South Korea’s YNOT Pulls Spookitchen Demo Over AI Copy Concerns

South Korean game developer YNOT removed its Steam demo for Spookitchen on Oct. 20 after receiving a message on Oct. 17 claiming someone was using artificial intelligence to copy the game, while other independent developers faced explicit demands to pay or risk AI-made copies.

The two-person team’s Halloween cooking game had been available as a demo since March. YNOT received the warning on Oct. 17, and two different people contacted the developers. The demo came down a day after Steam’s annual Next Fest began on Oct. 19.

Other developers described similar demands over the past month. Weasel Pit, the developer of Iron Pilgrim, posted Sept. 29 that someone had recreated the game with AI and threatened to put it on Steam unless the developer paid $200. “Obviously, I’m not paying,” Weasel Pit wrote.

On Oct. 1, Psicodart Games, the team behind Circusar, posted an email with the same text except for the game name. Some developers who had not received a demand also chose to hide their demos because they feared their games could be copied.

Japanese developer Takashi Mochibe described a different demand on Oct. 17. The email threatened to copy his strategy role-playing game Dragon’s Chronicles and demanded $200 in Steam items within 24 hours, with no negotiation. Mochibe characterized it as bulk spam and said his strategy game would be difficult for AI to copy.

On Oct. 20, Mochibe posted that the game’s daily wishlist count had jumped 38,400% from the previous day. The surge followed the threat and drew attention to the game.

A separate case in July showed a game resembling an existing title appearing on Steam: Scribble Hunt featured 3D models, gameplay and an interface closely resembling the party game Meccha Chameleon. An anonymous developer described simple games as easier for AI to imitate than complex ones.

Videos attached to threats do not prove that a playable copy exists. No payment had been reported as of Oct. 22.