ACT AI Generated [YumamiSoft] Last Town: Fall of Felixia (RJ01067887)

[blaster]

After I read all the comments. I don't feel like anyone directly attacks the dev or usage of AI in general, they just say they don't like its style or it's boring, and don't want to buy it from that. A personal opinion.

There's no need to feel butthurt about knowing people dislike what you like, you have your taste, and so does everyone else.

Throwing buzzwords like 'canceling' from reading different opinions regarding their own preference is just out of the blue. There's no need for that. Nobody lit the haystack on fire underneath the dev because they use AI as a tool, they just say the art from AI itself looks boring and not to their preference.

I also believe that most people are already well aware of what AI can do, what to be expected in the future, and the balance it tips from man-made work. It's the whole point that any dev chooses to use it, it's practically a commonsense at this point so there's no need to point that out. That's why my feedback focuses on my own view regarding the flavor that AI tools can't bring.

Will AI replace human artists in the future? It's hard to say. If only I'd live long enough to see those changes. But I'm still a firm believer that there's always something in artistry work that AI won't be able to replicate, and that's the human emotion that resonates from the art itself. It might sound delusional, but it's what I, and maybe many, preferred from the work of man more than the mass product pieces such the likes of AI in the first place.

Again, I won't be able to discern all the work if it's man-made or AI, but so long that I can feel the art itself can resonate with genuine emotions or the life itself, that's the art I can dig, AI or not isn't matter, and in the case of this game, it's doesn't feel that way to me.

If you see all the art in this game and feel like 'Yeah, this is good, I can dig this' then that's good for you, I respect that. You may still be capable to feel the life in them, but not me, not anymore.

 

[YumamiSoft]

New patch released! All changes applies to Full version and Demo. (Both Itch and DLSite)

Development Log V1.0.2:

Spoiler

# **Development Log V1.0.2**
*2023-06-25*
Does not break save game compatibility. Your save will still work.

## **Additions and Changes**
* Changed sprites of town NPCs to be more visually consistent
* Added default icons to equipment slots clarifying their purpose
* Added save confirmation
* Added "game saved" sound
* Added a pause menu with exit button basic options
* Added options to disable screen shake and screen flashes *(NOTE: These will be moved into a settings screen that'll be added in an update coming soon!)*
* Added a button to skip intro dialogue
* Added a Patreon logo with list of patrons
* Added proper widescreen support
* Make input for "Submit" more consistent

## **Bugs Fixed**
* Felixia overlay animation issues
* Sprite layering and positioning issues
* Enemy pathfinding through gates, causing early game bypass
* Aphrodisiac gas status effect never disappearing after surrender
* Loot chests being possible to push around
* Ghost enemy sprite being incorretly sprite sorted
* Game start loading bar jumping from 4% -> 100%

## **Other**
* Various small improvements to performance and stability

## *Coming soon*
*This is what we're either already working on, or have plans for an update coming soon.*
### **Gallery**
We wanted to push this update resolving common bugs out as soon as possible, rather than forcing you all to wait for us to be finished with the entire gallery.

### **Settings Menu**
We will be adding a settings menu including settings for (but not limited to):
* Audio
* Screen effects (Shake, flash, PostFX)
* VSync
* Resolution
* Windowed/Fullscreen
* UI opacity
* Compact console

### **More work on character overlay**
 Currently the main character do not mind too much being naked.

## *Coming later*
*Nothing here is set in stone or a promise, this is more of a peek of what we have on the drawing board and want to look into. We are not sure how the final implementation will end up like.*
* Impregnation / Pregnancy (... and synergetic items)
* Stats window (creampies, orgasms, enemies killed, etc.)
* More status effects, especially H-oriented
* Status effects with multiple stages
* Revised combat (Combo attacks? Charge up attacks?)
* Revised game progression
* More NPC's
* More interactions with NPC's (Various dialogue, H-events, Quests)
* Multi-grapple
* H-traps
* More granular character customization
* Ensure enemies are better rendered if they are obscured (e.g behind trees)
* Need to shower, and visit the bathroom
* Very basic tutorial for new players. (How to move, attack, where to go)

 

[YumamiSoft]

It's really interesting reading through everyone's opinions and feedback, thanks a lot. I wish we could've participated more actively but we've prioritized implementing, fixing and adding things that we believe should've been in since launch. Multiple caffeine pills and about 4 hours of sleep later here we are with the patch today. Sorry for the gallery not being in it, we thought people would appreciate the visual and gameplay bugs be fixed ASAP!

I gotta respect the sheer bravery of this man to want to engage with the 'community'. If you guys wanted to make this a serious project, then perhaps consider getting an artist onboard next time.

We do have an artists, and she's worked just as hard as I have!

I can hardly imagine the heat YumamiSoft is getting for this, with all these Keyboard Karens who want to demand human labour and monopolize the realm of imagery itself.

We are getting a lot of heat, most of which is completely fine so no worries at all. People are entitled to think whatever they want. That said, I do feel a bit sad for my artist that the game by many is considered a "quickly AI generated game" due to some oversights and artifacts that are by no doubt caused from time constraints and many a late night working overtime, and also general unfamiliarity with the AI tools at hand at the beginning of the project.

Anyway, we could either spend lots of time and energy arguing with- and trying to convince people about something like that *or* we could just skim over the issues people are having, look through the suggestions, and instead put our effort towards making a better game!

 

[Jesus]

the game by many is considered a "quickly AI generated game" due to some oversights and artifacts that are by no doubt caused from time constraints and many a late night working overtime, and also general unfamiliarity with the AI tools at hand at the beginning of the project.

I feel like you're fundamentally misunderstanding the critique. It's not so much about artifacts or anything like that - it's that the base images are AI generated, presumably using the same models as images we've seen thousands of, and so lack a distinct visual style - in addition to those vague factors that currently separate AI art from human. I'd be interested to know exactly how and to what degree those images were edited by the artist, just for curiosity's sake. Ultimately, regardless of edits and touch-ups, that's going to put off a significant portion of the potential audience.

 

[YumamiSoft]

I feel like you're fundamentally misunderstanding the critique. It's not so much about artifacts or anything like that - it's that the base images are AI generated, presumably using the same models as images we've seen thousands of, and so lack a distinct visual style - in addition to those vague factors that currently separate AI art from human. I'd be interested to know exactly how and to what degree those images were edited by the artist, just for curiosity's sake. Ultimately, regardless of edits and touch-ups, that's going to put off a significant portion of the potential audience.

I can definitely understand the gripe with the style since the internet must be fairly saturated with similar type of art. Honestly, It all kind of started last year when we were generating images using AI. The art style we went for in the game kind of evolved out of some sort of symbiosis with what we got from that, combined with us taking inspiration from games like "The Agnietta" - and when we had something we liked, we just stuck with it. "Exactly how much and to what degree" an image "is AI" is a difficult question to answer, since it varies greatly between different pieces.

Different generative AI models (or even the same models) are able to generate vastly different art styles depending on prompting, we did not go for what we did due to limitations of AI. We experimented with taking the art-style into a more sketchy / drawn kind of direction for a while (the vibes of which is still felt in some of the CG) but decided upon the cleaner look, I think mostly due to that it's far easier to get to get to look good with the style of animation we went for. (Skinned sprites and animated bones)

Just to clarify, I am not asking for anyone to stop or change their critique. Don't pull your punches. I'm getting the feeling that for the people who do not like the use of AI in our workflow is that people do not like the look of the end result, and the solution to that is to take notes and steps to address that issue, so keep the critique coming! The only issue we can't solve is people having a moral issue with the use of AI in our workflow. The best I can offer in that case is that I completely respect their opinion.

Anyway, all that said, the artist is planning to post time lapses of her work, and probably create a dedicated dev log about the workflow. When available, I'll gladly post that here for everyone to see if that is of interest to anyone!

 

[blaster]

The most prominent problem with using AI toolset is that the AI model itself is still incapable to create an iconic and distinctive art style to be unrecognizable from its mass-produced factory standard.

I totally understand how you work on the piece before using AI for extra touch-ups, I know a lot of Fanboxer or patronage sites that do the same, some are very *very* adamant about their work not being called AI-generated even tho it looks like one, because they work hard on them and even post how their workflow goes, which is to say, almost identical on how I did for making a storytelling asset for me and my friend's activities.

There's sketch, lining, base coloring, editing, retouching, detailing, etc. You basically keep working with AI models not by making simple geometry shapes and keep prompting with AI, but by a genuine effort of character and pose design while using AI to do the other part of heavy lifting. One big difference is some of them have a bigass monitored XP-Pen while I only got a cheap ass Huion tablet, but we pretty much output almost the same quality with different degrees of detail.

But the focal point is, I'm doing it solely for me and my friends entertainment, while they try to make a profit out of them. I might look like an idiot for not capitalizing on AI tools for monetary gain but I just know with my heart, that it looks pointless to try to justify my hard work when the final output looks almost identical to any AI output, no matter the difference in artistry skill and physical tools you have, AI is practically and equalizer that either lift or stomp your arts to the same specific level of quality and become more of a part in collective mind rather than something you can call your own. Your hard work will be disregarded because it will never sound genuine enough when your output has little to no distinctive detail compared with other arts in the same or similar model.

That's why people are super critical about using AI tools for making anything for monetary gain, patronizing, game making, or anything at all. Since people realized that this level of quality and easily recognizable style are from AI, something anyone can get their hands on, and no matter how much effort they put in, the output from AI will be decently reliable quality. Having genuine artistry skill only make the AI work faster and easier to match the reference with what you desired, as it requires less prompting, but still, you trade your possible iconic style for its factorial quality. Practically a deal with the devil himself.



Final thought
Anyway, it's a huge risk that you use AI tools even for a part of the workflow, but sadly, the final result has the most final say in this regard. It's impossible to convince others how hard you work on them if they still look little-to-no different from what AI is capable of.

I highly suggest that you try using genuine art pieces your artists work off with basic coloring and toning to test the water on how people will react if you really care about the presentation of art in the game rather than relying on AI tools to beautify your art asset. it's worth the try. There are many games that the art itself looks less extravagant compared with AI output. Such as RiceRing, Ahriman, Marimo, and various artists in No Future's circle. But it was their own recognizable iconic art style that sell their stuff.

The closest thing I can think of to compare with AI-based art is KAIRISOFT's game(might be a bad example but my brian is at its limit now), which is 3D that seems like something you can buy off the resource pool and retouch to your style to use in your game, still, it requires similar effort, maybe even more, cuz it's different skillset and toolset altogether, but at the end of the day, it's their game design that sells them more than the pretty looking art .... well Airi is technically the only few pretty things worth looking at in their world either way.

Then comes D-lis, the literal god among man that restores hope to the H-game industry with the best of both worlds for art and game design as they take almost 2-digits years to make that craft. I don't know if they will dip their toes into AI tools and I see them messing with 3D stuff for a while, that remains to be seen.



Still, there exist games that rely on AI tools to beautify their art asset that makes selling for good bucks too, it really up to you which road you want to walk on, best of lucks, and keep up the good work.

 

[YooEllEmmEffu]

I've definitely played worse H games that were charged way more for sure. At worst this game is 'passable'. Besides the previous complaints above (the really really boring gear grind of "X gear does more DPS" (i would have LOVED to at LEAST see set bonuses to at least encourage using lower tiered gear or god forbid weapons even having different reach or weapon effectiveness. Something even as simple as "this weapon deals more damage to undead enemies" or the like). I'm definitely disappointed there was no boss fights excluding the final boss fight as I felt like there were potential with there starting to feel like enemies were starting to develop strategies before the game ended.

 

[YumamiSoft]

I've definitely played worse H games that were charged way more for sure. At worst this game is 'passable'. Besides the previous complaints above (the really really boring gear grind of "X gear does more DPS" (i would have LOVED to at LEAST see set bonuses to at least encourage using lower tiered gear or god forbid weapons even having different reach or weapon effectiveness. Something even as simple as "this weapon deals more damage to undead enemies" or the like). I'm definitely disappointed there was no boss fights excluding the final boss fight as I felt like there were potential with there starting to feel like enemies were starting to develop strategies before the game ended.

The core gameloop as of right now not being as engaging as we'd like it to be is one of the issues that we are looking to address probably in the update after the next. Before anything we want to add in a gallery, and we'd like to spice up the town with more NPC's and interactions with them too.

Not only you, but anyone, whatever you believe is missing from the game and anything you'd like to see in the game - speak your mind and you'll definitely be heard. For example, we've seen LOTS of people request impregnation/pregnancy so that's something we have very high up on our to-do. We're reading feedback everywhere, and we're looking to openly communicate our development progress so definitely stay tuned for that!

 

[derakino999]

i was not going to suggest this but since you said you want to spice npc dialogue AND because the intro was well written may i dare suggest adding some dialogue to the game over scenes too instead of just an image? i'm just a sucker for story
and i don't want to address the ai thing too much as it has been addressed to death, but like, i've seen few ai arts that make the face a little more unique compared to the base look of ai, though idk if that's because it's people training their own stuff... anyway, all things considered, i do like that the heroine actually has a recognizable look to her all in all
gameplay feels simple but polished that is a strong point too, though note i've just played the demo lol
and idk what you're aiming for in gameplay, like more weapons and items or more actions? like a more action oriented title?

 

[Jesus]

The most prominent problem with using AI toolset is that the AI model itself is still incapable to create an iconic and distinctive art style to be unrecognizable from its mass-produced factory standard.
[...]

That's why people are super critical about using AI tools for making anything for monetary gain, patronizing, game making, or anything at all. Since people realized that this level of quality and easily recognizable style are from AI, something anyone can get their hands on, and no matter how much effort they put in, the output from AI will be decently reliable quality. Having genuine artistry skill only make the AI work faster and easier to match the reference with what you desired, as it requires less prompting, but still, you trade your possible iconic style for its factorial quality. Practically a deal with the devil himself.

[...]
I highly suggest that you try using genuine art pieces your artists work off with basic coloring and toning to test the water on how people will react if you really care about the presentation of art in the game rather than relying on AI tools to beautify your art asset. it's worth the try. There are many games that the art itself looks less extravagant compared with AI output. Such as RiceRing, Ahriman, Marimo, and various artists in No Future's circle. But it was their own recognizable iconic art style that sell their stuff.

Strongly agree. In addition to all the above - even if on the surface it's decent quality, there's still this feeling of disingenuity and deception - even if something looks interesting it's like, "cool, but you didn't make that" - and any touch-ups done by a human artist, if any, are typically imperceptible - just filling in where the AI might've dun goofed. I'm always going to prefer if the artist were to draw things from scratch. Of course it's not as expedient and ostensibly more effort, but they wouldn't even need to put in half as much detail for something that comes out better in the end, simply by virtue of being made by a person with original thoughts and creativity, and not a machine that can only derive from existing work.

Of course AI's a great tool for people who can't or don't want to do the art themselves, nor hire an artist - but in this case you already have one. Now I'm not familiar with how many different ways you can actually use AI in image generation - would it be viable to start with a very basic original drawing, and then have the AI fill in the details? Then I suppose the question would be, whether that ends up looking different and unique enough to warrant the extra effort. Maybe worth a try. Equally it might be just as, if not more effective to stick with those simple, expedient base drawings, without AI-generation factoring in.

One area where I imagine AI-generated/assisted art would otherwise be a huge asset, is games with multiple player-characters, each of whom can be captured if defeated in battle and must then be rescued - since it's basically double the number of scenes, but it lends them a much more compelling context than "got knocked down and fucked mid-battle" - in addition to allowing "game-over" type scenes without actually making it a game-over, retaining continuity. Not the most suitable for a hack-and-slash type game - I'd recommend checking out Angelic Apostle Liebe, which did this stuff really well. It was a roguelike - had captivity scenes which would progress, along with debuffs, if you took too long recovering between capture and rescue attempt - and the gameplay was designed around attrition, supply and status management.

In general, I'd implore you to spend more time on H-related game mechanics in order for it to stand out, if not for the art. Corruption and status effects are fairly straightforwards ways to add depth in that regard. You mentioned Agnietta which is one of my favorites, and one of the things I liked the most about that game is the slugs, facehuggers and insects which would latch on to the MC- you had to weigh the decision between continuing to fight whilst they were incurring debuffs and further consequences, against stopping to shake them off, at cost of making you more vulnerable to other enemies still in play.

 

[YumamiSoft]

any touch-ups done by a human artist, if any, are typically imperceptible - just filling in where the AI might've dun goofed
...
would it be viable to start with a very basic original drawing, and then have the AI fill in the details?

Absolutely viable, in fact that's 90% of our work flow. We've messed around with using original drawings, posed 3D models, clipped together references, and an amalgamation of all. There's a few cases where we *didn't* start with an original drawing and "let the AI be creative", especially in the earlier stages before figured out a better workflow. The further along the project we got and the more we got used to this new workflow, the better results we got (at least in our eyes). We'll demonstrate in our devlogs!

I'd recommend checking out Angelic Apostle Liebe [...}

Absolutely will, I'm surprised this title has escaped us. We're currently (after work) playing through some titles to see how other games did things. (most notably Wings of Roldea since it's been a while since last time.)

I'd implore you to spend more time on H-related game mechanics in order for it to stand out, if not for the art.

Personally I believe this is definitely something that we have to do and something I myself consider the game's biggest weak point. I consider myself a pretty good programmer, but not a very good game designer. Making a H-game definitely posed some design challenges that I might've resolved poorly due to a mixture of already being busy creating all the systems, and also having less experience on that front. I could list a bunch of promises and ideas, but I think I'll let the dev- and changelogs speak for me at a later date.

may i dare suggest adding some dialogue to the game over scenes too instead of just an image

Yes.. you absolutely may suggest that. I actually can't quite believe we didn't add that already. We have all the systems for something like that in place.


On a completely different note!
I don't know how big of a demand it is, and this isn't the only time I am going to ask about this: if there's anyone who is used to- or interested in modding a game like this, but need changes to be made to the game in order to be able to do so, let me know what you need! This is an important point to me, and I'll put in extra hours to help provide proper modding support if even a little interest is shown.

 

[ermiz]

I like how her ear isn't even attached to her head in the main image

Like if you're gonna use AI art at least try

 

[Dzhazgo]

My brain learned how to filter AI generated stuff somehow with over 90% accuracy. Much like promotion banners in everyday life. I never planned on getting this game, so unfortunately no feedback. I don't want to belittle someone's effort here - literally entered to read comments out of curiosity and they matched my expectations.

Opinion. In my mind there are 2 types of Hgames:
1st is valued for quality of H content, it's creativity. Not only in imagery, but in situations storytelling. That requires a good pervert and a good artist (or technician in case of 3d models or other tools usage). AI is incapable of providing that sort of content and result requires a lot of suspension of disbelief.
2nd grabs attention with 'game' element (whether it's gameplay, story or similar things). H content is lower quality or just straight up a placeholder, but it can be enjoyable and immersive nonetheless, precisely because of low quality, cuz it is enhanced by players imagination in cases where you see some poorly made platformer pixel art for example. AI though always does high quality details with low quality execution, which nullifies imagination aspect.
So, with that I really struggle to imagine game made with an AI, which would be good for me. May be if you were to use generated output as transparent layer for an artist to draw an actual content over it, so that they struggle less with poses and spend less time on images and animations. This way they could fix all the negatives such as artifacts with fingers, ears, hair etc.; inconsistencies in character features like height, body type, face features; color choice mess and typical for ai shading work; yadayada. But it's clearly not the case here judging by screenshots provided.

 

[Cupio]

Other than the issue of plageriusm, I don't mind AI Art at all. But as many have mentioned, AI Art porn feel all very samey, there's not much variation or creativity in the scenes. This is especially true since they are open to people who otherwise have no artistic skills, they tend to be mass produced. I'm sure this will become less and less of an issue as the technology gets better.

 

[IAmAKi]

I'm probably repeating stuff people have said before. I can't be bothered to read through this thread though, I just want to touch upon this title once and move on.

I don't see the point of kicking this game for using however much or little AI art. It's more to do with the AI creating something largely uninspiring and failing to make up for being a machine tweaked by a human over an entirely living artist's hands. There are so many H-games with pale stick-built average proportion human/humanoid protagonists, doing largely vanilla sexual acts with uggos, NTR or fantasy monsters with occasional transformation stuff that doesn't last beyond that one scene or is just a game over. Sure, there's less of these formats using animated scenes or having uncensored versions on other providers, and while that's something of note it is ultimately just another bland title to go on the pile. Slightly higher up than the others yes but still buried down in the same forgettable space of H-games that people will look at once and forget about.

Ultimately, if you're going to use AI or whatever else to cut corners with art, at least make the game or the H-content diversity, or preferably both to justify the use of it.
Just do something the majority doesn't do... that sounds hard but it's honestly not. If you want an idea of how sparse diverse content is outside of surface level crap, Fullflap is nearly the sole creator of animated H-titles featuring thicker-set (busty + thick thighs + hips etc) protagonists on dlsite. I think there's like two other devs and then rest is either slimflat or stick with boobs fem protagonist. Alternatively, male protagonists with a diverse female cast and lots of femdom + maledom would still get you far, and you have the comfort of knowing there's a definite following attached to those tropes.

 

[analogman]

man this looks good to be AI art, I will try it

 

[DarkerHorse]

Does anyone have a full save? I'm tired of losing progress due to the lack of confirmation on "load."

 

[stashar]

I enjoyed it.

I think the cowgirls need to have slightly better tracking, to force the dodge a little bit more. Or maybe for them to be moving a bit longer, but its a good concept otherwise.

I don't think the whole game was "just attack". There was a fair bit of dodging in some stages, especially as you learn the new enemy attack routines. Zombies had superarmor, ghosts were invulnerable, swordmen had swords that grossly extended expected range. Etc. etc. Enough to keep the game interesting, but its pretty simple overall.

But the game really needs a gallery mode. It just doesn't feel complete. A menu, gallery, tutorial screen... these things are sorely needed. The game kind of feels incomplete, despite the harder parts all being done.

 

[dying4anime]

Am I dumb? How do i save the game, or access options for stuff like changing window size?

 

[shenyi123]

ok i think is full of weapon and the strongest i got right now it took me a bou almost 500 hundred thousand god omg!