Nearly seven years ago, People Playground debuted on Steam and invited players to terrorize their ragdoll stick-figure creations. Now, someone has created a malicious mod that’s wrecking havoc on People Playground’s saves and other files.
People Playground’s solo developer, mestiez, shared an urgent message on the game’s Steam page warning players about what happened and how they should handle it. The steps are reproduced below:
- Update the game by verifying game files
- Go to your game directory and delete the “mods” folder.
- Go to “Steamsteamappsworkshopcontent1118200” and delete the folder.
- Unsubscribe from mods that were updated/uploaded after January 30.
- If you have any uploaded mods, check if they were recently updated without your consent.
As explained by mestiez, the offending code was added through People Playground’s workshop, which has now been temporarily disabled. According to mestiez’s description, the mod removes the Contraptions folder as well as other PPG-related files. It also overwrites any mods and replaces them with itself.
Since posting the original message, mestiez has released a People Playground patch, “that should keep you safe.” However, the game’s Workshop will remain disabled until Steam weighs in on how this situation can be avoided in the future.
This isn’t the first game on Steam that’s been successfully hit by malware. Some games even appear to have been designed to spread it. Last year, Steam removed two titles, BlockBlasters and PirateFi, for being filled with malware that harmed users’ computers. The former even reportedly stole money from a cancer victim.