Studio Daimon delays Food Devils after three-week Steam approval wait

This is a new development in a story we reported earlier: Players ask Valve for Steam Next Fest AI filter.

Studio Daimon delayed Food Devils on Nov. 3, 2026, after Valve’s Steam review process left the game awaiting approval for three weeks following its Oct. 12, 2026 submission, the nine-person team said.

Alfred Kamon, Studio Daimon’s director, said the team followed Valve‘s process and expected content issues to take two or three days, but faced three weeks of waiting instead. Kamon submitted a support ticket on Oct. 24, 2026, after Valve stayed silent for about a week following the Oct. 12, 2026 submission. Valve responded on Oct. 26, 2026 with a concern about sexual content and told him to wait for the review team; Kamon replied immediately and was still waiting seven days later. Kamon first suspected a problem about a week after submission because Valve remained silent.

Studio Daimon had originally planned to launch on Nov. 5, 2026, but moved the date up 24 hours because The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was scheduled for the same day. Now the delay means there is a chance the game might launch on that Zelda date after all. Kamon said launching Food Devils in early December 2026 is not an option because Grand Theft Auto 6 follows Zelda, making it a terrible month for a small indie release. The studio hoped to release by the end of the week but said it “can’t make any plans or promises because it’s out of our control.”

The delay affects Studio Daimon’s finances and press plans. Studio Daimon needs money from Food Devils sales before the end of the year because Steam pays out on a one-month delay, and the team might be in financial trouble if the game cannot launch soon. It cannot provide full game keys to reviewers until Steam approval is complete, although beta keys have already gone out. Kamon said the pre-launch period involved heavy crunch, late nights, and weekend work, and it was sad that the team made sacrifices only to miss the release.

Food Devils is not alone. Throughout October 2026, indie developers reported Steam reviews taking two or three weeks or longer with no clear reason. Caravarn Carnage: Fruity Road, submitted Oct. 16, 2026, received approval Nov. 1, 2026, after its developer complained on Oct. 27, 2026 that the build had been stuck. Ashen Legacy, submitted Oct. 15, 2026, received approval Nov. 1, 2026, shortly before its planned Nov. 6 launch.

Lacey’s Flash Games released on Halloween 2026, four days after its planned date, because of the Steam approval delay.

Wheel Make It launched three weeks late after Valve initially rejected it over local co-op access despite the feature requiring only a shared keyboard. Mira, the developer of Cubic Earth, told Kotaku that the debut Early Access title (Steam’s pre-release program) was derailed at the last minute, has no known launch window, and has lost all organic traffic from Steam features. Gonzossm said on Oct. 27, 2026 that he contacted Steam support about Caravarn Carnage: Fruity Road being stuck since Oct. 16, 2026, but had received no update on the build review.

Valve addressed the volume in a Nov. 3, 2026 blog post, saying it has seen many more submissions for store pages and build reviews in recent months and that the process is taking up to 12 business days. Most review time is spent re-reviewing games that have issues at submission. Valve said it is adjusting internal processes to match the heavier review load and adding release checklist items for developers to reduce submissions sent back for adjustments. The Nov. 3 blog post does not mention generative AI (AI that creates content) as a factor.

Kotaku reports that without a more specific statement from Valve, no one can prove generative AI is causing the backlog. Valve’s Marc Wilkinson said the company is aware of the situation and that many people are working on solutions. Valve stated after Steam Next Fest that it did not want to act as a gatekeeper over which development tools creators use. Steam Next Fest received more than 8,000 demo submissions in October 2026, a record-breaking number.

Release volume has risen sharply. Almost 4000 games launched on Steam in October 2026, and nearly 50% disclosed some use of generative AI. Game Discovery Tool determined that more than 50% of Steam releases in October 2026 included an AI disclosure, up from just over 14% in January 2025 and a little over 25% in January 2026. By mid-October 2026, Steam had seen more game releases in 2026 than during 2025, with two and a half months left in the year.

Alfred Kamon said, “Just don’t promise us three to five days because then we make plans around the release date.” He wants Valve to give Food Devils increased visibility on Steam to compensate for the disrupted schedule. Studio Daimon assumes AI slop (low-quality, AI-generated material) clogs Steam’s review queue and says the process is taking several weeks for some developers. The studio said Steam staff appear too overwhelmed and that sudden massive delays affected many developers throughout October 2026, forcing some, including Studio Daimon, to postpone releases.

Valve normally expects a 3-5 day waiting period for Steam store approval and advises developers to submit at least 7 business days before launch. Valve has required games to disclose AI use since January 2024. Steam approval exists so games match their descriptions and do not contain malware. Developers suspect smaller studios without the clout to ask Valve to expedite reviews are suffering disproportionately from the Steam backlog.

Meanwhile, itch.io expanded its AI disclosure filters to add a No AI box on its search page after the number of game pages created on the site doubled in the two months before Nov. 3, 2026 while downloads and purchases did not double. The storefront deleted a couple terabytes of AI slop under its terms-of-service ban on AI spam. Games using generative AI must carry a disclosure to remain on itch.io, similarly to Steam, but itch.io offers no option to describe the extent of AI use.