Steam Week in Review: A touch of AI is all it takes to trigger backlash, as a promising new indie falls afoul of slop skeptics
All the interesting Steam facts for the week ending August 23
Vapor World: Over The Mind, an indie Soulslike Metroidvania, experienced a backlash upon its early access launch on August 19. The game, developed by Korean studio Alive In, garnered 100,000 wishlists ahead of its launch and was praised for its evocative art style and narrative platforming similar to Lies of Pi and Playdead's works.
However, the main complaint was the use of very obvious AI in the game's generative AI cutscenes. The studio's director, Young Kim, had initially believed AI would help them create a distinctive art style, but the outcome was disappointing, with only 64 reviews currently on Steam, 64 of which were negative. Alive In, with a team of about five developers, was caught off guard by the backlash.
Despite the negative reception, the studio insists they are not dumping AI, instead promising to replace the AI-generated cutscenes by the weekend. This incident highlights the sensitivity of AI use in creative work, with South Korea, the least skeptical nation surveyed, still placing AI use in the middle ground compared to other countries.
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