The Alters Devs Confirm Generative AI Usage

In their statement, they said that generative AI was used to create placeholder text that, due to internal oversight, made it into the final game. Additionally, 11 Bit Studios stated that they used AI to localize a few videos that players can watch as in-game characters in the social area of the base. In what reads like a fix-it-in-post attitude, they claim that they did not involve their translation partners due to “extreme time constraints,” but always planned to involve those partners post-release. They then acknowledge that they made the wrong call, and they should have let players know of the AI usage. 

What the statement does not include is an explanation as to why generative AI was used as a placeholder rather than something like, say, the traditional lorem ipsum placeholder, a quickly-drawn doodle, or the results of mashing a keyboard until you’ve filled up the necessary space. While it would still be a mistake if these alternatives also made it into the final product, they could have been something to laugh about rather than apologize over. After all, unlike generative AI, Steam does not ask you to disclose use of lorem ipsum or doodles. 

Instead, it offers the increasingly common reasoning that since AI tools are here, in their words “presenting new challenges and opportunities in games development,” they want to adapt to them. What those challenges are is also not included in the statement, but the opportunity was clearly taken. 

The Alters was released on June 13 to generally positive reception, and continues to sit at ‘Very Positive’ on Steam with over 6k reviews. However, a glimpse at more recent reviews reveals a few negative ones explicitly naming undeclared A.I. usage, or A.I. usage at all, as their reason for not recommending the game. The change in tune towards the survival sci-fi venture could indicate that even when a game is good, more than a few players dislike generative A.I. in their video games and in the production of them.