Steam
Hyper Shards on Steam?
Hyper Shards starts on our website. But many PC players buy all their games in one place: Steam, the biggest store for PC games.
If players love Hyper Shards on the web, Steam could be our next channel. So what would it take?
Steamworks and Steam Direct
Steamworks is Valve's set of tools for developers. Joining means signing Valve's distribution agreement, proving identity, and filling in bank and tax forms, so a parent signs up for the company while you get the game ready.
Then we pay the Steam Direct fee: US$100 for each game. It works like a deposit. Once the game earns US$1,000, Valve gives the fee back. Steam also keeps a share of each sale, usually 30% at the time of writing.
Players can ask Steam for a refund for any reason within 14 days of buying, if they have played less than 2 hours. A refunded sale comes back out of our earnings.
Quick check
When does Valve give back the US$100 Steam Direct fee?
- After 100 downloads
- After the game earns US$1,000
- Never
Show the answer
After the game earns US$1,000
The fee is paid back once the game has earned US$1,000. It stops people flooding the store with junk: real games get their money back, junk usually doesn't.
A "coming soon" page
Long before launch, we publish a coming soon store page with screenshots, a trailer and a short description. Players can't buy the game yet, but they can click Add to your wishlist.
Steam asks for this page to be up for at least two weeks before release. Smart studios put it up months earlier.
Why wishlists matter
- A promise listEach wishlist is a player saying: tell me when this is out.
- Launch day alertSteam lets wishlisters know when the game launches, and when it goes on sale.
- A strong startWishlists turn into launch-week sales, and good sales help Steam show the game to even more players.
Wishlist math
Hyper Shards has 3,000 wishlists and costs US$5. My guess: about 1 in 10 wishlisters buy in launch week.
Using Kai's guess, roughly how much would launch-week sales add up to, before Steam's share?
- US$150
- US$1,500
- US$15,000
Show the answer
US$1,500
3,000 divided by 10 is 300 sales, and 300 times US$5 is US$1,500. After Steam keeps 30%, about US$1,050 is left. Real ratios vary a lot, so treat it as a guess, not a promise.
A desktop wrapper
Steam sells PC apps, not websites. A desktop wrapper like Tauri packs our web game into a real app for Windows, Mac or Linux.
It works like CapacitorJS, the wrapper that turns a web game into a phone app: a built-in web view runs our same code. Tauri apps stay small because they use the web view already on the computer. Another popular wrapper is Electron.
Steam extras
- AchievementsBadges like "Clear wave 50 without getting hit". Players love collecting them.
- Steam Cloud savesSteam can sync save files between a player's computers.
- Steam DeckValve's handheld gaming PC. Games that play well with its buttons and screen can earn a "Verified" badge, so controller support matters.
Quick check
Which tool could turn the Hyper Shards web game into a PC app for Steam?
- A service worker
- A domain name
- A desktop wrapper like Tauri
Show the answer
A desktop wrapper like Tauri
A desktop wrapper packs the web game into a real Windows, Mac or Linux app, which is what Steam sells.
Web first, Steam later
Our plan: launch Hyper Shards as a PWA, listen to players and polish. If players love it, a Steam page full of wishlists is the next big step.
Bolt says: One channel is even harder to get into than Steam. Next up: consoles.
Fact-checked 9 October 2026
- Steamworks: Steam Direct partner.steamgames.com
- Steamworks: Coming Soon pages partner.steamgames.com
- Steam Refunds store.steampowered.com