Just like Mom used to make
Posted nine months ago.
Gen-AI use is fine if it’s used within good taste and for generating bulk background props and somesuch. It doesn’t make a gamedev any holier or respectable if they torture themselves by hand drawing 1000 unique titles and textures for bookspines for some NPCs bookshelf.
Why would I pay them for something they didn’t do?
It kind of does though because they aren’t destroying the environment, depriving people of water and electricity, and directly contributing to fascism to make their game.
(If the comment is in good faith then we all know they aren’t using a local AI model run on solar panels for the work)
Not to mention the artistic theft
I literally know a guy who is working on a game using local LLMs and his house runs 100% on solar panels, so I found this comment very funny.
…so it’s okay if they steal that work from others who did?
Gen-AI use is fine
It’s really not. There’s already enough procedurally generated GACHA crap. Plus the games that are barely more than T&A Simulator. Hooking this up to the AI pipeline and blasting it into Steam or some similar digital games marketplace is bordering on an act of violence.
It doesn’t make a gamedev any holier or respectable if they torture themselves by hand drawing 1000 unique titles and textures for bookspines for some NPCs bookshelf.
I mean, this is what really separates the Men from the Boys when it comes to game development. You come at this thinking “Aha, what kind of dumbshit would have 1000 unique ideas for tiles and textures? How could that possible add to a player’s experience?” And yet this is exactly what makes a FromSoft game or a Hideo Kojima title or a top tier FF title or old school Blizzard or Bioware or Ubisoft or Nintendo game stand out from the pack.
The loving attention to detail. The craftsmanship and creativity and invention, when translating an idea into a digital asset. The fact that it isn’t just a reskinned cracker box CTRL+C, CTRL+V’d a thousand times across a janky looking brick wall.
You begin to see a game’s age and lack of care when an expansion comes out and people are saying “X is just a reskin of Y” in the reviews. You see its strength when you’re on your 100th hour of Eldin Ring or your eighth Resident Evil game, in a location you’ve never been getting blindsided by a creature you’ve never seen before.
And just to extend, this doesn’t just apply to AAA games or anything. Like look how much people fell in love with and lovingly memed the placeholder art in “Slay the Spire II”. Or how much players are still captivated by the story and feel of “What Remains of Edith Finch”.
There’s plenty of examples of solo devs doing it too, just not as shiny. “Balatro”, “Axiom Verge”, “Return of the Obra Dinn”, “Stardew Valley”… I could go on. People like lovingly crafted things of any size
