Thank you for a respectful response! I shouted out your game because it seemed cool but the ai thumbnail was the primary reason why my friends gave it a pass.
If I may give a suggestion, your game's hook is strong enough to have people give it a chance - all you really needed to do is put up a screenshot of the game alongside its title. However commissioning a pixel artist is definitely the best move you could take from this point onwards so I respect that decision.
I'll be following this project to see the resulting art and give it another shout out if my friends were willing to play it again! :)