Drunken Goddess's Boozy Deception, a game inspired by Russian roulette, currently ranks 65th on the Steam Wishlist list according to SteamDB statistics. Its developer has canceled the planned public demo, largely due to fears that others might use AI to steal its creative concepts and rush out knockoff versions.
Developer and publisher Alliance Arts, known for the hit anime-style game #Funtime, announced on Steam that the public demo originally scheduled for release on October 19 has been canceled in favor of a more strictly regulated closed beta test.
Alliance Arts clarified that concerns over AI plagiarism were not the sole reason for this decision. The studio added, “We originally planned to release a public demo while imposing certain restrictions on gameplay recording and streaming, but ultimately concluded that we currently lack the ability to properly implement and enforce these restrictions.”
However, the studio's inability to control the spread of game content online has only heightened their concerns about AI. Alliance Arts stated, “We are worried that someone might use the demo content, along with AI or other tools, to quickly create works that mimic or replicate the art style and gameplay of our title, releasing them before the official launch.”
Recently, there has been a surge in AI-driven reverse engineering and remaking of games, a trend that has intensified especially after Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5. It was against this backdrop that the studio made this decision.
Replacing the public demo, the studio will “conduct online testing in a closed environment, open only to players who have read and agreed to the participation requirements and the rules for recording and streaming gameplay in advance.”
The low barrier to entry for AI tools has spurred a surge of copycat games profiting off others' creativity. While plagiarism and knockoffs are nothing new in the gaming industry, the advent of AI has significantly accelerated the speed at which these opportunistic developers can replicate games.
The Steam hit Chameleon Mech was quickly plagiarized by a game created using AI; amid this wave of knockoffs, highly anticipated unreleased titles like #Funtime have also seen one-to-one replicas appear on Steam.
Having interacted with many game developers and communities, I've found this concern becoming increasingly common. Even Lucas Pope, the indie veteran behind Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, refuses to discuss his next project, fearing it will be “copied by AI or plagiarized by others.”
The gameplay of Drunken Goddess's Boozy Deception doesn't resemble Papers, Please; instead, it reminds me of Buckshot Roulette. Set in a bar in hell, you sit across from an anime-style demon girl who “will die for you, but will also take your life.” Your goal is to drink cup after cup, trying to outdrink the demon. The Steam page features the tagline: “Survive the night, savor seven flavors of ruin.”