Steam Next Fest Zoom Q&A Prep - What to Ask Before Aug 18 2026

Steamworks has scheduled a live virtual Q&A for the October 2026 edition of Steam Next Fest on August 18 from 10am to 11am PDT on Zoom. You can learn more or set a reminder from Valve's official October 2026 Next Fest page. Fourteen days later, registration closes on August 31 at 11:59pm PDT. That makes the call useful only if your studio turns uncertainty into a written question before it starts and a written decision after it ends.

The October event itself runs from October 19 at 10am PDT through October 26 at 10am PDT. A title needs a published public store page, a playable demo by the festival, a release planned after the festival ends, a Steamworks account in good standing, and content that is not a prologue or similar slice of an already released Steam product. A title can participate in only one Next Fest. Those are not discussion prompts invented for this worksheet. They are the eligibility frame published by Steamworks on the official October page.

This guide targets the primary keyword steam next fest q&a and owns one narrow job - Aug 18 Zoom Q&A prep, a Q1–Q6 question sheet, and an attend-vs-recording keep/hold decision. It is not the Aug 31 registration lock article, which decides whether your title should register and whether its marketing materials are ready. It is not the Sep 21 Press Preview decide article, which owns an In/Out decision and review-submit path for Press Preview. Treat those as sibling cliffs. This URL prepares the question that helps you approach them honestly.

What you will leave with: a join path for beginners, an attend-or-watch-later decision, six question gates, a 20-minute pre-call checklist, a notes format, next_fest_zoom_qa_prep_receipt_v1.json, an Aug 31 handoff, a company diligence summary, and a Discord-ready paste.

Why the Steam Next Fest Q&A matters now

The Q&A sits in a short decision window. On August 14, a vague concern such as "is our demo eligible?" still has time to become a precise question, a verified answer, and an Aug 31 keep/hold decision. On August 30, the same concern becomes deadline pressure. The value of attending is not proximity to Valve. It is the chance to compare your exact ambiguity against current Steamworks guidance while enough time remains to change registration, store materials, or production scope.

Valve also publishes a dedicated Steam Next Fest tips page with a Live Q&A Sessions section. Steamworks says sessions are recorded, and past Q&As are available on YouTube. The October FAQ also notes the recording path. That means attendance is optional. Preparation is not. A studio that cannot join live can still write Q1–Q6, set a recording-review owner, and schedule a decision deadline.

The calendar should be read as a sequence of different jobs:

The six-week October timeline maps production locks after the decision. This article stops earlier. It helps you ask what Steamworks can clarify, separates that from what only your team can decide, and creates a handoff that survives missed meetings.

Beginner join path - Get into the right Zoom room without guessing

If this is your first Steam event, do not begin by searching social media for an unofficial meeting link. Use the Steamworks October 2026 page while signed into the account connected to your game. In the Q&A entry for August 18, 10am–11am PDT, use the listed learn-more or reminder path. Steamworks is the source of truth for access details and any updates.

Before you set the reminder

1. Confirm account access. Make sure the person attending can sign into the studio's Steamworks account. Do not discover a two-factor or permissions problem at 9:58am PDT.
2. Open the official October page. Verify the displayed date and time rather than copying a Discord conversion from last week.
3. Convert PDT for every attendee. Put the local time and 10am PDT in the same calendar event. Time-zone tools can be wrong when someone types a generic abbreviation, so keep the official zone in the description.
4. Add the Steamworks URL to the event. The source page is more useful than a naked Zoom link because it preserves context if access details change.
5. Name one attendee and one backup. "The team will attend" is not ownership. Put a person or role in the calendar.
6. Attach this article's question sheet. The attendee should not reconstruct context from chat while the call is running.

What a beginner should expect

A live Q&A is a clarification channel, not a private review of your entire launch plan. Ask a short question that identifies your uncertainty and the official requirement it touches. Do not paste your complete game biography. Do not ask Valve to approve a production promise the studio has not tested. If your question is already answered by the official event page or tips page, record the source and use the call for the remaining ambiguity.

Use this shape:

We are preparing an unreleased title with a public store page for October 2026. Our uncertainty is [one specific eligibility, materials, demo, Press Preview, or livestream point]. The October page says [brief requirement]. Does [specific scenario] satisfy that requirement, or should we take [safer action] before Aug 31?

This phrasing gives the host enough context without asking for a design consultation. It also gives your notes owner clear fields to capture.

If you cannot attend live, you have not failed. Steamworks says sessions are recorded and points teams toward past Q&As on YouTube. Choose the recording path below, assign a watch deadline, and keep your question open until an official source resolves it.

Attend vs watch-later keep/hold

Here, Keep means keep the live session on the calendar. Hold means do not spend a team hour live - assign the recording and documentation path instead. This is not the October registration keep/hold. It is only a meeting decision.

Keep live when

• Eligibility depends on an unusual but real product structure, and the published wording does not settle it.
• Marketing-material readiness has a specific operational edge case that could change work before Aug 31.
• Your team is choosing between October and a later Next Fest and needs clarification about a rule, not reassurance about timing.
• A Press Preview process question affects whether you assign a September owner, while the actual In/Out decision remains in the sibling article.
• You can submit the question concisely and capture the source, wording, and follow-up.

Hold for the recording when

• You only want general tips already covered in Steamworks documentation.
• The person attending cannot influence registration, marketing, demo, or operations decisions.
• Your build team would lose a critical smoke-test window by joining.
• Your question asks what game concept will perform best. That is a studio strategy issue, not a rules clarification.
• You can review the recording and official page before your internal Aug 31 lock.

Hard rule: hold_for_recording requires a named reviewer and a review deadline. "We'll catch it later" is not a hold path. It is an unowned task.

Q1–Q6 Steam Next Fest Q&A question sheet

Print this section or copy it into your planning document. Each gate has a pre-call verification, a question test, and a studio action. A gate can close as docs_resolved, ask_live, review_recording, or not_applicable. It cannot close as "probably."

Q1 - Eligibility and opt-in verification

Official frame: The October 2026 edition requires a Steamworks account in good standing, a published public store page, a playable demo by the festival, a release after the festival ends, and a title that is not a prologue of content already available on Steam.

Good Q1: "Our unreleased base game has a public page, while a separately named free prologue is already on Steam. Does that existing prologue affect the base game's October 2026 eligibility under the prologue rule?"

Weak Q1: "Are we eligible?" The weak version forces the host to discover your facts and invites an answer that may not match your situation.

Do not use the article's example as evidence for your title. It demonstrates question shape only. Record the official answer and route any remaining account-specific issue through the appropriate Steamworks support path.

Q2 - One-fest strategy

Steamworks states that a title may participate in one Next Fest only. The Q&A can clarify how the rule applies to a specific title relationship. It cannot decide whether October is commercially right for your studio.

Before asking, write:

• Current target edition - October 2026 or later
• Planned release window
• Demo content-freeze date
• Store-material readiness date
• The exact relationship between any editions, apps, prologues, or renamed products
• The studio's reason for preferring October

Good Q2: "We have not participated in a prior Next Fest, but the app changed name and publisher while retaining its app identity. Is participation history evaluated on that same title and app identity?"

Studio-only question: "Would February get us more wishlists?" Steamworks cannot provide a guaranteed performance answer. Your team should compare product readiness, creator runway, launch timing, and the cost of using the title's single participation.

Close Q2 with two lines:

RULE CLARIFICATION - [official answer or source]
STUDIO CHOICE - [October keep or later-edition hold, owner, decision date]

Keeping the rule and the strategy separate prevents a host's general guidance from being misquoted as a promise about your game's outcome.

Q3 - Marketing materials readiness questions

The official October page gives Aug 31 as the registration deadline and recommends having marketing materials ready by then for official consideration. Your Q&A question should target unclear process, not ask for guaranteed placement.

Verify before asking:

Good Q3: "If our current trailer is public and accurate on Aug 31 but a later polished cut replaces it, which version is considered for the official materials process described on the October page?"

Bad Q3: "Can you feature us?" Official consideration is not a placement guarantee. Do not turn the answer into marketing copy that claims Valve selection.

After the call, Q3 should produce one of three actions - no change, update by Aug 31, or escalate through official support. Give the action an owner and timestamp. The actual readiness gate remains in the Aug 31 registration lock.

Q4 - Demo readiness honesty

The eligibility requirement is a playable demo by the festival. The Q&A may clarify process or policy. It will not make an unstable build ready. Before the call, have a developer run a small smoke so the question is grounded:

1. Install the intended demo build on a clean or representative machine.
2. Launch without editor tools.
3. Reach the first meaningful objective.
4. Trigger one expected failure path.
5. Open and close settings.
6. Quit and relaunch.
7. Record the branch or build label and every blocker.

If the wrong depot appears, use the Steamworks demo old-depot fix. If you cannot identify which commit produced the tested upload, establish the beginner BUILD_RECEIPT pipeline before calling the demo "green."

Good Q4: "The demo will be publicly playable by Oct 19, but it is not intended to stay live permanently. Is that compatible with the October participation requirement, and which official controls should we review?"

Not a Q&A question: "Is our tutorial fun enough?" Put that into playtesting. Ask the Q&A about the Steamworks requirement or tool behavior you cannot settle in published documentation.

Q4 closes only when the rule answer and the build-health answer are stored separately:

steamworks_requirement_status - resolved | unresolved
studio_demo_health - green | blocked | untested

A resolved policy question does not turn an untested build green.

Q5 - Press Preview path questions worth asking

The Aug 18 Q&A can help you understand a Press Preview process detail early. It does not replace the later In/Out decision. The Sep 21 Press Preview article owns that separate cliff.

Worth asking:

• A specific review-submission workflow is unclear after reading the official October page.
• Your base store page and demo setup create an edge case not clearly covered in the FAQ.
• The timing of a current store-page change affects your internal review plan.
• You need clarification on where an opt-in or status is represented in Steamworks.

Not worth asking:

• Whether press will definitely cover your game
• How many keys or wishlists the preview will produce
• Whether your trailer is creatively strong
• Whether joining Press Preview excuses a late or unstable demo
• Anything already answered in the published FAQ without a title-specific edge case

Use this question pattern:

We read the October 2026 Press Preview guidance and are planning our Sep 21 decision. Our setup is [one factual sentence]. The unclear process step is [one sentence]. Which official status or submission should we verify before choosing In?

Record the answer in this receipt as press_preview_question_status. Then copy only the actionable line into the Press Preview worksheet. Do not copy the entire Q&A transcript into a September decision and call it a plan.

Q6 - Livestream and optional items

Steam Next Fest includes optional promotional and live-programming opportunities, but optional work should not displace eligibility, demo stability, or required store work. The Steamworks tips page is the first stop for livestream and Q&A guidance.

Before asking:

• Read the current livestream guidance.
• Decide whether your team has a host, moderation coverage, capture-safe build, and technical rehearsal time.
• Separate "allowed by Steamworks" from "affordable for this team."
• Write the exact UI, schedule, or eligibility point that remains unclear.

Good Q6: "Our team plans a prerecorded developer segment followed by a live chat presence. Which part of the current Steam broadcast guidance should we follow for that format?"

Studio-only choice: "Should our two-person team stream twice?" Answer that with staffing, build risk, moderation capacity, and content value. Optional visibility work is a hold when it steals the owner who must fix a festival-blocking crash.

Close Q6 with an explicit optional_items_decision of keep, hold, or not_applicable, plus one sentence of rationale.

Pre-call checklist - 20 focused minutes

Run this at 9:35am PDT or earlier, not while the session is opening.

The question card

Place this at the top of the notes document:

GAME / APP
PRIMARY GATE - Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Q5 | Q6
KNOWN OFFICIAL WORDING
OUR SPECIFIC FACTS - two sentences maximum
QUESTION - one sentence
ANSWER THAT WOULD CHANGE WORK
AUG 31 OWNER

Do not include unreleased financials, keys, credentials, personal data, or confidential partner terms in a public or semi-public question. If the scenario cannot be explained safely, ask about the general rule and move account-specific details to the proper support channel.

Stop conditions before joining

Move to hold_for_recording if:

• The primary question is resolved by the official docs during preparation.
• Nobody owns the post-call action.
• Access requires a last-minute credential workaround that violates studio policy.
• The only remaining questions request marketing guarantees or creative review.
• A production incident needs the same owner and cannot be handed off safely.

That is not abandoning the event. It is protecting a more important constraint while preserving the recording path.

During-call notes - Capture decisions, not a transcript

Assign one notes owner. Their job is not to type every sentence. Their job is to preserve the answer accurately enough that another teammate can act without inventing meaning.

Use one row per relevant answer:

Notes discipline

• Quote sparingly. If exact wording matters, mark it as a short quotation and confirm it against the recording before using it externally.
• Do not convert general guidance into approval. "Teams should consider" is not "Valve approved our plan."
• Mark uncertainty immediately. Use needs_follow_up; do not make the paraphrase sound firmer.
• Capture source directions. If the host points to a documentation page, that page becomes the durable source.
• Separate rules from tactics. A Steamworks answer may define what is eligible. Your studio still owns staffing, scope, dates, and risk.
• Do not publish private meeting access. Store the official event page, not copied access credentials.
• Record unanswered questions. An unanswered live question moves to the recording or support path; it does not become an assumed yes.

When the call ends, spend five minutes reading each action aloud. If a teammate cannot tell what changes before Aug 31, the note is incomplete.

Post-call note - Feed the Aug 31 registration lock

Within one working day, reduce the notes to a one-page handoff. The handoff exists to feed the Aug 31 decision - it is not a general meeting recap.

STEAM NEXT FEST Q&A HANDOFF - OCTOBER 2026

Attendance - keep_live | hold_for_recording
Reviewed on - YYYY-MM-DD
Official sources checked - October page | tips page | recording

Resolved gates - Q_
Open gates - Q_
Answer that changed work - one sentence
Answer that did not change work - one sentence

Aug 31 registration impact - keep_candidate | hold_candidate | no_change
Marketing materials action before Aug 31 - action or none
Demo action before Aug 31 - action or none
One-fest strategy owner - role

Press Preview question forwarded - yes | no | not_applicable
Optional items decision - keep | hold | not_applicable

Registration-lock owner - role
Next review - YYYY-MM-DD

Then open the Aug 31 registration lock and transfer only four things:

1. Any clarified eligibility fact that affects the title
2. The October-vs-later one-fest strategy implication
3. The marketing-material action due before Aug 31
4. The demo-readiness blocker or proof that affects keep/hold

Do not set the registration outcome to Keep merely because you attended. Attendance is evidence gathering. The registration lock still requires its own eligibility, materials, demo, and ownership checks.

If Q5 produced a Press Preview action, place it in the Sep 21 Press Preview decide worksheet as an input, not a completed decision. The Q&A cannot file the later review work for you.

Receipt schema - next_fest_zoom_qa_prep_receipt_v1.json

Save this beside your other release-evidence notes. Replace examples with your real state and leave unresolved fields explicit.

{
  "schema": "next_fest_zoom_qa_prep_receipt_v1",
  "schema_version": 1,
  "as_of": "2026-08-14",
  "project": "your-game-slug",
  "app_id": "replace-with-app-id",
  "fest_edition": "october_2026",
  "official_event": {
    "starts_at": "2026-08-18T10:00:00-07:00",
    "ends_at": "2026-08-18T11:00:00-07:00",
    "format": "zoom",
    "october_page": "https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/upcoming_events/nextfest/2026october",
    "tips_page": "https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/upcoming_events/nextfest/tips",
    "recording_expected": true
  },
  "attendance": {
    "decision": "keep_live",
    "attendee_owner": "studio-lead",
    "backup_owner": "producer",
    "notes_owner": "producer",
    "recording_review_owner": null,
    "recording_review_due": null
  },
  "questions": {
    "Q1_eligibility_opt_in": {
      "status": "docs_resolved",
      "question": null,
      "action": "verify public store page logged out"
    },
    "Q2_one_fest_strategy": {
      "status": "ask_live",
      "question": "replace with one precise question",
      "action": "keep October decision provisional"
    },
    "Q3_marketing_materials": {
      "status": "docs_resolved",
      "question": null,
      "action": "finish current trailer before Aug 31"
    },
    "Q4_demo_readiness": {
      "status": "not_applicable",
      "question": null,
      "studio_demo_health": "blocked",
      "action": "fix cold-launch blocker"
    },
    "Q5_press_preview": {
      "status": "review_recording",
      "question": "replace or set null",
      "forward_to_sep21_sheet": true
    },
    "Q6_livestream_optional": {
      "status": "not_applicable",
      "optional_items_decision": "hold",
      "action": "protect demo QA owner"
    }
  },
  "post_call": {
    "reviewed_at_utc": null,
    "official_answer_summary": null,
    "confidence": "needs_follow_up",
    "aug31_impact": "no_change",
    "registration_lock_owner": "studio-lead",
    "registration_lock_due": "2026-08-31T23:59:00-07:00",
    "marketing_materials_action": "replace with real action",
    "demo_action": "replace with real action",
    "notes_path": "release-evidence/next-fest/2026-08-18-zoom-qa-notes.md"
  },
  "gates": {
    "official_sources_checked": true,
    "primary_question_written": true,
    "attendance_or_recording_owned": true,
    "notes_owner_named": true,
    "aug31_handoff_owned": true,
    "no_registration_claim_from_attendance": true
  },
  "zoom_qa_prep_ok": true
}

zoom_qa_prep_ok means the preparation and handoff are owned. It does not mean the title is eligible, registered, selected for marketing, approved for Press Preview, or ready to ship. Keep those states out of this receipt.

CapEx and diligence four-liner for companies

Use this in a producer note, publisher packet, or internal operating review:

1. What we verified - Steamworks lists the October 2026 Q&A for Aug 18, 10am–11am PDT, registration for Aug 31 at 11:59pm PDT, and the festival for Oct 19–26 at 10am PDT.
2. What we funded - One bounded preparation block, one attendee or recording reviewer, and one post-call handoff owner - not an uncosted team meeting.
3. What we will not claim - Attendance is not eligibility approval, registration, marketing placement, Press Preview inclusion, or evidence that the demo is stable.
4. What changes next - Resolved Q1–Q4 items feed the Aug 31 registration lock; Q5 feeds the separate Sep 21 Press Preview decision; Q6 remains optional work behind demo health.

This is a CapEx and diligence note, not an accounting classification instruction. Your finance policy decides whether any labor is capitalized or expensed. Operationally, log the hours against a named release milestone so leadership can see the cost of clarification and the owner of the resulting work.

For a small company, the useful control is modest:

This prevents a free one-hour session from creating an invisible week of scope.

Common failure modes and recoveries

When the answer remains unclear

Do not average several guesses into a yes. Mark the gate needs_follow_up, preserve the exact official source you checked, and use the support or documentation path indicated during the session. Your Aug 31 decision can still be Hold if a material eligibility issue remains unresolved.

When the answer creates more work than the team can finish

The answer is still useful. It exposed capacity risk before registration. Reduce scope, defer optional work, or choose the later-fest Hold path. Do not hide the new work by changing studio_demo_health from blocked to green.

When nobody attends

Switch the receipt to hold_for_recording, assign the recording reviewer, and retain Q1–Q6. Check the official October page and tips page first because documentation may settle the issue before the recording is available. Feed the final note into the same Aug 31 handoff.

Discord paste - Ready for the studio channel

STEAM NEXT FEST Q&A - AUG 18 KEEP/HOLD

Session - Aug 18, 10am–11am PDT on Zoom
Official page - https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/upcoming_events/nextfest/2026october
Decision - KEEP LIVE | HOLD FOR RECORDING

Primary gate - Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Q5 | Q6
Primary question - [one sentence]
Known official wording - [one sentence]
Answer that would change work - [one sentence]

Attendee - @name | n/a
Notes owner - @name
Recording reviewer and due date - @name YYYY-MM-DD | n/a

Post-call state - DOCS RESOLVED | DIRECT ANSWER | GENERAL GUIDANCE | NEEDS FOLLOW-UP
Aug 31 impact - KEEP CANDIDATE | HOLD CANDIDATE | NO CHANGE
Marketing action - [owner + due date] | none
Demo action - [owner + due date] | none

Important - Q&A attendance is not registration, eligibility approval,
marketing selection, Press Preview inclusion, or demo QA.

Sibling cliffs
Aug 31 registration - /blog/october-2026-steam-next-fest-registration-lock-micro-studios-before-aug-31
Sep 21 Press Preview - /blog/steam-next-fest-press-preview-decide-before-sep-21-2026

Receipt - release-evidence/next-fest/next_fest_zoom_qa_prep_receipt_v1.json

Pin the paste until the Aug 31 owner acknowledges it. Then link the completed registration-lock receipt rather than leaving the Q&A note as the channel's newest source of truth.

Key takeaways

1. The Steam Next Fest Q&A for October 2026 is listed for Aug 18, 10am–11am PDT on Zoom on the official Steamworks October page.
2. Steamworks says sessions are recorded, and its tips guidance points teams to past Q&As on YouTube. Live attendance is optional; an owned recording review is valid.
3. Decide keep_live or hold_for_recording based on a real unresolved question, owner availability, and follow-through - not FOMO.
4. Use Q1–Q6 to separate eligibility, one-fest strategy, marketing materials, demo honesty, Press Preview, and optional livestream work.
5. Read official documentation before asking. A question earns live time only when a specific scenario remains unclear.
6. Capture timestamp, gate, neutral answer, source, confidence, action, owner, and due date. Do not write a promotional transcript.
7. Feed Q1–Q4 outcomes into the Aug 31 registration lock, where the real October keep/hold decision happens.
8. Feed Q5 into the Sep 21 Press Preview decision. The Aug 18 call does not complete that later work.
9. Keep optional Q6 work behind eligibility and demo health. A livestream is not more important than a launch blocker.
10. zoom_qa_prep_ok proves the question and handoff are owned. It proves nothing about eligibility, placement, registration, or build quality.
11. October Next Fest runs Oct 19 at 10am PDT through Oct 26 at 10am PDT, and the title's planned release must remain after the festival end under the published eligibility frame.
12. A title gets one Next Fest. Use clarification to support the studio's decision; do not ask the host to make the commercial choice for you.

FAQ - Steam Next Fest Q&A

When is the October 2026 Steam Next Fest Zoom Q&A?

Steamworks lists a live virtual Q&A on Zoom for August 18, 2026, from 10am to 11am PDT. Use the official October 2026 page to learn more or set a reminder and to verify current access details.

Is the Steam Next Fest Q&A recorded?

Steamworks says sessions are recorded, and the Steam Next Fest tips page has a Live Q&A Sessions section that points teams toward past Q&As on YouTube. The October FAQ also mentions recordings. Assign a reviewer and deadline instead of assuming somebody will watch later.

Do I need to attend live to register for Steam Next Fest?

No attendance requirement is stated in the supplied Steamworks facts. The Q&A is a clarification opportunity. Registration has its own deadline - Aug 31 at 11:59pm PDT - and its own keep/hold checks.

What should I ask at the Steam Next Fest Q&A?

Ask one precise, unresolved question about eligibility or opt-in verification, one-fest participation, marketing-material readiness, demo process, Press Preview workflow, or optional livestream items. Include the relevant published wording and the facts that make your scenario different. Do not ask for guaranteed featuring, wishlist forecasts, or creative approval.

What are the eligibility requirements for October 2026 Next Fest?

The supplied Steamworks facts require a Steamworks account in good standing, a published public store page, a playable demo by the festival, a release after the festival ends, and a title that is not a prologue of existing Steam content. A title can participate in only one Next Fest. Verify your title against the current official October page.

When is October 2026 Steam Next Fest?

The festival runs from October 19, 2026, at 10am PDT through October 26, 2026, at 10am PDT.

Does attending the Q&A mean my game is eligible?

No. Attendance does not approve eligibility, register the title, verify the demo, or guarantee marketing consideration. Treat the call as one evidence source. Store the actual eligibility and registration decision in the Aug 31 lock.

Does registering guarantee official Steam marketing consideration?

No. Steamworks recommends that marketing materials be ready by Aug 31 for official consideration, but consideration is not a guarantee of placement. Keep trailer, capsule, screenshots, and copy accurate, and never describe attendance as selection.

Can the Q&A decide whether we should use our one Next Fest slot in October?

The Q&A can clarify how a published rule applies to your scenario. Your studio must decide whether October fits release timing, demo maturity, materials readiness, staffing, and creator runway. Preserve the distinction between rule clarification and studio choice.

Should a beginner attend live or watch the recording?

Attend live when a precise unresolved issue could change work before Aug 31 and someone owns the follow-up. Watch later when the documentation already answers your issue, attendance would interrupt critical production, or your question is still too broad. The recording path must have a named reviewer and due date.

How does the Aug 18 Q&A relate to the Aug 31 registration deadline?

The call happens early enough to clarify an issue and act before registration closes. Its post-call handoff should identify eligibility, one-fest, materials, and demo implications. The separate Aug 31 registration lock then makes the actual Keep or Hold decision.

How does the Q&A relate to Sep 21 Press Preview planning?

Use Q5 to capture a specific Press Preview process clarification. Then transfer the action into the separate Sep 21 Press Preview In/Out worksheet. Do not treat a Q&A answer as proof that review submissions or later preparation are complete.

What if my question is not answered live?

Mark it needs_follow_up, keep the timestamp and wording, review the recording, recheck the linked official documents, and use the support path indicated by Steamworks when appropriate. Do not turn silence into approval. If the unresolved point is material to eligibility, an Aug 31 Hold can be the honest outcome.

What should companies retain for diligence?

Keep the Q1–Q6 sheet, official source URLs, attend-or-recording decision, neutral notes with confidence labels, post-call handoff, owner names, and next_fest_zoom_qa_prep_receipt_v1.json. Retain build evidence separately. The Q&A receipt should never assert that an untested demo is ready.

What should we do immediately after the Q&A?

Within one working day, resolve or label each relevant gate, assign actions, file the receipt, paste the short studio update, and feed Q1–Q4 into the Aug 31 registration lock. Forward any Q5 action to the Sep 21 Press Preview worksheet. Keep Q6 optional unless core readiness is already protected.