Digital Sun, the Spanish studio best known for the action-RPG Moonlighter, has postponed the public playtest of its Castlevania-inspired tower-defence game ReVamp.
The developer announced the change after receiving strong sign-ups for the initial Steam playtest but cited growing industry concerns around games being reverse-engineered, cloned and published before the original releases.
ReVamp is currently slated for a Steam launch in March 2027.
In a social-media statement, Digital Sun thanked players for signing up and explained the decision.
Paraphrasing the studio: it appreciated the high interest but believes that, with launch still months away, releasing a large public build right now would be too risky given recent reports of clones appearing before original launches.
Instead, Digital Sun will run a smaller, “contained” playtest on the studio’s Discord starting October 29, and it hopes to open a full public playtest around January ahead of the planned March 2027 Steam release.
The studio also apologized to those who requested early Steam access and urged platforms to continue strengthening protections for original work.
Digital Sun’s announcement did not explicitly attribute the spike in cloning to any single technology, but the studio’s move follows broader industry examples.
The Korean developer YNOT recently pulled a demo after discovering a clone created with AI techniques, and independent creators have long faced copycat releases—Donut County developer Ben Esposito experienced mobile clones of his game in 2018.
Some reporting has also linked modern generative AI tools to an uptick in cloning incidents, citing models such as Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 as part of the conversation around tool-assisted copying.
For indie teams, public demos and playtests are critical for feedback, discoverability and building audiences across platforms such as Steam and Nintendo Switch’s eShop.
Digital Sun’s decision underscores how those promotional channels are evolving in response to new risks.
Players who still want a chance to try ReVamp this year must join Digital Sun’s Discord for the contained October 29 session; the broader public test will arrive later, the studio says.
Digital Sun’s handling of the playtest demonstrates the ongoing tensions between community engagement and IP protection in the indie space.
With ReVamp’s Steam release planned for March 2027, the industry will be watching how studios, platforms and developers adapt playtest strategies to safeguard original work while preserving opportunities for early player feedback.
The developer announced the change after receiving strong sign-ups for the initial Steam playtest but cited growing industry concerns around games being reverse-engineered, cloned and published before the original releases.
ReVamp is currently slated for a Steam launch in March 2027.
In a social-media statement, Digital Sun thanked players for signing up and explained the decision.
Paraphrasing the studio: it appreciated the high interest but believes that, with launch still months away, releasing a large public build right now would be too risky given recent reports of clones appearing before original launches.
Instead, Digital Sun will run a smaller, “contained” playtest on the studio’s Discord starting October 29, and it hopes to open a full public playtest around January ahead of the planned March 2027 Steam release.
The studio also apologized to those who requested early Steam access and urged platforms to continue strengthening protections for original work.
Digital Sun’s announcement did not explicitly attribute the spike in cloning to any single technology, but the studio’s move follows broader industry examples.
The Korean developer YNOT recently pulled a demo after discovering a clone created with AI techniques, and independent creators have long faced copycat releases—Donut County developer Ben Esposito experienced mobile clones of his game in 2018.
Some reporting has also linked modern generative AI tools to an uptick in cloning incidents, citing models such as Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 as part of the conversation around tool-assisted copying.
For indie teams, public demos and playtests are critical for feedback, discoverability and building audiences across platforms such as Steam and Nintendo Switch’s eShop.
Digital Sun’s decision underscores how those promotional channels are evolving in response to new risks.
Players who still want a chance to try ReVamp this year must join Digital Sun’s Discord for the contained October 29 session; the broader public test will arrive later, the studio says.
Digital Sun’s handling of the playtest demonstrates the ongoing tensions between community engagement and IP protection in the indie space.
With ReVamp’s Steam release planned for March 2027, the industry will be watching how studios, platforms and developers adapt playtest strategies to safeguard original work while preserving opportunities for early player feedback.
