Official Statement Regarding AI

[Joy Way]

Hello striders,

We're seeing some confusion in the community regarding whether or not AI was used in the development of the game.

Giving the sensitivity of the topic, we fully understand your concern and would like to make an official statement to clear things up.


The use of AI in the game is currently limited to:

- Backgrounds for character portraits in the database. The characters themselves are hand-drawn.

- A few tertiary characters introduced in the DLC content were voiced using an ethical AI service (that is paying real people for sampling their voice). Those characters only have a few lines of dialogue in the game each.

Following the community feedback, we've decided to remove all AI elements from the game. This will be done within 3-4 weeks.

Please note that optimizing work on these minor things allowed our developers to focus on game aspects that have real importance:

- All in-game art is hand crafted and DOES NOT use AI

- All in-game writing / narrative is hand crafted and DOES NOT use AI

- All in-game game and level design is hand crafted and DOES NOT use AI

- All in-game voice acting for main characters and enemies is hand crafted and DOES NOT use AI

Here's the list of voice talent we worked with:

Characters:
Nick Young - Scott Gunner
Liza - Nina Smolina (aka Riley W)
Zoe Morel - Eva
Derek Young - Michael J.
Derek Young (17 y/o) - Kevin
David Murphy - Tanga Wanda
Max Ortega - Ben S.
Vince Faber - Jordan Hendrix

Enemies:
Leon Havrilla (aka Selfstudio)
Mark Manning
Dane Keckley
Tom R.
Kenzo M.
Shogo Ima


Furthermore, the use of artificial intelligence has not affected our employees (no one at Joy Way has lost their job to it obviously) or other creators, as we pay full attention to what tools we use and how their datasets were collected in the first place.

We hope this helps clear things up. After all, we're an indie studio using modern tools to add things to the game that we wouldn't otherwise have the budget for. And we made sure we have full awareness of how we use this tools. Please let us know if you have any questions.

[CrispyCornFlakes]

This is BS, there is 0 way the voice acting isn't ai, the main narrator girl literally keeps on changing her pitch and accent trough the campaign. you guys are just lying at this point.

[Joy Way]

Originally posted by CrispyCornFlakes:

This is BS, there is 0 way the voice acting isn't ai, the main narrator girl literally keeps on changing her pitch and accent trough the campaign. you guys are just lying at this point.

Feel free to contact the voice actor and ask about her work.

[Krackle]

Originally posted by CrispyCornFlakes:

This is BS, there is 0 way the voice acting isn't ai, the main narrator girl literally keeps on changing her pitch and accent trough the campaign. you guys are just lying at this point.

Nah, it's not AI-generated. Things could have been recorded out of order though

[CrispyCornFlakes]

Originally posted by Krackle:

Originally posted by CrispyCornFlakes:

This is BS, there is 0 way the voice acting isn't ai, the main narrator girl literally keeps on changing her pitch and accent trough the campaign. you guys are just lying at this point.

Nah, it's not AI-generated. Things could have been recorded out of order though

Could be, it was a very confusing and AI convincing moment tho, specifically in the SPOILERS hospital mission, she changes tone and accent within 2 lines

[matsix]

Originally posted by CrispyCornFlakes:

This is BS, there is 0 way the voice acting isn't ai, the main narrator girl literally keeps on changing her pitch and accent trough the campaign. you guys are just lying at this point.

You realize Joyway is a small studio with limited resources right? I'd imagine there could be many different reasons as to why there could be differences in pitch and accent. The biggest most obvious reason being a lack of quality control due to budget. There could've been different microphones used for different lines. The voice actor may have changed tone at some points and wasn't required to re-do it because they were likely only hired to read the lines once.

You can't expect high budget quality from a game made by a small studio. And to accuse them of lying is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ when you have no real proof to back that up.

[CrispyCornFlakes]

Originally posted by matsix:

Originally posted by CrispyCornFlakes:

This is BS, there is 0 way the voice acting isn't ai, the main narrator girl literally keeps on changing her pitch and accent trough the campaign. you guys are just lying at this point.

You realize Joyway is a small studio with limited resources right? I'd imagine there could be many different reasons as to why there could be differences in pitch and accent. The biggest most obvious reason being a lack of quality control due to budget. There could've been different microphones used for different lines. The voice actor may have changed tone at some points and wasn't required to re-do it because they were likely only hired to read the lines once.

You can't expect high budget quality from a game made by a small studio. And to accuse them of lying is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ when you have no real proof to back that up.

I mean... the game is still buggy as hell with many MANY issues. Took 6 months to port to pc and it looks extremely similar to the quest 3 version, manual reload shown in trailer, not in actual game. being a "small company" is not an excuse to sell a game with issues like this for 25$. Not gonna have a pity party for the company that releases trailers with non existant features, FAR better graphics. Then releases a buggy mess after 2 delays. No thank you, the review ratio is deserved.

[Rune]

Originally posted by CrispyCornFlakes:

Originally posted by matsix:

You realize Joyway is a small studio with limited resources right? I'd imagine there could be many different reasons as to why there could be differences in pitch and accent. The biggest most obvious reason being a lack of quality control due to budget. There could've been different microphones used for different lines. The voice actor may have changed tone at some points and wasn't required to re-do it because they were likely only hired to read the lines once.

You can't expect high budget quality from a game made by a small studio. And to accuse them of lying is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ when you have no real proof to back that up.

I mean... the game is still buggy as hell with many MANY issues. Took 6 months to port to pc and it looks extremely similar to the quest 3 version, manual reload shown in trailer, not in actual game. being a "small company" is not an excuse to sell a game with issues like this for 25$. Not gonna have a pity party for the company that releases trailers with non existant features, FAR better graphics. Then releases a buggy mess after 2 delays. No thank you, the review ratio is deserved.

Agreed, I got solid 144 fps using Index res 500% with the RTX 3090 - that kind of insane performance (or performance waste) is an easy way to detect games made for phone gpus, like the ultra-weak Adreno 740 in the Quest 3 - or Adreno 650 in the Quest 2. Also there are no graphics settings - like in Quest games.

The big scam is to promise us a true high-end VR game (which we should have gotten with Stride, before that game was Questified) - and then devs have the nerve to give us another 1:1 Quest port.

I've not completed the game, not sure I will. So far the game looks nothing like the trailer or screenshots shown on the Steam Store page - is it fraud, or do you see much better graphics later in the game? Trailer and screenshots show detailed dynamic shadows on opponents - I saw not such shadows. Feels like fraud so far...

[CrispyCornFlakes]

Originally posted by Rune:

Originally posted by CrispyCornFlakes:

I mean... the game is still buggy as hell with many MANY issues. Took 6 months to port to pc and it looks extremely similar to the quest 3 version, manual reload shown in trailer, not in actual game. being a "small company" is not an excuse to sell a game with issues like this for 25$. Not gonna have a pity party for the company that releases trailers with non existant features, FAR better graphics. Then releases a buggy mess after 2 delays. No thank you, the review ratio is deserved.

Agreed, I got solid 144 fps using Index res 500% with the RTX 3090 - that kind of insane performance (or performance waste) is an easy way to detect games made for phone gpus, like the ultra-weak Adreno 740 in the Quest 3 - or Adreno 650 in the Quest 2. Also there are no graphics settings - like in Quest games.

The big scam is to promise us a true high-end VR game (which we should have gotten with Stride, before that game was Questified) - and then devs have the nerve to give us another 1:1 Quest port.

I've not completed the game, not sure I will. So far the game looks nothing like the trailer or screenshots shown on the Steam Store page - is it fraud, or do you see much better graphics later in the game? Trailer and screenshots show detailed dynamic shadows on opponents - I saw not such shadows. Feels like fraud so far...

I completed it, it's not worth completing, it keeps feeling like it's gonna get good, you loose complete track of the story (atleast I did) and then it just suddenly ends, credits roll. They also advertised it as 8 hours long, took me 4 hours and I was not fast, I got stuck a lot.

[Dark Knight]

I don't usually like to chime in on stuff like this, I like to have faith in developers and understand it can be hard to develope and get games out so I usually show patients. That being said, this is ridiculous. I bought stride when it first came out as I was super excited about the concept, put many hours into the game and loved it. Then the multiplayer dropped with the zombie match, fell even more in love with it. Especially since it wasn't another battle royal cash grab full of children. Then that game was abandoned (understandable as it was a beta) for this ridiculous fortnite looking battle royal that doesn't even work. Matches never start, terrible performance. You could just feel the entire game was downgraded for quest users. I forgave this being one of your early supporters as there was this promise of a single player campaign. I figured cool the devs still care about the pc users who first bought your game, maybe as it's not multiplayer it won't be so downgraded and look like an actual pc quality game. That is not what this is, despite the graphics looking terrible there's still performance issues and like everyone else is saying it looks nothing like what was promised. It was said the game will be in development for a while to ensure quality...what happened? Doesn't seem like that happened what so ever. Up until the release of fates I was still happy with stride. Now I'm not so sure I'm happy I was apart of the early support of this game. A few patches isn't going to fix this, maybe a complete overhaul. I'll be refunding fates until then.

[CrispyCornFlakes]

Originally posted by Dark Knight:

I don't usually like to chime in on stuff like this, I like to have faith in developers and understand it can be hard to develope and get games out so I usually show patients. That being said, this is ridiculous. I bought stride when it first came out as I was super excited about the concept, put many hours into the game and loved it. Then the multiplayer dropped with the zombie match, fell even more in love with it. Especially since it wasn't another battle royal cash grab full of children. Then that game was abandoned (understandable as it was a beta) for this ridiculous fortnite looking battle royal that doesn't even work. Matches never start, terrible performance. You could just feel the entire game was downgraded for quest users. I forgave this being one of your early supporters as there was this promise of a single player campaign. I figured cool the devs still care about the pc users who first bought your game, maybe as it's not multiplayer it won't be so downgraded and look like an actual pc quality game. That is not what this is, despite the graphics looking terrible there's still performance issues and like everyone else is saying it looks nothing like what was promised. It was said the game will be in development for a while to ensure quality...what happened? Doesn't seem like that happened what so ever. Up until the release of fates I was still happy with stride. Now I'm not so sure I'm happy I was apart of the early support of this game. A few patches isn't going to fix this, maybe a complete overhaul. I'll be refunding fates until then.

IT was in dev for a while, the quality part was missing.

[hawkhill]

If you're planning to replace the AI related stuff within a month, I greatly appreciate that, and have a suggestion.

The character art in the database was what made me REALLY feel like it was AI, but if the characters in it were actually hand drawn, then while that's impressive in some aspects, it's off-putting how inconsistent their art style and detail is. Doesn't help that one of them just looks like Morgan Freeman.
So if you're gonna redo the art, but don't want to make it too much work, replace all the character art with a more 2D stylized/shellshaded art style. It can fit the look of the game more, and look more appealing and consistent.

[Maximum James]

NONE OF THE VOICE ACTING IS AI AT ALL? CHARLOTTE!?

[Maximum James]

also who cares? why does this game even have portraits/

[A_pet_tick]

Originally posted by Dark Knight:

I don't usually like to chime in on stuff like this, I like to have faith in developers and understand it can be hard to develope and get games out so I usually show patients. That being said, this is ridiculous. I bought stride when it first came out as I was super excited about the concept, put many hours into the game and loved it. Then the multiplayer dropped with the zombie match, fell even more in love with it. Especially since it wasn't another battle royal cash grab full of children. Then that game was abandoned (understandable as it was a beta) for this ridiculous fortnite looking battle royal that doesn't even work. Matches never start, terrible performance. You could just feel the entire game was downgraded for quest users. I forgave this being one of your early supporters as there was this promise of a single player campaign. I figured cool the devs still care about the pc users who first bought your game, maybe as it's not multiplayer it won't be so downgraded and look like an actual pc quality game. That is not what this is, despite the graphics looking terrible there's still performance issues and like everyone else is saying it looks nothing like what was promised. It was said the game will be in development for a while to ensure quality...what happened? Doesn't seem like that happened what so ever. Up until the release of fates I was still happy with stride. Now I'm not so sure I'm happy I was apart of the early support of this game. A few patches isn't going to fix this, maybe a complete overhaul. I'll be refunding fates until then.

These are fair criticisims of the game and joyway, except they have nothing to do with the topic of this discussion

[Simply Clueless]

Originally posted by matsix:

Originally posted by CrispyCornFlakes:

This is BS, there is 0 way the voice acting isn't ai, the main narrator girl literally keeps on changing her pitch and accent trough the campaign. you guys are just lying at this point.

You realize Joyway is a small studio with limited resources right? I'd imagine there could be many different reasons as to why there could be differences in pitch and accent. The biggest most obvious reason being a lack of quality control due to budget. There could've been different microphones used for different lines. The voice actor may have changed tone at some points and wasn't required to re-do it because they were likely only hired to read the lines once.

You can't expect high budget quality from a game made by a small studio. And to accuse them of lying is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ when you have no real proof to back that up.

If they're such a small studio maybe they should just focus on making one game good instead on a whole heap of random games poorly...