Steam Next Fest drowns in AI-generated games as players and indie developers demand better filters

Steam Next Fest Players And Devs Navigate Flood Of GenAI Junk

Steam’s tri-yearly Next Fest, a week-long “celebration†featuring hundreds of new demos from triple-A and indie publishers alike, isn’t quite hitting the same as it used to for the community, due to the ever-growing influx of “slop†and “games that use generative AI and flip assets.†While this has been an issue for the last handful of Next Fests, Steam users on Reddit are reporting that this time around, they’ve had enough, and are opting to sort through the new games by popularity. For the indie devs banking on the free publicity that Next Fest provides, this seems like an awfully counterproductive use of the event as a whole. Of course, the issue here has been exacerbated by the misuse of Valve’s AI disclosure section on Steam. While developers on the Steam storefront are required to admit to the use of AI-generated assets in their games, a quick glance at the latest, non-featured titles in the Next Fest line-up features more than a few suspiciously AI-generated-looking titles, none of which include any sort of AI-disclosure tag on their Steam storefront pages. As one user explains, they believe this is happening because developers are seemingly never punished for lying about generative AI use. “There is no real penalty so far for not disclosing. Only if you blatantly used like LLM text generation at run time would Valve care and that's just for legal reasons. For assets etc it's very much a trust system by Valve, they mostly did it to shut people up.†So what’s the solution? According to several commenters, the only way to combat the rising tide of AI-generated games on Steam is to sort by popularity and reviews. However, the irony of sorting by popularity during Next Fest, an event designed to freely advertise indie demos, hasn’t been lost on the community. “These last few fests I've just had to sort by popularity. But I feel like that defeats the purpose of these events if all I'm doing is â€~finding’ the stuff that I would've heard about anyway. It's just too exhausting to filter through.â€

"There are a zillion demos in this Steam Next Fest," Palworld lead says, and "I don't feel very compelled" to check out any that feature AI art

John 'Bucky' Buckley, head of publishing and communications at Palworld developer Pocketpair, has spoken out about the numerous demos that are part of Steam Next Fest that feature AI art as their main promotional image, better known as a capsule. Steam Next Fest has just begun, featuring almost 4,000 demos of upcoming games. As the event will run for just a week, it would be impossible to try them all, or even play just the ones you're interested in. With no limit to the number of demos you can download and play, it often feels like a part-time job simply sifting through the sheer wall of game titles and capsules to find one you might like. This is where Bucky steps in with his personal mantra. Posting on Twitter, he writes, "There are a zillion demos in this Steam Next Fest, and I'm going to be very real...I don't feel very compelled to check out demos with AI art capsules." Steam requires developers to disclose whether they use generative AI and places an 'AI Generated Content Disclosure' above the system requirements. However, this is a self-reported system, and even in demos that don't disclose AI, some seem suspiciously generated. It's getting ever more difficult to discern whether a game has been made with generative AI, and while these disclosures are a good place to start, you will need to remain vigilant if you want to avoid it.

Has AI ruined Steam Next Fest?

Steam Next Fest is in full flow, and as usual, gamers have just one week (six days from today) to find their favorite demos among thousands of choices. There are currently 3,455 games participating in the event. That number alone can make it hard to find the diamonds in the rough. But some gamers are complaining that this year it's become even more difficult. And yes, AI is to blame yet again. Typically held three times a year in February, June and October, Steam Next Fest is a week-long gaming buffet where players can sample as many titles as they want in the form of demos of upcoming PC games. Taking part is a great way for indie devs to gain visibility for upcoming releases, and many hold live streams around the event (see the recent debate over how to market an indie game). The current February 2026 Steam Next Fest is live from 23 February to 2 March. But one theme is cropping up again and again in the debate on gaming forums: the inability of Steam's filter to do its job and filter out the dross in the over three thousand free demos available to download. Some gamers want a filter that would allow them to find games from developers or publishers they already have games from in their library. But the biggest request seems to be for a way to filter out games with heavy use of generative AI. "AI made many things worse, but NextFests are basically searching for diamonds in a sea of shit now thanks to it," on person complains on Reddit, and they aren't alone. "I wish Valve would add AI to official game tags so I could filter those out," someone pleads. "At least then I would only have to ignore the human made, soulful asset flip and porn game. It really sucks how those 'genres' make it so actual games barely show up in the discovery feed," another person comments. Some developers have similar concerns. John 'Bucky' Buckley, head of publishing and communications at Palworld developer Pocketpair, took to X to say that AI capsule art was an immediate turn off when browsing games during Next Fest. Many say they've noticed an increase in 'AI slop' in the latest edition of the event. Steam does have an AI policy of sorts. Developers must declare it if generative AI content appears in their game, for example, AI-generated art, dialogue, or assets that players will see. This must be stated on the Steam store page. Many hoped that this would lead to the creation of an AI tag, but that hasn't happened, so there's still no way to filter out AI-generated content. There may be some complications to the implementation of such system, including defining what counts as use generative AI, but the reaction to the current Next Fest suggests there's an increasingly pressing need for a toggle or filter in Steam's browsing tools to hide AI-driven titles. 5 Steam Next Fest demos to try Struggling to find gems amid the AI slop? These are the games from the February 2026 Steam Next Fest that people are most talking about. Inspired to craft your own title? See our guide to getting started in game design and our pick of the best laptops for game development. Phonopolis The latest from the Czech indie developer Amanita Design is set in an intriguing hand-painted 3D world made of cardboard. Phonopolis is a story-driven adventure in which you have to solve playful puzzles to help Felix end the Leader's oppressive influence in a dystopian city inspired by avant-garde art. The behind-the-scenes video above shows some of the work that went into hand-crafting the game's world. * See Phonopolis on Steam Windrose Windrose Crew's open-world PvE pirate survival game features "soulslite combat" and challenging bosses. It looks set to blend the freedom of survival sandboxes with the structure of action-RPG combat, all wrapped in an underused pirate theme complete with sea shanties. * See Windrose on Steam page Vampire Crawlers There have been plenty of Vampire Survivors imitators, but the original's developer Poncle is back with a twist. Feeling almost like a joke at first, Vampire Crawlers reimagines Survivors as a retro PC dungeon crawler with turn-based combat represented by cards. The translation to a totally different genre works surprisingly well. * See Vampire Crawlers on Steam Wax Heads Pattatie Games' Wax Heads is a cozy-punk narrative sim that involves managing a struggling record store. You get to chat with quirky customers, explore a handcrafted record collection, fall in love with bands or just slack off. It feels like a zeitgeist idea, as we noted when we spoke to the developer's Murray Somerwolff last year about creating Wax Heads in Godot. * See Wax heads on Steam The Eternal Life of Goldman Weappy Studio has come up with a sumptious-looking platform adventure in which we explore an expansive hand-drawn archipelago as an elderly man who carries a cane and wears a yarmulke. With the objective of defeating a mysterious deity, the game was inspired by ancient fables. The frame-by-frame animation looks gorgeous. It's reminding some of Duck Tales on the NES. Have you found any gems in the Steam Next Fest? What would you add to the list?