Midjourney has been used to create a short visual novel in the style of a child’s diary

Japanese indie game developer Game Creator Neko has released free browser game Boku to AI no Natsuyasumi, which can be translated as “My summer vacation with an AI.” The game only supports Japanese.

Boku to AI no Natsuyasumi is a short visual novel that depicts the events that occur during a boy’s summer vacation. Although the boy’s vacation is nearing its end, he has yet to finish all of his homework. One of his tasks is to make an art diary, but he hasn’t drawn even a single page, and it would take too long to draw the whole thing if he starts now. The boy searches the internet for a quick and easy way to create art and decides to use AI-generated images in order to complete the diary in time. The story of the boy’s vacation is told through this AI art diary.

Playing the game is not unlike reading a real diary: each page features the illustrations that the boy used AI to create as well as the text that he wrote. It does not feature any choices or branching paths, so completing the game is as simple as reading through it.

Keeping in line with the story of the game, the majority of the artwork that you see has actually been created using the AI image generator Midjourney. For example, an image like the strange avant-garde style illustration of the boy’s grandparents seen in the screenshot below was created by AI.

AI artwork can often look bizarre or feel out of place, but by incorporating it into the game’s setting, it all comes together nicely. The game is also notable for how it goes beyond just using AI-generated art for the sake of it, although we won’t go into details to avoid spoilers.

Boku to AI no Natsuyasumi was originally developed for the Unity 1 week Game Jam, an event held earlier this month where participants used the Unity game engine to create a game within one week. According to a tweet by Game Creator Neko, the game was not completed in time for the game jam and ended up taking around two weeks to finish.

Boku to AI no Natsuyasumi is available as a free browser game on unityroom.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-09-20 17:58 JST)