Japanese developer Takiya Iijima, known for the visual novels Gakkou De Atta Kowai Hanashi and the Apathy series, has confirmed that the debut teaser for the new installment of Apathy was created using generative artificial intelligence.
A mysterious video published earlier on August 1 raised questions among fans due to its unusual visual style. After several evasive answers, Iijima officially confirmed that the video was indeed created with generative AI and elaborated on his attitude towards this technology.
According to the developer, generative AI allows him to almost perfectly embody his envisioned images and select precisely the visual style he originally imagined. He noted that he intends to dedicate the rest of his career to independent development and release games through his own studio, 7Korobi8Korogari, for less than 1000 yen, without relying on major publishers.
During one of his broadcasts, Iijima also touched upon copyright issues and the use of generative AI. According to him, before commercial application of the technologies, he made sure that legal issues were settled. The developer stated that he spends several hundred thousand yen monthly on various AI tools, which are reportedly trained on works owned by his own studio.
Iijima emphasized that the content creation process is not limited to "pressing a single button." According to him, the team carefully refines prompts to create character images from scratch in accordance with the original creative vision.
The developer believes that using AI allows a small team of one or two people to create high-quality entertainment content at an affordable price. However, he noted that he does not yet plan to apply similar technologies in projects for home consoles, as major publishers and other stakeholders are much stricter about the use of generative AI.
Despite the active use of new tools, Iijima stated that he clearly distinguishes the tasks in which artificial intelligence is applied. In particular, he writes the script for the new installment of the Apathy series entirely himself, without the help of generative AI.