Indie game developers have a new sales pitch: being ‘AI free’
Earlier this month, Junghun Lee, CEO of Nexon, the parent company behind the current live-action shooter of the day. Arc Raiders – made waves in the game development community with a simple statement. “It’s important to assume that all video game companies are now using AI,” he explained. Indie developers were quick to call bullshit loud and clear. “That’s simply not true,” Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou, co-founder of Röki And Myth destroyed the developer Polygon Treehouse, tells The edge.
As similar reactions poured in on social media, many developers shared that avoiding generative AI was not only a matter of personal pride, but also a matter of professional marketing – one that developers exploit to let their players know that their games were created by humans.
For Kanaris-Sotiriou, the question of adopting the use of AI generation to create games was easy to answer. “The foundations on which it is based, the idea of using the work of others without permission to generate works of art […] are unfair,” he said.
Lee’s comments are just the latest in a string of notable video game CEOs declaring that the AI generation is the future of the medium. But Kanaris-Sotiriou, along with many of his fellow game developers, wanted to challenge that claim. So, earlier this year, they collaborated on a solution: a simple image file of a golden cog-shaped sigil that declares: “This developer assures that no generation AI was used in this indie game.”
They made the image (which Kanaris-Sotiriou edited to ensure it didn’t look too similar to a more famous seal of approval) freely available for all studios to use in their marketing materials, websites, or game pages. Although Kanaris-Sotiriou doesn’t have hard numbers on its usage, the seal appears on store pages for Rose water, Astral ascension, Stickand more. In the Bluesky thread announcing the creation of the seal, several indie developers said they put it on their Itch.io pages and on Steam, where it serves as an antithesis to the gen AI platform’s disclosure rules.
Other developers are adopting their own tailor-made solutions that act as both an informative statement against the AI generation and a philosophical statement.
“Absolutely everything in Unbeatable was created by human beings without any generative help.“, reads a graphic posted by D-Cell Games on Bluesky about its upcoming game Unbeatable. The image was created specifically in response to Lee’s comments. “Every picture drawn, every word written, every model carved, every line of code typed, every song sung with a real voice, every guitar played with a real hand, every imperfect and messy moment because we are too.”
While other developers have taken a simple declarative approach against AI generation, the passion in D-Cell’s statement is evident and it almost reads like a challenge to those using the tools. “Ignoring all the ethical, moral and legal concerns related to the use of generative AI is a huge waste of effort,” says Jeffrey Chiao, producer at studio D-Cell Games, in an email to The edge. “We can produce results that meet our quality standards without their help. »
Generation AI enthusiasts see the technology as a way to unlock hidden creative potential, and for many, it’s a tool to speed up the time-consuming and expensive processes inherent in video game production. Some of the biggest companies are taking advantage; EA announced a partnership with Stability AI, for example, while Microsoft uses AI to generate gameplay.
Ubisoft in particular has a lot to say about the AI generation, with its CEO Yves Guillemot calling it “as big [of] a revolution for our industry like the move to 3D” in a recent earnings call. Players can converse with Ubisoft’s AI-powered Neo NPCs while the company’s Ghostwriter tool generates short snippets of dialogue called barks. Subnautic 2 And PUBG Publisher Krafton has suggested its employees voluntarily resign if they cannot comply with the company’s new “AI-driven” reorganization. Meanwhile, Generation AI assets appear in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (and again in Black Ops 7), Year 117: Pax Romana, Changes, The finals, Arc Raiders, InZoiand more.
Video game development budgets are exploding and games are taking longer to release. A tool that can help bring games to market faster and more cheaply is an attractive proposition, especially in the indie space, where investment has dried up significantly and smaller teams force developers to multitask. And while generative AI is used at every level of the industry (with a few notable exceptions), the strongest pushback comes from the space that is supposed to benefit the most. “The constraints we face as freelancers inspire us to expand with truly creative solutions,” says Kanaris-Sotiriou.
“The constraints we face as freelancers inspire us to expand with truly creative solutions.”
Tom Eastman, president of Ace of combat suits Developer Trinket Studios echoes this sentiment. He says the problems the AI generation is meant to solve are precisely what makes game development so rewarding. He explained how, during the last few days of work on the studio’s previous title, Battle Leaders Brigadeseveral key locations in the game did not have completed artwork. Rather than go through the process of creating the hand-drawn line art that dominates the game’s aesthetic, the team decided to use watercolors which are less time-consuming. “These are interesting and fun creative decisions to consider, instead of ‘please, a magic box solves my problems.’ »
Developers I spoke with acknowledged that as gen AI technology improves, there will be more pressure to use it. And while it’s difficult to give precise numbers, they also see how their official anti-gen-AI statements have resonated with their players and communities. “At the current rate, this is almost certainly going to happen everywhere around us, but I think the things people want in our works are not going to change because of this,” Chiao says. “So we’re going to stand on our own two feet and continue to do things our way – it’s more fun that way.”
