FragPunkhas been one of the unexpected hits in the first part of the year, but it has had to endure some serious allegations regarding the use of AI-generated art.
Recently, there has been a notable rise in AI-generated assets in the gaming world, and not everyone is a fan of them. From movies to video games, studios have been accused of using AI-generated assets, and in some instances, there have been admissions from official sources.
In the case ofFragPunk, however, Idon’t believethat thedevelopers are using AI-artfor in-game assets (at least, not officially) despite some of the strong allegations being made in the community.
Why is it unlikely that FragPunk uses AI
A case aboutFragPunkpossibly using AI assets rose based on a promo art, where one of the characters is, strangely, missing a finger. This post was shared on the game’s subreddit, but you’ll find that many users have also claimed that this could just have been a botched attempt at creating graphics.
As someone who creates occasional edits in Photoshop, I admit that the poster (shared on Reddit) has a greater chance of being just a lazy poster creation. But what about the claims of many who have negatively reviewed the game on the alleged grounds of using AI?
WhileFragPunkis now rated asMostly Positiveon Steam (as of writing), it hadMixedreviews post-launch, and most of the negative comments had a similar accusation—the use of AI. Many users claimed that while they don’t have any issues with general gameplay, they can’t play a game that uses AI-based assets.
Here’s why I think that those reviews might be, and potentially are, wrong. Steam is extremely strict about using AI-generated assets to any extent. A major studio like Activision had to use a disclaimer becauseZombieshas AI-based assets.
I genuinely don’t believe that Bad Guitar Studio is so influential that it can convince Steam to avoid a major disclaimer. I also don’t believe that Valve’s employees will be unable to determine if FragPunk has been using AI-generated assets inside the game.
That said, I won’t rule out Bad Guitar using AI sometime in the future to create promotional art. Yes, it’s unfair, given that so many artists have borne the brunt of automated technology doing their jobs and replacing them. Regarding the case of in-game assets being generated by AI, I am willing to giveFragPunka clean chit for now. If it’s good enough to convince Steam and Valve, it’s good enough for you and me.
If we indeed end up seeing a disclaimer on the game’s Steam page in the future, you’ll also find an updated answer to the question in the title.
