People Playground: How to Recover from the Save‑Erasing Workshop Virus

People Playground: How to Recover from the Save‑Erasing Workshop Virus

This caught my attention because People Playground’s community is famously creative – and a single malicious Workshop upload just nuked hundreds of player contraptions and overwrote mods. The solo dev mestiez moved fast: Steam Workshop was temporarily disabled (Feb 1, 2026) and a patch landed Feb 2 that blocks the exploit. Below is a compact, practical recovery checklist so you can verify your install, clean the infection, and get back to building without losing any more work.

Key takeaways

• Do not launch People Playground until you verify files and remove infected Workshop content – launching risks reinfection.
• Verify integrity in Steam, delete local mods + Workshop content for app ID 1118200, unsubscribe suspicious recent updates.
• Run a full AV + Malwarebytes scan, then test with a new save before restoring backups.
• Steam is investigating; the developer reports the exploit targets only the game’s Contraptions and mods folders (no wider PC compromise reported).

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Publisher|mestiez / People Playground
Release Date|February 2, 2026
Category|Security guide
Platform|Windows (primary)
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What happened (brief)

Since late January a malicious Workshop mod, often disguised as a popular contraption, began deleting the game’s Contraptions folder, overwriting mods and corrupting save/game files for many users. mestiez disabled the Workshop while Steam investigates and shipped a client-side patch to block the payload. The developer states the malware is limited to in‑game folders (Contraptions and mods) and not the wider system – but that claim depends on timely cleaning and not reintroducing infected items.

Recovery checklist — follow in this exact order

• Step 1 — Verify Steam files: Steam Library → People Playground → Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity. Install the Feb 2 patch before anything else.
• Step 2 — Exit Steam completely: Use Task Manager to end Steam.exe to prevent Workshop syncing while you clean.
• Step 3 — Remove local mods and contraptions: Delete the game’s mods folder and the Contraptions folder if corrupted. Typical paths: %localappdata%\PeoplePlayground\ and Steam Workshop for app 1118200 at steamapps\workshop\content\1118200\. Delete ALL contents of that Workshop folder.
• Step 4 — Unsubscribe and bulk-clean the Workshop: In Steam’s Workshop tab sort by Recently Updated and unsubscribe from any items uploaded/updated after Jan 30, 2026. Unsubscribe/report items with suspicious tags or names (community flagged marker: “optimized!”).
• Step 5 — Scan system: Run Windows Defender full scan, then Malwarebytes custom scan targeting the game folders. Use Process Explorer to spot lingering suspicious processes and remove them.
• Step 6 — Test before restoring: Relaunch the game, create a simple contraption, save and relaunch to confirm saves persist. If stable, restore offline backups of contraptions predating Jan 30.

Practical tips & common pitfalls

• If file deletion fails (“in use” or access denied) run Explorer as admin or boot into Safe Mode to remove locked files.
• Clear Steam’s download cache and restart Steam if Workshop subscriptions don’t update correctly.
• Don’t re‑subscribe to anything updated after Jan 30 until the Workshop investigation concludes.
• If you host Workshop uploads, audit your uploads and re‑upload only verified clean packages from backups.

What this means for you

For most players this is recoverable with 15-30 minutes of work if you have backups. The worst loss is user contraptions that weren’t backed up — a reminder to keep local or cloud copies of creations. The bigger takeaway: the Workshop is powerful but centralized content needs better server‑side scanning and publisher tooling; expect Steam to add stronger client/server checks going forward.

TL;DR

Do not launch the game. Verify files in Steam, close Steam, delete local mods + the Workshop content folder for app 1118200, unsubscribe recent Workshop updates, run full AV & Malwarebytes scans, then test with a fresh save before restoring backups. The developer pushed a patch and Steam is investigating — these steps are the fastest, safest path back to building.