SontayoDungeons & Diagnoses — a fantasy therapy sim.
Stop using AI, that instantly makes me uninterested in your game. Your title picture for this poat has two ampersands, after that I found more stuff that was wrong. I bet the translation is also AI.
Fair point on the AI art. The translations were also done with AI assistance — I’m not a polyglot. I reviewed and edited them, but I won’t pretend it was all manual work. As a solo dev with no budget, AI was the only way to make this happen at all. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, I get it
It’s lazy. And I mean this out of respect because I believe anyone that uses AI art has the potential to do basic drawings if they put in the effort. In a world where pixel graphics are popular and games like Among Us can make millions of dollars while looking like middle-school doodles there really is no excuse. I’m not saying you’re lazy because you literally made a game and that in and of itself is not lazy, I’m just saying AI art is lazy. People will have bucketloads more respect for you if you draw stick figures instead of using AI art. Not only that, most people (especially on this site) have a visceral reaction to AI art and will discount your game entirely if it has it. From a purely financial standpoint, is saving time really worth upsetting the very same people that want to give you money?
If it’s placeholder art I can totally understand that. You gotta get the game out somehow in order to actually acquire the funding you need. Maybe use that funding to eventually hire artists. Hell, I do pixel art as a hobby and you can hire me if you want. Just go to a site like Bluesky (even if you hate it) and search “pixel art” and you can find thousands of eager artists.
Anyway, that’s my advice. Good luck with your project it seems really neat. :)
That’s genuinely good advice, and I appreciate you taking the time to write it out. You’re right that placeholder art + real funding → real artist is the more honest path, and I’ll seriously consider it.
And thank you for the offer — I might actually take you up on that one day. For now I just want to see if the game itself resonates with people before investing more into it.
Really glad the concept seems neat to you. That means a lot.
I understand where you’re coming from, but there have been indy solo devs before AI.
At least mark them, visibly, as AI. What is your strategy. Do you want to release it with AI Art? Do you want to replace it first? Communicate that. It has bitten bigger devs in the ass.
I get languages are hard, but then release in your native tongue first and in languages you can actually correct. If your game is good, you will get peeps from all over the world that will be wilking to help you translate the game in their native languages. Or start a git for the translations. There are so many better ootions than AI.
At least mark them, visibly, as AI. What is your strategy. Do you want to release it with AI Art? Do you want to replace it first? Communicate that. It has bitten bigger devs in the ass.
I get languages are hard, but then release in your native tongue first and in languages you can actually correct. If your game is good, you will get peeps from all over the world that will be wilking to help you translate the game in their native languages. Or start a git for the translations. There are so many better ootions than AI.
You’re right on all points. To be transparent about the plan: the AI art is placeholder. The goal is to replace it once the game gets enough traction to work with a real artist. I’ll add a visible note about it in the description.
On translations — that’s actually a great idea. A community-driven translation approach would be much better than what I did. I’ll look into setting something up for that.
Thanks for the honest feedback, it’s genuinely helpful.