this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2026
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Hey, I just wanted to thank you for your overwhelming support here for my last post: I'm a dev who has been working on my game for 2 years and my game title got stolen on Steam and they plan to release before I do. What should I do?

Quick summary of the situation: I've been working on my game called The Milgram Experiment for a while now and last week I found out a game with the exact same title was recently added to Steam. I wasn't sure what to do and never considered such a scenario because I always thought that Valve would just prevent you from using a name of a game that already exists. I got a lot of comments with people recommending me to contact Steam, to trademark the name worldwide or to even to try and contact the other dev.

Resolution: The other game has now officially changed its name to The Obedience Experiment.

How: The other dev actually saw my posts across social media and reached out to me and explained that it was a coincidence and he is very open to changing the name (since my game had the title for 2 years). Our talk was genuine and I felt there was no malice on his part. So it's all good now!

Feel free to wishlist both games if you like what you see:

The Milgram Experiment on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2719670/The_Milgram_Experiment

The Obedience Experiment on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4777470/The_Obedience_Experiment/

Thanks for helping out a little indie dev and please tell me what do you think of both games? Which title is more catchy? Any feedback is more than welcome :)

top 42 comments
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[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 20 points 4 hours ago

What a positive spin!

Im so used to hearing stories about some slop company stealing game ideas and being the first to market, especially after flappy bird and 2048.

To hear it was a coincidence makes me happy and that you two came to a middle ground. That's awesome and hoping the best of success for the two of you!

[–] Whitebrow@lemmy.world 47 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

You need to have a bundle with both games in there called “The Milgram Obedience”

I’ll take a free bundle key for this contribution if it comes to fruition, thanks

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago

Or "The Experiment Experiment".

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago

You got it hah

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 4 points 3 hours ago

You dodged an expensive bullet. Now trademark your name, before a really bad outfit steals it for real.

[–] siravious@lemmy.world 94 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

So.. three quick points as my coffee is waiting..

First one is congratulations and well done for an adult resolution to a problem. I don’t wanna get political, but I’ll just say we could use to see a lot more of this in our daily lives. In many areas. Especially important ones.

Secondly, the game looks cool as hell. I’m not sure if it’s my genre or not, but I might check it out anyway it’s compelling and it really draws you in from a curiosity perspective.

Thirdly, and I’m sure it’s just an oversight, but the description still lists your game name on his page.

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 17 points 7 hours ago

Really thank you for your kind words! Yeah, always my first reaction is to assume the other person has good intentions. This dev was very young and probably this is his first game, so we talked it out and it's all good! I will ask him to fix his description, he is a uni student and they are always distracted and underslept hah

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 20 points 9 hours ago

Thirdly, and I’m sure it’s just an oversight, but the description still lists your game name on his page.

Free advertising!

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 24 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

I feel like this was a coordinated marketing stunt. This developer is known to collect popular memes and release them in a bundle as a new post in imgur. After the posts get popular on the site, weblinks to his button game were added in for advertisement. Based on this history, I don't trust this story about the new game.

Edit: If you don't believe me, do a websearch with site:imgur.com https://store.steampowered.com/app/2336120/Do_Not_Press_The_Button_Or_Youll_Delete_The_Multiverse/

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

This conspiracy theory appeals to my complete lack of trust for the world.

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Making a whole other game to promote mine seems way to complicated instead of actually marketing it. I have the DM's from the other dev I can show them to you if you want.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Doesn't mean you didn't organize this with a developer, which is free marketing for him too. At this point, there is nothing that you could do or provide to convince me. I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but after the previous games marketing style as described, I do not trust you.

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Yeah, I mean wouldn't believe strangers on the internet so fair point.

I don't think there is anything wrong with using some Imgur guerilla marketing to get some eyes on my game. I provide entertainment and the last post they can skip if they don't care. But you can check my game on SteamDB, they extract Steam data. My game's page was created in 2023 and this person's page was created in May 2026. I found this on Steam and decide to make a post about it in hopes it would make some noise and we can resolve this so I don't have be involved in legal battles and whatnot. The guy then contacted me, we talked and he agreed to change the name. That's the order of events, but it's okay if you don't believe it : ) All the best!

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

You didn’t come up with the name and you’re mad someone else also didn’t come up with the same name?

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

No, I'm not okay that they didn't check Steam first to see if there is a game with the same name, as having same titled projects doesn't benefit any of us.

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 39 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Congrats to both of you. It's nice of him to have changed the name of his game.

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Yes, a really nice gesture!

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 56 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Funnily enough, Steam doesn't have a rule about exact same names, here is their response:

"Hey there,

Valve respects the intellectual property rights of others, and we ask that everyone using our internet sites and services do the same. Anyone who believes that their work has been reproduced in one of our internet sites or services in a way that constitutes copyright infringement may notify Valve's copyright agent using the form below.

That said, you may want to talk to the other developer directly to work out a solution. We don't have any rules against games sharing the same name, so there wouldn't be any problems for us if you and the other developer decided to name your product similarly."

[–] Cavemanfreak@programming.dev 3 points 4 hours ago

That sounds reasonable to me. Just think what would happen otherwise, if anyone could just spam out slop to take potential names hostages.

But good for you that you got it resolved! 🙂

[–] subOrange@lemmy.world 33 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Quick question, dev, and congrats on getting closer to launch.

But given that you are selecting the name “The Milgram Experiment” for your game, I wonder if you have reached to the family of Stanley Milgram or the Yale’s University in order to use this name in your game.

I am unaware of how the copyright laws work here.

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 57 points 10 hours ago

I have reached to Yale - no response. Milgram's family lawyer reached with me and was okay with it as long as I don't use footage from the actual documentary.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Wonderful to see such a good resolution for this.

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Yeah, I'm glad the other dev was understading!

[–] Erusset@slrpnk.net 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Congrats on the resolution. You should let the other developer know he needs to update his description text as it still has the old title.

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Oh yeah, I will and thank you!

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 5 points 9 hours ago

Faith in humanity +1

[–] Madnessx9@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

Well done both!

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Happy to hear you worked it out. Good luck with your game!

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Thank you so much :)

[–] FreddyNO@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Glad to hear this worked out!

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Thank you! :)

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I am pleasantly surprised. Thst rarely happens nowadays. Thank you.

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Hey... I'm just as surprised hah

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Aw man, stoked to hear it! What a lovely resolution. Looking forward to your game coming out, been seeing it for a little while now and it looks right up my alley

[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you! And sorry it's taking me so long to polish it but I want to avoid bugs and have been playtesting with Steam's playtest tool to get as much feedback as I can!

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 hours ago

Ah maybe I'll sign up when I'm back from summer vacation in a few weeks. Zero worries. I'd rather wait for a good game than play a medium one now

[–] zecg@lemmy.world -3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago (3 children)
[–] psycotica0@lemmy.ca 17 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe "Ell's Well Bhat TEnds -Ell"

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 7 points 10 hours ago

everything went better than expected