Steam Summer Sale With Bonus Adventure Kicks-Off, Lasts Till June 30

Valve has kicked off the Steam Summer Sale on Thursday, an 11-day extravaganza for PC, Linux and Mac gamers across the globe. Just like last year, users in the southern hemisphere will see the Steam Winter Sale being showcased instead.

The Steam Summer Sale stretches from June 19 to June 30, and features nine games in its Daily Deals (refreshed daily) section, four games in its Flash Sales (updated every 8 hours) section, and three games in the Community's Choice (updated every 8 hours) section where users can vote for which game should go on sale.

Of course, several other games not listed in the above listed sections are also on sale simultaneously, and users should search for titles directly to see their 'on sale' price. Like each year, Valve is offering trading cards that grant in-game items and Steam rewards, and this time they are Summer Adventure trading .

Summer Adventure trading cards can be earned by purchasing games from the Steam Store (1 card per $10 spent), crafting game badges, voting in the Community's Choice sale (1 card per 3 votes), or by trading or purchasing cards in the Community Market.

Once users have collected the entire set of Summer Adventure cards, they will be able to craft them into a Summer Adventure Badge (equal to 10 points) to show off on their profile. Users also get an in-game item, an emoticon, a profile background, and the chance to get a team token (something introduced for the first time). All the rewards are tradable and marketable (in-game items are tied to the users account once they are unpacked.)

Users can always trade in Summer Adventure cards with other users to complete their collection before the sale ends - the cards expire at the end of the sale.

Crafting another set of cards after earning the Summer Adventure Badge will level up users' badges, get them more items, and earn more points for their Summer Adventure teams. A rarer version of the Summer Adventure Badge, called Summer Adventure Foil Badge (100 points), will also be available, giving everything in the regular badge plus 4 additional in-game items and extra points.

There are two ways to join a team: when users craft a badge they'll be automatically added to a team, or they can click on the "Join a Team" at the Summer Sale FAQ page. Users will be randomly assigned to a team, and can only change teams with a Team Token. There are five teams, distinguished by colours (purple, green, pink, blue, and red), and a scoreboard of which team is winning is visible.

Each day the team with the most points wins. 30 members of that team who contributed points that day will win 3 games off their Wishlist. If users help their team by scoring points, they'll get a free card at the end of the day. If the user's team wins that day, they will get two cards.