What’s the Deal With AI in Games, and Should We Be Mad?

We’ve all messed with it. AI imagery is everywhere on the internet now. It’s getting more and more convincing too. It’s not just used for stupid images of your dog dressed as the pope, though. AI and LLMs (Large Language Models) have made their way into our society and become a part of everyday life. Whether that’s for better or worse, though, is still to be decided (I’m betting on the latter).

I think we are all familiar with what the general consensus on it is too. If you have the balls to post anything you’ve generated with AI nowadays, then you’re quite brave really. Regardless of what it is, you tend to be followed by a bunch of haters. Sometimes I get it, other times not so much. For example, if you’re using it to make artwork or music, then quite frankly you can get in the bin. Art is exclusively made by humans. However, if you used an LLM to assist with development (as in coding, or something along those lines) then I’m personally more forgiving. Qwayl authors are strictly forbidden to use it in their writing beyond spell-checking, but as a web developer myself I’m no stranger to how it works. It’s often the people that don’t get it who shit on it in that respect.

It’s Everywhere

Which leads on to my point – game developers use AI. I think to a degree it’s something we all need to get used to. If you think coders are still sat there scouring Stack Overflow for coding solutions now – despite the general low levels of trust in it, you’d be dead wrong. Good old Claude already has the info you need, and even has context on your project, so if you want it to, it can just slip it all in. At first this terrified me. I thought I’d be replaced in no time and I’d be back to stacking shelves (no shame in that, I just don’t like going outside). Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the way, since many companies that laid staff off to be replaced by AI have shown regret and are rehiring. I’m probably safe (for now).

Every time a high-profile game developer puts anything in their AI disclosure policy, people seem to lose their minds. To be perfectly honest, I don’t feel this is always justified. As I mentioned, most developers are using LLMs for AI workflows due to how much time it saves and it can solve any bugs and errors much quicker than we could as humans before it. AI-slop is probably here to stay in that sense, and it is what it is. If we want faster turnaround for game releases, this could be the key to more fun at a more regular pace. I don’t know about you, but I miss the days when the longest wait between an Elder Scrolls game was 5 years at the most.

Guilty

I’ll tell you what isn’t cool, though. Using generative AI for your visual assets. I will say it again – Art is exclusively made by humans. The visual assets in games are supposed to be a piece of art. Why the hell would anyone want to spend their time bashing at a game where there was no effort put into how it looks? You know, the bit we can actually see. No thought about its appearance, just “hey ChatGPT generate me a sprite of a cat with machine guns” and that’s it? Fucking lazy. Not to mention how unoriginal it looks each time. AI bases its generations on existing work, so it’s never going to be truly unique. Pearl Abyss had a lot to answer for when they were caught out using generated images in their game in the place of assets. Their excuse wasn’t entirely convincing either. Using these images as “placeholders” makes no sense, as they’re too easy to mistake as real ones at a glance. Real placeholders look hilarious, and that’s so they don’t get left in a final production.

It’s not just Crimson Desert that’s under the anti-AI radar, though. The upcoming Tomb Raider remake has also received scrutiny for its disclosed use of AI. Here’s what the AI disclosure says on their Steam Page:

AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content. Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team.

Personally, this doesn’t offend me so much. They’re being transparent about how they work but insisting this will be a human-made experience. Looking at the trailers – I haven’t been able to see a drop of AI-slop just yet. Time will tell when it releases in February, but I think a lot of people just see “AI” and lose it.

Nope

The general sentiment is clear though: people don’t like AI. It’s not just games. It’s everything. Let’s also not forget to mention how damaging AI is to our planet. Even basement-dwelling hermits such as myself don’t want a dead planet or even a robot takeover. My stance is a bit mixed and I probably seem quite hypocritical on this subject sometimes. Despite the absolute slop it has infested all over the place, I do see the benefits in places where it’s used as a tool or where it actually matters (for example, it is making a huge difference in healthcare).

So let’s answer the question in the headline – Should we be mad at AI being used in game development? Probably. At the moment, I think we should. As long as it’s used as an assistive tool, it doesn’t bother me and I’d like to see it being implemented that way more going forward. What we need less of is sloppy graphics or lazy vibe-coded piece of shit cash grab games. Put some thought behind what you want to make, and use it to assist your development. You’ll probably even learn something along the way.

Let us know your thoughts. Drop us a message or leave a comment. We want to hear what you have to say on the matter!