BrikoX, this is unsponsored opinions, change the title.
this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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I'm a one man team making a game.
It's a management game and indirectly you control characters, which you don't see as in-game models because instead you control the ships they're in or you order them to work in specific positions in the space station.
I would like to actually have distinct recognizable characters with their own voices so that players can identify with them, like them and not want to lose them.
So I would like to have character cards with portraits and as much as possible unique character voices, and given that the game's visuals are toward the realistic side, the portraits would be in a realistic style.
This means around 100+ realistic portraits and distinct voices.
As a one man team I can't actually do this without AI - not enough funds for hiring 100 voice actors, not enough skill to do that kind of design or funds to hire somebody who will do 100 realistic distinct portraits.
So either I seriously trim down that feature (say, their speech is text only, and they have no portraits at all) or I use AI image generation and voice generation.
It's simply not possible to do certain features at a certain level if you're a small indie - unlike a big games company, I neither have the skill to do it myself (or in the case of the multiple voices, physically can't), the employees to do it for me or the funds to pay for freelancers to do it, given how much work that involves.
I'll probably try multiple options and see which works best. Maybe I'll use AI for it, maybe I'll cut down that feature to the point that all you have is an name and written text (essentially making the whole idea of players liking some characters nonviable), maybe I'll find some middle way that avoids AI.
That said, I support disclosing that AI was used in making the game, ideally if it lets me list where an how it was used.
As a customer, I feel I should be able to make an informed decision when buying something, so it's only fair that the same applies to my potential customers. As I see it, it should be up to gamers to decide if and how much they care about AI having been used in making a game.
You could write the base game without AI, then add the extended AI resources as a DLC pack
That's actually a very interesting way to tackle the whole thing and opens up an even broader scope than it seems at first sight.
The base game has simple text-only character "speech" with no portraits.
AI generated character portraits with AI-generated voices is a free DLC released alongside the game.
For my specific case there would be no gameplay differences in having or not the DLC installed, only a simpler or fancier version of character interaction.
Also given that some of that stuff is going to be a lot of voice recordings, it makes the base game much smaller.
Its give gamers a choice, which is as it should be IMHO, and it also gives me feedback on how many people would rather have a less fancy version without AI generated elements over having a fancier version with AI generated elements.
This is definitely a good way to go; not only does it decouple the AI generated assets from the game, but in doing so lets you get a picture of how important they are to your players. It might be that everyone grabs the DLC despite it being AI generated, or it might be that a large chunk avoid it because of that. That would be useful information for your next game.
From there, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to make it moddable, so people could even create their own voice packs and portraits if they wanted
I'm sure there are stock images of actual people you could get access to, for a fee. That plus some image editing to get the style you want might be a way to avoid using AI for the portraits. I totally understand wanting to use AI for the voices though, that seems fair.
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I'm gonna be that guy and say don't use it then. The AI imigies are purely based on stolen art; you'd be profiting off stolen art. I don't care how legal it is, it's someone's hard work being undermined just so your life can be easier. It's just another way giant mega corps take power from the people. Instead of commissioning some artist or voice actor, you're giving money to some giant mega corp that can lobby the government to place data centers that poison people's water supply and increase people's energy bills.
That said, I support disclosing that AI was used in making the game
Which was the whole point of the original post.
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