Digital Sun Games, the studio behind the popular roguelike Moonlighter, has decided against hosting a public playtest for its next game, ReVamp. The decision stems from growing concerns within the development community about the rapid cloning of game concepts, often facilitated by advancements in AI technologies.
Marketing manager Israel Mallén stated that with ReVamp still months away from its March 2027 release, allowing a large public build to circulate presents "too big a risk." He elaborated that the studio is aware that they are not alone in these concerns, suggesting that increased discussion might prompt platforms to take action.
The studio's public announcement on X was direct, referencing recent instances of games being reverse-engineered, cloned, and published before the original titles have even launched. This fear of pre-release duplication led to the cancellation of a public playtest for ReVamp.
This move follows a similar decision by the studio behind Drunken Goddess Reflux, which canceled its participation in Steam Next Fest. That studio expressed similar anxieties, fearing that a public demo could be used to quickly replicate the game's presentation and gameplay using AI or other tools, potentially leading to clones being released before the original game.
The recent release of AI models like Claude Opus 5.5 has been noted as a significant disruptor in the games industry. These tools have reportedly aided in game decompilations, facilitated the jailbreaking of consoles, and, crucially, made the creation of quick, derivative clones significantly easier. This trend may be reflected in the substantial increase in demos available during Steam Next Fest, which featured over 8,000 titles, a marked rise from previous iterations.
The speed at which game clones can now be produced is described as