Steam Kicks Off Punk Games Showcase, Vows to Ban AI Slop and Celebrate the Underground

Starting October 9, Valve’s Steam platform will host the Punk Games Showcase, a week-long curated digital festival dedicated to video games that embody the punk ethos, from aggressive hardcore soundtracks to anti-authoritarian themes. Organized by Brad Smith of the studio Milky Tea, the event draws from more than 400 submitted titles, with over 100 games ultimately selected for the lineup. The curation process explicitly filters out games built with generative AI, and organizers say they also rejected submissions from studios with questionable ethics or shady business practices. Many featured titles are already available, while others will launch during or after the festival.

The showcase is more than a promotional window; it is an attempt to give a distinct subculture its own space on one of the world’s largest storefronts. Smith, who has been involved with itch.io’s Hardcore Punk Jam since 2018, is running the Steam event alongside the jam’s latest edition. His stated ambition extends beyond the week itself: he hopes the festival will eventually push Valve to introduce a dedicated “punk” categorization label, allowing developers to tag their games and helping players discover them more easily.

A Curated Rebellion Against AI and Mainstream Punk

With 443 games submitted, the selection process proved demanding. Smith explained that he had to invent arbitrary categories to help lock in decisions, weighing whether a title featured punk music, engaged with punk culture, or matched the showcase’s aesthetic, tone, and intent. “Does this game/developer have design intentions that feel genuine?” he asked, noting that applications from developers who collaborated with punk musicians or who themselves belong to punk bands often tipped the balance.

Ultimately, I just want to celebrate the underground and see more games from true creative people who aren’t solely motivated to make money in this industry or that simply feature aggressive hardcore punk music. I always felt like certain depictions of punk culture in video games seemed oversimplified, disingenuous, or compromised in some way.

Brad Smith, Milky Tea

Smith was candid about the subjectivity of the exercise, joking that the only real qualification might be to “go out and buy a punk record, or attend a show.” He acknowledged that the effort to label what counts as punk risks feeling gatekept, but insisted the goal was to elevate the scene rather than police it.

The AI crackdown was handled with outside help. Smith consulted Camille Carpentier, an illustrator from the Belgian scene with a keen eye for spotting AI-generated art, to help filter out synthetic visuals. He noted that some submissions leaned into the word “punk” in ways that missed the point entirely, with cyberpunk- and steampunk-style games getting binned. “We did our best to curate and filter that stuff out in our spare time but there was a lot,” he said, hoping nothing slipped through.

From Mosh Pits to Moshing Games

The final roster spans a wide range of genres and formats, though they share an anti-establishment spirit. Titles include Too Many Fucking Nazis, a fast-paced first-person shooter about creatively destroying Nazis, and Punk Juice, where players join a band, go thrifting, and get frustrated by code-locked bathrooms. Wax Heads casts players as slacking employees at a struggling record store, while Club Soko turns the mosh pit into a puzzle riddled with security and crowd-killers.

More politically charged entries include Tonight We Riot, a 2D crowd-based brawler about protestors resisting tyranny, developed by a worker-owned indie team, and Tetherpunk, in which players kitbash a spaceship from scrap to destroy the corporate overlords who ruined their world. Music-focused games like 10 Second Mixtape and CRUST SHMUP round out the selection, with the latter drawing on crust punk aesthetics.

I have a real soft spot for CRUST SHMUP; it’s free and feels like the game equivalent of Napalm Death’s 1987 record Scum. Its crusty style influenced how I ended up doing some of the graphics for the event Steam page, too.

Brad Smith, Milky Tea

Smith also pointed players toward upcoming and future titles, including Beat, Heart, Beat, which carries grungy Midwest emo vibes, alongside 4MECHEROS, Urine Nation, CHILDREN OF SATURN, and Creatures Like Us.

Looking Ahead

Smith is realistic about the path to a Steam “punk” label, admitting he is unsure how the process will play out with Valve. “I’d love to be able to easily find more games like this on Steam,” he said, noting that such a category already exists on itch.io. He plans to keep running Hardcore Punk Game Jams, guaranteeing submitted entries a spot in any future Punk Game Showcases until the label is added.

For now, the showcase stands as a bold experiment in storefront curation, pairing a week of punk-infused games with a longer-term push to reshape how Valve organizes its catalog. Whether the label takes hold remains to be seen, but the festival signals a growing movement of indie developers who want their underground roots reflected—loudly and unapologetically—on the biggest platform in gaming.