While most people probably have no idea what Drunken Goddess Reflux is—it was only revealed for the first time earlier this year—the game’s Steam page already has over 25,000 followers and it’s ranked in 65th place among the top wishlisted games on Valve’s storefront. It also seems pretty safe to assume that the upcoming game is some sort of vaguely Doki Doki Literature Club!-style riff on existing hit horror gambling games like Buckshot Roulette. Whether Drunken Goddess Reflux really has the sauce or not, Alliance Arts clearly thinks it has a combination of art style, game mechanics, and vibes worth protecting from the plagiarism engine.
The latest iterations of AI tools like Claude Opus have upended the gaming world this month as vibe-coded ports, mash-ups, and prototypes flood social media. Even before those latest developments, people had gotten pretty good at taking whatever was hot on Steam and quickly ripping it off. And then downstream from that is the flood of Steam knock-offs on Roblox. It’s not yet clear how much that’s directly impacting the economics around successful games on Steam, but it’s clearly a major concern.
Or maybe the makers of Drunken Goddess Reflux just decided that Steam Next Fest itself is way too overcrowded with junk demos, and decided it was easier to stand out by not offering a free demo. In that case, mission accomplished.