Changing Last Seen Online's Artstyle

I changed Last Seen Online’s art style from realistic to cartoon. The intention was to remove all the AI art. This was a very hard decision. I want to acknowledge the many people who played and loved the first version of Last Seen Online, and I want to acknowledge how much of a tone shift it makes. When I have more resources, I want to return to the realistic style in a future game. Maybe in some extended version of Last Seen Online. The reason behind this change is not as simple as saying, “I am anti-AI,” because I am not. I’d like to tell you the story behind this change.

Before I was a programmer in front of a keyboard, I picked up the pencil and drew pictures. I struggled and struggled, but I loved drawing. I used to copy my favorite Animes and draw comics. I drew stories about zombies attacking the school. I drew a knock-off manga of a Domo-Kun trolling and messing with other students. I made pixel art while referencing the works of Derek Yu and Paul Robertson. I copied the art style from Pun Pun without ever reading the manga. In class, I sketched sleeping students and teachers. I eventually hit a brick wall – and felt like my drawing skills wouldn’t improve. Sketching with a lead pencil on a notebook my entire life meant no experience with color. I continuously sucked at lighting and shadows. I was encouraged by teachers to join art competitions, where I lost. In college I was surrounded by actual, real, art students who were far more talented than me. I got discouraged, and I put down my pencil, lifting it up occasionally for a fun doodle, before becoming discouraged again.

More than a decade later, I developed my game Last Seen Online, which referenced a lot of the struggles I went through as a teenager. The game allowed me to display all the skills that I had built up to this point. I used AI art in the game.

Almost all of the realistic photos in the game were made with the aid of Artificial Intelligence. I took photos of myself and used AI on different regions until it completely changed the people depicted. Not only that, game assets that depicted any human or person, such as the statues, were made using AI tools. There was quite a lot of edits made to make the AI be posed in the correct way. The only thing that wasn’t AI was the picture of Liz at the end of the game, which was portrayed by my friend Jenna. I made this with the foresight that I would want a consistent actress to portray the main character in any potential sequel. I used AI tools because it was easier than drawing all the art myself, and it allowed for a realistic look.

I released the game with AI art, thinking it would only be played by 20 people. A month later, thousands of people played the game, and I felt something sour grow within me. If this game was a display of all the skills I’ve developed as a programmer, storyteller, songwriter, director, and an artist, then I had chosen the cheap way out of a skill that I had long-suppressed. Artists who did not realize that I used AI for my game started drawing fan-art of the characters. Only two months after it’s release, I felt extremely dissatisfied with my work regardless of the praise, and so I made the decision to redo the artwork myself.

Fan-art by rose_44263

Fan-art by dn0l

Fan-art By JustKekc

Putting my own drawings into my game is a love-letter to all the artists who created fan-art. It is also a love-letter to my previous self. It was not an easy choice, because it took me months and months to redo everything. I often deleted and redid art because my art skills would get better over time, but that’s the really cool thing! I got way better at drawing from this choice. If the art is “bad” to you then it is destined to be bad. However, you will see my art slowly improve with future games and that process of failure and triumph is the point of being alive. I sacrificed the “realism” and “creepiness” of the game, but the result is a piece of work that fully has my story embedded into each part, and something that I am ultimately very proud of. I would call this a very selfish act, because I did it knowing that it would take away from the player’s experience, but it was worth it to make something I am truly proud of.

To celebrate this change, I collaborated with another artist, Isabel Yue Li, to interpret the characters in their own style for use as cover art. I was very inspired by Isabel’s story – their interest in how the early internet shaped their identity, and their relationship with being at the midpoint of both technology and art. Isabel’s art style is also just fantastic and bursting with beautiful colors. I also collaborated with musician Matthew Rudas aka Sunny Grey on Spotify on a new track for the ending of Last Seen Online. I only met Matthew once at a party, but after stalking his profile, I was drawn in by the storytelling in his music as well as his great voice. The point of filling out the credits list in my games with friends is to embed the stories of people I appreciate.

Isabel’s beautiful artwork.

I had a positive opinion on AI when I began my game. I worked in the AI field for many years before becoming a game developer. I was very eager to use AI art in my games and in any future games, and to prove it’s usefulness, so I littered the game full of AI art. I now have a very neutral opinion on AI, and I think there will be interesting stories that will be told that leverages AI as a tool, but I am not presently convinced. I don’t value the final product of artwork as much as I value the story behind the artwork. Which story did you prefer? My struggle with drawing, failing, and finding it again through Last Seen Online? Or the story of me avoiding drawing by using an AI tool? It’s as if I reheated a frozen pizza rather than learning to make and cook it myself – both valid, but both providing different stories.

Perhaps in a triple-A title, it makes sense to use AI art. The focus and audience is somewhere else. I like to create games that embody the feeling of reading a zine at a small book store, or stumbling upon deeply personal art that someone has shared at a community art gallery. The feeling of D.I.Y. needs to flow through the veins of the game, and the idea that you, the kid in high school or college, can build a game just like this one day.

In writing; words and writing styles are passed down from generations of author to author. In painting, the artist takes in influences from the world, what they’ve seen, and what they’ve felt, and attempts to communicate it. This is not to say that AI art does not have the potential to tell a story – it is just a different flavor of story that doesn’t taste as good to me. When an artist’s soul is laid bare within their work, regardless of tooling, their work speaks more to me. When artists display the works of generations before them through their own work, it is endearing. Why are people choosing physical books over digital ones? Why collect expensive watches instead of relying on your phone? Why choose vinyl when you can listen to an MP3? Why choose to read a real person’s autobiography over a fictional story that an AI has written? People who praise how “much more beautiful the AI art is compared to the human art” are missing the point. The choice to move from AI art to drawing my own art is because of the story behind it. The story is synonymous with the intention. The intention is synonymous with the soul. I can write forever about ethics, morals, or slop, but it really boils down to one thing for me – it is about storytelling.