Indie Developers Wary of Sharing Early Work as AI Cloning Speeds Up

Indie developers are growing reluctant to show their games early, worried that AI tools can now replicate a concept before the original even launches.

Alliance Arts delayed the public demo of its demon-themed Russian Roulette drinking game Drunken Goddess Reflex, which had been set to go live with Steam Next Fest. In a social media post Friday evening, the team said that beyond managing streaming restrictions, "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 our launch." The demo will now be shared only in "closed sessions" with players who agree to rules on posting and streaming gameplay.

Others share the caution. Papers, Please developer Lucas Pope said on an April podcast that "you don't really talk about stuff when you're working on it because I don't know it's going to get slurped up by AI or people are going to copy it or something else like that."

The worry has been concrete for some. In March, developer Freya Holmér posted a video of a Tetris-style prototype played on a central rotating pivot point. Days later, vibe-coded copies of the concept were widely playable before Holmér could release her own version.