Valve Flags Indie Dev for Infringing Their Own IP

A solo Japanese developer named Daikichi created a board game called Dinostone. Daikichi also created a video game called Wired Tokyo 2007. When Daikichi put Dinostone inside Wired Tokyo 2007 as a background detail, Valve's Steam review process flagged it as third-party intellectual property infringement and blocked the game's demo from releasing. The third party, in this case, is the developer themselves.

Daikichi shared the situation on X on April 29, as first reported by Japanese outlet Game Spark. Valve's message specifically cited "dinosaur themed card games shown in the environment within your app in gameplay" as the offending content. Daikichi responded by linking to the Board Game Geek page for Dinostone, which lists the same developer name, but Steam's review team wasn't satisfied. Valve told the developer they'd need "license agreements, or a legal opinion from your attorney analysing the intellectual property issues and explaining why you don't need licenses." Without that, Valve said, "we don't plan to ship your app."

This is the kind of absurd catch-22 that makes Valve's review process look like it was designed by nobody in particular. A platform that routinely lets asset-flip shovelware through the front door is demanding a solo indie dev hire a lawyer to prove they own their own board game. "Where's that kind of money supposed to come from with an indie game budget?" Daikichi asked on X, which is a completely fair question when you're one person making a 3D action game about climbing Tokyo skyscrapers.

The developer also pointed out a deeper problem: Dinostone was published under the Daikichi pseudonym, not their legal name, so no straightforward public document exists linking the two. Over the weekend, Daikichi took the only route left available to them. They wrote and signed a document granting themselves permission to use their own creative works, then resubmitted the demo for review. "Well, I hope this works," they wrote.

As of now, the demo is still listed as "coming soon" on Steam with no update from Valve. Wired Tokyo 2007 itself, described as a "vertical 3D action game where you climb toward the vast skies above Tokyo," is targeting a 2027 release. Its store page notes that AI-created 3D models and sound sources will appear in less than 1% of the final build.