AI and BGA

[nik592]

However, I’m not as confident as Nik when it comes to AI replacing our profession. A task can be completed at least twice as fast (and we’re only just getting started), which means companies will need fewer and fewer developers to do the same amount of work.

Time will tell, but we have a constant backlog of bugs and requested features that we can never get to. If AI can make us work twice as fast (or better), that means we can get to some of those things. We can attempt larger projects that we just don't have time for. A critical piece of our software was written a LONG time ago on GWT (Google Web Toolkit), and it's an absolute PITA to make any changes - normally you add a significant buffer to any estimate because inevitably a change will break some other parts unintentionally, and testing has to be careful because of that. If we could free up some devs to rewrite it (and use AI to help), that would be amazing.

Large shifts in technology do usually change the employment landscape, but it doesn't always end up with people being out of a job. And with a shift in technology comes new jobs. My job wasn't an option for my parents to consider. There are jobs being created now that I never thought of only 30-ish years ago when I was in high school. And some people will prefer to shift from being "farmers" to being some of these new things.

[AutumnCamel]

I use AI every day to build software, it's very useful when used properly. I do an extensive planning cycle prior to any code changes, and lots of manual and automated testing afterwards. I commend your pragmatism, and welcome the new and improved BGA with reduced technical debt, fewer bugs and more features. The biggest complaint I hear from publishers is getting their game on BGA is a PITA, so if that problem could be solved it would go along way to encourage more great games on BGA. Thank you for the hard work!

[nik592]

I use AI every day to build software, it's very useful when used properly. I do an extensive planning cycle prior to any code changes, and lots of manual and automated testing afterwards. I commend your pragmatism, and welcome the new and improved BGA with reduced technical debt, fewer bugs and more features. The biggest complaint I hear from publishers is getting their game on BGA is a PITA, so if that problem could be solved it would go along way to encourage more great games on BGA. Thank you for the hard work!

I'm not sure if you're thanking me and commending my pragmatism? I don't work for BGA and my comment isn't about BGA - I am a software developer and I'm referring to the software I develop for my day to day work. I don't know what BGA's stance on use of AI is - but my point is similar to yours I think, that AI can be a very useful tool for software development. I was previously skeptical, but having used it for a couple of months I can already see the benefits and I've had to adjust my opinion. And while new tools typically do make existing jobs require fewer humans to do the same work, that doesn't necessarily imply fewer humans having work (but some may need to shift into different jobs over the long term).

[dhnyny]

I hope no one misunderstood me; I think AI has a place here on BGA, for example in teaching the basics of a game, or even replacing players in friendly mode...

Heck no. We have fine tutorials already and there are videos for most games on the web. There is no need to involve systems that are predicated on stealing others' work (to train them), harm the environment and the communities they are located in, in various ways, and raise power costs for others on the same power grid due to supply and demand. I just love having my power bill be MULTIPLES of what it was before LLMs and such due to the added demand.

The Lumen AI video was horrible and a waste of my time. I still needed to read the rulebook afterwards.
I've also had to log a rules bug (after triple checking the rules for user error, so I'm pretty sure) right on the first turn. Perhaps AI did some of the coding too and they didn't test it. I'm so sick of people outsourcing intelligence to LLMs and putting out slop.

Amen.

[Raven Shepherd]

So glad I found this forum. They just added Catatac to the website, and every single card in the game is AI generated. Link: https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=catatac. Maybe they didn't know?
When you look it up, they will tell you there is an illustrator, but a few searches led me to find that this person hasn't been active in the board game field since 2013 before this game, which came out in 2025.
On closer inspection, the art style is too different from one character to another to have been drawn by the same person (yet only one illustrator is credited), the street (which is supposed to be the same one on all the cards) too different every time, and it's clear the AI they used doesn't know what a ball of yarn looks like.

[lefalaf]

So glad I found this forum. They just added Catatac to the website, and every single card in the game is AI generated. Link: https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=catatac. Maybe they didn't know?
When you look it up, they will tell you there is an illustrator, but a few searches led me to find that this person hasn't been active in the board game field since 2013 before this game, which came out in 2025.
On closer inspection, the art style is too different from one character to another to have been drawn by the same person (yet only one illustrator is credited), the street (which is supposed to be the same one on all the cards) too different every time, and it's clear the AI they used doesn't know what a ball of yarn looks like.

It definitely screams AI, although the illustrator (perhaps AI followed by their cleanup, and finishing work afterwards) is in the rules video.

I just randomly clicked on one of their other videos, for Golfie. It screams AI, so I started looking for AI artifacts. My favorite is a Cap'n Crunch cereal box hanging on the wall as if it's a painting, even with a wall light above it to illuminate the cereal box. Could be a neat, silly thing IRL. But the rest of the video is full of AI weirdness. One of the players fingers or hands does a weird jump while clapping. A player in a later shot is seated facing a line of other players instead of sitting AT the table. The jumpy hand/finger player seems to be seated in mid air next to an empty chair. Two people in an earlier shot, one with yellow and another with strawberry polka dot shirts, are absent from later shots. Maybe they were sharing the empty chair? There are framed pictures in many windows. There is also a hanging plant that seems to have the pot upside down (wider diameter end on bottom). It goes on, but I've already gotten the point across.

[Raven Shepherd]

So glad I found this forum. They just added Catatac to the website, and every single card in the game is AI generated. Link: https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=catatac. Maybe they didn't know?
When you look it up, they will tell you there is an illustrator, but a few searches led me to find that this person hasn't been active in the board game field since 2013 before this game, which came out in 2025.
On closer inspection, the art style is too different from one character to another to have been drawn by the same person (yet only one illustrator is credited), the street (which is supposed to be the same one on all the cards) too different every time, and it's clear the AI they used doesn't know what a ball of yarn looks like.

It definitely screams AI, although the illustrator (perhaps AI followed by their cleanup, and finishing work afterwards) is in the rules video.

I just randomly clicked on one of their other videos, for Golfie. It screams AI, so I started looking for AI artifacts. My favorite is a Cap'n Crunch cereal box hanging on the wall as if it's a painting, even with a wall light above it to illuminate the cereal box. Could be a neat, silly thing IRL. But the rest of the video is full of AI weirdness. One of the players fingers or hands does a weird jump while clapping. A player in a later shot is seated facing a line of other players instead of sitting AT the table. The jumpy hand/finger player seems to be seated in mid air next to an empty chair. Two people in an earlier shot, one with yellow and another with strawberry polka dot shirts, are absent from later shots. Maybe they were sharing the empty chair? There are framed pictures in many windows. There is also a hanging plant that seems to have the pot upside down (wider diameter end on bottom). It goes on, but I've already gotten the point across.

Do you think the people who added it to BGA didn't know it was AI? Would they remove the game from the website if they knew?

I'm actually hoping this is the reason, because after reading this forum I feel like they tend to avoid AI generated games? At least those where all the images were made by AI. And I would be really disappointed to learn that they don't actually mind. I don't believe generative AI belongs in board games. At all.

[lefalaf]

Do you think the people who added it to BGA didn't know it was AI? Would they remove the game from the website if they knew?

I'm actually hoping this is the reason, because after reading this forum I feel like they tend to avoid AI generated games? At least those where all the images were made by AI. And I would be really disappointed to learn that they don't actually mind. I don't believe generative AI belongs in board games. At all.

No idea on the developer(s), but BGA seems to have used gen-AI for some news posts (hallucinated gameplay details at least once, writing tone is suspicious too), so BGA sadly seems to be ok with it. One Memory game even listed "chatgpt" as the designer and artist as Jellby noted earlier in this thread. Someone approved that for public visibility each step through alpha, beta, and full release and it said that until recently. I just checked it again right now and someone has now changed it to "uncredited" for both roles, seemingly in the past few days due to Jellby's comment, but the game's been up since at least January, and was called out before months ago. So they are reading the forum and are now trying to hide it and/or are embarrassed to have that listed there.

[DrunkCat1337]

Cancelled premium subscription. Not that it should matter to them since they must be saving so much money by using the loser's autocomplete.

[CeartGoLeor]

For people who care about games using AI Art, there are two suggesion reports on the subject. Upvote and comment if you agree with either.

This one calling for No AI Art on BGA

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=238216

And this one asking to inform users of any games using AI Art on to label them as such.

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=238172