Steam's approval process criticized this indie remake for being a remake. 'Seems exactly the same as the game you released 11 years ago.'

InFlux Redux, a beautified remake, is a 2013 ball rolling puzzle game by indie developer Joe Wintergreen. Wintergreen has worked on games such as Weird West and Adios. Wintergreen rebuilt Influx's engine in order to improve the game's physics along with the graphical upgrade. Unfortunately, Steam did not appreciate the overhaul despite its substantial nature.

Steam will only list games that have passed a review of their store page and the product build. Steam must verify that the store listing for each game contains a "detailed, coherent" description of the software and that it matches the description. It's not surprising that a game's first build review fails. Maybe Valve had an unexpected startup problem, or Steam achievements weren't properly implemented. Wintergreen was surprised to find some unexpected editorializing when he saw that InFlux Redux had failed its first review.

Wintergreen tweeted last week that Steam had criticized InFlux Redux in its build review. It said it "seems exactly the same as the game you released 11 years ago." Explain why this game should be its own product. The note is a bit bizarre, considering the obvious improvements in the remake. In another context, this would read like a low-effort dunk that you might see during a review-bombing. Wintergreen said: "I expected a steam-review, not a Steam review."

Steam has noted a very strange issue, as my library is full of remakes and other remasters I would have a hard time separating from the originals. If I didn't realize I was looking at the before and after screenshots of Skyrim Special Edition and Skyrim, I would have thought I was looking at before and afterwards screenshots for a mod which cranked up the moody nordic fog.

Wintergreen's best guess was that the store description of the remake shared enough text with that of the original to have tripped Steam's complaint. Steam dropped the complaint immediately after he responded. Wintergreen replied in a tweet that it was "completely normal and expected" to have your first build reviewed by Steam. This was just an odd/funny thing to receive. No biggie!"

InFlux Redux is a game I love, and I have it on my wishlist. It looks like I won’t have to wait long: Wintergreen tweeted last night that InFlux Redux had been approved for Steam release.