Steam Next Fest, many demos criticized for using generative AI
Steam Next Fest is live through June 22, and many demo store pages now include developer disclosures that certain visuals, audio, or gameplay algorithms were produced with generative AI. Notable demos available during the festival include We Were Here Tomorrow, Sludgineers, DENARI, Enigma Heart, and Hexiv, with some pages explicitly listing which assets used AI. That change matters because discovery and trust affect indie publishers and players alike: shoppers may treat AI-made art or sound differently, and developers must decide whether disclosure, curation, or different marketing will influence demo play rates and wishlists.
Taking part in Next Fest? Making games with ZERO AI? Drop your games in the comments! I'll RT my favs! Looking for No AI games? Check this thread out! Only human made! No AI art, audio, translations and code allowed! #SteamNextFest #ZeroAI
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️Ratttz🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈11Our upcoming pvp puzzle game is all handmade! Puzzle Touchdown is all about making chains, blocking your opponent, and risking penalties and fumbles while going for the B I G P L A Y! store.steampowered.com/app/4648890/...
Sos "Wishlist Lazy Kickers" Sosowski9I'll plug in my game as well! Lazy Kickers is made by me from scratch including the engine! Zero AI used whatsoever! store.steampowered.com/app/4613890/...
Indiana-Jonas6Nada AI in Bibidi Bibidi! store.steampowered.com/app/3540660/...
Desktop Explorer 💾 Demo Out on Steam!4100% human made with in-house digital art and audio store.steampowered.com/app/2533590/...
Carrot 🥕3I just released my demo for Next Fest! Nothing but my own human arm drawing and writing for five years until my wrist just about gave out hahaha bsky.app/profile/just...
Ted Martens3I hate that they stole the sparkle emoji from us, but I love that you used it for this.
APirateHat🎨Portrait Painter🖌️ DEMO OUT NOW3Thank you for this thread! I really despise AI, my game is all about celebrating human art! store.steampowered.com/app/3917260/...
DOPAMINER 💎 - Wishlist on Steam!3Our incremental game is totally free of AI!
Cidwel - DX Legends2I've been feature-creeping this by hand long time before AI provoked a layoff in my company bsky.app/profile/cidw...
Yin2We're making DekaDuck with zero AI, it's all hand-drawn by a single artist, and programmed by a single programmer (me!) https://store.steampowered.com/app/3715040/DekaDuck/
Chris Weisiger2Torment Hexus is my match-3 roguelike! store.steampowered.com/app/3238420/...
WildArts Games2Oh, great idea! Proudly made without any gen AI assistance! ^^ store.steampowered.com/app/4132890/...
Joel2Hey, that’s me! Solo dev here and completely AI-free at all levels! And the demo is out now for Next Fest! No AI and toppling tyrants - what more could you want? store.steampowered.com/app/4464400/...
Have a gander at the steam next fest Hm this game has a cool art style let's have a look "This game uses AI generation for certain visuals, sounds, or algorithms" I'm tired boss
ThatPossessionGuy16I hate having to second-guess every new piece of art or media I encounter now.
Tangy778I'm tired of AI slop poisoning every form of media imaginable. Someone NEEDS to end this madness istg
Tangy772If y'all want a recommendation for a good indie demo, I recommend Pathogenic. It's a twin stick shooter roguelike where you play as a parasite and fight against a human's immune system
A lot of doom and gloom about the industry thanks to Xbox, but Steam Next Fest is here to make sure you know gaming is BACK, baby!
☆「ＹＡＳＥ」IdolismJ ☆15I can't even be mad. It's my fault I jacked up my Steam recommendations by playing a bunch of dating sims and shit. I need to play some normal games I can be recommended normal game and then maybe view Steam in public again
erin plasma4when the big tiddy moms are evil ( :10 ) www.youtube.com/watch?v=k30O...
Barantor4I really wish we had a toggle that could just tag a game that uses AI off our steam lists, would really be helpful.
arcanealchemist.bsky.social2the amount of shameless AI generated cover art. at least I know what games to avoid
Every small indie dev who uses AI art on their steam game, and steam capsules should now go on steam next fest to check the top charts of the fest and see how much ai crap is there. Then think long and hard if you're not shooting yourself in the foot by using that crap. The answer is pretty clear.
Lizzy11my immediate thought when i see ai thumbnails and capsules is that if they can't even be bothered to make a first impression, why would i ever be bothered to play it, let alone spend money on it? ethics of ai aside, using it is an advertisement that you're lazy and don't care about your thing.
Taaamas10I feel like the prevalence of AI in Indie Games is really not brought up enough compared to the prevalence in big AAA games. There's been SO many Indie Games I've seen go big and viral and all the while people gloss over the blatant AI art on the menu or textures throughout the game, or even voices
Polyducks5I saw a game which looked like dumb fun, but there was something off about it, like an asset flip vibe. I saw the AI disclaimer and reversed out of there so quick I almost clipped a pedestrian. It's giving half-assed and cheap, like boarding a ship via a plywood gangplank.
Help me brainstorm: what could @itch.io to help developers during Steam Next Fest?
cross couloir ☄️ Comet Angel on Steam17wishlist system. right now, releasing demos on itch ahead of the full game release is unhelpful, since you waste your page launch visibility bump on your demo. with no wishlists, there's no CTA for people on your page prior to full release, so you may as well just not page launch until release day
kc 💀 TRUE LOVE'S CURSE coming to steam!14if you mean to help itch devs who have games in next fest, an easier way to actually connect demos to a game page as well as better visibility for announcements on pages if you mean in general to help itch be more accessible to a player audience the way steam is, multilingual pages, please
leaf corcoran6For games currently participating in next fest on steam specifically, my impression is there's so many demos coming out that many devs have a hard time finding an audience and perhaps itchio could help
Power Cat's Mom5one william dollars for every dev
lowpolis4Email notifications for wishlisted games when they are being released (proper wishlist collection in addition to custom ones).
Drew Genel2does itch have a good way to tag a game page or a download as a demo of an upcoming full-release game?
Thomas Altenburger2Just a featuring of the demos that are also on itch would be nice. We haven't had a demo yet on itch, but I keep hearing that games that have a demo on both itch and steam end up with good synergies. I guess @dodoot.bsky.social might have some insights.
