{"id":64017,"date":"2026-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64017"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:01:02","slug":"pragmatas-newly-revealed-new-york-stage-was-painstakingly-made-by-human-developers-to-look-ai-generated-according-to-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pragmatas-newly-revealed-new-york-stage-was-painstakingly-made-by-human-developers-to-look-ai-generated-according-to-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Pragmata’s newly revealed New York stage was painstakingly made by human developers to look “AI generated,” according to director"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With Pragmata<\/strong> set to launch this April, a recent press event has provided the first deep dive into its “New York-like” cityscape originally shown during Sony\u2019s February State of Play event. In a joint media interview (source: 4Gamer<\/a>), director Cho Yonghee and producer Naoto Oyama explained that the stage was intentionally designed to feel \u201cAI-generated.\u201d And they achieved this by blending surreal distortions inside familiar locations to create a city that is recognizable yet distinctly unreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor Pragmata, we set the premise as \u2018a fake New York generated by AI,\u2019\u201d said Cho. \u201cWhen familiar locations appear, players can relate more easily. On top of that, to make it clear that this isn\u2019t the real New York, we wanted something slightly distorted.\u201d The stage reflects this approach, according to the director, by featuring inverted streets and taxis that appear to be cut off midway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt mirrors reality, but its unique appeal comes from the setting errors and how they feel out of place, such as taxis sinking into floors, or buses sprouting from walls. Although the premise is that it generated by AI, actually, our human developers painstakingly worked to incorporate mechanisms that express this AI-like uncanny feel,\u201d producer Oyama explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cho added that crafting these distortions and \u201cAI errors\u201d required careful consideration and balancing in order to be visually interesting but without distracting the player. \u201cDistortion is when something takes a shape that people have never seen before, and things unseen before are considered unique. But if the shapes are too unusual, players might think they\u2019re related to puzzles or that the terrain has some hidden meaning. Balancing distortion to be both unique and merely background was difficult,\u201d he said. Oyama also noted that, thanks to the balancing efforts, the team hasn\u2019t received any feedback from players indicating that the paths were difficult to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pragmata will also feature other cities, though these will be \u201csomewhere else on Earth\u201d rather than fully urbanized stages, according to Cho. And New York itself will be a \u201cmix of various cultures, like Madrid or Seoul\u201d and not just a reproduction of New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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