Someone recreated my game using AI and is now threatening to release it on Steam unless I pay him $200.
Following a report by the overseas indie game developer “Weasel Pit” that he was threatened with the release of a clone game allegedly created by AI and demanded money, ripples are spreading among some developers in Japan.
Threatened to Release the Clone Game First
The incident began when Weasel Pit, the developer of the roguelike game *Iron Pilgrim*, reported being threatened by someone going by the name Zagir Harif, who claimed he would release a clone game on Steam.
In the email that was made public, the individual demanded that Weasel Pit send Steam items worth $200 within 24 hours in exchange for not releasing the clone. Weasel Pit stated that they believed the similar work had been created by AI based on footage they had posted on social media and indicated they would not comply with the demand.
Meanwhile, the international media outletInTheIndie, which covered the story, pointed out that Weasel Pit had previously told another developer in a post atReddit, “If you release it on Steam, I’ll create and release a free version.” The outlet raised doubts about whether this latest report of an incident was actually a publicity stunt staged by Weasel Pit itself.
In response, Weasel Pit acknowledged the error in their comments on that thread and expressed their apologies to the other developer.However, they refuted claims that this was a staged event, noting that other developers had also received similar emails. In fact, Psicodart Games, the developer of the roguelike action game *Circusar*, reported that, like Weasel Pit, they had received a similar demand from Zagir Harif.
Japanese Developers on Alert
In response to these reports, tomo-mana, co-founder of GREENHORN—the studio behind the deck-building roguelite RPG “Project Solaris”—announced that he will refrain from posting progress updates, which he had previously been doing twice a week.
He further noted that, considering his own development pace and the difficulty of analyzing the requirements for the game he is creating, “I decided it would be better to hold off on progress updates until I am confident that even if I report progress, it would be difficult for others to copy it.”
While there have been reports in recent years of clone games capitalizing on the popularity of hit titles, developers in particular need to be wary of malicious tactics like the one seen here, where the release of a similar title is used as leverage to demand money or other valuables.
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(価格・在庫状況は記事公開時点のものです)
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(価格・在庫状況は記事公開時点のものです)
