The head of The Astronauts believes the technology is not mature enough for use in game development.
Witchfire creator and head of The Astronauts studio, Adrian Chmielarz, has taken a firm stance on the use of generative AI in game development. According to him, the rule of "no AI" applies when working on Witchfire, and no element of the project, including visual materials, was created using neural networks.
In an interview with DualShockers, Chmielarz noted that this approach costs the studio more and slows down production, but he considers it a matter of principle. As an example, he cited collectible portraits of witches: using AI, sketches could have been ready in a week, while it took artists almost a month, since all materials were created manually. This, he said, allowed them to maintain creative control and the necessary quality.
Chmielarz also acknowledged that AI has become one of the key topics in the industry. He believes that modern technologies are "too good to ignore" but "too weak to use them the way they are often presented." In his opinion, talk of games fully created by neural networks in the coming years remains unrealistic.
In the foreseeable future, the developer believes, artificial intelligence will remain an auxiliary tool and will not replace human labor. Therefore, The Astronauts adheres to a restrained position: Witchfire is created entirely manually, and the studio is not going to abandon this principle, preferring to observe how technologies will develop further.
