Greetings from my increasingly-tropical island! I'm pleased to report that Malagar’s crystal stash continues to work its particular magic. There is a mountain of things to catch up on, but I’m in the process of doing exactly that. And one of those things is to have this conversation with you.
The Monkey’s Paw
When I started Ravager’s development, the technological landscape looked rather different. Even when we arrived on Steam, AI was still mostly the province of science fiction. Now? Now it is impossible to look away from.
It is a contentious topic - righteously and deservedly so. The default position for developers is to stay artfully quiet, and hope the whole thing blows over. But we're not a soulless corporation - we're a small gang of enthusiasts, who've carved out a niche making horny games about dragons. I think you should speak openly and plainly about what you believe, whenever you can. And I can, so I will.
I believe that AI can be a great assistive tool when paired with human talent. It can help break through creative blocks, speed up tedious processes, and open doors for people who might otherwise struggle to realise their visions. That's the optimistic view, and I think there's truth in it.
But let's not kid ourselves. AI is also being used to exploit and exclude human talent. It is drastically lowering the barriers to entry for game development, which sounds great (it is), until you realise we're heading for a kind of slopocalypse: a tsunami of cheaply produced mediocrity, poised to flood every platform. I suspect Steam's algorithms will shield you from the worst of its effects! But as creators, we need to plan for this impending reality.
Our Stance
Ravager will continue to celebrate organic writing, art, voices, and code.
I have no issue with a writer consulting AI for advice on a tricky plot point, or an artist using it to brainstorm potential compositions. That is clever tool use, and does not beggar anyone. But the content that actually features in our games will remain human-crafted.
In line with this commitment, I'll be removing the placeholder machine translations from Ravager. If someone wants to mod them back in, that’s fine - but our support will focus on the excellent fanmade localisations that our community is in the process of creating.
This policy will also extend to our next project, Permission To Dock. It uses some genuinely exciting new techniques and technologies that showcase exactly what coordinated human creativity can achieve. Permission To Dock is being prototyped as we speak, and I look forward to showing you what I mean once Ravager has reached its main release.
The Road To Victory
‘Reaching main release’ is possibly the best mitigation against the coming slopocalypse - so that remains our primary and overriding priority. Health issues have slowed us down in the first half of this year (most especially mine!), but now we've regathered our momentum, and we’re working smarter than ever. And to avoid those agonising waits between major updates, we're portioning things up more sensibly:
Version 5.3: The conclusion of Chapter Two
Version 5.4: The beginning of Chapter Three
Version 5.5: The conclusion of Chapter Three - and our full release!
We will continue with our monthly updates throughout - and if we hit any further blockers, we’ll slice up our to-dos around them. Bonus endings and character epilogues will arrive after 5.5 as a free update (because you all deserve it), while any further expansions will follow as DLC.
Horde Morale
Another defence against mediocrity is consolidating excellence. As talent gets shaken up by the twisting landscape, I want to link arms with them. We are looking for short collaborations with established creators of all kinds - developers from around the world, artists and animators who haven't touched games yet, writers with fresh perspectives, you name it. We’ll pair them with our resources, our audience, and our perverse sense of mission, and we’ll see what magic emerges.
If you're one such established creator, and this sounds like your cup of tea, drop me a line on Discord!
Keeping One Eye Open
All that having been said, it would be folly to tie ourselves completely to one approach when the world is shifting so rapidly beneath our feet. So I'm keeping an open mind about allowing some short-form experiments in future, where team members could create small projects with the assistance of AI.
If successful, such experiments could give voice to game ideas that would otherwise never see daylight, as well as help fund our main projects. However - and this is crucial - we will never use our team's contributions to train AI without their consent, and we forbid others from doing so. If a teammember’s artistic DNA ends up in a project then they'll be properly compensated, by prior agreement on their terms.
I know this position won't please everyone. Some will think we're being too permissive, others that we're being too restrictive. But I believe it is fair, it is right, and it positions us to navigate the coming storms whilst holding fast to what matters most.
Back to Work
That's quite enough pontificating from me. Time to get my head out of the clouds, and back down into the code where it belongs. Look forward to a bumper-sized update towards the end of this month - we've got a proper feast prepared for you!
All the best,
4MinuteWarning
(and the gang)