Square Enix has confirmed that they used AI to generate art for the upcoming Foamstars, according to a report by VGC.
Producer Kosuke Okatani confirmed at a press event that AI had been used in the making of the game, but he stressed that it was only a small portion of the game. The majority was built by hand, but they used Midjourney to generate art for in-game icons.
“All of the core elements in Foamstars – the core gameplay, and the things that make the game enjoyable – those are all made by hand,” Okatani said. “However, we did want to experiment with AI as well. In terms of the content in the game, this makes up about 0.01% or even less, but we have dabbled in it by creating these icons in the game.”
Square Enix elaborated on the comments to VGC, stating that AI was used to generate in-game album covers. “AI was used in the creation of the in-game album covers for the music featured in the FOAMSTARS’ soundtrack,” they said. “As developers, we’re always looking at new technologies to see how they can assist with game development.”
They continued, “in this instance, we experimented with Midjourney using simple prompts to produce abstract images. We loved what was created and used them as the final album covers players will see in the game. Everything else was created entirely by our development team.”
Though this was only a small instance of AI-generated content making it into a final game, it will likely not be the last case for Square Enix. Earlier this month, president Takashi Kiryu said that the company would “be aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions.”
Whether or not the 0.01% estimate is accurate will likely be determined once the game releases on Feb. 6, 2024. For now, we’ll have to take Square Enix’s word that only the album covers have been AI-generated.