Champions TCG is defending its work with an apparent AI artist in creating card art for its Champions of Otherworldly Magic card game, saying that "no one is on his level."
The company behind the card game said that it paid the currently unknown AI artist $90,000 so far for the art that they created. This means that the artist was paid $15,000 per month while only dedicating less than two full work days to the project every month.
AI-Generated Card Art
(Photo : Champions TCG / Screenshot taken from official website)
The official Champions TCG account on X, formerly known as Twitter, said that they paid the AI artist $15,000 for exactly 10 hours of work on the project. It added that because in that short time, the artist was able to make hundreds of "amazing" bits of artwork "astronomically faster" than any team of traditional artists.
The company added that the AI artist's work was 100% generated by technology but still had no extra fingers, no generic designs, and no mistakes. It added that the art had consistent evolutions, skins, and alt art styles, according to PCGamer.
The co-founder and CEO of Champions TCG, Miles Malec, said that the AI artist made more than 1,000 images with generative AI over the course of six months. The artist was said to have 15 years of digital art experience under his belt.
Malec said that for the company to get such results with a team of traditional artists, it would cost a lot more money and time. He added that the AI artist is a professional who charges what he is worth.
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He also noted that they have so far made roughly $500,000 in card sales so far, noting that the cards are NFTs that can be traded or bought with cryptocurrency. However, the developer also sells "gems" that can be traded in for card packs, in exchange for regular U.S. dollars, which is where the bulk of the revenue comes from so far.
The issue began when a Hearthstone streamer, Swaguar, criticized the art on one of the cards from Champions of Otherworldly Magic. He called it "ugly" and asked why "fat baby Sonic" had a "scrotum" for a left arm, said Game World Observer.
Criticism of Card Art
After that, he suggested that the card game's developers "should hire a real artist," which prompted the response from Champions TCG. Malec noted that while all of the card art has been generated by AI, they are still edited by hand before being added to the game.
He said that AI could do the bulk of the work but noted that they needed to make sure that there were no errors or extra fingers and that everything needed to be edited and filtered properly. There were some replies to the company's original post that said it was created just for engagement, which was not explicitly denied.
Champions TCG also said that it would consider anyone who can match the quality of the AI art for a position as the creator's assistant and will be paid $5,000 to $10,000 per month. It argued that any set of tools or techniques, including hand painting, will be allowed, according to TechSpot.
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