Heartopia reveals the use of Gen AI, which disappointed the players of cozy games

Heartopia became surprisingly popular on Steam after its release on January 8th. The life simulation game was originally released for mobile devices before being ported to PC by game developer XD (a subsidiary of TapTap). The game involves leveling up hobbies, decorating homes and dressing up your character – staples of the genre.

Heartopia has the usual pitfalls of mobile games ported to PC, namely clunky controls and aggressive gacha monetization. However, the novelty of playing a cozy multiplayer game with friends allowed Heartopia to flourish despite its flaws.

That being said, Heartopia is now facing controversy due to its use of generative artificial intelligence. At first, the use of this technology was not disclosed, but players quickly understood cases where artificial intelligence was clearly used to generate images.

Heartopia reveals the use of AI

Today, the team behind Heartopia issued a statement about the use of AI, but insisted that no monetized content was created using the technology.

“This announcement serves to provide clear disclosure regarding the use of AI content generation in Heartopia. AI is used in puzzle games to reinterpret and redraw in-game images. AI is used in in-game chat to help players understand different languages,” the statement said.

“Heartopia's monetized content does not include AI-generated content. If any AI-powered content is used in the game in the future, this will be announced in advance. Marketing materials created outside of the game, including those created by third-party vendors, are not included in the scope of this disclosure. Thank you for your continued support and feedback as we build Heartopia together.”

The announcement was met with a negative reception on the game's Discord server, with moderators threatening to timeout users from talking about the issue.

Many of the negative reviews of Heartopia on Steam are about the use of artificial intelligence, with people threatening to never play the game again until all the generated images are removed.

“Use of artificial intelligence. That's why I don't play anymore. Undisclosed use of artificial intelligence […] I did one of the puzzles and I could tell it wasn't made by man. A giant picture frame merges with the city and disappears behind the house? No. I was really close to spending money on this game – something I never do – because I thought it was really good and I wanted to support the developers! Now I'm just disappointed,” reads one review.

“They will change this negative rating once the use of AI is exposed and immediately replaced with real human work. It is so disrespectful to use AI for assets and marketing when the core of your game is to cultivate creativity. Really disgusting,” read another.

Unfortunately for Heartopia fans, it doesn't appear that TapTap and XD have any plans to stop using generative AI in the future.