Update, 4:15 p.m. EST: In a statement to Kotaku, TiGames says that the full Zoopunk game is all human-made, but players will have generative AI tools to make user-generated content. The full statement reads as follows:
“All our works are original creations and the culmination of our artists’ hard work and dedication. AI will only be used to assist players in producing user-generated content (UGC) at a lower cost, such as vehicle skins, clothing color schemes, and similar items. In other words, AI serves as a tool to support players in secondary creations and in maintaining the mod community.”
Original story continues below:
Today’s Xbox Partner Preview had a bunch of big announcements and trailers like a new look at the upcoming 007 First Light and the reveal of a follow-up to Vampire Survivors, but one of the surprise standouts for me was Zoopunk, a new action game by F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch developer TiGames, starring a bunch of anthropomorphic animals in a sort of dark, science-fiction post-apocalypse. However, as more news is trickling out, it’s beginning to look like the game might be using AI generation tools, and that has deflated my interest.
Zoopunk‘s fast-paced combat looks slick and stylish, but maybe a little stiff at first glance. I’m curious to see how it feels when the controller’s in my hands. Growing up playing Devil May Cry made me very picky about character action games in the PS2 era, so if one doesn’t feel good to play, I tend to bounce off of it very quickly. But what TiGames showed in the first trailer has potential.
However, what didn’t come up during the Xbox showcase was that Zoopunk was also used as part of a Stable Diffusion AI asset generation demo earlier this year. The video, which is currently “unlisted” on the game’s YouTube channel, shows a user drawing simplistic equipment designs, which are then used to generate an in-game model. At the moment, it’s unclear if this is integrated into the game itself, or if Zoopunk was just used as a demo for the AI model. An NVIDIA announcement from earlier this year also names the game as using AI-powered NPCs. We’ve reached out to TiGames for comment on the situation and will update this story if we hear back.
Generative AI is creeping into video games more and more over recent years, with several executives at big companies insisting it should become the norm within the industry. Despite this, generative AI has become a legal battleground as these models are being trained on copyrighted works.
