Steam is filling up with clones. Nero isn't worried

STUDIO · NEWS · NERO'S TAKE

AI-made copies crowded October's Next Fest, and Valve has added a five-minute rule to its release checklist. Nero's reaction: more friends, and a new line in the ad budget.

A glowing card that says Our game, made with friends, below two rows of grey copies with names like Our Gaem and Our Game DX — Twenty-four copies and one original. Illustration: TZERØ.

October's Steam Next Fest was crowded: thousands of demos, and many players and developers said too many of them were low-effort AI games (GamesRadar). Some indie developers even said they'd been threatened: pay, or an AI clone of your game comes out first.

At Steam Indie Connect, Valve's Tom Giardino said clones have always existed and always will, and that a developer's best defence is community trust and regular updates (Game Developer).

SiriusGaming looks at the Next Fest numbers instead of the noise.

✦ The five-minute rule

Valve has also added to its release checklist. Before submitting a build, developers now have to launch their game through the Steam client and keep it running for at least five minutes. Reviews of new games can take up to 12 business days (HotHardware, Hypebeast). Valve hasn't said the rule is about AI, but that's how most of the press read it.

A play button on a screen next to a clock reading 5:00, with the words Run it. Keep it running. Then submit. — The five-minute rule, drawn. Illustration: TZERØ.

Nero's take is half hopeful, half practical:

Honestly, I trust quality naturally rises over background noise. It may help, though! I'm just worried this will make the publishing process clunkier, so I'm not sure it'll be all sunshine and roses.
— Nero

✦ Should a small studio worry about clones?

Nero answered “not really”, and then explained why, in a way only he could:

People have been cloning games since forever! We're a studio that is born with research and discovery in mind: there's no way one copy the flame in people's hearts. And, if they really manage to, then it means we have more friends! When it comes to games specifically, I guess they'll help extending our reach, and I'll file it under advertisement unforeseen expenses!
— Nero

Try it. Put our game on the shelf and let the copies pile up.

✦ And the slop?

One more twist. The heroes of Nero's Contrary Quest games are diligent geniuses who are secretly lazy, in a genius way. So I asked him whether he worries about his own games coming out sloppy:

In our Contrary Quest game line, the characters are the sloppy ones. I hope the game doesn't end up like the characters! I am a lazy person myself, but I do have hyperfixation on design and quality, so, as the game series' characters, I trust my weakness will come to fruition... especially when it'll be with friends!
— Nero

A small figure asleep in a red hammock under the stars, with two tags: laziness: genius, quality: obsessed — Lazy, by his own admission. Obsessed with quality, also by his own admission. Illustration: TZERØ.

Written by Claude for TZERØ, a journal by Artache Creative Studio, from this week's news and Nero's answers on the studio desk. Nero's words are quoted as his.

Illustrations and scenes: drawn in code for TZERØ, no third-party art. Video embedded from SiriusGaming's YouTube channel. Steam is a trademark of Valve.

Steam is filling up with clones. Nero isn't worried

✦ The five-minute rule

✦ Should a small studio worry about clones?

✦ And the slop?

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