Summary
Indie developer Impromptu Games is remaking its over a decade old ball-rolling puzzler,InFlux, but it failed the Steam build review last month for looking too much like the original. You can see the games side-by-side above; it looks pretty different to me.
As reported byPC Gamer, Valve told Impromptu founder Joe Wintergreen that it “seems identical to the game you put out 11 years ago”, asking him to “explain why this should be its own product”. Thankfully, Steam aren’t refusing to publish the game (it has since been approved for release), but it’s an especially strange note when looking at some of the triple-A remasters on the platform.
The originalDark Soulsisn’t even available to purchase anymore,replaced by a remaster that doesn’t looktoodifferent,whileSkyrimhas received two new editions in the 13 years since it launched, the Special and Anniversary versions. We also have the malignedBioShockand near-identicalDarksidersremasters, to name just a few notable examples. The InFlux remake, by contrast, is a much bigger leap.
It Was Probably The Description That Got InFlux The Note
The note was made during a build review (which Wintergreen explains is normally where Steam flags things like Steam Cloud support not working), and they theorise that the “identical” complaint was because of the description, not the game itself. The original and remake’s bios “share a lot of language”.
As soon as I replied to them it stopped being included in their feedback.
Wintergreen adds that it’s “completely normal and expected to get your first build review knocked back”, so it’s not out of the ordinary to receive feedback on the road to publishing, but the note itself was nonetheless strange.
