Let It Die: Inferno sparks debate as Supertrick Games reveals generative AI across game elements

Let It Die's sequel is almost here -- and it's full of AI

Let It Die: Inferno -- the sequel to 2016's off-the-wall hack-'n-slash adventure, Let It Die -- is almost here, with a launch date set for Dec. 3. The game features a new globe-spanning emergency (an enormous pit, the Hell Gate, has appeared out of nowhere), a new source of SPLithium (the aforementioned pit), and a new treasure of unfathomable power (the Eye of the Reaper). Despite all the hype around the sequel's surprise launch date announcement, players haven't missed any details -- like the game's use of generative AI (via Eurogamer). "AI-generated content has been used and then edited by our team for certain parts of the in-game voices, music, and graphics," the game's creators explained in the AI disclosure section of Let It Die: Inferno's Steam page. Steam requires any games that make use of generative AI to disclose what parts of the game are AI-generated. Polygon has reached out to representatives for developer Supertrick Games for comment. Per the Steam page, this AI-generated content is included in "some parts" of Let It Die: Inferno's background signboard textures, Records images, and InfoCast videos. But "some parts" of the game's voice acting and musical score are AI-generated as well, and there's no telling exactly how much "some" is. Supertrick Games has yet to address the AI-generated elephant in the room with a formal statement, but fans of the original Let It Die are already talking, with some declaring they won't be trying out the game due to its use of AI. "Let It Die then," one player joked on Reddit. SAG-AFTRA's video game voice actors and performers recently spent the better part of a year on strike fighting for protections against AI, which were eventually granted. But these protections don't stop studios like Supertrick Games from choosing to implement AI in their games. The original Let It Die was a free-to-play title and did not make use of any AI-generated content. Its Steam user score is currently sitting at a "mostly positive."

"We'd like to begin by being transparent about the use of AI tools during development" - Let it Die: Inferno developer responds to generative AI controversy

Supertrick Games, the developer of Let it Die sequel Inferno, which launches today, has issued a statement on the game's AI use following controversy from earlier in the week. The controversy surrounded Let it Die: Inferno's AI disclosure on Steam, which suggested substantial use of generative AI during development, across art, music, and voice, but it did not specify in detail exactly how AI had been used. The statement issued in response to the reaction provides that detail, and in general, the game's AI use seems less than suspected. For example, the game does use generative AI to create the voices of two characters, but these characters are an AI-driven machine and a "mysterious life form", so the AI-generated voices were a deliberate, creative choice to fit the character, rather than a cost-cutting exercise. "These specific cases use AI-generated voices intentionally to match the nature of the characters," the statement read. "These voices are not derived from or modeled after any human performers, ensuring no copyright concerns." Otherwise, "All in-game characters are voiced by human performers." AI-generated art was used, meanwhile, "to generate rough base images" for background posters, InfoCast (news) insert images and in-game reading material, which the team's artists then "painted over, refined, and adjusted by hand". The AI tool also apparently helped the team observe copyright laws, although there's no explanatory detail on how. Finally with regards to music, AI was used to begin the creation process for music you'll hear in the background in Iron Perch. Specifically, and I don't really understand this, so excuse my lack of sound creation technicalities, AI was used to generate stems, which I believe are collections of audio tracks, or mixes. "Once all stems were exported," the statement read, "few were manually edited, but most were rebuilt from scratch." And that's it. Let it Die: Inferno is the sequel to eccentric and asymmetrical multiplayer game Let it Die, by Suda51's studio Grasshopper - Supertrick was a co-creator. This new game ditches the asymmetrical multiplayer idea for direct, real-time multiplayer, in an on-trend PvEvP framework. Initial reviews on Steam don't seem to be positive, however, with a Mixed overall response.

The AI slop-hose comes to Let It Die as its surprise sequel reveals 'voices, music, and graphics' shaped by the tech

"AI-generated content has been used and then edited by our team." Well, that's a shame. Let It Die: Inferno -- the surprise sequel to weirdo 2016 roguelike Let It Die -- has a little announcement to make: "AI-generated content has been used and then edited by our team for certain parts of the in-game voices, music, and graphics." That's per the game's AI-generated content disclosure that recently popped up on Steam (via Eurogamer). The disclosure indicates that AI has seeped into a fair chunk of the game, touching "Background signboard textures, records illustrations, InfoCast videos," as well as "Voices and music." Which is a real bummer, if you ask me. The original Let It Die isn't exactly a beloved classic, but it's a strange and unique thing, like so much that comes out of Goichi Suda's Grasshopper Manufacture studio. A very human game, then -- a testament to the powers of what voice actor Jennifer English so recently called our "beautiful, creative, human brains." Let It Die: Inferno isn't a Grasshopper Manufacture product, mind you. Its sole development studio is Supertrick Games, which (stay with me) is a kind of rump state of the original Grasshopper Manufacture. Simply put: once upon a time, the Grasshopper Manufacture that was owned by GungHo split into two companies -- the current Grasshopper, which took the name along with Suda himself and operated independently of GungHo; and Supertrick, which retained a bunch of the original Grasshopper's staff and stuck with its original parent company. Got that? Great. Not sure I do. Anyway, to be excruciatingly fair, the notice doesn't say how much AI-generated material has wormed its way into those aspects of the game, but it certainly seems pretty pervasive based on the areas named. We'll find out for certain when the game releases on December 4, but either way I'm sad to see a game (now series) with a distinctive style fall under the sway of AI's regurgitated content slurry.

Made with AI - Let it Die sequel Inferno discloses substantial generative AI use

The Let it Die sequel - Let it Die: Inferno - which is coming out next week (4th December), seems to have been built using a considerable amount of generative AI. Let it Die: Inferno is the somewhat surprising sequel to Suda51 studio Grasshopper's quirky 2016 action game Let it Die, which mixed action and base infiltration and asymmetric multiplayer to novel effect. There was also a purely multiplayer follow-up called Deathverse, which flopped. The Let it Die: Inferno Steam page now discloses: "AI-generated content has been used and then edited by our team for certain parts of the in-game voices, music, and graphics." This content apparently includes background signboard textures, records illustrations, infocast videos and voices and music. To what degree each of those parts of the game uses AI, we don't know, but the areas outlined - art, video, voice and music - are large areas, so the game's AI use could be substantial. Inferno was only announced to the world a couple of months ago, during a September PlayStation State of Play, so it hasn't had much of a marketing campaign. Perhaps that suggests a project sped to release, which is, of course, something AI could help achieve. Grasshopper isn't involved with the sequel, which is entirely developed by Supertrick Games, co-developer of the original game. And the core of the game has shifted slightly to PvEvP, meaning real-time multiplayer will be a thing here. Were it not for Steam's AI disclosure policy, we likely wouldn't have known about AI use in Inferno until people bought and played it, and noticed it, and reports spread around. In that regard, it's a helpful tool for shoppers, should they care. But there are people who think AI disclosures aren't necessary, such as Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney, who believes AI use will be so commonplace there's "no sense" in making every game disclose how it's been used. Does it affect your buying decision?

Let It Die: Inferno Dev Gets Shockingly Transparent About Gen AI

Let It Die: Inferno was a neat surprise when it was revealed back during Sony's September PlayStation showcase. The original 2016 free-to-play hack-and-slash grind had a cult following thanks to its quirky sensibility and inventive roguelike mechanics. But then Let It Die: Inferno maker Supertrick Games revealed the game would be using generative AI. Seemingly a lot of it. The studio has now defended that move, though the rest of the game, including its microtransactions and PVP focus, haven't been doing it any favors either. Most games that disclose using generative AI on Steam don't go into much detail. Let it Die: Inferno was different. "AI-generated content has been used and then edited by our team for certain parts of the in-game voices, music, and graphics," it wrote. The AI content included "some parts of the background signboard textures," "some parts of the Records images," "some parts of the InfoCast videos," and "some parts of the voices and music." It sounded like gen AI was sprinkled throughout the entire game. Supertrick Games is now trying to be more specific. It outlined exactly what in the game incorporates the controversial technology I in a display of transparency that no other studio has opted for amid the ongoing backlash. Supertrick said AI images, for example, only appeared in background posters and secondary materials. "The planning team developed the concepts and text, ensuring they matched the game’s world setting," the studio wrote on Steam (via Eurogamer). "Based on these ideas, the art team designed the background art and used an AI tool that observes copyright laws and only to generate rough base images, which were painted over, refined, and adjusted by hand." Here's the examples it shared: In terms of AI voice work, Supertrick said the decision was intentional rather than a cost-cutting maneuver. "These specific cases use AI-generated voices intentionally to match the nature of the characters," it wrote. "These voices are not derived from or modeled after any human performers, ensuring no copyright concerns." The characters include an AI-driven machine called Mom and mysterious life forms Goz and Mez. Finally there's the music. Only one track called Iron Perch BGM was made with the help of AI. "AI-based music editor was used to generate each stem," the studio wrote. "Once all stems were exported, few were manually edited, but most were rebuilt from scratch." It didn't explain why that choice was made, but as with the other examples, it points to generative AI being a much smaller part of Let It Die: Inferno than the Steam disclaimer first suggested. Having any generative AI in Let It Die: Inferno will be enough for some folks to say "no thanks" and swiftly move on to the mountain of other new releases that don't include it. But even fans willing to overlook the slop factor are having a tough time trying to love the spiritual successor. The original Let It Die had microtransactions but was free-to-play. Inferno is $25 and still charges players for certain healing consumables and cosmetics. But the bigger issue for some fans, following the game's December 3 launch on PS5 and PC, is that it plays like an extraction shooter. One of the cool features in the original game was that it saved your character when you died during a run and sent it to fight other players during their runs. That asynchronous multiplayer has been swapped out here for more traditional PVEVP gameplay. You can try to avoid other players but fighting them is a more central part of the game. That puts it more in the vein of the less fondly remembered battle royale spinoff Deathverse: Let It Die than the original. "First negative review I've written," wrote one fan on Steam. "LiD was fire. LiD: Inferno is a PVP only game. Rest in peace LiD, they should've let you die instead of making whatever this is." Not everyone agrees. In fact, a mini-battle is currently raging between fans of the original and new players who actually like what Inferno is doing. "Remove the freaking PVP" reads a top thread on the Steam discussion page. That might be the sentiment that pushes your average player away from giving Inferno a shot, but the diehards are currently all-in. "Review bombers stop spreading misinformation," reads another thread. "I personally am loving the game so far, but damn people need to stop with the negative reviewing thats full of misinformation." That person points out that Inferno's microtransactions don't include weapons and armor, the AI is barely noticeable, and PVP is easily avoided by people who just crouch to let others know they don't want to fight. Not exactly the type of glowing endorsement that might lead skeptics to flock to the game, but the person also makes the point that just because Inferno isn't Let It Die 2 doesn't mean everyone should immediately write it off.