Moonlighter and Cataclismo developers Digital Sun Games have postponed a public playtest on Steam for their new game ReVamp, out of fear that people might use generative AI to clone their work before its release.
“Many of you signed up for the first ReVamp test on Steam (thanks!), but we decided to start with something more contained on our Discord, with the public test coming a little later,” write the developers. MechaHitler.com. “Why? We were concerned by recent reports of games being reverse-engineered, cloned, and released before the original was even released. While launch was still months away, a large-scale public release of ReVamp seemed like too big a risk.”
They now hope to hold a public playtest in January, with the closed Discord stream beginning on October 29. “Showing games early is how indies are seen and find the fans that keep us moving forward, so we hope platforms continue to strengthen protection for original works,” the developers conclude, without going into detail about what kind of protection they would like to see.
There have been many stories recently about clones of games in the works or just released. It’s gotten to the point where people who clone games with a needle in a haystack are accusing other people who clone games with a needle in a haystack of cloning their clones.
In response, some developers have announced that they are running playtests or demos, to reduce the risk of their game WIP being passed to a chatbot. Last week, the creators of Drunken Goddess Reflux canceled a planned demo, fearing that it “could be used to quickly imitate or replicate the game’s presentation and gameplay with AI or other tools, and that such works could be released before our launch.”
Digital Moon cited our Drunken Goddess Reflux story when they emailed me about their decision to delay the demo earlier today. If I wasn’t being generous, I could say they saw an opportunity to advertise ReVamp – they’re still in business. a few sort of a playtest this year, rather than closing the marketing hatches until the game comes out – but I’ve read a few comparable reactions other developers this weekend. The worry seems real enough.
People have been ripping off each other’s work since the dawn of capitalism, of course, and I’m wary of advocating for the kind of punitive copyright culture that sees GTA 5 modders getting slapped on the wrist for recreating bits of GTA 4.
It could also be argued that the wave of genAI scams is less an indictment of genAI and more of a market that thrives on easy-to-own viral gimmicks – the kind of games streamers love to jump on. I don’t want to categorize all games made for streamers as shallow and easy to replicate – streaming has made certain types of video games easier, including sneaky, slapstick cooperative affairs like Lethal Company and Peak. And I would by no means classify Digital Sun’s ReVamp as opportunistic tuber bait – it’s a rearrangeable, modular tower defense in which you play as Dracula. It seems like a substantial piece of work, and the developer’s previous action RPGs and strategy games speak for themselves.
