Irrelevant photo of my cute cats
I feel small at times when I compare my work to other similar video games that seem so amazing.
Then again, I'm just a solo dev on part-time
Shout out to
#kristala
#NEARstudios
#toothandtail
#somagames
to those who inspire me and show me that big things are possible
If you want to know more about @playhawthorn.bsky.social, you can:
- Visit their website: www.playhawthorn.com
AND
- Join the conversation on Discord: www.discord.gg/Hawthorn
I'll see you tomorrow, 7/10 @4pm Pacific for the demo! Don't miss it!!
#playhawthorn #NEARstudios
Don't miss the perks available to @playhawthorn.bsky.social supporters - like Steam keys, exclusive items, and more! Hurry because the Kickstarter late pledge window closes this FRI, 7/11 @ 4pm EDT!
KICKSTARTER: www.kickstarter.com/projects/nea...
#playhawthorn #NEARStudios #crowdfunded (3/4)
Bluesky screenshot Transcribed text: Sam Wey @samwey.bsky.social 1mo When do you think you'll be able to experience the real world converted to Studio Ghibli style in real time? Such a crazy moment in Internet culture. I love it. www.reddit.com/r/AgentsOfAI. #AR #VR #AI #ChatGPT AgentsOfAI 1.8K 232 From the AgentsOfAl community on Reddit: The Whole Internet Right Now Explore this post and more from the AgentsOfAl community
When they have level designers who actively praise genAI, along with not apologising or even acknowledging that their use of genAI was wrong, it's hard to believe that NEARstudios won't use genAI again.
#NEARstudios
#PlayHawthorn
#Kickstarter
Maybe now that someone in the industry has said something we'll get more than a "yeah but who cares" from #NEARstudios.
Not that I'd trust anything new they said...
bsky.app/profile/sork...
Look at me, tagging #NEARStudios wrong 🤦🏻
6:47 hawthorn X ail 73% runeowl hey devs! I heard about the game and love the premise, but - your key art / cover image appears to be ai generated? as an artist and Heather Cerlan 01/29/2025 7:08 PM I want to personally address this question as one of the main people responsible for this situation. Here's some extra clarification and context, since we have been getting sporadic questions about the Al disclosure on the Steam page and it's something that we do want to address with the community, and we want to be as transparent as possible. When we set out to start making Hawthorn, we went through over 2 years of self-funding NEARstudios and a year of that was spent trying to fundraise from investors to build the game the way we envisioned, and part of that process involved putting together a rough demo to show investors. We used placeholder art and marketplace assets with the intent of this being just for this internal funding demo as proof of concept. In our biggest dreams and vision for this project, we had planned for it to have a completely different art style, and we planned to replace every single visual element in the demo (models, textures, animations, Ul etc,) We were just keeping the code/systems we created. When we realized that funding wasn't imminent, We pivoted away from raising money (this was in July 2024) and went heads down to try to prepare a gameplay trailer with what we had and try to make it as presentable to the public as possible to test if there was a desire in the community for this game At that point, we were a few months away from running out of personal money to continue the project. We hired an artist to create the key art for the Hawthorn announcement unfortunately, that artist didn't work out and we didn't have any time to find and hire a new artist to create something new before our press embargo date. I'm an artist, but not a concept artist and I'm also the one running all the business aspects, finance, strategy, biz dev, marke…
6:48 JE hawthorn c X G Mll 73% there was a desire in the community for this game. At that point, we were a few months away from running out of personal money to continue the project. We hired an artist to create the key art for the Hawthorn announcement unfortunately, that artist didn't work out and we didn't have any time to find and hire a new artist to create something new before our press embargo date. I'm an artist, but not a concept artist and I'm also the one running all the business aspects, finance, strategy, biz dev, marketing, recruiting/hr etc. so time is unfortunately limited even more. So, sadly I had to very quickly resort to using a combination of Al art, photo bashed elements, and hand painting to throw something together in time for the looming press announcement date. This journey to bring Hawthorn to the world has not gone the way we have planned, but we are determined and resourceful and want to keep the project alive. We will replace all the Al placeholder art, and we are currently working with artists as we speak to do so. We ourselves cringe at the fact that Al art is in the game, and we are working diligently to correct it The gameplay trailer that everyone saw back in October and the build that our Ko-Fi supporters will see on Friday, was never intended to be shown this early in development, but all of this was done in an attempt to save Hawthorn, a project that we are incredibly passionate about and wanted more than anything to give it a chance to see the light of day. My neighbor invested a small personal check into the company to allow us the runway to get to our Kickstarter in the Spring and we will have all the art be100% artist created by then. We apologize that we resorted to using Al generated art in a moment of desperation and hastiness and we will make effort to stop using Al generated content going forward. We are thankful that this community has rescued the game by showing their interest and giving us hope that Hawthorn has a…
They seem to think this excuse is good enough to clear them of any responsibility.
Just say you don't give a fuck about the genAI use instead of pretending to have due cause for using it.
Anyone who values art and artists (or the environment) shouldn't back this game!
#PlayHawthorn
#NEARStudios
"We only engaged in theft a little bit 🥹"
Everyone always has an excuse for why they chose to act in a way that they *knew* was unethical.
GenAI images = Plagarism
GenAI images = Environmental Destruction
GenAI images = Harm artists
#VideoGames
#PlayHawthorn
#Hawthorn
#NEARstudios
Pls back this game immediately also spread the word all over, I need ALL my people to be able to play this game with me ALL the time mkay khnxbai!!!!!!! www.kickstarter.com/projects/nea...
#Hawthorn #Kickstarter #NEARstudios
