folks audition writers like they're training kpop stars

So yeah, don't use Generative AI even if it seems like it's a harmless task. Doing things is good. Thinking about things is good. Friction is good. THE PROCESS IS IMPORTANT.

Larian is setting themselves up to make something in GenAI for prototyping that looks "good enough" for production and accidentally letting it slip through the cracks.

He said one of the biggest lessons he learned from making that game was to make sure that placeholder assets LOOK placeholder. They need to look bad and low fidelity so that they are unacceptable to leave in the final product.

IGA has said in interviews that that menu screen was originally meant to be a placeholder. But, it didn't stick out as a "placeholder" or something that needed to be fixed down the line; it was too high fidelity. So replacing was constantly de-prioritized until it just never happened.

It is a solid blue wall, ontop of which sits ugly white text. Basically no design or aesthetic thought has been put into it at all. There is weird information provided to you like how many unique rooms you have entered.

Why?

On the flipside of things, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

This game is absolutely beautiful, stylish, and filled to the brim with creativity and a wide variety of ideas. Truly the pinnacle of 2D game design at the time. And then there is the menu screen and system...

If they hadn't thrown that Adol sprite into the game and made it some Ys spinoff, would it even be remembered today? The process of creation is as important as the final piece itself. And the decisions we make along the way are vital to that final piece.

And despite being wildly different, it still feels very much like an Ys game. It's familiar but different, tries new things but brings back old familiar ones. And it didn't land for everyone, as is often the case with experimentation. But it laid the ground work for Falcom to do a lot more.

As a placeholder they put an Adol (the protagonist from Ys 1 + 2) sprite in for the player character.

Development continued, they decided more and more that they liked what they were doing and that it actually could be a mainline Ys game.

Ys systems were added to the game (equipment screen, rings)

this isn't to blame the players for once, either. if a company is willing to compromise their own output for a goal that's pretty intertwined with profit, of course they're gonna fall for the AI trap. be for real.

"i can't believe they're pushing towards making mass-market slop with no creative voice or intent!" is a funny thing to say about a company that lobotomized their own game in early access and in subsequent patches so as to cushion the playerbase's feelings. this is not a surprising development.

they don't tell you about the part of fascism where the people who were initially the most plugged in end up just sort of competing to be the least bothered or surprised when the next fascist thing happens