PlayWith FAQ

    What can I do with this App?
  • PlayWith helps you by matching your Steam games against those of your friends and shows you which games you have in common. So instead of manually comparing your libraries just to agree on a game that in the end doesn't even support that many players you can do all that now with just some few clicks.
    How is that helpful?
  • Steam itself has no such feature so you would have to check that manually. And with each additional friend you want to play with this can become quite tiresome. PlayWith does this automatically.
    I am sure there are web pages that do that...
  • Maybe. But PlayWith also offers a nearly complete database of Steam games and their supported player count and game types. If you want to play with three of your friends the App will list all games you four have in common and which support at least four players. Event Steam itself doesn't have that kind of detailed data.
    What about new games?
  • The App will be updated every week to include all new Steam games and all changes that may have occured to games that affect the number of supported players or the game modes.
    What about local game modes? Like splitscreen?
  • PlayWith also features a mode in which you can search your (or that of your friends) game library for games supporting local multiplayer modes for the given number of players.
    What was that about game modes?
  • We divided all games into two categories: coop and versus. Some games support both modes others just one or even none (those won't be listed by the App). So a game might support versus gameplay for 2-32 players but coop only for 2-4 players. PlayWith takes that into account.
    What do you understand by Coop?
  • We are aware that there are quite different definitions of the word Coop out there. For us games are Coop if they have a mode in which human players play together towards a common goal against the AI. Games where teams of players fight against other teams of human players are not what we see as Coop. Games that allow their deathmatch gameplay to be fought against Bots can also be regarded as Coop. If that is the case we will try to mark all those games with according notes.
    Notes?
  • Our database supports individual notes for each game to inform the user about special restrictions (e.g "Needs one mouse for each player") or if the game can only be run using third party tools (e.g. because Gamespy is dead) and such.
    I don't own any good coop games yet, is PlayWith still something for me?
  • Of course. PlayWith allows to search for games in a more detailed way than Steam itself offers. For example you can search for games that offer a local coop mode for at least three players, has full controller support, supports Windows and Mac and has been released without beeing one of the Early Access titles (over 15 titles right now).
    Some games don't load images, why is that?
  • Steam only transmits the image related data if you or one of your friends owns the game. So if no one owns the game the App will display the name of the game instead of an image.
    The App has an option that will try to download game banners by different means but that is deactivated by default to save disk space.
    Some friends are marked in red and don't have games; why is that?
  • That friend most likely has set his profile to private so that the preset API key can't be used to get his games. In order to fix that change the API key so that it matches your account (see below) and reload the libraries of those friends that are marked in red.
    How do you get the data?
  • Once you entered your Steam ID the app will connect to Valve's Steam servers through the Steam Web API and download all the required information. The Steam Web API can be used by anyone who has a valid API Key (see next question).
    An API Key, what is that?
  • In order to use the Steam Web API a valid API Key is required. The App uses one of mine as default. The problem with that is that the number of requests for each Key is limited to 100.000 per day. And you might not be able to see all data of yourself or your friends if their profiles are set to private. To circumvent this problem you can enter your own API Key.
    Creating an API Key is as easy as going to http://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey and requesting a key. Then go to the Settings page of the App and chose "Enter API Key" from the menu. There enter the key and the App should update its data using your key.
    To get the API key you will have to be logged into your Steam account with your Web Browser. The App offers you a link to the page but if you aren't logged in already you will be asked to enter your credentials. That happens on Steam's pages and is out of our reach. A problem here is once you log yourself in you will be redirected to the Steam Store Page. If that happens just follow the above link again and you will be able to create a key.
    What about my account info? Is it safe?
  • Yes, it is. In order to use the App you will only need to enter either your profile ID or your vanity name (see below), NOT your account name which you use to log into Steam. Never will you be required to enter your account name or password.
    To find your profile ID (or vanity name) just browse to your steam profile using your browser and take a look at the URL. It includes either your profile ID (a long number) or your vanity name (which you can choose for yourself when editing your Steam profile). A hint about that is displayed in the App.
    Once you identified your profile the only data that is used is provided by Steam through the Web API. This data includes your library (the games you own) and that of your friends, your current status (online, offline etc.) and who your friends are. If your profile is set to private and you don't use your own API key (see above) PlayWith might not be able to retrieve the necessary data.
    What happens with my data?
  • Everything will be buffered on your phone to keep the network traffic at a minimum. Nothing will ever be transmitted to third party servers. The only network traffic containing any personal data (Steam ID) that happens is the communication with Valve through the Steam Web API.
    If you delete the App from your phone all stored data will also be removed.
    What do all those icons mean?
  • Those icons are used to distinguish different game modes and display their supported player numbers:
  • Local
  • Online
  • Coop
  • Competitive
    The App requires a lot of disk space, why is that?
  • The biggest chunk of data are the images that the App downloads to present your friends and the games. To reduce the required space you can switch from using Game Banners (big) to Game Icons (small) (see the Settings page).
    If you don't intend to use the App for a while you can also delete all stored images using the Settings page. But once you start using the App again those images will be downloaded again.
    My current installation needs about 2MB for the database, 7MB for game banners and 0.4MB for avatar images. So disabling game images will save you some disk space. The full version is also about 2MB smaller than the free version because it doesn't include the Google Play Services (required for ads).
    How to get the price of the game?
  • There are two ways. First you can follow the Store Link on the game details page which opens the Steam Store in your browser. The second option is to fetch the pricing information via the menu on the game's detail page. The values you will see then are loaded directly from Steam and should be up to date. You will require an active internet connection for this.
    Why aren't all prices available?
  • The prices change quite often due to sales. That is why we decided not to provide prices which are bound to be wrong and preferred the solution where you have to load them manually.
    How to prevent network traffic?
  • If you want to reduce the network traffic you should update the libraries (users and games) while having a free WiFi connection. Afterwards either disable game images or go to the Game Search page which will download all images and store them on your device.
    Then searching for games or common games or browsing libraries will not require any internet connection. A connection will be used if you request pricing information or want to see the screenshots of a game.
    You should also not view screenshots or videos of games. Those are always downloaded and never stored on the device.
    Future versions will allow for a more detailed traffic control.
    Will the screenshots be stored on my device?
  • The thumbnail/previews of the screenshots will be buffered on the phone but not stored on any physical media. So when you quit the application (or your device runs out of memory) they will be removed and downloaded again if required.
    Is there any way to store those screenshots on your phone so that I can use them?
  • Yes, you can save screenshots to your device or use them as background image and so on. Due to the size of the images their might be some problems with that one some devices but we are working on that.
    Can I watch screenshots which I (or my friends) made?
  • That is not (yet) possible. We are not aware of a way to access these.
    You mentioned videos?
  • Most games have marketing videos which are also displayed on the Store Page. Those can be viewed with PlayWith through the game details page. Some videos might not be in a format that is supported by PlayWith but most should work.
    How can I give feedback?
  • As every PlayWith user is also a Steam user the easiest way is to post into Fellhuhn's Steam Group. If you encounter an error (like wrong info about a game) or have other problems or even want to say some kind words just come by. All users are welcome.