The maker of virtual buying and selling card recreation Champions of Otherworldly Magic says it has spent $90,000 on card artwork, the whole thing of which has been paid to a unmarried “AI artist” who receives $15,000 consistent with hour regardless of dedicating lower than two complete paintings days to the undertaking every hour.
“We pay our AI artist 15,000 USD per month for exactly 10 hours of work,” reads an X post from the authentic Champions TCG account. “Why? In that time, he still makes HUNDREDS of AMAZING bits of artwork—ASTRONOMICALLY FASTER than ANY team of traditional artists.
“His artwork is 100% AI generated, but it has deny difference arms, deny generic designs, deny errors… It has constant evolutions, skins, alt artwork kinds—actually nobody is on his stage. We don’t help how he makes it, we best help that the tip consumer enjoys our recreation.”
According to Champions TCG co-founder and CEO Miles Malec, who spoke to PC Gamer over DM, the artist has made over 1,000 images with generative AI over the course of six months, and was paid $15K each month. The anonymous artist “has 15 years of virtual artwork enjoy” and doesn’t use social media, he says.
“For us to get this with a staff of conventional artists it might value us a batch more cash, and year,” said Malec. “The man’s a professional and he fees what he’s use. We’re smartly attached within the dimension and nobody comes near to the constituent he delivers.”
According to Malec, Champions has made “about $500K” in card gross sales up to now. Its raison d’etre is that its playing cards are NFTs which will also be traded or bought with cryptocurrency, however the developer additionally sells “gem stones”—which can be traded in for card packs—in exchange for regular US dollars, and those credit card transactions are where most of the revenue has come from so far.
The card images aren’t quite “100%” AI generated, as the X post says. Malec says they’re also touched up by hand: “AI can do bulk of the paintings/preliminary producing however to build certain deny mistakes, difference arms, and so on the entirety must be edited and filtered.”
The full collection of Champions cards can be viewed on its website. The illustrations run into occasional trouble with claws and paws, and each looks more or less like something you’ve seen before—some uncannily so—but they’re passable. Someone who didn’t know they were AI generated might think they were just generic Blizzard or Riot-inspired cards.
The game’s official X account has been defending the card images today. Responding to a user who said that a kindergartener could do what their AI prompt guy does, the Champions account mentioned that “ignoring the talent and ability it takes is unstable.”
I’m personally struggling to believe that anyone would pay $1,500 an hour for this work, whether or not it requires skill and talent, but that aside, I think the big picture is that we’ve rapidly passed the theoretical phase of generative AI’s effect on games into the ‘it’s happening now’ phase. AI generated images have also appeared in marketing material from major game publishers, including Magic: The Gathering maker Wizards of the Coast, but unlike some of those companies, the Champions developer is anything but apologetic about its use of a tool that many consider unethical.
Instead, the company challenged artists to complete a series of “artwork exams” in 48 hours, claiming that anyone who can match the quality of its AI prompt writer will be considered for a job as their assistant.
We pay our AI artist 15,000 USD per month for exactly 10 hours of work.Why? In that time, he still makes HUNDREDS of AMAZING bits of artwork – ASTRONOMICALLY FASTER than ANY team of traditional artists.His art is 100% AI generated, yet it has no extra fingers, no generic… https://t.co/IlAhJ2pdnp pic.twitter.com/a2TJcLLhsPApril 8, 2024
