PSA: Don't use AI images if you want your game on Steam

[artoonu]

I'm not sure if it has been posted here (can't find it) and where to post it, but it seems this category fits best as "art" is for showoff.

TL;DR: As legal copyright stuff is currently unclear, Valve will not release your game if you used AI images, no matter if edited or unedited. They'd put it on hold with an option for an app credit refund.

Sources:
- Myself
- Plenty of news outlets eg. : TechCrunch, TheVerge, and lots of others.

While I understand their decision as I also had doubts about this tech, it feels a little sad. AI-generation allowed me to be much more creative, place stories in settings I couldn't before, add much more content, and make scenes much more interesting and varied... Now I have to go back to my mediocre hand-drawn style and less content.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

While I understand their decision as I also had doubts about this tech, it feels a little sad. AI-generation allowed me to be much more creative, place stories in settings I couldn't before, add much more content, and make scenes much more interesting and varied... Now I have to go back to my mediocre hand-drawn style and less content.

Relax, AI ain't going anywhere. They'll come around eventually once the law-makers finally figure it all out.
Patreon and Substar should be plenty meanwhile.

 

[artoonu]

Relax, AI ain't going anywhere. They'll come around eventually once the law-makers finally figure it all out.
Patreon and Substar should be plenty meanwhile.

And it might take even years until it's set.

I'm not sure if Patreon/SubscribeStar will be viable in my case as I already have paid games on Steam... Plus, my country's laws make it difficult to have Patreon with rewards as it turns donations into a sale which makes things much more complicated for taxes which I can't risk (same reason I can't put games on Itch, NSFW are inclined to set direct payment). So the only way for me with Patreon is totally free games hosted elsewhere with support-only Patreon which I doubt will make sense as there's no incentive to subscribe. The existence of paid games also might not be helping.
On the other hand, I'm left with two completed games (one was totally banned because Valve thought characters look underage, so I shouldn't try uploading it to Itch to not get banned there...)

 

[anne O'nymous]

I'm not sure if Patreon/SubscribeStar will be viable in my case as I already have paid games on Steam... Plus, my country's laws make it difficult to have Patreon with rewards as it turns donations into a sale which makes things much more complicated for taxes which I can't risk (same reason I can't put games on Itch, NSFW are inclined to set direct payment).

Hmm, why do you care if donations are since as sales since you already sell games on Steam ?
Or are you saying that so far you're lying to the IRS equivalent in your country, and don't want to lie even more ?

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

How can they determine that an image was made by AI?

 

[artoonu]

Hmm, why do you care if donations are since as sales since you already sell games on Steam ?
Or are you saying that so far you're lying to the IRS equivalent in your country, and don't want to lie even more ?

There's a distinction, quite significant. I'm not selling anything on Steam, only granting Valve license for distribution in exchange for IP royalties, as stated in the agreement. They are the Merchant of Record. And as such, I state this income as from intellectual rights (we have this field in the form), it's taxed as standard, but it doesn't require me to register a company which I'd be required to with direct sales. Patreon-like services with rewards are considered direct sales; no rewards would be just pure donations that are not taxable until a certain amount per person in a timeframe - and it's hard to reach that threshold.
Registering a solo company here is economic suicide if you can't keep up a stable, high-income flow. Most one-person companies are in reality employees on contract and when they're "fired" (formally contract ends) their solo "company" is also unregistered. It's generally a legal mess where I live. I even went to a tax counselor for advice and they advised me against going for the company route.
Thankfully, I do not lie on tax forms. I was once randomly selected to explain why I got money from another country and I was in the clear.

How can they determine that an image was made by AI?

My guess is they just look at it, it has quite a distinctive style. They pointed out backgrounds in the rejection message particularly which were rather messy (but I liked that jankiness).

 

[Meaning Less]

How can they determine that an image was made by AI?

Steam probably does the opposite, they need the original artist permission to publish anything, and since there is no artist with AI they have no rights to sell it by law.

Parodies or games using stolen assets are also a big no-no on steam, unless you have explicit permission to sell that content they will deny your game.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

My guess is they just look at it, it has quite a distinctive style.

Steam probably does the opposite, they need the original artist permission to publish anything, and since there is no artist with AI they have no rights to sell it by law.

Parodies or games using stolen assets are also a big no-no on steam, unless you have explicit permission to sell that content they will deny your game.

So Valve employees actually manually check out each submitted game for copyright infringement? Okay, that's not the image I had of them.

 

[Rafster]

Parodies or games using stolen assets are also a big no-no on steam, unless you have explicit permission to sell that content they will deny your game.

Yup, games with real porn, or KK/HS/Skyrim/Sims 4 assets are not allowed on Steam either, so it makes sense they don't allow this too. Anyway, there's always the option of itch.io, patreon, SS... so there are other ways.