In the ongoing global discussion about artificial intelligence, understanding how various creative minds approach this technology is crucial. Wayfinder Studios, the team behind the upcoming co-op RPG Wyldheart, recently shared their perspective. During a recent interview, co-founder and creative director Dennis Brännvall and marketing director Erin Bower clarified the small studio’s position on AI integration.
Bower unequivocally stated the studio’s clear stance:
“At Wayfinder, we are fundamentally opposed to generative AI. We do not incorporate it into our games. Our highly skilled artists pour their dedication into meticulously handcrafting every asset within our game. So, to reiterate, generative AI is not part of our development process. While we need to delve deeper into developments like DLSS 5 to fully grasp them, there are no intentions to utilize such technologies in our game.”
Brännvall then elaborated on how AI-related technology *is* used, distinguishing it from generative AI, much like in many traditional video game developments.
“You’ll see there’s a massive overworld,” he explained. “Each of those hexagon-like areas – it’s essentially a hex crawl – you can zoom in and explore. Every single one is designed to contain something interesting to do. All these scenes, every piece of the dungeons, all the villages are handcrafted by us.” He highlighted their embrace of procedural technology for specific tasks, such as generating weapon statistics or assembling handcrafted dungeon rooms into diverse layouts.
“I think we lean more into this blend of handcrafted artistry and procedural generation,” Brännvall continued. “For instance, we don’t need to manually place every single tree in our game. We employ smart techniques in this regard, especially as a tiny startup with just 10 developers creating a rather massive game. We leverage 20 years of industry experience to efficiently bring our vision to life. However, our methods are arguably much more traditional in today’s AI-centric world when it comes to how we make things.”