Square Enix says it used AI art in upcoming Foamstars game

In an interview with VGC, Kosuke Okatani, producer on Foamstars, said that the development team used AI generation tool Midjourney to create in-game art for album covers for the game’s soundtracks but explained that the majority of the game was still made by humans.

“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 told VGC. “However, we did want to experiment with AI as well.”

Earlier this year, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu said in his New Year’s Day letter that Square Enix intends to be “aggressive” in its use of AI in development and publishing.

“In the short term, our goal will be to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts. In the longer term, we hope to leverage those technologies to create new forms of content for consumers, as we believe that technological innovation represents business opportunities,” the letter read.

Earlier this month, SAG-AFTRA signed a deal with Replica Studios, an AI voice software company, that would allow performers to license their voice exclusively with the company for use in video game projects.

A Square Enix PR representative further elaborated on Foamstars’ use of AI to VGC: “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.”