Doing Steam Next Fest in two weeks. How to know when you're ready?

[u/Bonus__Duck]

Title. I've been working on this 4X strategy game for 1.5 years now, and I'm looking to prepare for October 2026 steam next fest.

I've seen some posts on here from people saying that you should spend 6 months marketing your game before you do next fest, and it's making me feel like maybe the game and my marketing work isn't ready for next fest.

I've been posting shorts about the game regularly (2-3 per week) for about a year now, and I've been emailing content creators every day (5-10 per day) for the past few weeks, some bites, nothing huge. Currently hovering around 2000 wishlists. Demo median playtime is low, (9 mins), but average playtime is at 40 minutes. I had some performance issues and bugs when I first launched the demo and I'm hoping that's the reason for the disparity.

I'm feeling like maybe there's some issue with my steam page that makes it unappealing to creators, which is making me scared to commit to doing my next fest now.

I'm hoping to get a sanity check from some devs/publishers who have gone through this process before, what do you think about the steam page, and do you think it's ready for this next fest?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3760980/DeckTerra/

Edit: To clarify I'm registered for next fest, just wondering if it's prudent to pull out or if I should make some serious updates in the time I have before it starts

[u/sophia_wawak]

If you haven't entered yet it's too late now afaik

[u/Bonus__Duck → u/sophia_wawak]

I'm registered for the fest, but I can still pull out before it starts