Did AI ruin Steam Next Fest?

Steam Next Fest (running through October 26) has more than doubled its demos to roughly 8,000, and the headlines are brutal: "AI slop parade," "next to worthless," people browsing with AI-blocking extensions. As someone who makes games with AI tools, here's my honest take. AI lowered the barrier to entry and opened the floodgates, but this is mostly a curation problem, and not just Steam's. I get into why a "no AI" filter backfires, why Steam's AI disclosure is too vague to be useful, what Steam Deck Verified tells us about Valve's curation, and what we as AI developers need to do: stop shipping low-effort games. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:06 - Steam Next Fest and why wishlists matter 1:04 - Is Next Fest worth it for indie devs? 1:23 - The headlines: "AI slop fest" 2:46 - What's actually on Next Fest 3:21 - Asset flips were slop too 4:02 - So did AI ruin Next Fest? 5:00 - 8,000 demos and a lower barrier to entry 5:41 - Fix #1: Valve needs real curation 6:44 - Why a "no AI" filter backfires 7:26 - Steam's AI disclosure problem 8:40 - Steam Deck Verified shows the same gap 10:34 - Fix #2: AI devs, stop shipping low effort 11:46 - Fix #3: raise the $100 Steam fee? 12:52 - Use AI to fight AI slop 14:08 - Final thoughts 🎬 The full "Making Games with Claude + Godot" series:    • Fixing My AI Game's Broken Animations (It ...   🐦 X: https://x.com/BiskeyGames 🎮 Play WINGNUT, my 16-bit sky shooter, in Early Access: https://biskeygames.itch.io/wingnut #SteamNextFest #gamedev #indiegames