I remember about 2 years ago, the Steam Next Fest was basically of more importance than Christmas for me. Not only did it used to remind me of a time when demo disks were common for PC and Console games back in the day, it also finally made developers take proper demos seriously. What advertising is more honest than to actually let the players experience a snippet of your game. It was awesome?
Fast forward to 2026. The last Steam Next Fest was absolutely overrun with AI slop. I’m not talking some “placeholder” assets. I’m talking AI generated art, AI generated description and some of them looked like they where the first attempt of a local model to one-shot what the “dev” had in mind. The current Next Fest is a little bit tamer. But the last one was literally 90% slop.
In my opinion Steam really needs to have a big fat disclaimer required if any AI assets are present in the current game or promotional material, something akin to the warning that abandoned Early Access games receive.
What I care most about is the gameplay and having fun. As long as people are being creative and making their vision come to life, I do not mind some AI here and there. What I care most about is the gameplay and it actually being fun and well made.
It is important to note that the AI created assets should feel original in some way. It should not be the standard “make a knight in cartoon character style”. It has to be a somewhat novel combination of styles or something that is experienced as original.
I’d rather someone be able to make their dream game with some AI assets than them not making their game at all.