Can we stop blindly accusing indie games of using generative AI?

Lately I’ve seen this happen more often in online spaces: someone shares a game, someone else says it looks like AI, followed a couple of minutes later by a “nevermind, I was thinking of another game” or just changing subject. In the current gaming landscape, where games that use AI get a lot of heat online, arguably on the same level of plagiarism, it rubs me the wrong way when I witness these comments thoughtlessly thrown around. So I decided to write about it and ask (no one in particular): can we stop accusing indie games of using generative AI without doing due diligence? This post is not about discussing whether using generative AI in game development is good or bad. It’s not about one’s personal stance, it’s a matter of the public perception around it. I tried to get some data to understand the current landscape better and get a quantified feel about how gamers perceive generative AI in games, but I found conflicting information. Just to point out two: while this research…