Example · fictional person · live site

A wuxia game, from a childhood wish to a Steam page.

Chen tests software by day and makes his first game at night. He needed players to find it, wishlist it and try it. This is what Mo's crew made, and what Steam still needed from him.

Portrait of Chen Yu, a fictional QA engineer and game maker

Chen Yu 陈宇

QA engineer making his first game at night · Chengdu

“Since I was a kid I wanted to play the wuxia game nobody made. I want it on Steam, with my name on it.”

Visit ninerivers.molby.app Play the duel, with sound

The need

What Chen wanted.

Chen had a world: nine martial schools on nine rivers, and an apprentice who inherits a dead master's secrets. He had a fight idea he'd sketched for years: read a foe's stance, strike what it can't guard, break it. And he had half-finished pixel art nobody had seen.

He wanted three things before the game was done: a site that looks and sounds like the game, a Steam page that makes people press Wishlist, and something people can actually play. The game itself is Chen's. Molby made everything around it.

Idea cardDone

One line: A turn-based wuxia RPG painted in pixels and ink.
For: Players of story-driven RPGs, wuxia fans, press and streamers.
Money: Sold on Steam. Early Access in 2027.
Must have: A site in the game's styleSteam page artPress kitA playable taste of combat
Not now: Console ports · a mobile version

Stage by stage

What Molby delivered, and what Chen decided.

Seven stages, one crew. Chen talked, looked and decided; the specialists did the rest. How the stages work

1 · Idea · Mo

One sentence, nine rivers.

Mo asked who the game is for, what makes it different, and what “done” means before launch. The answers became the idea card above.

ChenMake people want to play it before it exists.
2 · Research · Researcher

Where a first game gets noticed.

Researcher looked at how small RPGs find players on Steam, what similar games charge, and what players say they miss in wuxia games.
- Verdict: Worth building, with a narrower start: lead with the combat
- For a first Steam launch, wishlists before release matter most
- Steam's rules: a Coming Soon page at least two weeks before release
ChenLead with the stance-break duel, not the story.
3 · Prototype · Designer

Pixel night, jade and vermilion.

Designer offered three directions. Chen chose Pixel night: jade on night blue, vermilion for danger, pixel type with a Chinese pixel font to match. The prototype covered the home page, the river map, the duel, the devlog and the press kit.
- Logo, Steam capsule art and a colour system
- Every page in English, with Chinese where the game uses it
ChenPixel night, with the old ferryman's line on the first screen.
4 · Test · User researcher

Players tried the duel before it was polished.

Testers opened one link, played, and left notes on the screen. Mo asked each one where they got stuck.
- It wasn't clear which forms a stance can't guard, so weak points now light up
- The river map needed names in both English and Chinese
- On phones, the Wishlist button sat below the fold
ChenShip all three.
5 · Build · Engineer & QA

A site that plays.

Engineer built the site and the duel; QA tested both on phone and desktop.
- The game site, the nine-river map and a devlog
- A stance-break duel in the browser, with music, river ambience, sound effects and the ferryman's voice behind a Sound switch
- Steam capsule and header art at Steam's sizes
- A press kit: fact sheet, logos, screenshots and contact
ChenPlayed the duel on his phone at midnight and signed off.
6 · Launch · Launch

Live on the web. Steam needs Chen.

The site went live straight away. The Steam page needed Chen himself, so Launch turned it into a short checklist and kept track of it.
- ninerivers.molby.app with SSL
- Store page text and art, ready to paste into Steamworks
- A step-by-step Steam checklist with the dates worked out
ChenPaid the Steam fee and put the Coming Soon page up. Early Access is planned for 2027.
7 · Grow · Analyst

Wishlists, devlog readers, press.

Analyst's weekly note: which devlog post brought wishlists, which outlets opened the press kit, and when to post next.

ChenWrite the next devlog about the duel.

What's live

Open it. It works.

Everything below is on ninerivers.molby.app right now. Play the duel, with sound

ninerivers.molby.app

Home. Key art, the ferryman's line and Wishlist on Steam, first thing.

The Nine Rivers site on a phone. — **On a phone.** The same night sky, one column.

The river map: nine rivers from Jade Creek to the Nameless River, each with its school. — **The river map.** Nine rivers, nine schools, named in English and Chinese.

The stance-break duel: a bandit chief's stance and six martial forms to choose from. — **The duel.** Read the stance, pick a form, break it. Turn the sound on for music and the ferryman's voice.

For your own

What it would take for you.

The same split as Chen's: most of it is done for you, a few things are one tap, and a few need you in person.

We handle it5

Game site and hosting

Store page art at Steam's sizes

Store page text

Press kit

A playable web demo

One tap from you2

Approve the store pageTap

Press Launch for the siteTap

Needs you in person3

Steamworks accountIn your name, with an identity check.

Steam Direct fee$100 per game, paid back after $1,000 in sales.

Bank and tax formsSo Steam can pay you.

Steam's timings are Valve's rules: the first release can't come sooner than 30 days after paying the fee, and the Coming Soon page has to be public for at least two weeks (Steam Direct). Molby makes the site, the art and the demo; the game build itself is yours.

Chen Yu and Nine Rivers are fictional, and ninerivers.molby.app is an example, so it's kept out of search results on purpose.