Steam has become as synonymous with gaming as I am to the local pub in a specific seat at a specific time (such as right now). And for those not in the know, there's a backended Steam Client Beta that is constantly seeing new updates and implementations of ideas and community wants or tweaks from feedback on existing features.

Overnight Valve announced a host of recent chages to the beta platform it wants punters to check out and offer more feedback on.

You can sign-up to take place in the program right here as well as learn, more in-depth, what the new changes are, but here's an overview. And this is all stuff in line to eventually be intergrated into the main client proper:

Today we're shipping a significant update to Steam Client Beta, with new features and improvements to the Steam Desktop experience. This includes:

• Overhaul of the In-Game Overlay, with an updated design and new features
  
• New Notes app, saved per-game; accessible in-game or out
  
• Steam Client notifications that are now richer and more useful
  
• The screenshot manager has been completely refreshed with new functionality

In addition to these features, a good portion of the work we did in this update went into significant improvements under-the-hood, including changes to how we share code across Steam Desktop, Steam Deck, and Big Picture Mode.

I think the one I'm most excited for is the updates to the screenshot manager, as someone who loves a bit of screenshot artistry.

Now, Valve, about that Steam Deck coming to Australia question...