'I genuinely do not know what to do' says developer of Minecraft-like Allumeria after Microsoft issues a DMCA takedown, forcing it off Steam

A screenshot showing trees and sky — (Image credit: Unomelon)

In January, indie game developer Unomelon announced that their lo-fi voxel sandbox game Allumeria would be playable in Steam Next Fest, an exciting milestone after a year of development. Two weeks later, the game is no longer available on Steam as the result of a DMCA takedown from Microsoft, claiming that Allumeria infringes on Minecraft's copyright.

"I genuinely do not know what to do," Unomelon posted in the game's Discord.

The developer posted a portion of the email from Valve notifying them of the takedown, which states that "Judith Woodward, on behalf of Microsoft Corporation, alleges that Microsoft is the copyright owner of the content found at https://www.minecraft.net/en-us and that your use of Minecraft content, including but not limited to gameplay and assets, without their authorization infringes their rights."

Allumeria certainly does look quite a bit like Minecraft—the inspiration is obvious. But it's far from the first procedurally generated game to riff on Minecraft over the last decade, and Microsoft's copyright claim cites a screenshot from Allumeria (above) alongside one from Minecraft without any specific similarities beyond using voxels.

Allumeria Demo Trailer - YouTube

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Another post from Unomelon in Discord suggests that the takedown may be the result of "an automated claiming service called Tracer.AI," so it's possible Allumeria just looked similar enough to falsely flag a machine learning algorithm. Valve will automatically take a game off Steam if a DMCA is issued against it, so this all could just be a bunch of robots reacting with little to no actual humans examining the circumstances.

Much as Allumeria really does resemble Minecraft, it's always strange how certain games get a pass and others get stepped on. Hytale launched to great acclaim recently (not on Steam, however), and that looks a heck of a lot like Minecraft, too, but as far as I know, Microsoft hasn't threatened any legal action.

And as noticed by Resetera, the developer of another Minecraft-like, Vintage Story (which is also not on Steam), has described the claim as "ridiculous" and called for an official statement from Mojang.

According to Valve, the developer of Allumeria can file a DMCA counter-notice. If Microsoft does not respond to this counter-notice with "legal proceedings" within 10 days, the game will be reinstated on Steam.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

With contributions from

Christopher LivingstonSenior Editor

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