Nexon’s live-service anime-style RPG Blue Archive celebrated its 4.5-year anniversary last month. Commemorating the milestone, executive producer Yong-Ha Kim and deputy producer Jun-Ho Lee recently talked to INVEN about where the game is headed amidst changing conditions in the industry – including AI, one of the most divisive issues among gamers nowadays.
While Kim has been outspoken about the negative impacts of low-effort AI “slop” in game development for some time now, he appears to have doubled down on this sentiment, commenting that “the path Blue Archive is pursuing as a game stands in direct opposition to AI.”
Interestingly, Kim actually majored in AI and is interested in it on a personal level, but considers it has no place in creating Blue Archive’s assets. “I should stress that this is just my personal opinion, but I do believe [AI] is highly effective for coding and automating development processes as a form of technical assistance. Internally, we’re also studying and researching the latest AI technologies alongside our work,” he says. However, when it comes to Blue Archive, Kim believes “AI would bring far more disadvantages than advantages,” and “simply doesn’t align with the game’s direction.”
Since the illustrations and character designs in Blue Archive are built around the idea of meticulous and hand-crafted artwork, the producer considers it essential that players can “feel the human touch of the people who made them.” Kim says this is an internal guideline and core value of his dev team. “At this stage, our focus is on how to preserve that human touch and maximize quality in the areas where only humans can excel – areas that AI cannot handle.”
It’s worth noting that Nexon itself, which Blue Archive developer IO Division is a part of, seems quite eager about generative AI in game development. At the end of last year, CEO Junghun Lee attributed a “rise in the average quality of games” to AI technology and, in regards to Nexon’s future projects said that “it’s important to assume that every game company is now using AI.” Blue Archive appears to be an exception for now, and it’s of interest to see what kind of policy Project RX, IO Division’s new work-in-progress title, will adopt when it comes to AI.
Blue Archive is available for PC (Steam), iOS and Android.
