Making our position clear on Ai content - again...

In the initial release of Peace Island on February 28, there were 25 images that contained AI-generated content - out of over 4,200 used in the game. Currently, there are three or less (and we are only guessing - there might be none.)

In the wake of that initial release, we received a lot of well - deserved criticism for the broken state of the game’s systems. Since that time, we have worked overtime to fix every one of those bugs and improved the game immeasurably - thanks to those negative reviews.

We continue to work and improve the game, thanks to such positive feedback from the community. We also received criticism for the presence of those 25 images (less than 0.6% of total images used in the game, at the time.) We took this reaction seriously, and within two weeks - had identified & removed every suspect image.

What is more: we issued an open call - If anyone suspected that content they came across in Peace Island is a result of the use of Generative AI, they are free to submit it to us for review. Thanks to individuals who submitted suspect content, we were able to identify and remove 8 more images that tested positive for AI.

At each of the stages in this process, we have been fully transparent about our processes of identification and removal.

Despite all of this - there remain reviews on Peace Island’s store page that still condemn the project for use of AI. The majority of these were left by people who ”purchased” the game, ran it for the minimum time required, left a review, and then promptly got a refund.

We have contacted the individuals who left these reviews via every possible means - even offering them free Steam keys so that they can see for themselves that their concerns have been addressed.

Those who did respond, did so with insults.

Not a one of them has since changed their reviews.

Now - we are not stupid - we understand what is going on: The individuals who left these reviews did so in bad faith. They had absolutely no intention of offering substantive criticism of Peace Island - they were (and remain) solely interested in doing anything they can to hurt our reputation and sales.

Understand that at the time of Peace Island’s initial launch, there were literally thousands of games on Steam that relied on AI generated content FAR more than we ever did, or relied on generative AI entirely for their functionality - and that number has unfortunately since grown.

If the individuals who wrote these still-extant bad faith reviews shared our goal of promoting human-made content and the elimination of AI from the creative process, they would have levelled similar condemnation on those thousands of other projects, and retracted their negative reviews of Peace Island when we removed that 0.6% - but they did not.

We have appealed to Steam, and they say that there is absolutely nothing they can do about these bad-faith and false reviews.

And while that admittedly sucks, it is absolutely fine. Over the past eight-plus years of development, we have overcome far more serious opposition than this - whether it was delivered by fate, war, plague, or trolls.

If - by the meager efforts of these trolls - our sales are limited, as is any possible financial benefit from the years of work we have put into the game - that is again fine, because your see: We never wanted to “Make Money” - we just wanted to make a game.

And nothing will stop us from doing that.