Indie Dev Says AI Clone Was Made And Used As Ransom Threat
Weasel Pit, the developer of the roguelite game Iron Pilgrim, reported that someone recreated the game with AI and threatened to publish a clone on Steam unless Weasel Pit paid $200 worth of Steam items within 24 hours. Weasel Pit said it believes the clone was made from footage posted on social media and indicated it would not pay. InTheIndie, an outlet that covered the matter, noted that Weasel Pit had previously told another developer on Reddit that if that developer released a game on Steam, Weasel Pit would publish a free version, and questioned whether the victim report might be a self-staged publicity stunt. Weasel Pit admitted fault over the Reddit comments and said it intended to apologize, but disputed the stunt claim, saying similar emails had gone to other developers. Psicodart Games, the developer of Circusar, also reported receiving the same demands from Zagir Harif. In Japan, tomo-mana, co-representative of GREENHORN, said the studio will hold back the progress posts it had been making twice a week for its game Project Solaris.