Developers of Starsand Island Urge Players to Avoid Using AI for Fake Positive Steam Reviews

Starsand Island, a charming farming sim from Seed Sparkle Lab, launched in Early Access on February 11, but it’s already facing a rocky start. Backers from its Kickstarter campaign have reported issues with not receiving their release codes, the Xbox Series version is said to be problematic, a $20 cosmetic DLC has frustrated supporters, and a clause regarding “virtual goods” in its EULA has raised some eyebrows.

These concerns were soon eclipsed by a surge of suspicious Steam reviews that appeared at launch, many from users with under an hour of playtime and no other reviews on their profiles. While discussions on Reddit and Steam have highlighted these reviews, a number of them have mysteriously vanished from Starsand Island’s Steam page.

The situation has drawn even more scrutiny to the game’s unusual launch. Recently, Seed Spark Lab posted a community update on the life sim RPG’s Steam page and official Discord titled “Announcement Regarding Artificial Comments.” This update addresses the “large number of overly positive ‘praise’ comments about Starsand Island appearing across various social platforms.”

“Is this some kind of overpraise as an attack? We have no concrete evidence, but it does feel as though someone may be doing this intentionally,” the developers speculated. They pointed out that leaving a review requires purchasing the game, making the situation even more perplexing. “We later discovered that some of these accounts refunded the game after posting their reviews.”

They also expressed their belief that many of these overly positive reviews “appeared to be AI-generated” and “kindly” asked whoever is behind them to cease. Regardless of the sincerity of Seed Spark Lab’s request, the community post has only attracted more negative attention to Starsand Island. With no clear way to identify the source of the reviews, it raises questions about the motives behind attempting to manipulate the game’s reputation on Steam. Reverse review-bombing with AI bots? It’s a curious tactic in the gaming world.