Catly Developer Says Game Does Not Use Generative AI, Blockchain Tech, Or NFTs

Welp. . .there's your sequel to Nintendogs + Cats.

Something about this feels...off or uncanny. It's like one of those low-effort machine generated concept videos. Is it MG? Am I going nuts?

....These cats scare me. lol

@N00BiSH This all looks Ai generated, so it isn't just you. No clue if it is- but God it feels like it's Ai generated.

That's an AI generated money laundering front

“We have Stray at home!”

AI generated nonsense.

They found a way to make cats ugly.

...I have no words 0_o"
This trailer is supremely cursed. I feel like those ai generated cats will come to kill me in 7 days like the girl from The Ring

Huh, so this is actually real. I thought that I just had a weird dream.

You guys forgot to mention that it will release on the Apple Watch.
Yes an MMO on a smartwatch… start worrying.

I seriously Don't get the AI.
The video is too consistent to be AI & have none of the weird morphing effect known as AI.
So to me the video looks real.

If this really is AI then I ask everyone to ignore this game to oblivion. We don't need that kind of stuff.

I found this thread on Twitter. Someone looked into the studio making this and found someone within it who has a history working with NFTs and crypto. Not sure if that says anything about the game, but I thought I'd share this anyway.
https://x.com/NotPeashyBee/status/1867433228178797063?t=XENlw0NB6HMz6hLyTh_nhw&s=19

If this nightmare fuel isn't AI generated then somewhere out there is a team of 3D animators who spent months building, rigging, and animating these monstrosities, all the while thinking to themselves "these cute kitties are going to be a smash hit!"

I am pretty sure this isn't AI, but my god do I not blame people for thinking otherwise. The animation is so weird and stiff, and it's distractedly contrasting from the detailed models.

This will be the Morbius for video games.

Definitely AI generated, the blurbs for the game are too. Funded by cryptobros. NLife do your job.

@Kawaiipikachu The video isn't Ai, but the cats themselves are designed by AI. They even show pictures of them from the actual "game," and it's all just Ai images.

Yikes. Not a good look for Ninja, Pokimane, even Jeff McKeelie for supporting this game. This is entirely tonedeaf alongside his addressing the massive layoffs in the space. Hope there's some sort of statement but like... doesn't reflect well.

And the guy is legit lying through his teeth. The designs of the cats in the “gameplay” segment of the trailer and the art on the game’s steam page along with on the company’s steam page are literally all Ai generated images.

Not AI? So the game's just ugly then?

Just creatively bankrupt with atrocious character design then

@Buizel Nope. They’re lying. If this site supported images I can show actual evidence that they use Ai in the actual game and on their developer page- but the site doesn’t support image sharing without uploading to another site.

Insert The Brady Bunch Movie "Sure, Jan" gif here.

maybe its a social experiment to see how far companies can get away with blatantly using ai to make games who knows

AI or not, it certainly looks like an NFT style hustle.

@VoidofLight This site does support images if it's formatted properly. https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/help/tips_for_formatting_messages
I'd love to see your proof because so far it seemed like pure hearsay from people who didn't like the (admittedly weird) trailer.

Imma call ***** on that

Sounds like something someone using generative AI would use.

Sorry to that PR guy but I don't trust like that

@babybilly It still requires me to upload to an external site I'm pretty sure. If you want proof though, go to the superauthently developer page. There's a banner image that is outright just an Ai cat. The fur gives off a pretty off-putting feel.

On top of that, the description of the game is extremely nonsensical and repetitive in the steam listing of the game.

"Step into an enchanting dream where humans and cats forge the ultimate bond. Collect stories and chase memories through the eyes of both human and cat. Embark on playful escapades, craft cozy havens, explore vibrant landscapes, plant, laugh, race, decorate, create, steer robots, dress up, mingle, cuddle, groom. Heartwarming delights await in a tale of breathtakingly beautiful cats."

Also a ton of the images at 0:46 of the cats have that same fake and glossy look that Ai art tends to have.

@N00BiSH Given how everything about this game screams generative Ai, the guy is literally telling a lie to the potential audience.

@VoidofLight I can smell the ChatGPT from that description.

@N00BiSH Same. It's like how the "Monster Hunters" description was just a ChatGTP rephrasing of Monster Hunter Wild's description. These Ai scam games are flooding the market spaces, and I'm bewildered that anyone would trust this guy at his word when he says this isn't using Ai.

I don't believe them. The trailer looked soulless

I hate links to twitter videos.
I don’t want to support that dangerous idiot in any way. Not even by watching one trailer on his platform.

Okay, but the cats still look hideous even without AI

Yeah no way am I believing this game doesn't use AI in any capacity. The game just reeks of it. If it's not AI, have them provide a developer video or something showing people developing the game.

Their name doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but it doesn't look AI to me. I just feel like AI has poisoned people's minds, now whenever people see something they don't like, they just say "ew AI" and such, even if it clearly isn't. I could very well be wrong about this one, but it requires further investigation instead of knee-jerk reactions and just deciding to take one side or the other's word for it without proper evidence.

@VoidofLight Even if that description in Steam could seem ChatGPT, it's as nonsencial of other things human beings actually write.

You can't just start saying humans are perfect and write 100% coherent descriptions all the time just for the sake of saying "that's AI" on something you don't like.

But yeah, the cat designs look like AI. Description is just a lazy human writing.

@TopazLink There is proper evidence though. If you actually look at the trailer for the game, it's clear that it's Ai. The human character has six fingers on one hand. The "gameplay" portion of the trailer literally showcases Ai imagery. The description is written by Ai, and if you look into the background of the company making the game- they're known for making crypto and NFT games with Generative Ai as a scam. I don't think it gets any more evident than that.

@Olmectron Given that this company is known to be into both Ai and Crypto/NFTs, it's 100% Ai generated writing. The description isn't just "lazy writing," given that even people with lazy writing would string sentences together in a more cohesive way than this.

That trailer made me extremely uncomfortable. Not sure if those cats are supposed to look cute, but they're kind of terrifying.

@roy130390 Talking about fever dreams: Where did you get that profile gif from? It looks extremely weird , and also very cool! 😂🤎

Hard to believe, and I don't really trust IGN either.

Tbh in an environment where games are allowed to be "revealed" without any actual gameplay suspicion is 100% warranted.

I don't think it's wrong to be quick to assume the worst, when the worst is so often allowed to run rampant in gaming nowadays. Often peddled by the biggest sites and influencers.

This is advertised as a hyper realistic, open world pet raising sim MMO that's somehow playable on PC, console and somehow smartwatch. Even without AI accusations this already sounds like a load of nonsense.

@Dazman I don’t wanna be a douche… but there’s bad opinions and there’s yours

@VoidofLight Well that's fair enough, I didn't actually notice the fingers. I only watched the reveal once on my phone and it just didn't look like AI to me. I've seen people call things AI that aren't, so I thought the reaction was a bit silly. But if it truly is and if they're lying about it, then that's pretty bad.

@Yoshi3 Some people are practical, others are wishful thinkers. I'm the former. Games like this will become more common because they will be far cheaper to produce, or the money saved on expensive artists can be put to better use elsewhere. That's just reality.

"Thought about AI-written content for 7 seconds
The passage you’ve shared has a style that could certainly be produced by AI. It feels polished, dreamlike, and thematically cohesive without being tied to any concrete narrative—traits often seen in AI-generated content. Of course, humans can write in this manner as well, especially when aiming for a poetic, whimsical feel. Without direct evidence of its origin, it’s impossible to be certain. However, from experience, the smoothly flowing adjectives, vivid imagery, and the general avoidance of specific, verifiable details do resemble the typical patterns found in AI-written text."

ChatGPT (paid) certainly thinks this is probably generated by AI for those who wonder.

@Dazman what a disappointing corporate alignment. I see this argument a lot, “it saves money on expensive artists letting them put that money elsewhere”.

But here’s the thing, the average games artist wage isn’t any more than any other dev in the team. And that saving isn’t going back into the game development or being passed on to the consumer. And it’s certainly not going towards making the company more stable for its employees and it’s very creation comes from firing a bunch of them.

No, this apparent great saving goes directly to the top. To the CEOs and shareholders. The people who’s bonuses alone could pay the wages for 5,10,50 artists, writers, animators, voice actors etc. The actually expensive and entirely replaceable people are the ones who actually benefit and nobody else.

And why do we want out expensive, luxury, hobby products churned out anyway? This isn’t something we need, automation isn’t really a benefit. If we want original visions and ideas, we need those creative people, not to save a bit of money for a share holder or CEO. For the kind of person that demand games now hold back content for the 'deluxe edition' at launch, or that they pivot to a live service / GaaS model, or who say 15 million profit isn't enough and the team must now be dissolved and put on 'proven IP'. Those people that push the worst elements of games on us for a quick buck, that nickel and dime us every moment possible. That's who you are currently supporting.

@Dazman when an AI tells you that certain content might be AI, that’s when you know something is very off about this game

@Flashlink99 I dunno, I have a few artist friends on Instagram who had actual handmade sculptures that exist in the real world marked as AI by the AI. The reason being they were artists that got hit heavily with the AI training off their work. A real salt in the wound moment.

But yeah I don't know if this game is just using wording to throw people off. They didn't use AI to make the trailer? Ok I believe that. But all that cat designs we see when the cards kind of explode looked very AI generated, as did several design elements. So is it a case of the trailer itself isn't but the content used in it is? Hopefully I'm wrong and it's another case of it looks like AI because AI stole heavily from this person.

Wouldn’t care if it did

@Ogbert I know what you mean. However if this game doesn’t actually use AI and it’s entirely human-made, they should fire whoever is involved with the graphics, because those cats are really off-putting. I am a cat lover and I hate to see something so soulless, as it’s supposed to be a cat sim, not a gremlin game.

@VoidofLight If you check the website of Catly it's even more blatant. scrolling through the "fashion" pages there's a bunch of AI generated images of cats that are ever so slightly touched up. if you look at the outfits they're wearing, or the positioning of their pupils it's immediately evident it's all AI. don't know how this slipped through at the game awards. needless to say it's a grift and this game won't ever properly release. probably get a shoddy early access build at most LMFAO

@Flashlink99 I also find them off-putting but that doesn't mean they should be fired. It just means I'm not the target audience, which is fine, I don't need everything to be made for me.

I mean, everything in that statement is obviously lies but it's at least good that they understand that admitting to using AI in development will hurt sales.

@Mabelissimo I wanted to visit the site but it gave me an error page that in itself looked like AI had trained itself on hacker imagery by watching all the 90s TV shows' hacker scenes where they are furiosly typing nonsense while the computer made very high pitched plucky noises, and figured this is what an error page should look like.

Lies, lies, lies, and even more lies.

@VoidofLight It "looking evident to you" is not proof. Just because it seems like a case could be made does not equate that logic to actual evidence. Saying stuff like "just look at it" is not sufficient, please stop using that as your "proof". I'm completely open to the idea that you're 100% correct but seeing you double down about being right when there's nothing substantial to say this game is without a shadow of a doubt being made with AI makes me question your claims.

@yohn777 I pointed out multiple ways that it's Ai though. If you look at the site you'll see a ton of images of clothing that are illogical in design and have that strange glossy sheen that Ai is known for. Same with the images of cats. The literal description for the game on steam reads as a prompt in terms of how incoherent it is. They even have quotes from people who aren't involved in the game, with said quotes not even reading like a human actually said them. Hell, one of the quotes is from the Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood composer- who of which is said to be "working on the game," when in actuality they aren't.

Have the people touting things as "photorealistic" ever seen a photo before? Or anything real?

It definitely “looks” AI to me, but that’s subjective. If what @VoidofLight says about six fingers is true, however, that would be an objective argument convincing me the video is AI‐generated. However, after re‐watching the video, it looks like the human has five fingers on each hand to me. What’s the timestamp of the six‐finger scene?

@Nickinator The six finger thing was me jumping the gun since I heard it from a youtuber I was watching. After I looked back though, it doesn't look to be the case. However the video itself still could be generated by Ai given how weird the cuts are, and how SORA Ai is now open to public use.

Even if the video itself isn't Ai, the rest of it is. The whole steam page along with the photos on their website.

@VoidofLight I see, no worries. The game definitely looks AI‐generated—even if I can’t “put my finger” on definitive proof. 😉 Regardless, I think the success of the game will depend on the quality (or should I say lack thereof) of the end‐product. Whether it’s an AI game or a non‐AI game (that looks like AI), the end‐product has to be good for it to become a success.

You've somehow managed to make cats ugly.

Congratulations.

@FishyS Some idiots on YouTube are already defending this mess, they think it's man-made because the company said so.

The gameplay trailer just shown nothing but the cat customization.
I already smelled a terrible gameplay.

The new gameplay trailer looks nothing remotely like the original cursed trailer, so while they can say the game doesn't use AI art, they haven't said the same about their CGI trailer

Even with this gameplay trailer, a few things feel extremely off to me. The lynx at the end of the trailer and how it's eye deforms a bit with the lighting for one. The music also just feels weird, especially for compositions of a guy who is known for bombastic orchestral pieces.

The icons for clothing in the trailer still look Ai generated. So even if the game itself isn't Ai- if this is even real gameplay (which I'm suspect of), they're still using Ai for the promotional art of the game and for the description of it.

@MirrorFate2 But they said on the internet it’s not AI! Why wouldn’t they believe it?!

Even if the game isn’t A.I the trailer definitely is. I wish they would just own up to it instead of acting like it isn’t, like dang at least those “A.I artist” on social media and whatnot at least admit that much lol.

I know there’s still some things in the new trailer that raise some suspicions, but I feel like the whole thing would have been a lot better received had this gameplay trailer been the initial reveal.

literally tells me nothing aside from "this has worlds and uh. you can walk around as a cat."

Absolute trash but I wasn't expecting anything more from a game that prides itself on being "AAA", thats like proudly proclaiming your cooking is all freeze dried factory meat lmfao

Even if it isn't AI, that gameplay trailer is incredibly boring and feels soulless, much like AI often does. Definitely not spending a dime on this.

I don't like how much hate this is getting. It feels like pessimism has infected every corner of the internet. I wish people would try to be kind to eachother, even if someone does something bad or wrong... I'm sad. I want everyone to try harder to be good to eachother, not to just be good for the sake of justice.

People are trying to be good yes, by calling this out and protecting artists. That's justice.

I think that being good to other people can be more than just enforcing justice. It's kindness and giving people strength to push forward.

I wonder if the people at the company are either sad, or if they simply don't feel the hate writhing under the surface because of selfishnes. Companies are made of people, and people cannot completely defend themselves from emotional harm. From personal experience, I become selfish when I need to close my emotions off. I stop caring. I say hurtful and harmful things. I take advantage to try to get anything to soothe my emotions. And when I'm lucky enough to have the guts to try and fix things when I can open up again.

I wonder if the culture of not caring is due to people attacking eachother without caring about eachother's thoughts and feelings, or needs.

I refuse to stop caring. Unless someone cares a whole awful lot, it's not gonna get better, it's not -DR. Seuss. I'll add to that that people need to care carefully, not just swing around their ability to care like a hammer.

@HotGoomba This is my opinion.

I think looking closely at the eyes of the cats can tell me if it's AI generated. It looks like a cubemap reflected in the eyes that's the same for all cats, except the one with explicit anime eyes. They even have the fact that cat eyes are reflective in pictures here, when the spotted cat stares directly at the camera. The fur is definitely expensive, but not impossible. Maybe it's some fancy GPU instancing?

I think this game is a victim of it's artstyle. IE the saturation, the blobby shapes that are reminiscent of 50-60s archetechture. The solid colors, and the lighting. Those all read as AI to me on first glance. The fact that they got the fact that cats staring directly at cameras have glowing eyes, tells me that this is not ai generated, because in what world is that the generic solution for programming graphics? (AI always puts out the most likely, or rather the most generic solution, it is autocorrect on steroids. Image ai tends to hallucinate individual pixels, and I don't see any of that noise in the footage on the site.)

I hear that people made up a six fingered hand to be angry about, and that could be true, and if so I take everything but the cat eyes back. That is attention to detail.

Also none of the textures swim in the original trailer, and that is super common with AI video. I see in recent uploads of Sora videos that the FOV is swimming, while the FOV in this trailer does not swim, but it is reaaaallly weird.
Example of FOV swimming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6bpJgkEB1A at 6:45

@TheSaneInsanity great sentiment. Let's wait for the final product. I've seen this isn't for me at least.

Meanwhile this also looks like a company that's created a game for profit, and has also found a way to do that in the most cost effective way. Especially when art and art design is such a big part of this game, this feels like a little slap to artists.

But there's also a part of me that thinks this look is kind of a hype right now, and people probably want to play a game with that in it..so it's smart marketing!

@garfreek This makes me happy that this didn't immediately dissolve into arguing.

These costumes remind me of animal abuse. At least they give the impression to young kids that it’s okay to press animals into tight suits, treating them like dolls instead of living beings with natural necessities.

@Max_the_German cats can have trauma too! important to remember

@TheSaneInsanity The gameplay itself is something I'm not sure on being Ai or not. There's some instances that throw me off (the eyes at the end of the trailer and how they kinda glitch similarly to how Ai artifacting tends to look), but the main thing I'm seeing is that the promotional art is 100% Ai generated. The icons for the clothes, the designs of those clothes, and the images on the steam page and website are flat out Ai. That sorta gives me enough of a reason to not like the idea of this game's existence, even if the gameplay was handled by humans.

Even if the game has no AI in it, damn that trailer looks terrible. Horrible quality textures and an awful framerate

@VoidofLight I haven't examined the music in detail, the developer says it was done by a real person. As for the icons... I think they're just in engine screenshots.
I haven't seen the promotional art you're talking about so let me search it up. The one with the purple coat, long hair, and yellow sunglasses could be AI I admit... let me check the strands of its fur. Ah it's melting into the carpet... Ok then, still be responsible with your dislike.

Unless I see that square fur shaggy cat in game my conclusion is set. There is AI here. I think that the trailers were rendered in engine, and that the gameplay is real... I wonder how many people put a good amount of effort into making the eyes shine?

I feel like people are too focused on the company trying to show its not AI with this new trailer and should be more focused on how much CG is used and how little actual gameplay was shown. All the marketing was absolutely generated even if the trailers weren't. Which only means to me they were assisted at most.

It's a wild goose chase and a waste of time spent on a mediocre sim game made by a web3 grifter.

That is going to run like absolute dogsh... or should that be catsh...? on Switch.

And it doesn't look particularly fun either way.

AI or not, this looks painfully mediocre and boring, which is a shame because "The Sims but it's cats" isn't a terrible pitch for a game.

@TheSaneInsanity Thank you for the balanced comment showcasing a side of this we don't often think about.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not into blatant AI art either, but I can't help but see this turning into a witch hunt. As of now, they said it's not AI art and gave us a gameplay trailer, so why don't we just let this be?

No one has to buy the game if they don't want to but we don't have to keep riding on this campaign of harassment after it. Let's just see how things turn out.

The internet has a serious problem with getting laser-focused on some aspect of social justice while forgetting the simple decency of being kind to other humans.

I'd love to add/participate to this discussion, but the only thing I can say is that it looks ugly, creepy and boring. I also think that calling this a gameplay trailer is a mistake.
If I would be working for the company behind this, and this is a real videogame project, I would be extremely concerned with the reactions and be currently working really hard on my game's image and damage control. If this is AI ... it's a great message to whoever wants to pursue this kind of projects and I'm very happy about it.