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The studio behind Party Animals has found itself in hot water after announcing an AI-generated video contest that promised $75,000 worth of prizes for participants, a plan that prompted heated backlash on Steam and an apology from the developers.
As you might remember, Party Animals is the co-op brawler that came out almost three years ago. What began as a physics-based hoot reheating Human Fall Flat's nachos has since turned into a more generally pleasant party game that includes a chill fishing minigame, what looks like a kart-racing mode, and other activities to enjoy with friends.
Things went sideways for the normally well-liked game earlier this week, however, when the devs welcomed players to enter a contest for AI-generated videos. "A short film you've been dreaming of making, a story that breaks all the rules, a character tribute to your favorite beast," the studio wrote on social media. "In the past, ideas like these could only exist in your head. Now, with AI, they finally have a chance to become reality."
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The contest promised a grand prize of $15,000 and more prizes totaling $75,000 altogether, all for prompt videos about players' "wild ideas" for the game. "AIGC must be the core creative tool," was one of the rules.
The Party Animals contest, as you can imagine, didn't go down too well. On Steam, the game's 1,200 recent reviews are 'Mostly Negative' with 73% of people giving it a red score. Limiting the contest to AI content only and having people enter via online hashtags made the competition seem more like a way to flood social media algorithms with mass-produced slop.
"Rest in peace," one such negative review says, "loved this game but they're leaning into AI now so I will no longer support this company."
"Sucks to see a good party game stoop so low to replace assets and/or community competitions with AI garbo," another writes. "COMPENSATE ACTUAL ARTISTS!!!"
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Complaints eventually got so loud that the Party Animals account stepped in to respond with an apology of sorts: "We'd like to address the recent discussion around the AI video contest, and first of all, we're sorry for upsetting players with this event. We're also sorry that we didn't communicate with everyone clearly enough before the event started."
Developer Recreate Games claims its "original goal was to lower the barrier to creation" for people who might not have the editing, modeling, or animation skills to otherwise participate. "We hoped AI could be a more accessible tool that lets more people take part," it adds, before saying it didn't mean to "dismiss handmade work or disrespect creators."
In an effort to make amends, the studio is now giving the player base three options to vote on via Twitter or the official forums: Cancel the contest entirely, turn it into a non-AI contest, or have the AI contest proceed as planned,d with a separate category for human-made videos.
Even that response hasn't swept the controversy under the rug, judging by replies in the Party Animals forum, at least. Talking about generative AI as a tool - a means to an end - somewhat dismisses real concerns people have around the tech's environmental and ethical impact. And while wanting to open up a creative contest to more people is an admirable pursuit, there's not much creativity involved in prompting. One fan suggested the company could make a few assets publicly available if accessibility were the dev's main concern, which I thought was a nice idea.
Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.
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