The developer of Catly, an open-world cat game revealed at last week's The Game Awards, denied using generative AI for the game's trailer or for the game itself.
The game is set to release on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Apple Watch, and its trailer features a series of hyper-realistic cats that quickly drew attention when viewers suspected generative AI was being used.
Since the reveal, Reddit users have noticed several oddities and alleged indicators of the AI art used on the game's website, some of which have reportedly been removed. Additionally, commenters suggested that the developer has ties to blockchain and NFT games, which it has now denied.
Both outlets were shown progress shots of The Game Awards trailer, which seemed to confirm that the trailer was not AI-generated.
Catly's Steam page also includes a testimonial quote from League of Legends and Arcane producer Thomas Vu, a well-known web3 investor.
Another quote is from Ben Brode, director of the Hearthstone game, who responded on BlueSky to say that he had seen 20 minutes of gameplay footage and “thought it looked cool, so they asked me for a quote,” adding “it looks pretty real for my”. , the cats seemed wild.”
As reported by Game Developer, SuperAuthenti did not comment on any commercial connection, but stated that “Catly is not a blockchain game” and “there is no NFT.” The statement continues: “Our company/project has never issued any blockchain coins or NFTs. Our company does not and has never owned any blockchain coins or NFTs.”
SuperAuthenti also confirmed to Agency that Catly was developed in Unreal Engine 5, with “various software” used to produce hyper-realistic hair and fur.
What is certainly clear is that the prevalence of AI in the games industry makes it difficult to determine what is generated by AI and what is crafted by hand.
AI is changing game development forever, as its use is becoming more widespread in animation, screenwriting, voice acting, and more.
More recently, Google detailed its Genie 2 tool that it claims can create playable 3D worlds from a single image. He highlighted that the tool is for “rapid prototyping.”