We’re drowning in shit. Steam Subsequent Fest, which kicks off tomorrow, at present has 8,011 matches on its press preview touchdown web page. That is roughly double the quantity of demos featured in Steam’s June 2026 Subsequent Fest. In June 2022, Subsequent Fest boasted simply over a thousand demos.
The overwhelming majority of those demos will likely be meritless slop. And I daresay lots of them—although I’ve no solution to affirm—did not exist as ideas earlier than October.
When you use social media, particularly X, you’ve got most likely observed an explosion of horrible clones and vibe coded mash-ups this month. You may largely thank Anthropic’s new 5.5 replace to its Claude Opus mannequin for that, which provides huge effectivity positive factors for vibe coders. It is also been broadly used to decompile business video games and, possibly most famously, jailbreak the PS5.
It undoubtedly seems like we have crossed a threshold this month. On October 10, the creator of Escape the Partitions, an incremental punching sport which itself makes use of AI to “improve the velocity of making the sport”, posted in-progress footage from the sport on X.
Prophetically, a person replied: “You will have precisely 7 hours earlier than somebody makes this on Roblox and will get 20x your income”.
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Proper now, on October 19, there are at the very least seven Roblox clones of Escape the Partitions. A competing studio had the audacity to tweet their very own clone to the unique sport’s creator. “Our Steam web page is dwell too!” they posted. “Nothing mistaken with pleasant competitors!”
Leaving apart the truth that Escape the Partitions is itself fairly crappy trying, the state of affairs highlights the perils of promoting impartial video games in an age the place a clone could be rotated in hours. To wit: as Rick Lane has already reported, the creators of Drunken Goddess Reflux, a “Russian roulette consuming survival” sport, has introduced it is going to now not publish its demo on Steam as deliberate.
“We’re involved that, based mostly on the content material of the demo, works imitating or replicating this sport’s presentation and gameplay may very well be rapidly produced utilizing AI or different instruments and launched forward of the sport’s launch,” a spokesperson for studio Alliance Arts Inc. wrote. The studio will as an alternative maintain closed surroundings play periods for individuals who learn and conform to a sequence of “participation necessities”.
Elsewhere NoGlyph, the creator of Needle In A Haystack, which is itself a speedy clone of Needle In A Haystack Simulator (see: haystack slop), has accused one more studio of copying their code in their very own clone. “Yesterday, on October 16 a sport known as A Sport About Needle In A Haystack by Little Discipline Studios got here out on Steam,” NoGlyph wrote. “It comprises code copied from our sport. To be clear, that is about our precise code, not an analogous concept or related mechanics.”
NoGlyph strikes on to supply additional proof that the offending studio pulled code instantly from their sport. “The haystack in our sport, which means the way it’s drawn, the way you dig into it and the way gold, lapis and diamond hay work, is one thing that took a very long time to get working correctly. Once we appeared by way of their sport’s information, we discovered 13 of our lessons inside it with the very same names. Greater than half of the features in that half match ours precisely. A few of our personal error messages are nonetheless in there phrase for phrase, together with one which factors to a shader from our undertaking that does not exist of their sport.”
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NoGlyph has filed a copyright discover with Valve.
Rattling, it positive could be a disgrace if impartial studios stopped releasing demos, or have been prevented from advertising their video games, as a result of talentless backside feeders have been rapidly flipping their concepts into monetizable slop!
Many have made the argument that AI is “good” as a result of it democratises specialised abilities and artwork types like music, writing, coding, artwork, and videogame improvement (which deploys all the aforementioned). However the place videogames are involved it hasn’t democratised something: it has simply emboldened hacks, philistines and rip-off retailers. Vibe coding a 20 minute blockbuster-looking videogame that resembles the Marvel / Star Wars / Fortnite universes, or vibe coding a Roblox clone of a viral indie, would not make you a videogame developer: if something, it demonstrates why you are not.
Forgive me, however I do not assume somebody who hasn’t dedicated time and thought to mastering these pursuits has a lot hope in producing one thing worthwhile with the help of AI. You could possibly make one thing that appears like one thing else, however you most likely do not have concepts. Spending years and years excited about your craft, being a practitioner, is what generates concepts. With out concepts, you’re simply enjoying with the costliest toy ever constructed.
Anybody who has made that moronic “democratising” declare has solely to have a look at Roblox and the good piles of nugatory slop on Steam to see the precise actuality. Steam’s discoverability algorithm will most likely hold the overwhelming majority of the 8,000+ Subsequent Fest demos out of the general public eye, however for people who do go viral, or discover an enthusiastic viewers, there are hordes of leeches able to rob you blind, utilising the identical expertise that is turning PC gaming right into a wealthy individual’s pastime.
High Steam video games by income (October 6 – 13)
Rank
Sport
1
Dota 2
2
Aion 2
3
Counter-Strike 2
4
Star Wars: Galactic Racer
5
FC 27
6
Steam Deck
7
Gears of Battle: E-Day
8
Threat of Rain 2
9
Arc Raiders
10
Threat of Rain 2: Hallowed Ideas
You realize it is a very boring week on Steam when Dota 2 takes first spot within the income chart. So nothing very attention-grabbing launched, then?
Properly, Star Wars: Galactic Racer did, proper on October 6, and got here in at quantity 4. Given how constructive opinions have been, and that it is Star Wars, I did kinda anticipate it to come back in at primary.
Gears of Battle managed to latch onto a high ten place after rating sixth final week throughout its first week on sale (it was accessible as a pre-order earlier than that). Threat of Rain 2 acquired an actually-decent replace and growth, therefore its look, and Steam Deck reanimates at quantity six: there will need to have been a inventory replenishment.
As for Aion 2, individuals proceed to probably not prefer it, based mostly on Steam person opinions, but it surely’s nonetheless making financial institution for NC anyway.
Final week’s Steam deep cuts
