Steam Next Fest, many demos criticized for using generative AI
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
I'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/...
Our 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/...
Nada AI in Bibidi Bibidi! store.steampowered.com/app/3540660/...
100% human made with in-house digital art and audio store.steampowered.com/app/2533590/...
Oh, great idea! Proudly made without any gen AI assistance! ^^ store.steampowered.com/app/4132890/...
Thank you for this thread! I really despise AI, my game is all about celebrating human art! store.steampowered.com/app/3917260/...
I 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...
Torment Hexus is my match-3 roguelike! store.steampowered.com/app/3238420/...
Our incremental game is totally free of AI!
I've been feature-creeping this by hand long time before AI provoked a layoff in my company bsky.app/profile/cidw...
I hate that they stole the sparkle emoji from us, but I love that you used it for this.
Hey, 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/...
We'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/
Blows my mind Steam has the AI disclosure as mandatory but won't allow you to filter out AI garbage...
Our game is also free from AI Check out the demo! Bees from space plant flowers from orbit: store.steampowered.com/app/3462780/...
My comrade’s solo game needs a boost! ❤️ store.steampowered.com/app/4101700/...
Our puzzle game uses no AI, not even the NPC kind of AI. Truly AI free, there's no intelligence in there at all. s.team/a/4336520
yessir, only authentic so-retro-slop in this house bsky.app/profile/pd-c...
My Windows-inspired 3D platformer, Foldy's OS Quest! No AI used at any point during development. A digital world created by humans! :) store.steampowered.com/app/3532060/...
no AI in Revertices, its ALLLLL human freaks store.steampowered.com/app/3236560/...
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
I hate having to second-guess every new piece of art or media I encounter now.
I'm tired of AI slop poisoning every form of media imaginable. Someone NEEDS to end this madness istg
If 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
I really wish I could hit a fucking ignore button on an entire developer, and not just individual games If you try to sell me a game with GenAI, I don't want to buy ANY of your games, period
We put a Bass Reeves Can't Die easter egg in the Steam Next Fest demo for Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World--and the way we folded it in is one of my favorite things in the game. Wishlist the game and give it a try!! store.steampowered.com/app/3642010/...
Aw heck I remember you telling me about the Bass Reeves game, I’m kinda gutted it didn’t happen (Oblivion wheel of doom notwithstanding). Such an interesting guy, I hope you ‘circle’ back to him some day
Bass Reeves truly cannot die
bass reeves can't die can't die
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!
I 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
when the big tiddy moms are evil ( :10 ) www.youtube.com/watch?v=k30O...
I really wish we had a toggle that could just tag a game that uses AI off our steam lists, would really be helpful.
the 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.
my 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.
I 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
I 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.
I don't even get it Coding is fun. Figuring out difficult problems and shaders is fun. Drawing is fun. Spriting is fun. Putting original music someone made for you into the game is fun. Banging on pots or sifting through libraries and mangling them in in Audacity is fun. Why skip out on any of this?
I agree with the sentiment but to me the critique from the quality angle falls a bit short.The real problems are working conditions for artists and devs, the stealing of everyone’s data and the multiple disastrous environmental and economic consequences. These people are simply being irresponsible.
Help me brainstorm: what could @itch.io to help developers during Steam Next Fest?
wishlist 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
if 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
For 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
🦨 shopping cart feature so I can buy a bunch of $1 fonts in one go instead of separately
one william dollars for every dev
Email notifications for wishlisted games when they are being released (proper wishlist collection in addition to custom ones).
Just 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.
does itch have a good way to tag a game page or a download as a demo of an upcoming full-release game?
A structured calendar for major itch quarterly sales (sales run by yourselves). There are tracking sites for Steam's sales. Means I can plan my own sales on the site better. Also a way for customers to complete bundles if they have existing purchases. Steam does this as "complete your collection".