A few months back, the cover for Bloodbound Origins just irked me because it was so obviously AI, but they were able to fix it up pretty well. I made a post about it when it came out, and immediately, some people were like, "Oh, maybe they just have a new artist." But the moment I saw Lily‘s hand I just knew no, it cannot possibly be a new artist because only an AI would mess up the hands. That’s always what you look for first.
The OG cover of the big three. Please Take note of Kamilahs character design.
Vs
The new cover for the origin story (which is just a cash grab because it’s only for VIP and I played it it’s really nothing new that you couldn’t have learned with diamonds in the OG games)
They looked so generic, and then I looked at Lily‘s hand. Not to mention all the details lost on Kamilah's necklace. It’s barely even a necklace anymore
That was so obviously AI because even in the covers where they have hands that are not the main focus, it looks decent
And lately we all know that AI has perfected the hand issue. So now you can’t tell when AI art is AI art as easily, BUT it will ALWAYS look Dead and soulless compared to old art
This new cover sparked my curiosity again.
Please compare it to this Tropical beach-like cover art of Getaway Girls. Notice how the background is very dynamic, and it kind of adds to the story that the cover is there to tell.
If you think the first image is just some AI-generated image of three friends on a beach, you’re correct because after seeing that cover, I put that prompt into AI, and it gave me a very similar image. Not to mention that the background is so lazy that you want to rip your hair out. All of these new covers look so lifeless lately that I don’t even want to play the games.
But all of that was to say we’re all aware of the layoffs that happened, but we weren’t sure who got laid off (except for these two major people in the company that I don’t remember right now. I’m so sorry).
But I was searching on LinkedIn because I was like, OK, did they lay off any artist and the second thing that popped up was an app created by the other ex-employees, which probably indicates that the layoffs were enough to spark them to create an app that has the vibes of original Choices games ( I’ve been playing the game since it came out with JUST the freshman series when I was in middle school, and now I’m about to go to law school😂) don’t want to make this post seem like I’m advertising so moving on.
When I looked at the art for the game, it was so clearly the art style that choices started with, Which means they either laid off their lead artist or they laid off enough artists who knew the art style that now the small number of artists that are on board are just there to render the AI that they generate. And it’s so sad and annoying because VIPs cost $15 a month. You’re getting $15 a month out of so many different Players VIP is pretty popular. I had it for a few months because I wanted to be able to play all the old stories without having to use keys. So why can’t you pay your artists? There’s no way the company is going this downhill. And I feel like it’s just a story cover, so it doesn’t take that long if you have concept art. There is no excuse for using AI, especially as such a massive company. I also know this because I was considering investing in the company that owns Pixelberry, and they’re doing well, but with the way that they are trying to push AI into almost all of the games and companies they’ve acquired, not anymore.
TLDR: A lot of the artists got laid off, so the companies are relying on AI, Which is not a good look, and it is becoming more and more off-base from what the characters initially looked like. But the artist do work their own game now with a lot of the other people who were laid off
OK, that’s it. That’s just my rant. Don’t take it too seriously if you disagree, that’s fine. Keep playing what you wanna play. I just thought I would share all the info I found!
