Slender Man game Faceless blocked from release on Steam

Valve has initially blocked a Slender-style game from Steam Greenlight due to copyright concerns.

Faceless, a title initially known as Slender: Source, was submitted to Valve’s crowd-driven service by developer Justin Ross. It has been one of the most voted games since Greenlight was launched.

The game is inspired by Slender, a popular free online game that scared the bejeezus out of us earlier this year. Slender, in turn, was inspired by the Slender Man internet meme, created by Eric Knudsen under the internet handle Victor Surge.

Faceless developer Ross received Knudsen’s blessing to create a Slender Man game, but the title is currently been denied release on Steam because Valve feels it needs Knudsen’s permission too, according to Joystiq.

"The permission from Victor Surge/Eric Knudsen is fine but since he has an option holder we’ll need their permission too," the company wrote to Ross.

The developer has protested due to the fact that a similar Slender Man game, The Intruder, has already been released via Greenlight with no issues. It is possible The Intruder was cleared because its Greenlight description does not refer specifically to the Slender Man, as Faceless’ does, nor did it initially have Slender in the title.

Ross is hopeful the issue will be resolved. Faceless is due to go into closed beta in December, before going public in March.