'We will f*ck up': The publisher of Against the Storm and Manor Lords is committed to keeping generative AI out, but it's easier said than done

Generative AI, spurred on by super-spreader CEOs, has been smeared everywhere—into our games, our music, our art, even our damn emails. And it's not enough that it's terrible at even the most simple tasks assigned to it, like providing basic, easily accessible information; now we've also got to deal with its massive environmental toll, the upheaval of the education system, disinformation, plagiarism and whole new levels of creative bankruptcy.

It's become overwhelming. Which is why it's reassuring when a publisher takes a hard stance against it, like Manor Lords and Against the Storm publisher Hooded Horse. CEO Tim Bender is "committed" to keeping gen AI out of the publisher's games, he says. When Hooded Horse signs devs, it's right there in the contract.

"It's one of those things that we have a union of being aligned with our developers and with players," says Bender. "Players don't, by and large, want gen AI."

This isn't just a ban on gen AI art in the finished game, but in the earlier stages too. Even studios that wouldn't want to release a game with AI-generated assets will still sometimes use it for placeholders and concept art. As was the case with Sandfall's Clair Obscur—where it used AI-generated placeholder textures that remained until just after launch.

"They never intended that placeholder asset to remain in the game," Bender says. "But this is why we advise developers: don't put placeholder assets into builds. Don't even use gen AI for that. It's such a risk, because things happen, right?"

And he's not concerned about developers not sticking to the ban. People have asked how he would enforce the policy, but beyond the fact that it's written in the contract—which he says isn't even the most important safeguard—developers aren't exactly clamouring to use gen AI in their games. "The importance is the alignment," he says. "There is no enforcement against developers, because the developers are aligned."

As reassuring as this is, though, the overwhelming and unavoidable nature of AI means that there's a limit to how much Hooded Horse can guard against it. And Bender is all too aware of this.

"Developers, who don't want gen AI art, [they might] contract with some freelance artist or some art outsourcing firm, and they'll be very clear. And you can still get something back, like someone did something, things slip in, or someone doesn't follow the directions. There's all these circumstances that make it very hard."

So as sincere as Bender seems about keeping gen AI out, he can't promise that it won't manage to sneak in. "We will fuck up. We publish lots of games, and our developers align with us, but at this point it's in the pipelines with art outsourcing. There's people, like some freelancer somewhere, something will have this happen. But what we can do is make a firm commitment. This is that we guard against it in every way we can, and that we will, if it's ever discovered, remove it."

Bender emphasises that he's not trying to pre-excuse anything. "It's a reality that we will fuck up. This will happen." His frustration with this state of affairs captures what's so infuriating about AI: "It just causes such headaches and has made our lives so difficult, because now we have to guard against this, because the world has become infected. That's why I used the word 'cancerous', because it spreads. It spreads everywhere. And so now it's a constant."

Due to the ease with which gen AI can slip into the process, Hooded Horse has to remain vigilant throughout a game's development. "It's now not just a decision at the beginning … it has to go through every stage of the process, conversations, procedures, methods and agreement. And it's really us and the developers trying to guard against a world that is now infected with gen AI art, which we do not want in our games."

His stance is noteworthy and one that will undoubtedly benefit the games Hooded Horse publishes, as well as the players who can enjoy its games without worrying that they're effectively funding the very things that will mean the end of quality art and entertainment. But it's also bleak that these measures have to be put in place at all, and that even publishers and studios with the best intentions, the most anti-AI, still expect it to sneak in.