The God Slayer is the next big project in development at Chinese developer Pathea Games, known for My Time at Portia, My Time at Sandrock, and the upcoming third installment in that series, My Time at Evershine.
With The God Slayer, the studio is challenging itself with a more mature open world steampunk action RPG, not to mention switching engines from Unity to Epic's Unreal Engine 5. I recently interviewed Zifei Wu, founder and creative director at Pathea Games, to learn more about the game. During that conversation, I also inquired about the studio's stance on using generative AI tools during game development. You can find his answer below.
I think the only AI we use is when we're iterating. Like, for example, we say okay, we want this character to be a female salesperson, and then we'll try to use AI to go online to search for different models and stuff like that, and then after that, we just do it ourselves. I think overall, our developers don't want to use AI too much. First of all, you don't see a lot of Asian steampunk examples out there, so the examples that AI gives us are weird if I can put it that way. So, a lot of the stuff we actually have to think about ourselves and start from scratch. Overall, that's helped us keep the world setting as well as the characters of The God Slayer grounded. So I think, as far as like for us, I think we're not using too much AI. It's at least for now, the correct way to go.
The usage of generative AI tools is currently one of the most controversial topics within most industries, and that certainly includes the gaming industry. We recently reported that Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Super Smash Bros., believes that generative AI could make large-scale development more manageable. Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear and Death Stranding franchises, aims to utilize the technology to automate basic tasks, allowing him to focus on the creative aspects of game development.
In an interview with Wccftech, Richard Pillosu, co-founder of Spanish indie developer Epictellers Entertainment, shared a similar, albeit more unequivocal, opinion, stating that there is no point in using AI in any creative endeavour. In another Wccftech exclusive, Dean Hall, known for DayZ and ICARUS, said that AI is here and what really matters is how to deal with its impact.
Recently, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick noted that game characters could feel more realistic if AI-trained on scripts created by humans, and Epic founder Tim Sweeney pointed out that AI is going to be used by everyone, so it doesn't make sense that Steam discloses it on the game pages.
The God Slayer will be released for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and potentially for next-gen platforms if available at the game's launch.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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