Would you play a game made primarily with AI if the gameplay was genuinely fun?
I have a question, though - how would I, as a player, know your game-play was genuinely fun at all, from the get-go, if I cannot distinguish it from all the other AI-generated or assisted games out there, while I'm browsing through the site?
Tens to hundreds of new AI-assisted and generated games are pumped out everyday because they're easy to make. In the sea of visually-striking, perfect-looking games that look just as good as yours in their thumbnail banners, how would you be able to hook someone into trying your game out, when you're competing against all the other games that look and sound almost exactly like yours?
If, out of 1000 games, I only had time to play 2 today, why should I, as the player, choose to click on yours and not someone else's who is also using AI? Even if you had worked hard to prompt and change your character designs to evolve them, the other AI-generated and AI-assisted games also have beautiful character and background designs by default, and have also worked hard on their prompts, sound and image curation.
If I browse again the next day, another twenty to thirty new AI-generated/assisted games would have appeared. Would I still remember to try your game again?
Before you say, "it's because I care enough to describe it as genuinely fun", realize that these people are also using AI to generate glowing descriptions of their games. Everyone will say their game is fun. Who are you to imply that their games are not as fun as yours, just because theirs is generated by AI while yours is only assisted by it?
Honestly, I think it's easier to ask questions like, "would you play an AI game if it were genuinely fun?" or, "why do people hate AI games?" than face the reality that there's actual competition out there, and that you need to work hard and think out of the box to stand out, especially in the sea of other AI games. Nobody wants to accept that just because their game isn't AI-generated but rather ~✨assisted✨~ doesn't make it special. It still looks like any other game with AI-generated assets, and quite frankly, nobody owes it to anyone to try something out just because they've worked a little harder on it. It's like being a pixel farm game in a sea of 2000 other pixel farm games. Even if you've built it from scratch, it's still a pixel farm game, along with 2000 other pixel farm games. There are 2000 other games to click on and play.
That said, if you're just making your games to have fun and make all your personal little fantasies come true, that's great! You should be your own biggest fan, and should love and enjoy what you've made, even if it's AI-assisted or generated.
But if you're looking for actual players for your games, you goals will shift and it'll become an entirely different kettle of fish where expectations stand. You'll need to understand what players actually see while they're browsing for new things to try out, and put yourself in their shoes when deciding on what to hover over for more details before clicking on a selected game. You must first understand human needs, desires and expectations, and then turn that understanding into a hook to draw them in.
AI cannot help you do that - at least not yet, anyway. One day it might be able to, but until then, you'll need to figure out how to do so on your own, or get some input from a people-person.
What would an AI-assisted game need to do to earn your respect as a player or developer?
As a developer, I respect other developers' choices in tools they use. I don't have an issue with devs choosing to generate their games with AI. A lot of them are just kids trying out this new shiny thing anyway. Gotta give them room to explore.
As a player....... this one's tricky. While I do respect a dev's choice in tools, I would not actually play a game with AI-assisted or generated graphics either, mostly because while they look polished and beautiful, there are just too many of them that look the same. My eyes would want to "rest" from all that elaborate AI artwork I see everyday, which is generally why I tend to pick games that have hand-drawn character art used as assets. They stand out as cute and kooky, which is what I'd joined Itch Io for in the first place.
I don't even play games with 3D graphics, actually, unless it's an AAA one from a large, established company. I'm just that niche that likes hand-drawn VNs, as I had grown up with Lord of the Rings and game-books when I was a young girl, and played Japanese visual novels as a nerdy teenager. This has a lot less to do with respect than it does with personal taste, though.
I feel developers need to take it less personally when someone chooses not to play their games due to having different preferences, be it moral or not. Someone not playing your games is not an attack - they're just not your target market. It's very different from people going out of the way to say bad things to your face, so I find.