Greymarsh Games and the use of AI!

The use of AI for art and other aspects of development has recently become a very hot topic in the board gaming industry!

When I first started this company, one of my top priorities was to establish a clear policy on the use of AI in the board games I create. Better safe than sorry, right? This is a subject that many board gamers have very strong opinions about, and they may simply ignore games that don’t align with their views on the matter.

It’s clear to me that there are already—or soon will be—two types of board game companies:

1. Those that use AI to some degree and are transparent about it.

2. Those that lie about it.

I want to be part of the first group, so for me, it’s crucial to be transparent about the use of AI in Greymarsh Games. The official statement from Greymarsh Games is as follows:

Greymarsh Games will use AI in board game development in a responsible manner. AI-generated results will never stand alone but will always be a tool, not a final product, in our game development process. We are transparent about our use of AI and will largely leave it up to the artists we contract with to decide how they want to use AI, as long as the final product is considered to be human-created. No AI-generated art will be used in the final release of a game, but at most for temporary prototypes.

But let’s also hear what our artists have to say on the matter:

Kino: I typically use AI tools within programs like Unreal and Photoshop. I think AI will be used as a source of reference in the future, helping to come up with ideas quickly. It will provide artists easier access to assets and creativity, enabling those who aren’t naturally creative to express themselves. However, the problem is that it’s not truly your own artwork.

Francesco: I don’t use AI for any of my work. Honestly, I’m quite against it because I believe it should only be a tool to speed up certain parts of the process, like technical tasks or helping to choose a direction (such as gathering references or handling technical workflows within specific software, which is already happening to some extent). I believe AI should help artists achieve better results with their own creativity, not kill their careers and replace them with soulless machines.

Antonio: I use Photoshop to create a basic sketch and then use ComfyUI to create a base image. I also use a mix of 3D Max and Midjourney to render individual small elements of the design, integrating them into the Photoshop file with ComfyUI. In Photoshop, I then add textures, correct artifacts, and make color corrections. I think using AI to speed up or improve your workflow is a good idea.

Game development status

So, no more talk about AI in this newsletter!

Game development is going quite well. Kino is finalizing the last couple of illustrations, which should be done within a week or two. Francesco is working on the final batch of 3D miniatures, and Antonio and Jeremy are hard at work on the graphic design. We’ll soon have the new map and character boards!

Playtesting has slowed down a bit over the summer, but I finally upgraded my physical copy, so now I’m playtesting a lot of two-player games with my wife. I’m planning to simplify the combat mechanics since calculating surge, structure, and shield damage is still too complicated in larger battles.

I hope that within a couple of months, most of the game components will be finished!

I’m also working on improving the rulebook—so things are quite busy!

Hope to play with you all soon!

That was the third newsletter from Greymarsh Games!

The next newsletter will bring more news about the game development, and maybe feature a completely insane plan to visit Essen Spiel in 2025?!

Peace out!

/Preben, Greymarsh Games