That's right there are 3 days left and I'm getting dangerously close to missing the submission deadline for my own jam because of course I am! But fear not, I'll be adding a whole bunch of little mushrooms and wizards and weird little dudes to grace your game covers and interiors!
Some reflections:
Looking back on this jam it's been truly amazing how many people have gotten behind it. When @penflowerink and I started talking about this I'm not sure either of us could have hoped that such an explicit (and imho very constructive) response to the emergent threat of "AI" art in indie ttrpg spaces would receive such overwhelming support from our weird & wonderful art movement.
I'm proud that what is a relatively small amount of work from 93 people (at time of writing) can amount to a loud & confident signpost to a better future for our indie scene.
Sure it's small in the big picture, but when the annals of our art movement are written we probably at least deserve a mention in the passages about the emergent threat of AI art and how it shaped us, our work and our communities moving forward.
Frankly it's much harder to provide a constructive response and alternative to AI art tools than it is to get mad at people using them, but I'm proud that in our small way we've made it as clear as we can that there is a significant contingent of people who would rather build towards a future where we choose to support each other with our labour rather than undercutting ourselves with stolen art, and I'm proud that we did that off our own backs, from a place of compassion, and that we managed to rally so many people behind our simple message:
There is no excuse for the use of malignant ai art tools in indie ttrpgs because a better alternative with the lowest possible barriers to access is moments away from within your very own community.
Thank you to everyone who shared and contributed to this jam, who got excited for it when they saw it cross their dash, and to everyone who came out to defend our art movement against "AI" labour exploitation.
Together we've made a significant attempt to inoculate ourselves (including anyone tempted to use AI art tools specifically) against the degradation that AI art tools represent to our art movement/scene/hobby/industry/labour/communities/peers.
Hell yeah. You all rock. Ai art? That shit does not rock.
https://www.tumblr.com/penflowerink/715768067627646976?source=share <-- link to the original post over on tumblr if you want to share. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has submitted, seriously you're all amazing and i'm so proud of the statement we're making here and the path we're laying out to a better future for ttrpg creators. It couldn't have happened without you <3