances that you won't be able to draw/summon/wish your Waifu/Husbando for intents and purposes, or worst, not find them at all in all your years of playing said game. You either need to accept that ya can't find them for now and probably use the second cool looking character temporary.** Hence my phrase "Partially Shafted", you get a Character that you're not looking for, but she/he serves your needs/does things to help you get by/is fun to play regardless.

Profile Showcase


To display your guides in your profile, you need both extra levels and probably Steam Points and Steam Trading Cards. Just go to your Steam Profile, click on "Edit Profile" and click on "Display Showcase". If need be, ya need these babies:



These are Steam Points, you need them to buy extra Steam showcase space for your profile and to increase said showcase.

Steam Trading Cards - You need these babies to craft badges and increase your Steam account level, the more your level increases the more you'll have room to bring out more showcases.

Green Herb Lollipop - Steam Points And Cards

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2759105267



Memes



I use ImgFlip to make my memes for the guides.***

ImgFlip Official Site[imgflip.com]

Refunding A Game/Software

Refunding means more, first of all. If you manage to refund a game, all the guides for said game will be erased. Because, you're supposed to OWN the game/software to make guides.

++++

* What Captain Idiot is referencing was what I have been telling people IRL about "Bleach: Brave Souls". The gacha game gave me my Steam guide mascot by chance, he's now one of my oldest and most played Characters, plus, I keep getting "Partially Shafted" with Characters that are "the hero that that I need, but didn't deserve."
** There's the option of giving up, I didn't include it, it's because this is our Waifu/Husbando we're talking about and this is supposed to be a "happy" guide.
*** In Deviantart, "Memes" also means a drawing questionnaire. Don't confuse the two.

Mega-Green Herb Lollipop - Steam Guide Troubleshooting


Ghost Photos

When some pictures/artworks disappear from the guide, it's merely because of an error. Just refresh Steam, log out of Steam, clean the Steam cache or wait for Steam to fix itself up.

Failure Code: 15

With this glitch, you need to either sit tight and wait it out or contact Steam support. Since this is an error on their end. It's suppose to be an automated check to make sure that there's no illicit or inappropriate content, before posting.
Appendix