ASCII Survivors: A Nexon Veteran Goes Solo With a Game Made of Letters
Twelve years at Redduck, NC and Nexon, then a Vampire Survivors-style game built in about six weeks, in Godot, out of text characters. One developer's honest experiment, including where AI helped and where it backfired.
Every enemy is a letter. Every bullet is a symbol. Every explosion is a burst of punctuation on a fake CRT screen. ASCII Survivors is a survivor-like roguelite, the genre made famous by Vampire Survivors, in which all visuals are drawn in ASCII text characters. It is also the first solo game from Kim Ju-seok, a developer who spent about 12 years inside some of Korea's biggest game companies.
ASCII Survivors launched on Steam on 1 May 2026 for $5.99. Kim, who works as a sole proprietor under the name IndigoVortex, calls it more of an experiment than a commercial bet, and says openly that it may not have sold many copies. That honesty is exactly what makes his story worth hearing.
From big studios to one desk
Kim's résumé reads like a tour of the Korean industry. He started as a level designer at Redduck, then worked at Nexon GT and NC, and spent a long stretch at Nexon Korea, where he also interviewed new hires. He briefly joined Nexon Games before going solo, leaving Nexon early in 2025. He studied urban planning at university, which he says still shapes how he designs spaces in games.
After most of a career in Unreal Engine, he built ASCII Survivors in Godot, the free open-source engine. Pure development took about one and a half months, or about three months including the Steam launch.
What is in the game?
For a $5.99 game made in a few weeks, there is a lot:
- 8 characters and 16 weapons.
- 6 enchantments and 15 passive skills.
- 4 game modes, including a 10-minute survival mode, an endless mode and challenge modes.
- 3 maps, a Meta Shop for permanent upgrades and 35 achievements.
It also includes adjustable difficulty and photosensitivity toggles, a thoughtful choice for a game whose screens fill with flashing characters.
AI: useful, and complicated
Kim used AI in a specific, limited way. He built an AI-assisted tool to simulate 8-bit sounds, then edited the output by hand to create sound effects. The Steam page states that some music and sound effects were generated using AI tools and then manually edited and refined by the developer. He says AI also sped up iteration and testing ideas.
But disclosure has a cost. When he tried to promote the game on Reddit, a moderator rejected the post because AI had been involved "in any way", even though he says he did not use generative AI directly for the game's art or design. His conclusion: consumer feelings about AI vary hugely, and developers should expect that.
Why it matters
Korea's indie boom is not only students and start-ups. It also includes veterans leaving big studios to make small, personal games, often for the first time in their careers. WGC's take: ASCII Survivors is not a hit, and it does not pretend to be. It is something just as useful: a transparent case study of how fast one experienced developer can ship a complete game with a free engine, and what happens when he is honest about his tools. Developers leaving big studios should also read our Dark and Darker explainer on what you can and cannot take with you.
How to play
- Platform: PC via Steam.
- Price: $5.99.
- Good for: short sessions, fans of survivor-likes and anyone who misses terminal-style graphics.