This Developer Had to Cancel Their Demo Due To Fear of AI Copycats

Indie developer WHO YOU and publisher Alliance Arts have canceled the planned public demo for Drunken Goddess Reflux, and one of the reasons is really concerning for the future of indie game devs. They’re worried someone could use AI to copy the game and release an imitation before they do.

The demo was supposed to launch on Steam on October 19, but Alliance Arts announced that it would instead be replaced with a limited closed playtest.

The studio gave two main reasons. First, it had planned to restrict how players could stream or share footage from the demo, but decided it didn’t currently have the resources to properly enforce those rules.

The second reason is the more insidious one. Alliance Arts said it was concerned that “works imitating or replicating this game’s presentation and gameplay could be quickly produced using AI or other tools” and potentially released before Drunken Goddess Reflux itself launches.

For indie games with immediately recognizable hooks, AI might become a nightmare. Drunken Goddess Reflux is essentially Russian roulette with alcohol. You face a demon girl in a drinking contest where the goal is to make her vomit up her soul before she does the same to you. The full game is currently scheduled for December 8.

Instead of releasing the demo publicly, Alliance Arts will run a nine-day closed Steam playtest between October 23 and October 31, with players selected through a lottery.

The rules are unusually strict. Participants are forbidden from streaming gameplay, sharing spoilers outside the official Discord, making copies of the game, or even allowing AI systems to “train on or analyze” it.

This might sound like they’re going overboard, but the concern isn’t completely unfounded.

Small indie games have increasingly found themselves dealing with remarkably fast copycats. Needle in a Haystack had dozens of clones out on Steam before the game even launched based off just the short clip the developer posted on X. Meccha Chameleon has likewise been followed by multiple mobile games using its name and closely copying its paint-yourself-to-hide concept.

Whether AI is actually capable of producing a convincing Drunken Goddess Reflux competitor before December is a completely different question. However, the fact that an indie studio now considers that possibility serious enough to withhold a public demo entirely is arguably the bigger story.

Public demos are supposed to help smaller games find an audience and get back valuable user feedback. Developers being afraid that showing too much of their game could let somebody beat them to market is a pretty bleak reversal of that idea. We just hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.