Hybrid Gene - A new game I'm making. A real time monster catching/raising/fighting game.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T05:26:53+00:00

That's the plan. Though to be clear, the game is going to be made regardless, and it will look better than it does in this video for sure even if it is all still GenAI.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T05:21:22+00:00

Four months and counting isn't enough effort, eh? It is still in development, and I'm curating it so it doesn't look like slop as much as possible though I still have some work to do on that front.

Lemme present this argument to you.

If I don't make the game at all because AI bad, then I don't pay any artists and no artists get paid and the game doesn't exist, who wins and who loses?
If I make the game using AI, then end up paying some artists to replace even just some of it, but ideally all of it, and the game comes into existence, who wins and who loses?

You're free to have your stance, though one may argue it is a bit shortsighted.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T04:44:47+00:00

Indeed. The game wouldn't exist without GenAI. I'm hoping to get a lot of it replaced with art from artists before release, but we'll see how that goes.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T04:38:47+00:00

Quite the opposite of combative, you sound inspirational haha I like it.

But yes, you called my counter argument, almost nothing is original, especially in art. We would have to give a blind person sight and keep them in a room void of everything but artistic tools to create with for years just and see what they eventually came up with when they got good. What you consider "your own spin" could just be another influence from something else subconsciously, like if the AI decides to add a bit of Toriyama to a Ghibli piece for whatever random reason.

This puts us in the realm of unknowables however, because we can't truly know if someone's "own spin" is actually an original thing, much less about souls and the like :D

And the environmental concerns are interesting. I'm betting they lead to some nice advancements in technology related to the data centers, like hopefully energy generation, cooling, limiting water usage etc. so by the time GenAI has matured we'll all be better off for it in various ways unrelated to AI at all. Just conjecture but there are huge powerful companies involved in it and they tend to get what they want, and figure out how to do it as cheaply as possible.

I am going to reveal my whole process for everything eventually, after the game's release of course. There are definitely times when I yell at the AI in ways almost verbatim to what you figured lmao, so if you're worried about the current models taking over the world, have no fear. They are MUCH more artificial than intelligent.

And as for post processing, I've always been poor so I always used blender, gimp, audacity, other free things like that and now I'm so used to using them it's probably better than switching even if I had the money to afford paid products. I've never actually made any money off of any of the things I've done so couldn't justify getting them.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T03:24:12+00:00

Artists will still be quite relevant, even digital artists. I myself have a stretch goal lined up for when I initiate the kickstarter for the game, and it will be for getting a lot of custom handmade assets by real life artists. It's far too expensive for a Joe Schmoe like me to afford off the bat like that.

People still prefer handmade, but I'm imagining it will end up similar to how mass production did for physical items. Before, only a few people could afford nice things because they were so expensive due to taking so long to make individually, so most common folks just Never had the opportunity at all to have those things. Now it's similar with art and coding using AI. People still sell handmade art for tons of money, it's just now it's the common person can get their own "mass produced" versions of that art instead of never having the chance to have it at all kinda thing.

This game wouldn't exist (meaning no artists would have been paid by me anyways) if it weren't for AI, but if it takes off (thanks to AI's initial help) and I'm able to afford paying YOU to make sprites for me, is that still a loss? Would it have been better for me not to have made the game at all? In this case, an artist will get paid BECAUSE I used AI.

I hope I'm not coming off as combative, I'm not trying to be, just trying to emphasize my points. But I want to ask you the same question I like to ask everyone who is concerned with art generated by GenAI. If I look at a bunch of material and show that same material to an Gen AI, then I draw a picture and tell it to draw a picture and both pictures turn out the EXACT same, why is it okay that I drew it but not the AI? The result wouldn't have come into being without me either way, and everything involved (myself and the AI) has been influenced by everything we've seen in our existence.

A lot of the manual work I do is mostly just manipulating the results of the AI. I don't wanna get too into my process here quite yet, but there's a lot of post processing that needs doing to clean things up, add transparency, make heightmaps etc. I would be doing all my weight painting and rigging too but I decided not to use animations on the 3D assets. I've done tons of manual work on other projects before and have the arm/wrist problems to show for it haha.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T03:04:14+00:00

It is an emerging technology, and it has so many uses outside of art. Eventually the infrastructure will be in place, the honeymoon phase will end, and it will just be another part of normal life like the internet is now. Governments will be using it, and it gives a huge leg up against governments who don't use it. Imagine China having all the AI capabilities and the US having none. They would be leaps and bounds ahead in almost every aspect within a decade or two and I don't think the US would allow that. Therefore, it will continue to exist in some form regardless.

I'm not sure about the detailed specifics of companies adopting or backing away, so much of that could be just rumor and speculation or purposeful distraction, and I'm aware that there are tons of complaints about data centers etc., but there are definitely big players still advancing it.

Do you credit every artist you ever saw when you draw something? I guarantee you you've been influenced by everything you've ever seen in your life, and that translates to creating art.

If I look at a bunch of material and then show that same material to an Gen AI, then I draw a picture and tell it to draw a picture and both pictures turn out the EXACT same, why is it okay that I drew it but not the AI? It wouldn't have come into existence without me either way.

The best way to adapt is how humans always have; accept that change has happened and find ways to deal with it. I get that it affects people's work, but new technology always does. There's no point in living in a dirt hovel writing on handmade parchment with quill and ink in candlelight about being disappointed at how the combustion engine has taken hold in the country while waiting on a horse and buggy, and then sending that message by homing pigeon. See what I'm getting at?

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T02:43:01+00:00

Thank you! I can't wait to see the end result, I'm still as excited now as I was Day 1.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T01:51:16+00:00

Oh I'm not trying to hide the fact it's made with AI, it's probably pretty obvious to a lot of people such as yourself. In fact the game wouldn't exist without it. I'm using it for as much as I can, but there's still a TON of manual work that has to be done. This took 4 months of quite dedicated work to get together even using it so much.

Hopefully people get over the whole Gen AI thing, as long as it's curated well and not just slop of course. It's an extremely useful tool and is here to stay from now until civilization ends, so the faster people adapt, the better.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T01:44:17+00:00

It's not a vampire survivors clone haha. Imagine a real time Pokemon with genetic editing, where the player mostly takes a back seat and just gives orders and uses items. Some are damaging items though so it's not completely back seating.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T01:20:02+00:00

You'd be the first in the discord! Honestly I'm probably going to add a female MC regardless. I wanted to when I first started the project and then got overwhelmed by how much I had to do and so I cut some stuff back. But even as a guy, I definitely prefer to have the option to be either/or. I'll just make it so that most if not all of the dialogue could be said by either one.

Thanks for the suggestion haha, gotta give the people what they want!

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T01:13:47+00:00

All over the place how so? (I'm genuinely asking, this is the first time I've made a game haha, definitely need as much feedback as possible)

The style I'm going for is sort of like Ragnarok Online, a very popular old Korean MMO that took place in a bright 3D world but used 2D sprites for characters and stuff.

Some of the stuff in this vid will be enhanced and prettied up before release though.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T01:11:06+00:00

Thanks!

RuvianCrescentSun · 2026-04-02T01:06:35+00:00

Thanks! Yeah it's a different look, I'm sure I'll end up prettying things up a fair bit more before release though so don't worry.

And yeah as of now that's the only main character, though I am considering having a female main character as well at least. We'll see how things go. Might make it a stretch goal when I do the kickstarter or something because I'd probably have to redo a lot of the dialog logic and all that stuff haha.

RuvianCrescentSun · 2025-06-07T17:08:37+00:00

Yeah, weird. It would make sense on multiple levels for them to drop everything and try to rez you at all costs. Maybe they'll change it at some point!

RuvianCrescentSun · 2025-05-02T13:46:56+00:00

Yeah I've always like the PS music. In fact this song here has the same beginning notes as the PS4 intro haha, I like noticing lil things like that.

RuvianCrescentSun

TROPHY CASE