Important: Regarding backgrounds in next update. (Patreon)

Conclusion reached, this post is now locked, thank you so much for everyone who gave me their opinions! I love you all :>

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Hey everyone, good timezone, Andy here! I already asked on Discord, but I also want everyone's opinion on Patreon, itch, and also Twitter, in case you're not in the server.

I need your guys' opinion real quick, and it's really important! While writing Gil part 3, I realized that this upcoming update would need a lot, like a lot of backgrounds for our Vui (our background artist) to work on. Because of that, it'll be very hard to come out with the background idea/reference sketch for Vui to be fast enough to get it all done before August.

Since this VN is made true because of you guys, the readers, I need your guys' opinions on me using AI generated backgrounds STRICTLY AS REFERENCES AND PLACEHOLDERS. I'll also flag the backgrounds as AI generated and that they will be used only for references and placeholder purposes. I will also manipulate it in photoshop, so it looks posterized like the picture attached.

We have a notice saying that it's AI generated and is only temporary. 

My main reason for using these AI generated background is that I'm really bad at putting my ideas into words, and Vui doesn't speak English fluently; not to mention it's faster and more convenient to put the ideas I'm struggling to put into words into something more visual so he can work based on the AI generated references, and that the VN looks jarring without any placeholder background.

Otherwise, it'll look sort of like this, if people aren't cool with the placeholder AI generated backgrounds.

Update: We also have asked permission from our background artist to use AI generated image as references! Keep in mind this is not saying we will be using AI Generated backgrounds for the VN, only as references and placeholder. This is only to reduce our BG artist's workload since I've been sketching the general idea for him for the backgrounds, but as we have a lot of things to work on this and upcoming month, I plan on using AI generated background (only if it's ok by the majority of the readers) to help with the references as looking for the stock images for certain backgrounds have been different due to my lack of knowledge.

From our co-developer: Rex Mundane:

There seems to be some confusion about the ethics of this decision. the reason "AI art" is so hated is because the people generating it are claiming it as their own and using it for profit at the expense of the original artist. that is emphatically not what we're proposing here.

The images we have are altered to make it clear they're not the original artist's work, and even then they're only used to give a general idea of what will be there until the final, proper digital art that we're commissioning is ready to go. it gives you something to look at that'll stir the imagination, not replacing any real artists. We're not making off with their hard work or pretending they don't exist; we're not profiting off them.

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The general consensus on Discord is that an "a-okay" as long as it's only temporary, and I can promise you, this will be only temporary and will be deleted once Vui is finished drawing the actual pieces we need for the VN. Since this is not something to take lightly as it is a very controversial topic, I want to get opinions on all of my platforms...and be as transparent as I can since I don't want to do anything you guys don't approve of--within reason.

So here we are. It's important, and so, I'd be thankful if you could let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

With love.

Thanks for reading!