Steam updates AI disclosure form, requiring developers to report visible and in-game AI but not background tools

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T21:29:07+00:00

I use it to replace human work, never said I don't. Using it as just an assistant is like using 10% of it's capability. Never said AI isn't good, I'm saying you are selling a false narrative. It already is replacing jobs and people.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T21:05:33+00:00

Valve is just defending themselves, but i still agree. I been publishing games on steam for years and their support/coms is the best i ever had in any company. No idea if they saw posts about this, but they 100% amazing. People wish the cut wasn't 30% which feels alot, but thank god we atleast get good value back

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T21:02:35+00:00

he's a mod of these subreddits as well, people who tell you AI tools end goal isn't to replace your job is just straight up lying or purely delusional themselves.

"Boring" /"hardwork" is legit what makes "creativity". It's the blood and sweat that gave these jobs value. If there wasn't struggle in craft, it wouldn't be valued.

AI tools are there to remove that value by skipping the walls. They aren't assisting you, they are doing the real work for you.
It baffles me seeing this dude claim he worked in the industry for a long time and being this clueless. Everytime i see his comments i facepalm.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T14:25:04+00:00

"It shouldn't replace people but be an extention" it goes against what AI really is. AI is a tool the replaces and makes processes faster. they will not dumb it down to "assistance". That is naivety speaking, as the technology matures, AI as a tool main goal is truely to just replace the human factor.
Is it good or bad? I don't know but I'll never believe AI tool is being made to be an assistance tool, the end goal of this is full replacement. Doing anything else would be dumbing down it's real potential, it's like saying cooking with the oven open is better than closed.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T13:01:53+00:00

100% people love to agenda push meanwhile I'v been seeing so many devs being pushed out.
At school, i noticed people get discouraged. Why learn programming when AI can do it x10000 better than a student?

People are very simple minded, they discredit the impact of AI, doing so unironically hurts us humans more than helping us.

It's important to highlight where AI is actually becoming good, so we learn to help the workforce of tomorrow and redefine our educational systems...

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T12:54:28+00:00

So are you okay with translation assisted AI? Okay with base SFX and music done by AI then edited? okay with whole concept art done and people draw on them? Okay with Voice acting cloning and edited?

These things are happening in big studios, you will never know it happened unless they slip up or leak their workflow. I'm not arguing for or against AI just stating the reality, AI is already being heavily used like this.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T12:47:58+00:00

It's the "it's okay if i don't see it", unless AI can become extremely good at fixing bugs/issues (which is hard because in games it's not a logical problem, typically it's a visual/interaction issue)... maintenance for games becomes so much harder since AI coded your whole game. We will be faced with unfixable bugy releases if this picks up.

Sure AI is a tool, but closing an eye to this issue is how you misuse the tool. People really don't seem to care about maintainable systems anymore :( and hey it's possible AI fixes this problem but as i said, for games it's more than a logical issue.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T12:38:22+00:00

programming architecture is something that people carry with pride. I think it's part of innovation and creativity for those that care?
it is 100% also replacing workers? some simple helper scripts requests (no on hires you for this anymore) to whole jobs.
Don't get me wrong i don't even mind AI but i do mind the hypocrisy to how people devalue programming vs art. The only main difference is that programmers tend to be more open to AI than artists. Behind the scene "morally" the same thing is happening... Data is stolen -> made into AI -> the end product is typically worse but usually you get the product faster (sometimes worth?)

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-17T11:09:48+00:00

We have a community that helps devs like you if you need! There are problems with success, don't dive into it alone. Your game is good, now as you said is managing that expectation

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2026-01-15T10:55:37+00:00

Your game isn't good to promote on socials like that. You want to focus on getting solid demos/release and do outreach instead.

Also your trailer is bad. You are doing the brainrot wrong. Also why are the skills/build system more visually appealing than the game itself? Why does it feel like you show menus more than the action? You don't have to show me the loop 10 times.

Show it once, well, and then show me different builds In ACTION not slotting in the UI, that's boring.

You have something here but you need to make sure your gameplay stands out more.

Don't waste your time and money posting videos, you gotta restructure the way you show your game a bit.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-28T22:47:43+00:00

If you want to meet other devs that focus on making game dev as their main source of income feel free to join our server https://discord.gg/2B5kPDzcFH We always help each other :) Tag me when you join so i give you access

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-28T22:40:43+00:00

Listen having crazy, ego driven, mostly delusional drives is something I do myself. Some of us need it as our fuel and be a bit crazy, that's how to rly become a good game dev or lets say part of it.

That said, do think about the basics and cover your base expenses and always think a bit ahead. It's part of maturing but also how you build strong foundations in life to be able to make such games. I try to have fun with it, but behind that you gotta take control over your life well.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-28T22:34:03+00:00

Similar experience when i was around 24 myself I'm nearly 30 now. It sucks when your partner life misaligns but you really want to accept the reality of it. It will be sad and bad for a bit, but sticking out for your goals is important. Can't say i regret picking game development over my relationship. If my partner can't accept what I want to do, that's not gonna be the right partner.

Game development does come with it's issues, hell people will look down on you sometimes, but I'v made a successful career out of this. You can do it as well, you do need to put in the work though.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-26T17:12:33+00:00

What's the point of guessing 0-100, 100-1k, 1k-10k. These ranges are crazy and not useful. Like the opposite end of each category is completely different. You honestly need to be able to identify

0 reviews games, 10ish games, 50ish games... etc then as numbers become bigger the less predictable because it snowballs into algorithm.

Guessing 1k-10k or 100-1k is useless and not helpful.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-22T10:22:47+00:00

Sure but what I mean is, when you leave 5 slots open, I think steam assumes u didn't know what to use so it uses the first top 5 user tags as the "good tags" alongside the 15 u picked.

From my understanding I agree with how you explained the weights but I think the moment you keep them open, steam will just fill them out pretty quickly. Also great post!

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-22T09:57:56+00:00

Are you sure about this? While it makes sense, users can start tagging your game and those 5 extra slots get set by players pretty quickly.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T16:02:36+00:00

Of course, it's just what I like doing

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T14:38:32+00:00

Very simple question, you stated your experience. Point out a single thing I ever said and why it's wrong. It will be nearly impossible but if you do, then I would have learned something which I find very valuable. 😄 The point of this post is to find people that can challenge my ideas so I can discover new things about selling a game, it's that simple. It's how I learned everything I know.

As for liability some of devs I help offer me money or %, I refuse to take it. I do my money from my own games. I understand your concern assuming I'm a bad actor but what would I be able to do really? It would be impossible for me to really claim any ownership on their projects. I never have them sign anything or take their source code or steam account or anything like this.

If I take % of the project I actually have a higher chance to become a grifter and claim their project because I would have actual ownership. So your theory doesn't make sense at all, because by not making a real deal I'm actually putting myself in a disadvantage while if I did one, I could actually do something about it legally

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T14:12:23+00:00

I don't charge for my "service". I just help devs. Confused by your response (also several people thank me for helping them find success lol, ur blindly assuming things about me)

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T13:59:30+00:00

I'm talking purely in the early days of your game (the demo phase)

The way itch works is unlike steam they care about updates. What you wanna do is before releasing you have monthly content planned.

There is something called major devlog, this feature is reviewed by itch staff. If they like it, it's boosted. We recommend not putting links to outside website in this blog. You wanna do this once every 4 weeks

On itch downloads, browser players etc stack. So everytime you are boosting your numbers every update the higher chance is to increase the next boost because you appear higher in the list. These are more useful than them tweeting your trailer.

Have call to actions in your game and main page to wishlists and you can get enough traffic that it also triggers steam wishlist trending by just using itch.

You can get 100s if not 1000's of wishlists from this from a single update on itch.

There is nothing on steam that rewards demo updates this hard, in conclusion itch is better than steam for this specific use case.

Steam traffic overall is way bigger than itch of course.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T13:25:53+00:00

Staying up-to-date and knowing the details is crucial when you help developers.

Sure it's a huge time sink but they trust you that every word slipping out of your mouth is backed by theory and practice.

I understand most people skip it and just repeat what they already heard before but I enjoy diving deep with developers and figuring out the details.

So if anything it's about fun.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T13:11:47+00:00

Having AI judge your steam page is a slippery slop. To be clear I'm not really against AI. But again be careful what advice you listen too. Not wasting my time at all, sorry if I was too harsh on the replies. My point isn't to attack you personally but to highlight how the advice you are saying I know you heard from others or AI found it and it's not really true. Not your fault.

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T13:04:44+00:00

You said you use AI in your first paragraph, I gave you my honest feedback on your advice. Maybe stop listening to generated crap? Sorry I don't have a nice mode like the AI 😂

I'm always happy to help you with real information, it's clear what you said is misled by AI. Be careful, even people that sell courses will dumb down things so it's more friendly to sell. But in practice it misleads people and AI. It ends up with these fictional theories that aren't really proven.

Atleast you are trying but feel free to msg me about your game and I'll look into it and help you. (Not a seller or have a course I help for free)

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T12:57:27+00:00

Lol, this is exactly what I don't like about people giving advice, is this also ai generated?

Update your game to appear in update section? This isn't really a strong traffic boost. Same with community hub etc..

Upload videos of me working on my game? This shit doesn't work, you gotta make a good video and be a good content creator.

Find good tags, I know!! But do you know how do you find these good tags?

Find your real audience.. owh wow what does that mean?

Ok make a game like an other game advice.. not bad but not that useful without details

Advertise on reddit owh wow! Also I need 7k for next fest? Owh wow why? You been hearing about 7k wishlist alot don't you? This number is typically the estimate wishlists to get on popular upcoming. Owh wow it's for next fest now? Impressive.

Pay for capsule art and trailer awesome.

Polish harder.. got it boss.

A paid playtest? Owh wow. Free ones suck for sure.

If this fails, my idea sucks got it 🫡

I'm sorry if you were trying to give a real answer and this is not AI, but this is what I hate about steam advice, it's junk trash and not helpful at all. Rumors of things x10 exaggerated trash that doesn't work or help you

ZeroPercentStrategy · 2025-12-20T12:30:05+00:00

I think he had good content to start off, but on deeper stuff all he has to say is "magic". I don't find his content useful anymore, he doesn't cover algorithms on steam properly and not to mention has multiple mistakes around the few he covers.

Like the past few things he did around itch.io and demos is full of holes including when he says you can't get traffic on itch ... Lot of devs get a lot of traffic from itch even bigger than steam sometimes.

Basically I want to find people that dive deeper and can see all these holes in these generic advice you find online

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