What started as a quiet reveal for Catly at The Game Awards 2024 quickly turned into a storm of controversy. The game, described as a soothing journey through the memories of cats and humans, seemed harmless enough—until eagle-eyed viewers started calling foul. Accusations began to fly that the game’s trailer was generated using AI, kicking off a debate that has only grown louder.
The developers at SuperAuthenti were quick to put out the fire, insisting that Catly and its trailer were built using traditional tools like Unreal Engine 5. To prove their point, they shared an early version of the trailer and firmly denied any involvement with generative AI—or blockchain, for that matter. According to them, the hyper-realistic details that sparked suspicion were simply the result of hard work, not machine learning.
But not everyone is buying it. Some fans have pointed to strange visual quirks in the game’s promotional artwork—imperfections often seen in AI-generated images—as proof that something doesn’t quite add up. While the studio maintains its innocence, the discussion refuses to die down, shining a light on a bigger issue that’s been simmering in the creative industry: where do we draw the line with AI?
Whether Catly is guilty or not, one thing is clear—this controversy has opened Pandora’s box. It raises a question that’s hard to ignore: Should developers come clean about using AI in their games, or is this just part of the changing times?