Studio Daimon reached November 3 without approval to launch Food Devils, despite having submitted the game for review almost three weeks earlier. The case is part of a series of delays affecting indie developers on Steam, where Valve acknowledged that the approval process now takes up to 12 business days, above the usual three-to-five-day timeframe.
The company acknowledged the backlog in a statement published on Tuesday (3), after reports from studios that had to postpone releases. Valve attributed part of the difficulties to the need to re-review games that did not pass the first review, as well as a significant increase in submission volume.
The Food Devils, a restaurant management game developed by Studio Daimon, was scheduled to launch in early access on November 3. The build had been submitted to Steam on October 12, but it still had no approval on the scheduled date. Speaking to The Verge, director Alfred Kamon reported that the studio even opened an urgent ticket, without getting a response that resolved the situation.
Another example is Wheel Make It, published by 2 Left Thumbs, whose release was delayed by nearly two weeks. Among the obstacles faced was the rejection of a build because a menu option could not be accessed with a controller.
The effects also hit games that had already built up public interest. The developer of Cubic Earth, identified as structmira, told PC Gamer that the project's trailer had surpassed 60,000 views on YouTube and that the game had more than 6,000 Steam wishlist additions. Unable to move forward in approval, reported player complaints and the loss of promotional momentum.
Valve requires testing via Steam to reduce further reviews
In the Steamworks update, Valve acknowledged that the wait exceeded the period normally expected for reviewing builds submitted to the platform.
“We aim to test each game build in a timely manner, usually within three to five days. However, we are slightly behind at the moment and taking up to 12 business days,” the company said.
To reduce further rejections, Valve updated the list of mandatory checks before submission. One of the main changes requires that the game be run through Steam itself for at least five minutes, allowing the identification of failures that do not appear when the developer launches the program directly from the executable file.
The test must have been performed in the seven days before submission or after the latest build was submitted, according to the conditions established in Steamworks.
The platform also added checks on dependencies needed to run games, achievement configuration, Steam Cloud save file synchronization and identification of screenshots that actually represent gameplay.
Valve says it is working to expand review capacity and is preparing other improvements to the process. The company, however, has not set a date for normalizing turnaround times.
Some of the affected developers suspect that the increase in games produced with artificial intelligence is contributing to the congestion. Valve did not confirm this link. In its statement, the company highlighted the growth in submissions and repeated reviews as factors that help explain the delays.
