Wolf Girl Colony Sim Family Time Goes Viral, Gets Ripped Off

Have you ever dreamed of raising thousands of wolf children with your wolf girl wife? Well, you're not alone. Family Time, an upcoming colony sim from developer sgthale, has become a viral sensation, rocketing up Steam's most-wishlisted charts. On October 6, it was ranked 66th, but by October 16, it had climbed to 46th and is still rising rapidly, according to SteamDB. The game first gained traction on Itch.io with a demo that captured the hearts of many online.

So what's the appeal? The Steam blurb says it all: "Build a family of thousands of wolf children with your own wolf partner!" It's a balancing act of resources where you command your ever-growing pack to hunt animals or build shelters. Fail to take care of your little wolf kids, and you'll lose the game. But let's be honest—much of the charm is hearing anime wolf children say "mama" and ask for "uppies." It's a casual colony sim with a heavy dose of competitive childcare.

Unfortunately, success breeds copycats. A near one-to-one ripoff with the exact same name has appeared on Steam, developed by Hilly Games. The copycat's description swaps wolf for fox: "You and your friends crash your car and find yourselves in the wilderness with a fox mama. Raise a family of thousands of fox children with her, and teach them how to farm, build, hunt, and more! 1-4 player experience." Even the Steam page layout is ripped off. Sgthale says a DMCA notice has already been sent, but Steam is slow to act. "Last update was a few days ago with Steam asking if I'd like to remove the copycat from the Steam page. I said yes and I'm still waiting for a follow up," sgthale told GamesRadar+.

The copycat has been met with scathing criticism. Its Steam discussions page is filled with threads calling out "blatant plagiarism" and joking "hey bro, let me copy your homework." Sgthale clarified, "It is an infringement of expression since they copied banner, description, layout but people are free to make family genre games (happy to pioneer a new era of it)."

This incident highlights a growing concern in the indie scene: AI-powered ripoffs and recomps are on the rise. Developers, especially those without legal resources, are becoming wary of having their games copied wholesale. Last month, Needle In A Haystack Simulator had to deal with a flood of copycats, prompting creator Studio Bitdot to apologize for the "slop." The copycat Family Time doesn't disclose any AI use, but the genuine game does. Sgthale uses AI for concept art, prototype textures, and quick mesh tests that are later replaced by real artist designs. Their previous game, MyRobot, also faced criticism for optional AI features.

Despite the drama, Family Time's popularity continues to soar. Will you be picking it up? And what do you think about the rise of copycat games on Steam? Let us know in the comments!