Taiwanese developer Rayark has refuted allegations that it’s used AI to generate its game art, but adds that it’s “recruited more members with AI expertise…”
In one of the more curious official statements we’ve seen emerge from a developer of late, Taiwanese studio Rayark Games appears to have both denied and admitted to using AI in its games’ development at the same time.
Founded in Taipei in 2011, Rayark is best known for its rhythm action games, mostly released for mobile and Switch – Cytus, Cytus II and Deemo are perhaps their most best-known.
Over the past week, however, a number of gamers began to notice anomalies that suggested Rayark might be using AI-driven software (such as Midjourney) to generate its artwork. These ranged from inconsistencies in characters’ costumes to weird distortions, such as a hand with six fingers – the latter a quirk commonly associated with earlier AI tools.
Twitter’s SaltPPC then alleged that Rayark had laid off its human artists and “replaced them with AI.”
At least some of these suspicions appeared to be backed up by an 18 May article on Yahoo China, in which Rayark’s chief technology officer reportedly extolled the virtues of AI. We can’t verify for certain what the CTO says in that article, since Google Translate can be unreliable at times, but there’s other evidence elsewhere that Rayark has jumped on the AI bandwagon.
Ikala Cloud, a Taipei-based company that specialises in, among other things, “AI solutions”, carries a lengthy post about Rayark Games, which concludes with the line, “The next step for Rayark is combining Cloud and AI technology.”
“It will also consider combining GCP’s AI technology for applications in games to make the sensory experience of the game more finely detailed,” the site reads, “which will allow gamers and Rayark Games to enjoy the expansive game world.”
Curiously – and as reported by Kotaku and Gamer Braves – Rayark has recently come out to deny “the recent false rumours” circling the company – including “using AI technology in its artistic works and laying off a significant number of artists.”
“We respect different opinions and ideas,” the studio’s statement on Twitter reads, “but unfortunately, some of the circulated content is based on mistranslations of our previous statements and false reports.”
But then the statement then goes on to state that Rayark is actively researching the use of AI tools in game development, and has “recruited more members with AI expertise to improve our development processes.”
Rayark therefore denies using AI to generate art, but admits that it’s researching and experimenting with AI.
The studio isn’t, of course, the only game company that’s latched onto AI. Last week, it was revealed that Blizzard’s chief design officer, Allen Adhem, had excitedly written to the firm’s staff about Blizzard Diffusion, its own AI-driven image generator. “We are on the brink of a major ecolution in how we build and manage our games,” Adhem reportedly enthused.
When it comes to the use of AI in game development, the future is now, it seems. And boy is it depressing.
