Digital Sun Games canceled the public playtest of ReVamp due to the risk of cloning

The studio Digital Sun Games, known for the Moonlighter series, has decided against holding a public playtest for their new roguelike game, ReVamp. As reported by PC Gamer, the developers are concerned that access to a working build would allow bad actors to reverse-engineer the game, create clones, and release them before the original.

The studio's marketing manager, Israel Mallén, told the publication that with several months until release, distributing a working build among tens of thousands of players is too risky. However, Digital Sun Games is not abandoning testing altogether; the studio plans to conduct a limited playtest through Discord.

According to Mallén, the developers understand that other studios face similar concerns. The company hopes that public discussion of the issue will prompt gaming platforms to take notice.

In an official statement, Digital Sun Games explained their decision was influenced by recent instances where games were reverse-engineered, cloned, and released before the originals. Against this backdrop, providing the ReVamp build to a broad audience was deemed too risky.

Previously, Alliance Arts similarly decided against releasing a demo version of Drunken Goddess Reflux on Steam for related reasons. A company representative explained that demo materials could be used to quickly replicate the visual style and gameplay using AI or other tools, potentially allowing clones to be released before the original game.

PC Gamer connects the intensification of such concerns with the development of artificial intelligence tools, particularly Claude Opus 5.5. The publication estimates that modern AI models simplify the decompilation of games and the creation of their analogs. It also notes the sharp increase in the number of demos on Steam Next Fest. In October 2026, over 8,000 demos were showcased at the festival, compared to around 4,000 in June.