A developer pulled its horror drinking game's demo, afraid AI vibe coders would clone it

Alliance Arts was going to release a public Steam demo of Drunken Goddess Reflux on October 19, and then it canceled it. PC Gamer describes the game as a “shot glass Russian roulette” drinking game against an anime demon girl, and the studio said on X it will hold closed online play sessions for a limited number of participants instead.

The reason is what got my attention. As PC Gamer quoted the studio, “We’re concerned that the demo’s content 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 launch.” Twisted Voxel reported the team also concluded it lacked the resources to enforce the demo’s rules on posting and streaming gameplay footage.

The fear has some history behind it. PC Gamer pointed to a developer who shared her game prototype online in March and had it cloned within five hours, and to McPixel developer Sos Sosowski, who has shared examples on Bluesky of indie games copied almost instantly by AI cloners and released on Steam.

Kotaku’s Ethan Gach had a drier read. He wondered whether the studio simply decided Steam Next Fest was too crowded with junk demos and that it was easier to stand out by not offering one (“In that case, mission accomplished”), and he noted the game’s Steam page already had over 25,000 followers.

If you still want to play it, KeenGamer reports the playtest codes are handed out by lottery through the official Discord, with applications open until October 22 at 11 PM Japan time. Twisted Voxel says the game launches December 8 on Steam for Windows. If you make games yourself, PC Gamer’s point cuts both ways: sharing an idea early is one of the best ways to build a community, and it’s also the moment a copycat sees it.

Now even the demo is a secret.