If you hit the request button on ReVamp’s Steam page, you’re not getting in this month. Digital Sun, the studio behind Moonlighter and Cataclismo, had planned a public Steam playtest for ReVamp near the end of October. After many players signed up, it changed course and opted to begin with a smaller test on Discord. The reason is a new one. It’s AI cloning.

The studio announced the change across Steam, X and Bluesky. It says it’s spooked by games getting copied and shipped before the real thing even exists. According to Game Developer, the smaller test will run as a “more contained” playtest through its Discord server starting on October 29.

Some players are sympathetic, others are annoyed about losing their spot, and plenty are asking whether this is where every indie demo ends up:

ReVamp’s Discord playtest opens in waves from October 29

Signing up on Steam won’t do it anymore. Kotaku reports that Digital Sun adds that you can still sign up for the Discord playtest ahead of October 29. Access won’t open all at once, either. Discord access to the first playtest will be granted in waves starting October 29. Digital Sun hopes to open the public test around January and says it will admit more players over time.

The studio did apologise to everyone who’d already queued up. “To everyone who requested access on Steam: we’re sorry for the change of plans,” says Digital Sun. “We hope to open the public playtest around January.”

That “around January” is a hope, not a date. Nobody should treat it as locked in.

Digital Sun says a build for “tens of thousands” was too risky

The studio’s public statement doesn’t hedge. “We’ve been concerned by recent news of games being reverse-engineered, cloned and published before the original is even out. With launch still months away, a large public build of ReVamp felt like too big a risk.”

Marketing manager Israel Mallén went further when he spoke to PC Gamer. “With launch still months away, sharing a build with tens of thousands of players feels like too big a risk,” he said, adding: “We know we’re not the only developers feeling this way, and the more this is talked about, the more likely platforms are to step in.”

That nudge at platform holders shows up in the studio’s own post too. Its message reads: “Showing games early is how indies get seen and find the fans who keep us going, so we hope platforms keep strengthening protections for original work.”

It’s easy to see why it hurts. The playtest wasn’t a throwaway. Game Developer notes the studio had announced plans earlier this month to host a public playtest to solicit player feedback, gather metrics, and improve the upcoming game. A Discord test gets you feedback from your keenest fans. You lose the wishlist bump that comes from thousands of strangers trying it.

Escape the Walls got seven Roblox clones in ten days

The fear isn’t hypothetical. PC Gamer points to incremental punching game Escape the Walls: after its creator posted footage on X, it was only ten days before at least seven clones were available on Roblox, and at least one on Steam. And that was footage. Not even a playable build.

Digital Sun isn’t alone. Alliance Arts cancelled its Steam Next Fest demo for Drunken Goddess Reflux, and the studio said it could not move forward because it believed providing a demo would enable others to quickly produce clones using generative AI. Game Developer puts the root of it down to longstanding limited copyright protections for video game mechanics and advancements in certain LLMs like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Our view: this is the right call for a studio Digital Sun’s size, and it’s also a bad sign for everyone else. Next Fest demos and open playtests are how most of us find the next Moonlighter in the first place. If a clone can land on a storefront before launch day, studios keeping their builds locked up is the sensible move. Players end up paying for it with fewer chances to try before they buy.

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ReVamp, the “tower defensevania,” is still due in March 2027

Only the testing plan has changed. The game itself hasn’t moved. PC Gamer describes ReVamp as a “tower defensevania” roguelike due for release in March 2027. Kotaku calls it the studio’s Dracula-based base-builder, which fits the vampire-lord key art Digital Sun has been running.

It’s a change of pace for a studio best known for a shopkeeper-by-day, dungeon-diver-by-night loop. With Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault already out, ReVamp is Digital Sun’s next big swing. That probably explains why the team’s being so careful with who gets the build.

Want in early? Join the studio’s Discord before the first wave goes out on October 29. If you’d rather wait for Steam, check back in January, when Digital Sun hopes to open the public playtest.