Bobium Brawlers: Gamers Hate 'Slop' Not AI, Says Studio Atelico CEO

AI has been a hotly debated topic, especially when it comes to its use in gaming. In a recent presentation of their new game Bobium Brawlers, Studio Atelico CEO Piero Molino had an interesting take on AI in gaming.

Bobium Brawlers is a new turn-based card and dice creature battle game releasing later this year on mobile platforms, with iOS to start. The game features a unique twist, and the reason the CEO is pro AI. Players can create the creatures that will be in their deck simply by describing them to the Studio Atelico AI Engine.

The AI engine will run on-device, to ensure low latency, no additional costs, and most importantly privacy. Of course, this means that Bobium Brawlers will only run on models equipped with recent versions of the Neural Engine, iPhone 13 and onward most likely. During the games' presentation, Art Director Mollie Boorman explained that Studio Atelico employs a team of human artists who have created extensive training assets. Clarifying that the game could not have been made without AI.

When asked about the current climate for AI in gamings, with the recent controversy surrounding the statements made by Larian CEO about the upcoming Divinity games still fresh, Molino explained that he believed gamers are not actually anti-AI but are opposed to “slop” and the exploitations of humans sometimes associated with AI.

I understand that stance for two reasons. One, because of how most tech companies are adopting this technology without providing for the people who made it possible, which are, in the case of image generators, the artists whose images the generators have been trained on. It makes total sense why there is this kind of pushback; I totally understand that. We are approaching it from a different point of view: paying artists and giving them royalties on what is being generated.

We do not want to exploit anyone; we want to use that technology to create new mechanics that were not possible before. I strongly believe that what players and people in general are opposed to is not actually AI, but rather the exploitation of people and "slop." These are both things that we are trying very strongly to avoid. We are supporting the people who make it possible to create these models and we are not creating slop. We are trying to have a specific art style that is tailored to our specific game, thanks to the work our artists are doing. We hope to disentangle the general sentiment towards AI and show what is possible when you use it in a very positive way.

Where do you stand in AI in gaming? Do you agree with Molino’s statements about it being more about quality than fully anti-AI? Leave a comment down below and remember to join TheGamerzTheory Discord.