Drunken Goddess Reflux Developers Pull Steam Next Fest Demo Amid Fears of AI Cloning

Yesterday at 19:48 Comment Views: 1

Drunken Goddess Reflux is an upcoming indie title that challenges players to outlast an evening of drinking with an alluring anime demon, in the spirit of Russian Roulette. The premise is certainly offbeat, and it has already drawn more than 25,000 wishlists on Steam. A demo was originally planned for Steam Next Fest. At the last minute, however, the developers scrapped it so the game wouldn’t set off a flood of clones built with generative AI.

Drunken Goddess Reflux developers withdraw from Steam Next Fest and offer a closed demo to a select group of players

Steam Next Fest runs from Monday, Oct. 19, through Oct. 26. During this weeklong showcase, developers release demos of their upcoming games. The event is a valuable one: players get to sample a wide range of titles for free, while studios gain exposure and collect wishlists on Steam.

Alliance Arts and Who You had planned to release a Drunken Goddess Reflux demo for Steam Next Fest on Oct. 19. Only a few days before the festival, though, Alliance Arts abruptly changed course. On X, the studio apologized to fans who were looking forward to the demo and gave two reasons for the decision.

The first was that it would have no way of verifying whether gameplay footage and streams complied with its publishing restrictions. The second was its concern that a public demo would let others rapidly assemble imitations with generative AI.

Change to the Demo Release Plan for Drunken Goddess Reflux. We’ve canceled the public demo planned for Monday, October 19. Instead, we’ll hold closed online play sessions for a limited number of participants.

— Alliance Arts (@AllianceArtsEN) October 16, 2026

AI’s role in the games industry is a growing source of unease for developers and players alike. The technology may speed up development and boost efficiency, but AI tools and vibe coding also make it far easier to churn out clones. If that happened with this demo, the creators of those knockoffs could conceivably finish and publish their versions before Drunken Goddess Reflux ever reaches the public, which could damage its prospects at launch.

Fortunately, players aren’t shut out of trying the game ahead of release. Anyone interested can submit an application for the closed test sessions on Who You’s official Discord server. Drunken Goddess Reflux is scheduled to launch on Dec. 8.