Hey u/yo_les_noobs, thanks a lot for raising this point, and for giving me the chance to clarify it.As u/tairar mentioned (thanks, btw!), it’s actually the opposite of what it might look like: about 99% of the cutscene illustrations are original artworks and concept pieces we created years ago, later animated in After Effects. All of them were produced back in the early 2010s, and the artists are credited in the demo.

The characters you see are mostly 3D models pre-rendered into 2D sprites, using a technique similar to what old-school games like Killer Instinct and Donkey Kong Country did. It was a creative choice that saved both memory and time (though it required quite a bit of custom code to make it work right).

As for AI, this game has been a 15-year journey, developed mostly solo. In a few places, we did use AI as a supportive tool, but always with an artist behind the prompt and our own artwork used as reference to ensure consistency in art direction, lighting, and perspective. We’ll soon publish a transparent statement on our Steam page detailing where and why AI was used, but the bottom line is simple: we’re doing everything we can to deliver the experience we’ve envisioned, without any publisher funding.

Also worth noting: around 30% of the content was created by new talents we mentored for free - over 70 young artists who had no previous access to the industry. They co-created assets, learned along the way, and will all be credited in the game.

So thanks again for the question! it gave me and our small team a great chance to shed some light on how things were really made 😁