Steam Next Fest hits 8,000+ demos amid AI clone wave

Steam Next Fest, starting tomorrow, lists 8,011 demos — roughly double the June 2026 edition. As Claude Opus 5.5 speeds up vibe coding, indie devs report rapid clones: Escape the Walls has at least seven Roblox copies, and NoGlyph filed a copyright notice with Valve over copied code.

• 8,011 demos at Next Fest versus about 1,000 in June 2022
• Escape the Walls has at least seven Roblox clones
• NoGlyph found 13 of its classes in a rival game, filed with Valve
• Drunken Goddess Reflux pulled its demo over AI clone fears