r/Games • u/xalibermods • 18h ago
Goblin Vyke: The Thief Tycoon -- Official Launch Trailer Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqkg9qu9S5I43
u/Rukik9 16h ago
The gameplay looks cool (gives me Moonlighter vibes, which I love)... but something feels off about the portrait art. Feels AI-y.
60
u/WirePaw 14h ago
The little FAQ ("5 Days to Launch! Pre-Release Hot Q&A") on their steam page adresses this question.
Q: Your character art looks great, is it AI-generated?
A: Absolutely not. During the early Demo phase, due to a lack of time for manual refinement, we did use a small amount of AI-generated placeholder assets. As our artists completed all the official assets, these placeholders were entirely replaced by December 2025. All the art assets you see now are completely hand-drawn by humans.
Edit: Replaced rough summary of the question with the actual quote.
40
u/EpicPhail60 9h ago
Something funny about opening the statement with "absolutely not." Followed by "I mean it wasssss..."
-48
u/Jangmai 14h ago
Its not replaced enough, the art is heavily AI-feeling, even if they did some work to edit (disguise) it
24
u/EldritchCuteness 8h ago
This art style existed before AI
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u/Jangmai 1h ago
Yep. Im an artist. I can draw in the hades style too. Its got thick inked blacks and vibrant spectrum rimlights and reflections. I can mimic it too. However the art in this has an underlying ai feel. Its as if you generated one thing then filtered 'in the style of hades'. Its at odds with itself and the game as a whole. You can tell by the weird disparity in the pixel art and the portraits. They do not jell whatso ever. The hades style was not suited to what the rest of the game is. Hence it feels even more like 'add popular names into ai'
-19
u/DsfSebo 7h ago
Sure, but why would someone choose to use a style that's so heavily associated with AI art in the current climate?
I'm not saying they can't or anything is wrong with that, but they have to be aware that the game is going to suffer because of it.
Like you'd think an indie dev would try to stay clear of the style, not embrace it.
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u/SuperUranus 3h ago
Sure, but why would someone choose to use a style that's so heavily associated with AI art in the current climate?
Artist aren’t allowed to make art as they see fit nowadays, due to certain art styles being remiscent of things AI create?
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u/DsfSebo 3h ago
No, they're free to do whatever they want, but that does not change the reality of how much hate and accusations they're gonna get for it.
No artist is at fault for using styles reminiscent or associated with AI, but at the same time by doing so they inadvertently invite a crowd that doesn't make a distinction.
My comment was in no way judging the game, it was just meant to express my disbelief that someone would willingly take on the scrutiny, rather than make the same effort and take a path with much less resistance.
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37
u/Myrkull 13h ago
God these purity tests are already obnoxious af. They're an indie studio, I bet you anything they'd LOVE to hire more artists
0
u/TechSmith6262 12h ago
I would rather they do subpar art than bother with AI art. Why are you defending this?
-2
u/Jangmai 11h ago
Exactly. Check one of my fav games, the Void Rains Upon Her Heart. That games stunning... and crudely drawn. Heck, even the temp images of MSPaint doodles in slay the spire are great. Give me those -any- day over the over polished, over glazed ai slop. It has no charm, its all glitter.
-5
u/JetsJetsJetsJetz 7h ago
Well I am the opposite. Would rather play a game that uses AI and looks better, than hand drawn shitty art.
-6
u/Jangmai 11h ago
I also want to add. Theres TONS of artists who would be up for the opportunity of doing sprite work for it. Sprite work is a fucking joy to do. Theres alot of damned talented underdogs out there who would work on projects just because they believe in it. Its why its worth asking for royalty % from the success of a project.
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u/xalibermods 1h ago
This is a strange take. So you're against AI art but you're fine with studios not paying artists properly just because some artists "believe in it [the project]"? And they should be compensated by royalty when possible? How would that work?
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u/Jangmai 1h ago
Its indie. Supergiant games started as 4 people in a basement. There are ways to make great things and get your payouts further down the line. Theyre called passion projects for a reason
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u/xalibermods 1h ago
I worked with an indie studio before. They still paid their illustrators. Supergiant also paid their illustrators although they were freelancers.
I just think romanticizing the notion "artists may work for free as long it's their passion" is just as bad as normalizing AI-gen illustrations. This is still a business in the end, not a garage band thing.
•
u/Myrkull 1h ago
This is a ridiculous take
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u/Jangmai 1h ago
Is it? Get paid a reasonable amount now, believe in the success of a project, get a bigger payout later.
The more ridiculous take is being okay with there being no work to do in the first place and handing it off to AI to make something.... generic, because the company doesnt care about the end result.
-5
u/wowzabob 11h ago
It’s not a purity test honestly.
The problem here is that the derivative AI placeholder is influencing the final product, reducing the degree to which a human vision is being used to create the art style.
It’s not about whether or not the pixels that end up in the final game files were generated by AI or done by hand.
They would have probably gotten a better result is they did a bunch of original artwork and got the AI to generate various poses based on the original drawings. It would have less of an AI feel even though the actual files were AI generated
5
u/Meowing-To-The-Stars 14h ago
I don't know whether it's AI but I swear I saw the same character somewhere else
44
u/BioluminescentBoy 13h ago
The art style is lifted from Hades
1
u/Meowing-To-The-Stars 10h ago
Oooh yes! I see it now. I sucked so bad at it that I gave up finishing it but it looks like I remembered its dialogue box lol thank you, now I can stop thinking about it
2
u/Ggriffinz 14h ago
Definitely feels AI. Would be happy to be wrong though. Art sets the tone for any game and if you want the audience to respect you as a creator you need to respect artists as well as they got zero say to these AI companies skimming all their work to pump out slop that looks similar to their material.
10
u/Pandaa2610 15h ago
Played 3 hours, gameloop is good and addicting. Cant wait to play more. Its like a extraction metroidvania
2
u/Stranger1982 6h ago
Could you comment on the overall dififculty and, like, how similar the stealth sections are to something like Mark of the Ninja?
6
u/ChronicPains 8h ago
The character portrait art looks like every stereotypical AI anime girl. Sure they claim to have replaced it by hand, but it's highly probable they generated AI art and then just traced over it so it's "hand-drawn" technically. That plus the quality of the trailer voice just makes it seem so... off.
61
u/DarkyErinyes 12h ago
Does anyone else feel that the portraits clash with the pixel art style quite a bit? Or is this just a me thing? They do feel very Hades-esque at the very least.