Heartopia Dev Issues Statement on the Game's Use of Artificial Intelligence

Heartopia the developers have been talking about using AI in the game and the community is not happy about it. Heartopia just earlier in January, and while it's already seen considerable success, the discovery is leading to backlash from those who are otherwise fans.

Heartopia has been described as a cross-platform multiplayer game Stardew Valley and Animal Crossingwhich understandably led to a lot of players checking it out. Tens of thousands of players have seen the game on Steam alone, with a peak of more than 37,000 playing simultaneously. Since the game only launched earlier this month, players are still discovering everything about it, with some starting to express concerns after finding what appeared to be AI assets in the game. Now, the team has shared that the game uses AI and revealed how it was used.

Heartopia-players-build-houses-doll-houses-shops-and-other-game-jobs

Heartopia players build life-size dollhouses, convenience stores and more

Heartopia offers some robust house building tools for players to get creative with, and these Heartopia players got the job done.

How Heartopia uses AI

After players shared their findings, they started asking if AI was used in the game, and if so, how. This led to a response on the game's official Discord channel, which revealed that the AI is used in the game's puzzle games to “reinterpret and redraw in-game frames” and is also used in in-game chat “to help players understand different languages”. Although the jigsaw-style puzzles are drawn from in-game screenshots, AI appears to be used to give them a more artistic look. They added that the monetization content of the game does not contain any AI-generated materials and that changes in the future will be announced by the developers in advance.

Heartopia players react to the use of AI

Fans who responded to the news were mostly negative about the game's use of artificial intelligence, with most disapproving of its use in the game's puzzles. Some have pointed out that it seems like it would be easy to simply convert the screenshots that the puzzles are downloaded from to look like paintings with simple filters rather than relying on generative AI, while others have suggested sticking to just screenshots for the puzzles. Some said they found the use of AI for translation acceptable, but the vast majority of respondents were not happy with how it was used for puzzles.

Heartopia is already facing backlash following this revelation due to a number of factors and in several ways. There are already negative reviews on Steam pointing to the game's use of artificial intelligence, and players on communities like Reddit are sharing their thoughts on it. Users on the game's Discord have also tried to share their frustrations with mixed success, with some claiming the channel has generated some negative reactions. Others said they would not play Heartopia unless the AI content is removed from the game.

AI is a sore spot for gamers

Although not every gamer is against generative AI, there has been a lot of backlash when other developers have revealed that their games use AI. In addition to the ethical concerns players have with this, as many fear generative AI is building on artwork that has been acquired without permission or payment, others are upset about AI because it affects them personally as players. With the popularity of generative artificial intelligence, more and more companies are sourcing components to keep their systems running, leading to a shortage of components for things like playing computer games. There are also concerns that the shortage could lead to next-gen consoles being released later than expected, and the overall cost of gaming to rise due to increased prices for TV screens, computers, consoles and even the electricity to power them.

Whether the AI's will is enough to make an impact remains to be seen Heartopia's tallied, or if the developer removes it to keep their player base happy.