Steam Indie Connect: Valve Met 60 Korean Indie Teams; ABYSS CHRONICLES
At Steam Indie Connect in Seoul, three Valve Steam staff met 60 Korean indie studios. The three questions developers asked Valve, and the deep-sea action RPG ABYSS CHRONICLES that drew attention there, with scenes from the game.
A line of English appeared on the screen at the venue: shall we make a heart with our fingers? Under the on-screen faces of three Valve staff, attendees raised finger hearts. It was Tuesday, October 27, at Ground B near Samseong Station in Seoul.
This was Steam Indie Connect, where Valve's Steam team met Korean indie studios in person. About 380 applied and only 60 selected studios got in. Valve brought data on the Korean market, developers asked how games get shown on Steam, and among the games introduced that day, the deep-sea action RPG ABYSS CHRONICLES caught attendees' eyes.
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Three Valve staff came to Seoul. What did 60 teams hear?
Three people flew in from Valve headquarters: Tom Giardino, who has spent 14 years helping developers use Steam's tools; Marc Wilkinson, who handles how games are shown and recommended; and Matthew An of the Localization team, who has led Steam's 30-language service for 16 years. The event was co-hosted by the Busan Indie Connect Festival organizing committee (BIC) and the Korea Creative Content Agency.
It ran in three acts. First, a Steam Update session showed in numbers how the Korean market has grown on Steam and how Korean games have performed, along with advice by release timeline and a new Achievements feature still in beta. Second, a Q&A where developers took the microphone. Third, one-on-one networking with the Valve staff. Each of the three Valve staff had a dedicated interpreter, and developers got direct feedback on launch strategy, marketing and localization. The event was also streamed online with simultaneous interpretation.
Steam by the numbers: the market 380 applied to reach
There is no single reason about 380 indie developers applied, but the numbers show how big the stage is. On October 11, Steam hit a new all-time high of 43,505,724 concurrent users (tracked by SteamDB), with about 14.5 million of them in a game at that moment.
The money is big too. GameDiscoverCo, a game-market newsletter, estimated Steam's total 2025 revenue at about $16.9 billion. In its 2025 year in review, Valve said an average of 76% of non-Valve game revenue was paid out to developers. That year 5,863 games earned over $100,000 on Steam, and developer revenue from Daily Deal spots rose 274% year over year. It is a place where even a small team can stand in front of the world with one store page, a backdrop to why 60 Korean indie teams wanted to sit down with Valve.
Open full-size visual ↗What developers wanted to ask Valve, and the one players can move
In the Q&A, developers asked about three main things. How much do wishlists and custom calendars affect a game's visibility, and how will that change? When AI-made copycats flood in, how does Steam protect the original developer? When sales concentrate in one country even after adding languages, how can a game gain visibility elsewhere?
Of these, wishlists are the one players can move themselves. A wishlist count is widely seen as a key measure of the interest an indie game draws before launch. The single button you press on a store page tells developers that someone is waiting. If you find an indie game you want to wait for, wishlisting it is a way to help its developers.
Open full-size visual ↗The deep-sea action game that caught the eye: what is ABYSS CHRONICLES?
ABYSS CHRONICLES is a side-scrolling hack-and-slash action RPG set in the dark deep sea. You pick one of six races with different gear and growth, then descend into a sunken kingdom. You cut through monster hordes, collect legendary equipment, read enemy attack telegraphs to dodge them, and finally face giant bosses in the abyss.
The scene below is the Hook King. The giant boss fills the screen and flags its next strike with a fan of light, and divers have to read that warning and get out. The next is the Pearl Queen, seated on a giant shell with her attendants. It is developed and published by ZOOPITER Soft Corp., tagged Action, Indie and RPG, and made for Windows PC.
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Open full-size visual ↗The developer's first-year target: KRW 4 billion
The developer's first-year target is KRW 4 billion in player payments. Its internal revenue model puts the base case at KRW 20 million to 600 million, and up to KRW 1.58 billion if creator videos spark word of mouth after launch.
The target sits above both scenarios, which shows how much rides on the reviews and word of mouth after launch, and on wishlists before it.
Open full-size visual ↗Want to see it yourself? Two things you can do now
ABYSS CHRONICLES is listed on Steam as coming soon. Wishlist it and Steam will notify you at launch and when it goes on sale.
Development news appears first on the official Discord server before launch.
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Sources and verification notes
- 루리웹 — BIC 조직위, Steam Indie Connect 지난 27일 종료 (2026-10-28) ↗Checked 2026-11-02
What this source supports
- Three Valve staff came to Seoul. What did 60 teams hear?
- What developers wanted to ask Valve, and the one players can move
- 아이러브PC방 — BIC 조직위, 스팀 인디 커넥트 성료 (2026-10-28) ↗Checked 2026-11-02
What this source supports
- Three Valve staff came to Seoul. What did 60 teams hear?
- What developers wanted to ask Valve, and the one players can move
- 스팀 상점 — ABYSS CHRONICLES ↗Checked 2026-11-02
What this source supports
- The deep-sea action game that caught the eye: what is ABYSS CHRONICLES?
- The developer's first-year target: KRW 4 billion
- Want to see it yourself? Two things you can do now
- Game Developer — Valve says 5,863 titles earned over $100,000 on Steam in 2025 (2026-03-11) ↗Checked 2026-11-03
What this source supports
- Steam by the numbers: the market 380 applied to reach
- GameDiscoverCo — Revealed: the numbers behind Steam’s 24% cut in 2025 (2026-03-24) ↗Checked 2026-11-03
What this source supports
- Steam by the numbers: the market 380 applied to reach
- Tech Insider — Steam 43.5 million concurrent users record (2026-10-14) ↗Checked 2026-11-03
What this source supports
- Steam by the numbers: the market 380 applied to reach