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-service shooter Sagittarius Raiders — She caused a stir in the game development community with a straightforward statement. “It is important to assume that every gaming company is now using AI,” he explained. Independent developers were quick to call bullshit loud and clear. “That’s not true,” said Alex Canaris Soterio, co-founder of… suit and The myth is shattered Developer Polygon tree houseHe tells Edge.

As similar reactions poured in across social media, many developers said avoiding generative AI was not just a matter of personal pride, but also a matter of professional marketing — something developers leverage to let players know their games are made by humans.

For Canaris-Soteriou, the question of adopting the use of artificial intelligence to make games was easy to answer. He says: “The foundations on which it was built, which is the idea of ​​using other people’s works without permission to produce a work of art (…) are unfair.”

Lee’s comments are the latest in a series of comments Notable gaming CEOs Announcing that Artificial general intelligence is the future of the medium. But Canaris-Soteriou, along with many of his peers in game development, wanted to counter that assertion. So earlier this year they collaborated on a solution – a simple image file for A golden gear-shaped seal Which announces, “This developer confirms that no generation AI was used in this indie game.”

They made the pictureEdited by Canaris-Soterio To make sure they are not too similar The most recognizable seal of approval) are freely available to any studio for use in their marketing materials, websites or game pages. Although Kanaris-Sotiriou does not have hard numbers about its use, the seal appears on the store pages of rose water, Astral ascension, A quarter of the employeesAnd more. in A bluesky thread announces the creation of the sealseveral independent developers have shared that they have placed it on their Itch.io pages and on Steam, where it acts as a It goes against the platform’s general AI disclosure rules.

Other developers are adopting their own custom solutions that serve as a media statement against AGI and as a philosophical statement.

“Absolutely everything in Unbeatable was created by humans without any production assistance“,” He reads the drawing Published by D-Cell Games On Bluesky about her next game Unbeatable. The image was created specifically in response to Lee’s comments. “Every painted frame, every written word, every sculpted model, every line of written code, every song sung in a real voice, every guitar played by a real hand, every moment is flawed and messy because we, too“.

While other developers have taken a minimalist, declarative approach against AGI, the passion in D-Cell’s statement is clear and almost feels like a challenge to those using the tools. “Ignoring all ethical, moral, and legal concerns surrounding the use of generative AI is a huge waste of effort,” Jeffrey Chiao, studio producer at D-Cell Games, said in an email to . Edge. “We can achieve results that meet our quality standards without their help.”

Generation AI enthusiasts see technology as a way to unleash hidden creative potential, and for many, it does A tool to speed up time-consuming and expensive processes Inherent in video game production. Some major companies benefit from this; EA announced Partnership with Stability AIFor example, while Microsoft uses A.I To generate play.

Ubisoft in particular had a lot to say about the new generation of AI CEO Yves Guillemot calls it “A big revolution in our industry like the shift to 3D technology,” he said in a recent earnings call. Players can talk to Ubisoft’s AI-powered Neo NPCs While the company’s Ghostwriter tool Creates short snippets of dialogue called barks. Subnautica 2 and PUBG Publisher Crafton She suggested that her employees resign voluntarily If they cannot commit to the new company “AI first” realignment.. Meanwhile, the origins of artificial general intelligence are emerging Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (And again in Black ops 7), Year 117: Pax Romana, Changes, Finals, Sagittarius Raiders, Get away, And more.

Video game Development budgets are swelling and Games take longer to release. A tool that can help get games to market faster and cheaper is an attractive proposition — especially in the indie space, where Investments have dried up significantly Smaller teams require developers to multitask. While generative AI is being used at all levels of industry (With notable exceptions), the loudest reaction comes from the space that seems to benefit the most from it. “The constraints we face in India inspire us to develop with really creative solutions,” says Canaris-Sotirio.

Tom Eastman, President Battle suit aces Developer Trinket Studios echoes this sentiment. He says that the problems Generation AI allegedly solves the problem These are the very things that make game development so rewarding. He talked about how, in the final days of work on the studio’s previous title, Chef Battle BrigadeMany key locations in the game did not have final artwork. Instead of going through the process of creating the hand-drawn line art that dominates the game’s aesthetic, the team decided to use less time-consuming watercolors instead. “Those are interesting creative decisions that are fun to work through, rather than ‘Please, the magic box solves my problems.’”

The developers I spoke to acknowledged that as AI technology improves, there will be more pressure to use it. And while it’s hard to quantify hard numbers, they also see how their official statements against AI generation have resonated with their players and communities. “This is almost certainly going to spread all around us at this current rate, but I think the things people want in our business won’t change because of it,” Chiao says. “So we’ll stick it out on our own and keep doing things our way — it’s more fun that way.”