Fans of the long-dormant Duke Nukem series were elated to see a remaster of the first 2 games getting announced, but that excitement has been dampened by people calling out the game’s key art for being “AI generated”.
AI has been rapidly developing as of late, getting implemented in an increasing number of ways for people to generate images and text by feeding certain AI programs a prompt to work from.
AI art has become just as controversial as it has been prominent, and people are increasingly wary of AI-generated images replacing the work of real artists.
When the promotional art for the Duke Nukem 1 + 2 Remasters released, the joy of many fans was traded out for disdain, with many claiming that the art wasn’t created by an actual artist. To prove their point, several artists put together a detailed analysis of the image to try and explain why they think the artist that was hired didn’t do all his work by hand.
Duke Nukem 1+2 Remaster under fire for “AI generated” art
When AI art first started taking the internet by storm, it was pretty easy to discern what was and wasn’t real. Though some images were more convincing than others, things like hands, facial expressions, and other small details didn’t quite line up with what a human artist would produce.
However, as the technology rapidly advances, it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference. For instance, the cover art for a book by the name of Bob the Wizard was exposed as being AI generated after it won a cover art contest, with the author of the book now working with a different artist to replace it.
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Now, Duke Nukem fans and artists are calling out Oskar Manuel, claiming that he used AI to generate the cover for the Duke Nukem 1+2 Remaster under the nose of Evercade, the company promoting the remaster.
The majority of your artist's portfolio is made from generative algorithms. Look at how they cant draw the same Storm Trooper design twice. The goggles, kneepads etc, everything is always subtly off and inconsistent. This is "AI" art, just like the cover that they made for you. pic.twitter.com/PZjJekzbNx
— Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️🐲👊 (@Richmond_Lee) June 1, 2023
It hasn’t been confirmed by the artist or Evercade whether or not Manuel used AI in the production of art for the title, but several artists and gamers have swarmed the account, claiming that art from Manuel’s portfolio seems to be AI-generated.
One artist went out of their way to mark the places in which they think the art most clearly shows its faults and other examples of art from Manuel’s portfolio that includes things like clocks with no hands and characters with 6 fingers.
From his art station, you see this. But real artists would do a HUGE thinking about every. single. detail. AI will just do a mindless kitbash without understanding of the world, story, character, culture, anything. pic.twitter.com/u1M3RXxVRo
— Hanyuu_central 🇺🇦 (@CentralHanyuu) June 1, 2023
Neither Evercade nor Manuel have commented further on the matter at the time of writing, and the story is still developing.