Indie publisher 2 Left Thumbs has blamed delays in Steam’s review process for hurting the launch visibility of Wheel Make It, a co-op game that reached a peak of 15 concurrent players in its first 24 hours. The publisher says the game had accumulated more than 11,000 wishlists before its release on November 1.
Developed by tlproductions, Wheel Make It is a physics-based game in which two players control the wheels of one wheelchair and work together to get past obstacles. It was initially scheduled to launch on October 12, but was still awaiting Steam approval after about two weeks.
In an announcement on October 12, the developers said reviewers had trouble accessing the game’s local co-op mode. The publisher said players only needed to share a keyboard. The release was subsequently delayed until November 1.
In a post on X, 2 Left Thumbs said Steam had assured it that missing the planned launch because of what it called a “tidal wave of AI-slop” would not affect the usual launch visibility mechanisms. The publisher disputed that assurance, pointing to the game’s wishlists and its 15-player peak.
The publisher’s claim comes as AI disclosures among Steam releases have reportedly become more common. An analysis of around 63,600 releases found that 49.9% of games launched in October 2026 disclosed using AI, compared with 1.7% in January 2024. Those figures do not establish that AI-generated submissions caused the review delay for Wheel Make It, and Valve has not publicly confirmed that they were responsible for the backlog.
Sources: Dexerto.