The developer and publisher of upcoming board game Concordia: Special Edition have released statements addressing its use of Artificial Intelligence. These come after gamers have repeatedly review bombed the game on BoardGameGeek for alleged use of AI art on its cover.
Publisher Awaken Realms responded first in a Gamefound update on March 18. "We feel that the current situation is really not respectful toward our artists, who are really working hard on each project", it says before confirming "in the final game, there will be no AI art". "Human artists will be involved in everything."
Awaken Realms does, however, intend to use AI for "mock-ups, and various initial phases of concept work". "Honestly, it is really hard not to, as e.g., Photoshop alone, which is our artists' main tool, has already tons of built-in AI features."
PD-Verlag, the original publisher of Concordia, weighed in on March 26. Board game editor Jan Philip Sommerlade posted on BoardGameGeek, saying "it was very important to us that artificial intelligence will not be used in Concordia: Special Edition".
"In December, we paid Awaken Realms an extensive visit and discussed the details of the Special Edition at length." "Awaken Realms has a large team dedicated to developing content, graphics, and illustrations, and we are confident that this collaboration will result in a very high-quality product."
PD-Verlag apparently "stipulated in our contract that the final product will not be created using artificial intelligence in any form". Just like Awaken Realms, however, the publisher acknowledges that AI is being used for "brainstorming", "concept development", and "creating prototypes".
This is not the first time Awaken Realms has come under fire for using AI. The company removed AI art from its deluxe edition of Puerto Rico in 2024 after backlash. It also released similar statements about its AI usage in Grimcoven. Similarly, that game acknowledged the use of AI in development but promised the "final product" would be human made.
BoardGameWire reports that six of Awaken Realms' latest crowdfunding campaigns report the use of AI image making tools (Labyrinth Chronicles being a recent exception). These games, which include Grimcoven, This War of Mine Second Edition, and Agricola: Special Edition, have seen mixed reactions regarding their use of AI.
Agricola: Special Edition has seen similar review bombing, for example, while Grimcoven does not appear to have been subject to the slew of '1' scores. Regardless, the six campaigns have reportedly raised more than $44 million.
"Honestly, we find this whole conversation extremely draining", Awaken Realms says on Concordia's Gamefound page. "This is a "hot topic," and with those types of topics, emotions run wild, and any statement or comment gets easily derailed or misrepresented."
"It is also simply heartbreaking - we are really working hard on our games", it adds. "We are also EXTREMELY proud of how they look." "We think our artists are doing absolutely terrific jobs (using different tools in different projects)." "For every single game we have delivered to backers, we believe we did justice on the art side of things."
For more updates on the best board games, join our Wargamer Discord to keep up with the latest news.
March 27: A small wording change was made to make it clear that AI tools were reportedly not used in the development of Labyrinth Chronicles.