Connecting a source

Steam

Hours in games count too. Toil is a record of time spent, not of time spent usefully, and an evening in a game is as real as an evening in a timesheet.

New here? Toiling Away turns recorded time into animals that live in a habitat of your own.

Two things to do

  1. Make Game details public. In Steam, open your profile -> Edit Profile -> Privacy Settings, and set Game details to Public. Steam will not tell anybody your playtime otherwise, including us. This is the setting that decides whether this works at all.
  2. Sign in through Steam. In Toiling Away, open Connections -> add Steam, and use the Sign in through Steam button. You type your password on Steam's own page; we never see it.

There is deliberately no box to type a Steam ID into. An ID is a claim rather than a proof. Typing one used to be enough, which meant anyone could connect a stranger's account and earn from their playtime. Signing in is what makes the account yours rather than merely named by you.

What you get to begin with

Roughly a month's worth, and it is an estimate: we double what Steam says you played in the last fortnight, and never credit more than you have played in total. So a quiet fortnight starts you small even on a large library.

That is not us being stingy; it is the most that can honestly be said. Steam reports how long you have played each game, and for the last two weeks, but not when any of it happened. Hours further back have no date attached, and toil is built out of when work happened, so there is nothing to place them against.

After that it is simple: new play counts as you do it, checked periodically rather than live.

Worth knowing

Overlaps are merged. An hour that Steam and another source both cover counts once. Playing a game while a work timer runs does not earn twice.

Turning Game details back to private stops it. Steam simply stops answering, and the connection has nothing to read. Toil already earned stays.

Steam is asked about your library on a schedule shared by everyone using Toiling Away, so it may take a little longer to notice a session than a timesheet would.

About Steam

Valve supplies the Steam Web API and its data as available and with faults. Toiling Away does not promise that the data is accurate, complete or uninterrupted. Valve and its suppliers are not responsible for any loss or damage arising from this app or its use of Steam data. Toiling Away is not endorsed by or affiliated with Valve. Visit Steam.